Need Help from Washington DC Mommies!

Ashburn is way too far. I know someone posted an hour commute, but it will be closer to 2 each way. When we lived in the DC area, my husband worked in Arlington and we lived in Cameron Station in Alexandria. The schools were great, and there is an elementary school in the development. It was expensive, we sold our 3 bd 3 bath townhouse for $615K, 2 years ago, but I know it was hit hard with the market dive. I worked out in Reston, and to go from Alexandria (6 miles south of Arlington), it took me 45 minutes to get to and from work, going opposite of traffic. You may want to look into Lorton or Woodbridge. It maybe a little cheaper, but your husband is still looking at a 30-45 minute commute. When we lived in Falls Church, I worked 15 miles away in DC and it took me over an hour each way to commute to work, even on the train. Traffic is just bad there and it is expensive to live there. You can live on the Maryland side, but typically taxes and insurance is higher in Maryland than Virginia, but in Virginia you pay personal property taxes on just about everything, including your car.

Living anywhere near the beltway is going to be expensive!! Truly, the reason we bought our house down here in King George is because we looked and looked and looked and it's the only affordable, decent sized housing left within an hour and a half of DC. The thing is, most of the people that work in DC commute. Your hubby may have to just suck it up. I know that's not what you want to hear, but it's the truth. My hubby works in DC and we live about an hour and 15 minutes from his work. It's totally doable, especially if your hubby can find someone else at work to car-pool with. The most important thing you're going to want to look at is his route to work. You should try to live on the same side of the river as his work. Truly. There are only so many ways to cross the Potomac and they're all major choke points. Since he's going to be working in Arlington, you should consider living in Southern, MD or across the river (but further away from the city) in Virginia, which is where we live. Avoid living anywhere that would necessesitate using 95 or 495 too much. It's not really going to be totally avoidable, but stay off of it as long as possible.

Of course, Arlington is easily accessible from where my hubby works (Suitland) and my hubby takes 301 to 5 to work instead of 495 so it can be done. 301 is definitely a better way to get into DC if you have to commute.

I really recommend someplace like La Plata, MD, Waldorf, MD or our town of King George, VA. Like I said, it takes my hubby about an hour to an hour and a half to get to work every day and we're the furthest away of the suggestions I made. His work place is close to Arlington and we live in King George, VA. Look all of this up on a map and then accept that anything between DC and our town is where you're going to want to be. Also remember that the closer you get to DC the more expensive the housing becomes. Where we live we bought a 2400sf home on just under an acre of land in a great neighborhood, but a rural setting for $230,000 which is a super great deal for the greater DC area and was accomplished because of the market now and because of our location. There are a lot of foreclosures in our area too, so look into that if you're interesed in buying maybe. A lot of people around here are renting homes now as well.

As far as schools go, I can't help you there. I got so fed up with the whole government school system as a whole that I chose to homeschool. I love homeschooling around here because there is so much history to see and we get to see it all since my kids aren't stuck in a institutional school all day. Maybe you could think about something like that.

Private message me if you have additional questions, or want a pre-made friend when you get here. I'm happy to help with anything you might need and welcome to the DC area!

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Oops, also wanted to mention that the green line of the Metro comes all of the way out to Suitland, so commuting could be made easier if your hubby is willing to drive to Suitland and then take the Metro for a couple of stops down into Arlington. This would really cut out a lot of hassle and time since he wouldn't be driving actually IN to DC. The Suitland Metro station is accessible if you take 301 to 5 and then get on the Suitland Pkwy. You don't even have to have anything to do with 495. So really I think the 301 corridor is going to be your best bet.

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BTW, $2000/mo for rent is on the LOW side. I'm so glad we bought where we did. Our mortgage for our nice large, stand alone home is only about $1400/mo!

I grew-up there, and my whole family still lives there (1 sister in Bethesda, MD and the rest of my family in Fairfax, VA). Ironically, my mom's whole family lives in Delaware, OH as my uncle's been involved with Ohio Wesleyan for his whole career.

It is ridiculously expensive. Be prepared.

