I can’t believe that this thread has been going on for two weeks and none of the other DC area Dopers has mentioned the greatest benefit of living around here: The Washington City Paper runs The Straight Dope column. It’s free and available everywhere.
Alexandria seems kind of far to AU, the Metro commute will be particularly long. Is he talking about Huntington Metro? I work in Alexandria, and I don’t think that it is particularly cheap. I think that the Maryland suburbs may be a better fit for you. There are still relatively cheap apartments in Arlington as well, they are just harder to find than they used to be.
There are usually some apartment complexes that have an income cap to them. It might be worth your while to look at those. If your boyfriend gets the free apartment listing guide that you find near newspapers on the way to the Metro, it might be good.
I hail my economic NoVA overlords but Arlington to AU as a commute is not what I I would advise my freinds to do if they were starting daily life in the Region from scrtach as you seem to be. Now if your guy has a job there, or great prospects, there maybe it makes sense.
You can use this link to calculate Metro times and Fares. Huntington to Tenelytown (AU) is 45 minutes and $3.70 one way on the rail alone… then you need to get from Tenleytown to AU (this last bit you will always need to do - has nothing to do with where you live). Not ideal.
http://www.wmata.com/
Welcome.
A few others have mentioned the hot, humid summers, but let me give you an image, it isn’t original, I forget who said it, but you’ll have a good idea of what you’re in for: If you want to know what Summers are like in Washington, imagine 1000 Saint Bernhards panting on you all at once.
I’ve lived in the area, Maryland and Virginia, for nearly forty years and have grown accustomed to the place.
What sorts of jobs is your husband looking for with his bachelor’s in math and physics? With only undergraduate degrees, he’s not going to get any job that’s advertised as being a mathematician or a physicist. I’m wondering if he’s expecting too much in the jobs he’s applying for.
Only on Thursdays and Fridays though. After Friday, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any until the next issue unless you know where to look.
Oh my goodness…I’m gonna die. 
I don’t like the commute that I’m looking at myself. However, my husband seems to have rejected the Maryland suburbs for a high crime rate. I don’t know if this is actually true, but I do know that when I was looking at apartments online, only Maryland apartments flat out said “No pit-bulls or pit-bull mixes”. We don’t have pit-bulls (though our tabby cat thinks she’s one), but in my experience this sort of breed discrimination is advertised like that only in places where crime is a problem. YMMV.
We haven’t found anything cheap enough in Arlington. I’m going to urge him to keep looking. However, he’s flying out here on Tuesday and wants an apartment by then. This is reasonable, but I’m not quite as picky about putting our stuff in a storage unit and continuing to stay with the friend he’s staying with right now. And if I do end up with a long commute, maybe I can study or (more likely) work on cross stich christmas gifts.
As for jobs he’s looking at, he’s not looking for a job advertised as for a “physicist”. That’s for a PhD as far as we’re concerned/can tell. He is finding several jobs that list a Bachelor’s as the highest degree needed, and he’s applying for those. He’s applied for some that only require a high school diploma. Yeah, we’re desperate.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think the crime rate is high in the Maryland suburbs. I’ve never seen a pit bull in all my years in this area. Lots of apartment complexes put restrictions on residents that sound scary but actually mean little, since nobody would ever do any such thing.
I don’t think that’s the case here. The breed was banned in Prince George’s County in 1996 and in 2001 The Maryland General Assembly voted on a bill which would have extended the band throughout the state.
Okay, Jeff, I guess that maybe the advertisments were for people like me coming from out of state and not knowing about the laws.
Interesting reading, anyway.
Back to the appartment search!
Speaking of the Washington City Paper, they’re another good place for apartment listings. I see a pair of 1BRs near Silver Spring Metro for $825, a 1BR at 10[sup]th[/sup] & K for $650, a 1BR at 6[sup]th[/sup] & M for $600, and a 1BR around Chevy Chase for $850 including utils. Stay away from the toll-free numbers unless you want to pay for a locator service.
I was going to suggest you look at craigslist.org but I don’t think you’d want to wade through all the misfiled rooms for rent.
AU has virtually no low-income housing anywhere close to it. The entire upper NW side of D.C. is super expensive. All of SW Montgomery County (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac, etc.) is super expsensive. All of the areas close to the river in VA are super expensive. The few affordable housing pockets in these areas are almost impossible to get in to.
A Metro commute from VA to AU is very arduous.
I would highly recommend trying to find something in lower Montgomery County. Silver Spring, Wheaton, Rockville (if you can find something). The closer to the Red Line, the better.
Good luck guys.
There are a lot of apartment complexes within a ten-minute drive of the Glenmont, Wheaton, Forest Glen, and Silver Spring stations, so those might be good places to check.
Also, you might want to wander over to http://www.apartmentratings.com/; bear in mind, though, that people don’t always post honestly (as we’ve seen in this thread, for example). Still, it might be worth a look.
Amen on dantheman, chunkybum ** and jeff ** posted. All good advice and right on. What they are suggesting is putting on the Metro RedLine and giving you a much cheaper and shorter commute.
Crime rates are driving you arcoss the River? I thought you were the lady unfazed by Takoma Park. Any place you can afford in Arlington isn’t going to be appreciably different in crime than any place you can afford in Montgomery County. I would, in fact guarantee that the 1BR Jeff found, if it truly is in Chevy Chase is in an area that has lower crime than anywhere in Arlington. I would expect Silver Spring and Kensington to be comparable in crime rates to affordable Arlington and Wheaton to be slightly worse. But I assure you that the idea that NoVA is much safer than Montgomery County, on whole, is a false assumption and one that is going to cost you in commute time and $$.
Well, I’m trying to steer Mr. Kangaroo to the Red Line, and he seems to be taking it well. As for what I’m fazed by, it’s a bit irrelevent right now if he’s fazed by it. He won’t rent an apartment where he feels the crime is high.
As for dantheman’s link, I’m not sure, but I think that’s what gave Mr. Kangaroo the impression of high crime in certain areas. I’ve been directing him to this thread regularly, and hopefully the advice everyone’s been giving is helping him too.
I just wish Mr. Kangaroo wasn’t in quite such a rush. The last time I was in a rush like he’s in now, I ended up in a death trap.
Thanks again for all the help.
You mean the aptratings one? I wouldn’t treat the comments there as gospel in any case. What I did was look at all the complexes in a general area and then shoot for the ones with the highest ratings, no matter what the individual comments were. Most of the time, people who bother to post on there are doing so because they’re pissed about something, and what happened to them might be a unique situation.
Of course, if there are a dozen complaints about the noise, the bugs, the safety… well, then you might want to eliminate that one, or at least put it further down the priority list.
dantheman, you may have a point. I think he used that site, but I don’t know how he used it. I should ask about that.
Yeah, Bethesda and Chevy Chase are certainly not high crime. Silver Spring and Wheaton are pretty safe areas as well. Most things in Montgomery County are going to be pretty safe. A lot of areas are gentrifying, so I wouldn’t worry about a neighborhood getting worse.
The Colesville/White Oak area of Silver Spring is close to both the Wheaton and Silver Spring stations. See if Mr. Kangaroo feels safer around there.
Thanks brujo and Reepicheep. I’ll let him know.