Board 8 > Anyone live in the Washington DC area?

(+) Yeah! (+)

By "area" I mean, within commuting distance by train or what have you?

My wife got a promotion to work at Post Office Headquarters in Washington DC, and we literally know nothing about the area.

I'm originally from California, she's been in Utah all her life. We married almost 20 years ago in Utah, and neither of us has been further East than Arkansas.

We have two kids, 9 and 11. We sustain ourselves on her single income (~80k a year, though the promotion might change that), though I am a veteran with a 50% disability pension.

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What suburban areas should be in the housing market for? We will probably rent at first, but know we can easily afford a 280-300k house. We don't like shared walls, so town homes and condos aren't for us.

I've only just recently started browsing some of the suburbs, and there are a lot of options out there. One that I really liked the "look" of just from internet perusal was Harper's Ferry in West Virginia, but I'm not entirely sure if that's too far from DC or not.

Anyone offer some other areas that we might be interested in looking in to?
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i'd recommend going to the subreddit for Washington DC and posting there, i'm sure someone will be able to help you out
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Checked out the Subreddit, and most of the advice there seems to be about living in the city, or in close proximity to it. We are ok with an hour and half commute by train if it means not being that close to DC, having an actual house and not a shared wall, and keeping it between 250-300k at most.
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i don't intend to make you dig your heels in, but an hour and a half commute- especially driving- is insane. you will be so unhappy if you commit to that. rent first if you have to.

but then again, you know yourself better than anyone else!

some of my friends are pretty happy in Vienna, VA, so I would recommend checking that out, although actual non-town-houses are probably stupid expensive
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yeah idk, D.C. is expensive. you're probably doomed. what's her commute like currently?
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generally you should avoid the NE/SE part of the DMV area

but you won't be able to buy for 300k anywhere else, probably

even manassas is like an 80 minute commute by transit
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banananor posted...

yeah idk, D.C. is expensive. you're probably doomed. what's her commute like currently?

She commutes by car 30 minutes each way right now, but used to commute 60 minutes each way a year ago. The main issue is she tends to stay late at work to catch up, so we think the longer commute, if done by train, will allow her to do that catch up while she's traveling home anyways.

A commute from Harper's Ferry by train estimates a 1 hr 45 min commute, so if she keeps busy on the train it would be better than her staying at work anyways. She absolutely won't be driving to work unless she has to for an emergency or something.
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Baltimore is starting to look like a possibility too. The biggest obstacle is finding the right priced house, and not a townhome or condo.
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I live in Montgomery county. There are some areas near the beltway in montgomery or fairfax counties where you can buy a small old house for 300K, but it's slim pickings.

If you are willing to go out to montgomery village or loudoun county, there will be more options but the commute will be longer.

You mentioned Harper's Ferry. The MARC Brunswick line is pretty good. You will almost always get a seat and it's very comfortable. Just be warned that service is during commuting hours only and if the trains are cancelled or delayed you could be kind of screwed.

There are some great affordable exurbs east of the city but the schools in PG county are allegedly pretty bad. If that isn't an issue then you can find anything you want out there.

Good luck!
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Maybe try looking at Frederick? It's too far to drive for work but you can take trains from there and on the weekends it's an easy drive to DC
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So, I did a Zillow search just to get a density check of where most the homes for sale that meet our criteria are.

House (No Condo/TownHome)
3+ Beds
2+ Baths
250k-300k

The highest density of homes that match were found South, South East, and East of Washington DC, and all around Baltimore. The homes closer to DC are definitely small, and I don't think we are interested in living that close anyways.

The homes around Baltimore are actually a bit more interesting and I think where we might start our search. The Post Office is paying Relocation, including 10 days to go out and check the areas, so beginning of October, we'll probably be out in the Baltimore region.
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