Life in Washington DC

Hi,

I am moving to DC in February. There must be a few people on this site who've lived there and I'm hoping some can give advice on:

1. How much does an apartment cost to rent?

2. Where is the best place to live? (I won't have a car and like to be central-ish).

3. Anything else I should keep in mind?

1) 4-600 (and more) in Montgomery County, 8-1000 (and more) in Crystal City. DC proper has very few "nice" areas with reasonable rents.

2) You will need a car. I would look to the northeast along the red line or west along the orange line. Those are the Metro subway lines. Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan and Woodley-Park Zoo area is quite nice and centralish.

3) DC has a very high crime rate and is extremely expensive. The traffic is horrible and now it is even worse because it looks like a city under siege. I would live in the Rockville/Shady Grove area if I were you and buy a car. Silver Spring to Wheaton is also nice, but not as nice although BD may disagree. Do not go east or southeast of the city with or without a car unless you are with someone who is familiar with the city.
You are also likely to live there for 6 months to a year before meeting anyone who was actually born and raised there. That fact gives DC a particular flavor that you will come to understand over time.

> 1) 4-600 (and more) in Montgomery County,
aybe for a room but not for an apartment. Double that number. The Silver Spring/Wheaton area is still egtting more expensive but it's all going downhill due to the increasing population of unskilled Central American workers. Single home prices have been dropping sharply since July. Prince George's County is cheaper but it's mostly a hole unless you get out to areas like New Carrollton.

> DC proper has very few "nice" areas with reasonable rents.
You want to stick to NW DC. Connecticut Avenue is pretty good. Note that most apartment buildings have roaches and you can smell it as soon as you walk in the door of some of the buildings.

> 2) You will need a car.
True. Public transport is pathetic. the subway is designed to get people from out in the burbs into the city during the day and back out at night. It's not there to take you around to different areas like must subways. the bus system is atrocious: There's not much of a schedule and the traffic in DC is so bad that the buses couldn't stick to the schedule even if there was one.

> Dupont Circle
Gay region, like Sonnenstraße in Munich, but with crime.

> Adams Morgan
Overrated and overpriced, though you might be able to find a small apartment within a few blocks.

> Woodley-Park Zoo
See earlier remark on Conn. Ave.

> 3) DC has a very high crime rate
Murder capital of the US for almost two decades.

> and is extremely expensive.
Taxes are insane. Of course, Virginia taxes the shit out of you as well, and some incorporated areas of NoVa like Falls Church hit you with even more taxes. If you want to be taxed each year on the value of your car, your home and lots of other stuff, NoVa is the place to be.

> Rockville/Shady Grove
Nice, but expensive. Very little within walking distance. Car an absolute necessity just to get to the Metro.

> Do not go east or southeast of the city
"The city" meaning "DC", not Rockville. SE DC is dangerous even if your skin has lots and lots of melanin. NE isn't so bad and you might be able to find a decent apartment there, but drive around the area first. NE DC also doesn't follow the grid plan well; it's easy to get lost there.

woof.

BadDoggie, is D.C. still the murder capital these days? I kinda thought St. Louis, Missouri, made it to the top last year (2006) followed by Detroit. Still, I know D.C. has been fairly bad for a couple of decades like you said.

Washington D.C. website.

Washington D.C. - Wikipedia

Looks that way to me. While overall crime in the US has been dropping, thats not the case for the District.

woof.

Yeah, in any case it's still ranked in the top ten which is bad enough.
Hope we're not putting you off D.C. now, Ura.

There is a very nice and somewhat cheap hotel out in Rosslyn along the orange line. Take the Metro to play tourist and to go shopping at some of the big nice malls.

BD, my apartment in Shady Grove was only 450 a month and a damn nice place it was too. It came with a fitness room, swimming pool, a garden area and was fairly safe considering. It was also walking distance to a few nightclubs, bowling, restaurants, shopping, library, doctors offices etc. Of course, that was 9 years ago before I moved here. My apartment in Crystal City was 960mo, but that included everything and the basement was a Metro stop with all the accompanying amenities.

DC is not cheap and it most definitely isn't a Toytown, although you will find a lot of toys to play with.

The Northern Virginia area is decent too, though still pricey. If you move anywhere in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, you're going to pay for location and you're still likely to encounter high crime. Shit, I lived in Laurel, Maryland (a relatively ok and quiet suburban neighborhood) and there was a murder directly across the street from my house.

Anyway, try Arlington/Alexandria. They are close to the metro lines. Ballston is nice, Falls Church, Clarendon. All nice areas but expensive. If you want to be close to public trans, though, that's likely your best bet. Good luck!!!

Thanks for all the replies so far - very helpful

That was 10 years ago. Prices have gone up 2-4 times for the entire 355/I-270 corridor. Germantown was a hick village 20 years ago without a single McD's. Ten years ago it had been discovered but was still considered "way the hell out there" but it's now part of "mainstream" Montgomery County. I know about housing prices in the area because I had to sell my mother's condo some months ago; she sold her house in 2004 at what turned out to be the height of the market.

Housing is a better deal if you can get the loan. It's a buyer's market right now. The closer in you are, the more expensive. Check the Apartment Shopper's Guide (also free and found by most newsstands as well as in most 7-11s; their Web site sucks). Almost every apartment building in the area lists with them.

woof.

Shit, I just checked the price of my old place at The Colony (now called The Hamptons) and it is twice the price of what I used to pay.

