DC area??

[pixiepower1971]

Looks like the Army is going to move my DH....AGAIN! All signs point to DC. He would prob. do a few assignments there so this could potentially be a move that would keep him in one spot for almost 10 years. Long enough to get our girls through high school. We would live in VA or MD. I am not so thrilled about this idea. I would be splitting my time between DC and FL. It would mean that I would be doing the run up and down the coast for quite awhile. My parents live in FL...I am an only child. I have to be there to help should they need me. I was really hoping for some place closer to them. Not gonna happen.


So....instead of yelling at my DH again and telling him what I REALLY think of the Army...again...can any of you in the area give me the good and bad of living in the DC area.
Thanks!

 

[ElizaB39]

Great VA schools
Great free stuff to do
DC
Awesome subway system
Great shopping
Great restaraunts
Redskins, Nationals, Capitals

Incredibly congested
Loooong commutes
Expensive with a capital E!
Traffic, traffic, traffic

Best of Luck

I lived there for 3 years and loved every minute of it. I used to drive into DC from NOVA and I passed the Jefferson Memorial everyday, WOW. I loved looking at it every single day.

 

[ElizaB39]

Will you be at the Pentagon or Fort Meade?

 

[pixiepower1971]

Depends on which assignment he takes. The one he really wants is at Meade.

 

[LukenDC]

The DC area is a great place to live. The public schools in Fairfax County, VA and Montgomery County, MD are well-regarded and the entire region is a hot job market. There are so many opportunities for recreation and cultural enrichment that you need never be bored. The area is also very diverse and your family will be exposed to lots of different cultures and nationalities. The weather is relatively mild, except during the summer when it can become very hot and humid.

On the downside, traffic is horrible, although the area does have good public transportation. Housing costs are high. Incessant warnings about terrorism are tiresome and occasionally frightening. Crime is not rampant, but you must exercise reasonable defensive measures as you would in any urban environment.

Since you will be commuting frequently between the DC area and FL, keep in mind that the DC area has three major airports (Reagan National, Dulles, and Baltimore-Washington) and cheap flights can usually be found for FL destinations.

 

[ElizaB39]

Then you would likely be on the MD side of DC, and I don't know much about that area. You could also live closer to Baltimore if he is assigned to Ft Meade I think?

 

[shortbun]

My friend deliberately moved into Montgomery County, MD for the schools and when her boys graduated, she moved to VA for college residency benefits. We visit them all the time and loved both areas. She has a nice condo on the Potomac now.

 

[pixiepower1971]

We would prefer VA for some of the reasons already stated, i.e. better schools. If he goes to Meade it wouldn't be forever so we want to pick a place that he could commute to Meade and the Pentagon.

MD is in the running because my oldest DD is involved in Acro gymnastics. There seem to be some great gyms on the MD side. That would make her happy. There are limited numbers of Acro gymnastics training gyms in the US still. So any place that has one gets a vote from her! I also need to find a pre-professional ballet school for her. So the area gets high marks on being able to provide high level activities for my girls and great academic schools.

I know that the area has a lot to offer. And it is a great way to keep my DH in one area for awhile. I am tired of moving every couple of years. My DDs would be happy to live in one place for more then 2 years. We just all want to be closer to my parents (DDs and me) so anywhere that is more then about 6 hours from them stinks! I know we will get used to the idea and look on the positive side, eventually.

Just count me in the growing ranks of military wives that are just counting the days until the our DHs can retire!

Keeps the pros/cons coming. I need to share them with the DDs.

 

[motherhen17404]

I used to live just across the street from Ft. Meade. I will tell you that if your DH is stationed there, then you don't want to live in VA. That would be a very long ride every day. But you also do not want to live in the Ft. Meade area, the schools in that area are not so great. I would look to Howard County or go toward Severna Park in Anne Arundel County to get better schools. We had to move to PA for DH's work, but I really do miss the Annapolis/Baltimore/DC area. There is so much to do in this area. My parents still live in Annapolis so I do get to visit alot. Please feel free to PM me and I can answer many more questions.

 

[Todd&Copper]

I live just outside of Annapolis in Edgewater and we have very good public schools and low crime and our area is semi-rural (we are on the edge between suburbs and farms).

 

[BillSears]

Double post...

 

[BillSears]

One thing to consider is that Ft Meade and the Pentagon are on opposite sides of DC. Because of this you really can't have an easy commute by car to both of them. However I do think it's possible to drive to the north end of the DC area and take the subway directly to the Pentagon.

So with that in mind MD looks like it would be better for you if you need Ft Meade and Pentagon access.

I'm assuming you guys are on a normal military salary. If so you're going to be in for a real sticker shock when you start to price houses in the DC area.

 

[pixiepower1971]

I am dreading looking at the price of housing in the area. I know it is crazy. In Tx, where he is stationed now, housing is cheap. We bought in FL before everything skyrocked. So we are not used to the the housing costs in the MD/VA area at all.


