My husband recently got a job offer at the FDA which is located in Silver Spring, MD. I know absolutely NOTHING about the DC area or it’s suburbs. So let me tell you a little about what we are looking for, and some brilliant person who is familiar with the area might be able to fight my ignorance.
I have 4 kids, so things like a low crime rate and good schools are going to be a priority. However I HATE cookie-cutter subdivisions so I don’t want anything like that. I want a town that feels like a real town in itself, not just a suburb of a bigger city. In our current home (in Tucson) we live in an area where we can walk to stores, restaurants, parks, and my husband bikes to work everyday. But of course we won’t be able to afford the very high-end places, so let’s keep it real.
Does a place like that exist? Someone recommended Takoma Park, but I know almost nothing about it.
They’re still doing construction at the Silver Spring Metro station, so unless you’re driving it’s a big mess.
Lots of old housing around and they’ve had a few new condos built. Although in Silver Spring they’ve improved the now hip areas with new construction and an AMC Silver Theater. Depending upon whether you want to actually live in a city area vs. suburbia, you can find these types of neighborhoods interspersed all over the place. Funny how sometimes you’re in a crowded business area and all of a sudden you’re in a pretty nice grassy neighborhood.
I live in MD just outside of DC, but I’m a city kid. I like living near a 24 hr store. Takoma Park is okay, but a little far away from my regular 'hood.
What sort of home are you looking for? Buying/renting?
The old part of Greenbelt is somewhat like what you want. The houses are cheap for the D.C. area. The center is town is actually walkable, and there’s no traffic speeding through the area. There is a school, two pizza places, a Chinese restaurant, a small cafe/music club run by the town, a library, a doctor’s office, a movie theater, and a gas station all quite close together and within easy walking distance of many houses and apartments. Within walking distance are town administrative buildings and a number of churches. There are two shopping centers within a mile of the town center.
The high school, Eleanor Roosevelt, is quite good. Somebody will now say something like, “But it isn’t as good as high school X in Montgomery County or Fairfax County.” This is probably true, but the schools in the D.C. area are so much better on average than schools in most metropolitan areas that a merely first-rate high school tends not to get noticed in comparison to the absolutely top-notch ones nearby.
The center of Silver Spring has lots of interesting restaurants, stores, movie theaters, etc. It doesn’t feel as much like a community though. You might need to live a mile or two away and drive to the center.
May I make a suggestion? Come for a visit first and see the area. You’ll find it a lot easier to decide where to live. We’ll be glad to do a Dopefest for you. We can show you around.
I’d also say don’t write off Northern Virginia, even if he is working in Silver Springs. I live in Alexandria (which sounds precisely what you are looking for) and a good friend of mine works in Potomac.
Great fish restaurant, Crisfeld’s, on Georgia Avenue. Not sure it’s still there. Downtown Silver Spring is okay–I lived there for a few years, convenient to the shopping, Metro (subway) and the beltway.
Where exactly in Silver Spring are you talking about?
“Silver Spring” is an extremely large unincorporated area; basically anything in the entire southeastern half of the county that’s not its own city or town qualifies as “Silver Spring.”
That said, what is known as “Downtown Silver Spring,” i.e. the intersection of Georgia Ave. and Colesville Rd. and the immediate surrounding area is lovely. This section of the county has no “cookie cutter subdivisions” as I think you are thinking of. The houses in the neighborhoods in these parts are widely varied in style and size. Takoma Park is the adjacent city (SS and TP are both immediately bordering DC proper) and is a very nice, very quiet little community. Housing can be extremely expensive in Old Town Takoma Park though.
Cheaper digs can be found in nearby Hyattsville. I have a ton of friends who all bought their first homes there. There is a humongous neighborhood in the center of the city that’s very diverse in style and size, with plenty of restaurants and shopping right nearby, and only about a 10 - 15 minute drive to SS.
You may also want to check out Wheaton/Glenmont which is a bit further up-county from SS. The advantage here is you’d be only a couple of Metro stops down from SS, and it’s a nice and very affordable place to live.
Sorry villa but I’d advise against NoVa in this case. SS is much more difficult to get to from NoVa than Potomac. You’d have to go farther around the Beltway (ugh) or all the way through DC (ugh).