Arlington is VERY expensive because it's so close to DC (actually is part of the original diamond designed by Benjamin Bannicker) and has gone through a Renaissance in the past 10 years to become quite trendy.

Traffic is going to be horrible anywhere. A lot of my friends who still live there live in the Ashburn, Chantilly/Centerville areas and commute in via train/metro.

Good luck. It will be an adjustment. My sister's 800 sq ft. condo in Bethesday was $500,000 5 years ago. Unfortunately, their housing market hasn't been hit to the same extent as ours in the midwest.

You may want to contact a realtor and have them help you - they will likely either be thinking long-term when you're ready to purchase or will put you in touch with the right people. Long & Foster is one of the bigger real estate agents in the DC area.

The traffic into DC from anywhere is going to be he!!. We live in Spotsylvania, 60 miles south, and it takes hubby sometimes 3 hours to get home. He goes in at 5:30 and usually gets there before 8. He's at the Pentagon three days out of the week average.
We have been in Fredericksbug and liked that but it too is still a 2 hour commute.
Check out Greatschools.com. It will help with the school districts. I really like the high schools. The first time we lived here my kindergartner was in a class with 25 other kids and no aide. THe mothers were not allowed into the classroom unless there was a conference with the teacher and only after school or lunch. I pulled the kids out of the elementary schools. THe high schools are very competitive though.
THere are commuter lots along 95. YOur hubby can go get two "slugs" and take them to DC. He then can ride in the HOV lanes. THere are rules to being a slug. No talking, no cell phones. Or he can be a slug and get a ride with someone going north.
Prices are high out here. You will most likely pay beween $200K and $300K for a town house, and the closer you are to the city the more expensive it will be.
The Metro is a nice alternative to driving but it does take a while. They did just raise the rates but honestly if you have lived in CA, Chicago, or other big cities you don't know what these people are complaining about.
For us the food bill went down. Milk was $2.89 at Walmart last week. I had been paying almost $4 in NC. Gas is cheaper here than in NC too. Around me it averages $2.55 ish. It's a bit higher closer to the city.
Hope this helps.

Ashburn is very, very far from Arlington and there is no metro in Ashburn so your hubby would either have to drive to Arlington or drive to the metro and then take the metro to his job. Probably at least an hour communte. But not all of Arlington is accesable to the metro so it would be wise to see if his job is within walking distance to any of the metro stations. I also grew up in the Falls Church/Arlington area. All of the DC area is super expensive so be prepared. When you find a place you like check the schools to see if they do pre-K not all of them do so a preschool would be your option but that in turn is also expensive. Personally I like the Fairfax/Vienna area as it's right at the end of the metro line and our house is within walking distance to it. We live in an awesome townhouse community and everything is super close, schools, grocery store, mall, hospital, libraries etc. I believe the bigger townhomes in my community rent for around $2000 a month just to give you and idea of cost. Definetly find yourself a good realtor who knows the area to help you out. If you want send me a private message and I'll be glad to answer any of your questions.

2 things you can't avoid here....1 is the high cost of living and 2 is traffic/commute. We live in town, my hubby works in Fairfax so that is a 40 min drive one way on a good morning. My daughter goes to school in town and is on the metro for 90 min on way. Maryland is a good alternative to live, Fairfax Va has an exelent school system altho they had to make drastic cuts due to the lack of funding this year. I would recommend you move somewhere where you have access to puclic transportation like Metro bus/rail. This is how I get around town and it is really convinient. Good luck !!

Hi, I live in Ashburn and work in Mclean. My husband works in Alexandra. It is a bd commute for him, but he loves his job and we love Ashburn so we make it work. Ashburn will be Metro accessible in as soon as 5 years, but I am not holding my breath. Arlington is fabulous!! But it is too expensive for us. Try looking a Springfield, Burke, Vienna, Oakton, Fairfax(Chantilly/Centreville area). Arlington is hip and urban and all those places are suburbs but they might be more affordable. I personally also lived in Gainesville, but I dislike anything along the I-66 corridor especially that far out. I find 66 is wore than the toll road and route 7 areas.

If you have questions feel free to e-mail me.