You might have a look here: http://www.rent.com/rentals/washington-dc/

I can tell you that rent is $1200 to $1400 for a one bedroom of maybe 750-850 square feet. That is the norm and may not include utilities. Check Craig's list to get a taste of what things really cost. Wheaton is a dump as far as I am concerned and Silver Spring is not what it once was either. The best areas close in to DC cost more--you will pay it in rent or in gas in the car and on a comute which can rattle your nerves. Drivers are NOT courteous in the DC Metro area. More people these days want to live in the "center of the donut" if you get my gist. The crime in Northwest is no worse than London, New York and many major cities of the world. Stay out of Southwest, Southeast and Northeast--no good at all.

I am own a co-op apartment (since 1996) in Northwest DC near the National Cathedral and American University. This is the safest area of Washington DC proper excluding Northern Virginia or parts of Montgomery county.

Email me and maybe I can help you relocate. Let me know what type of lifestyle you like. Do you prefer to walk places or to drive? Traffic is horrible if you live too far from your place of employment--2nd only to L.A. so consider carefully.

Best wishes to you in the New year. Again check Craig's List -wdc
Jennifer

Oh I forgot--we have Flexcar and Zipcars throughout the city so one does NOT necessairily need a car in DC at all. We have one on our property and two more are parked at American university, another one is two blocks away and yet another on the Cathedral grounds. In case you have not heard about Zipcar or Flexcars they are cars for which you sign up on line and hire by the hour only when you may need a car. I am giving up my car soon and will revert to one of these options as they pay the insurance, maintenance, and gas on the cars. Very expensive in this area. All I do is drive if and when I need to by reserving the car online once I sign up.

These cars are all over the DC Metro area--go to Zipcar.com to read about the concept.

Jennifer

Thanks for all the helpful replies!

I agree--Ballston and Clarendon are great areas in Arlington, but so is East Falls Church, if you're looking for a house, and it's still within a few miles of DC. Our house is in Silver Spring and nearly doubled in value from 2003-2006. We're renting it now: $2800/month for a three bedroom house with huge yard, walking distance to SS Metro and all the downtown SS shops. But that is considered high for the area (one with lots of bungalows and old farmhouses...not the area of Silver Spring that has the old colonial/brick house look--lesser known, more expensive area!).
Think about looking on Craig's List for a shared house or something--my sister found roommates that way, as have many other people I know.
South East DC on Capitol Hill is once again a trendy place to live, especially near Eastern Market. Lots of fun bars and artist markets down there--we tried to buy a house there but were outbid every time--it's still quite popular. Relatively high crime still, but also more and more gentrification and therefore maybe a lot of people in the same situation to look out for one another--higher income folks looking for a fun and central place to live that isn't Bethesda or Dupont. Adams Morgan and Dupont are also funky areas, more expensive of course--too expensive, in my opinion. But loads of artists and writers I know live there, and they're broke, so there must be some secret to it...I think it's finding a roommate who has lived in a place for a while where the rent rate is 5 years old. Not exactly rent control, but close.
Lots of people have been moving into the Mount Pleasant area, but again--you'd want to have a car to be there because I wouldn't walk home alone from that Metro stop if you paid me. Areas near Tenleytown and Cleveland Park are also quite central (those are on the Red Line). When deciding if a place was too scary for us to live (in terms of crime), a lot of the time I simply went with my gut--how did I feel driving around the neighborhood? You can tell--cafes with lights at night or decrepit buildings and lots of dark alleyways.
I'm not a fan of places like Shady Grove because they're far out--if you want to enjoy the city, you probably won't bother going in if you live out there. Recently there have been some development projects (nice looking ones) in proper downtown DC, near Metro Center and Chinatown, just north of the National Mall. Oh, and about Ballston: we got an incredibly cheap apartment there; a lot of the buildings are small brick two-story buildings that look like they used to be part of a college or something. We had roaches there, but I think that was because of the people who lived down below and were running a pupuseria out of their kitchen. Couldn't have been due to my housekeeping skills! One tip on the car thing: if you think you only need a car occasionally for running errands, etc., lots of people who live centrally use Zip Car, and it's worked really well for them. Good luck!
EDIT: oops! just read someone else's post about zip car and craig's list. oh well--doesn't hurt to reiterate!

Anyone else moving to DC in the near future?

I realize that URA has made it to DC by now (Welcome URA!), but I am currently planning the exact opposite move - from DC to Munich.

In the off-chance that you are also moving here (DC or somewhere close), let me know and maybe we can arrange to exchange appliances, furniture, and anything else we can avoid moving!

I'd also be glad to give you some information about the region, neighborhoods, etc.

Not very likely, but I figured it was worth a try!

A former mayor Washington DC was a crack smoker. DC is one of the most dangerous cities in the United States, you are going to miss Germany.

When is the last time some of you were in DC? I grew up in Maryland, about 15 minutes from the city proper, and have lived in the city for the last 7 years. While it used to be a pretty dangerous place, it is no where near what some of you are describing. The crack-head mayor has been out of office for almost 10 years, and the new mayors have done a lot to turn the city around. There are crap areas, just as in any city one might live, but there are also lots of nice, safe places to live. I'll miss DC come June when I make the move to Germany.

Silver Spring, represent! The crackhead Mayor-for-Life may not be mayor right now but does currently sit on the Council representing Ward 8 (Anacostia). And despite the drops over the past three years, DC still has the highest murder rate in the country.

Any chance I could get you to send me some food from Negril?

woof.

If anyone is planning to work in D.C,. slugging may be useful for commuting between Virginia and D.C.

Any chance any fellow Washington DC peeps are still living in Munich?

A friend and I are planning a trip and are just looking for some advice.
As of now we are going to use www.couchsurfing.com to find some locals to host us, but thought I'd search around this forum to just see...

Thanks!

sounds like you should stay in munich?