I am also not looking forward to the prices that go along with my kids activities. They very well may be having to choose a favorite and only do one at a time! As they keep telling me...military life is an adventure!

 

[Tigger&Belle]

You've been given a lot of pros and cons to living in this area. We moved here from Texas and I did not want to move here. We'd lived in Northern Virginia before (before having kids), so I knew what the area was like, but I liked living in Texas, mainly the cost of living and had no desire to move (we're not from Texas, but we liked it).

We love it here, though. We've lived in Maryland (Montgomery County) for 15 years and plan (hope?) to live here at least until the kids are grown, which will be another 12 years. We like the recreational things this area has to offer--living not too far from the ocean and not too far from the all kinds of outdoor activities. It's not far to NYC, Philly, Boston, and other East coast destinations. It's wonderful having Washington DC so close even though sometimes it's hard to find the time to spend there since we're so busy with our kids and their activities. But it does mean people are more likely to visit us, which I find a positive.

The cost of living is high and it will be hard for our kids to afford living here. Traffic is bad, but it's bad in a lot of cities. My DH works at home so right now that isn't an issue.

Good luck with your decision!

 

[caitycaity]

the good and bad of living in the DC area.

i live about 10 miles from ft. meade. homes here are expensive, but if you buy in pg county or closer to the ft. meade area prices are more reasonable. this is because (among other reasons) the schools in this area are not great. we don't have kids and we couldn't afford to buy many other places so this was not a big issue for us. actually the people who we bought our house from were military and stationed at ft. meade (and had two kids).

there is no way to buy someplace with a good commute to both the pentagon and ft. meade. the best you could hope to do i would think would be to buy a place around bowie or largo, but your commute to either place could be about an hour during rush hour. and neither place are really great areas. i suppose you could take the metro from either area to the pentagon for a slightly shorter commute time, but you would have to drive to ft. meade.

living in the dc area is all about tradeoffs. i think you are going to have to decide what is most important to you and your family and go from there. for example, dh and i just bought our first house. we used to rent in montgomery county which was more convenient to dh's place of employment, had much better schools, and had easily accessible public transportation. we ended up moving to laurel, md (in prince george's county) because we wanted to own and there was no way we could ever afford anything in montgomery county. we decided it was more important for us to own than anything we were giving up. so now dh has an hour and a half commute, we live in an area that is not as nice, and it is a pain trying to get to the metro. it is worth it to us though and we are really happy about our decision.

we've lived here for 10 years (11 for dh) and traffic is just a part of life. it is something you get used to (at least we have) and you just work around it as much as possible.

in terms of prices, we bought a 3br 2 ba nice but small older end unit townhouse for 288k in an area that is nice, but not great and felt we got a fair price. in montgomery county where we were renting our townhouse easily could have gone for 100k more.

 

[DancingBear]

My dad was AF; from 5th grade until college I lived in FFX County, VA; lived in Dayton, OH and Charlotte, NC for 15 years and now back in Montgomery County, MD. I concur with everything stated above, but want to add and emphasize that there is a tremendous amount of stuff to do here. Whatever your interests or those of your children are, you will have plenty of destinations and activities to choose from.

For example, my 5yo son is into animals of any kind--he's got the National Zoo, the Baltimore Zoo, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Claude Moore Colonial Farm Park, the working farm at Frying Pan Park in FFX Co, the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, etc. The performance venues around here, including Wolf Trap, the Kennedy Center, etc., offer every kind of music and performances you can imagine. History, of course, abounds--not only in DC itself, but in nearby Gettysburg, Manassas, Mount Vernon, Fort McHenry, etc. Like to bike? Ride along the C&O canal, or on many former railroad rights-of-way turned into paths. Baseball? Two major league franchises, and a couple of minor league teams around.

 

[pixiepower1971]

Thank you everyone for all the info you have given me. It always helps to hear from people in the area you are moving to!

 

[LadyyRedd]

Welcome to the area~!

After you get here, you will have to come to one of our local meets.

Kimya

 

[pixiepower1971]

absolutely! I would love to meet some other Disney lovers in the area! We should know within 30 days exactly where we are going...well, as absolute as absolute can be when we are dealing with the military! They have been known to change their minds once in awhile!

 

[Poohnatic]

If you get Meade:

Schools are better on the Howard County side. PG housing is much cheaper, but it's a county that's got a lot of challenges. If you want reasonable housing with decent schools there, look at College Park.

Howard? I lived on the border of Laurel and Savage. Reasonable prices on houses, about 5 minutes from Meade. I'd been moved by an employer, so I rented (knowing I'd be moved again). Almost everyone in my complex was a Meade or NSA staffer.

His best bet is to determine what is a reasonable commute for him. You can get from Sykesville (Rt32 and I70) to Meade in a half hour. It's a nicer, more rural area. Glenelg is up that way and has a great high school.

Now, if he somehow is sent to Ft. Detrick, Frederick is a bargain in the MD/DC area, comparitively speaking.

Good luck with your move!

Suzanne