Have you got this backwards? Drive to downtown Silver Spring? That’s a nightmare most days around 4. I can’t vouch for the Metro as I don’t take it, but I don’t hear that much bad about the Silver Spring station. They are doing construction, but that’s for the new transportation center.
There is the MARC train Brunswick line, which drops you off right next to the Silver Spring Metro. Then you’ll have access to living in Rockville, Gaithersburg, Germantown and further west. Though a lot of those towns either have more modern cookie cutter places or you can’t walk to them.
It really does depend on where in Silver Spring he’ll be working.
Okay sorry I just noticed the first sentence of the OP. The FDA is in White Oak, which is a very nice little community in east MoCo. Housing can be expensive here but it’s a very large suburban area. You will need a car. The good news is it’s easy to get there from any of the neighboring communities. Looking at the map your husband could easily get there from Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Wheaton, Beltsville or College Park.
These places are much closer together than it looks like on the map. Your husband could get to the FDA from almost any point on that map in 30 minutes easy (which is a very good commute time for this area).
As to your other concerns Montgomery County has one of the best school systems in the country (consistently top 10 or better). Crime is extremely low considering proximity to DC. There are tons of parks and shopping around, but like I said you will need a car around here; living within walking distance of city centers will be either extremely expensive or you’ll be living in a small apartment (which with 4 kids you won’t).
IS there a difference between the VA and MD areas in terms of laws, taxes, etc? I mean, is one preferable to the other because of anything that is obvious to those who live there?
It all seems so confusing. I mean there are all these towns which aren’t really towns because they run into each other and the only way you know that you are now out of one place and into another is that there may be a sign. They aren’t really separate, just one large urban area.
DCnDC, another question. The map you linked to says the address of the FDA is Silver Spring, but on the map it shows it is in White Oak. Is this just to confuse outsiders?
In your case I believe the major difference would be the commute. Getting around this area can be a miserable ordeal if you live too far from where you work. Getting to the FDA from NoVa would be an absolute nightmare. Unfortunately the FDA is not public transportation convenient, otherwise Virginia is not a terrible option.
As to the sprawl, that’s just a reality of living on the East Coast. Basically everything from DC to Baltimore is one huge suburb. But there are plenty of nice community-oriented towns and neighborhoods in the area; a visit would do you a world of good in deciding where you want to settle down in.
No. Silver Spring is not really an official, specific location. It’s the general name applied to ALL unincorporated areas in lower Montgomery County. “White Oak” is the name of the neighborhood there. Officially it’s a “Census-designated area,” but everyone’s address there will read “Silver Spring.”
However, if you were to say “Silver Spring” to any locals they will assume you are talking about “Downtown Silver Spring,” which like I mentioned earlier is the intersection of Georgia Ave. and Colesville Rd. and the immediate surrounding area.
You might want to look at Columbia. A bit further away than any other place mentioned (it’s in Howard County), but it’s a straight shot down 29 to the FDA. It’s a planned community and all the houses look the same but it’s a nice place to live. I lived there for several years myself and enjoyed it. There’s a huge mall there and tons of restaurants and shopping all in a central location with affordable housing within walking distance.
Not all the schools in Montgomery County are good. Kennedy, Wheaton, Springbrook, Paint Branch, Northwood, and Gaithersburg HS are high schools that are subpar compared to the rest of the system. If you’re going to be paying through the nose to live here anyway, you might as well get your money’s worth. MCPS is a great system as far as public schools go, but there are schools that do extremely well (Wootton, Whitman, Churchill) that drag up the averages of the poorer schools.
I grew up in Columbia. Just about anywhere in Howard County will be cheaper than Montgomery County. Yes, the commute will be longer. No, the houses do not all look the same, there is wide variability, not any more cookie-cutter than much of Montgomery County. Depending on where you live, you can be walkable/bikable to a nice village center with small shopping area, pool, playgrounds, etc. Many of the Howard County High Schools (there are 8, I think) are very good, but there is variability, so you’d want to do your background research. There’s a lot of new construction (say, last 10 years) in the areas around Columbia, but much of Columbia itself is 30 to 40 years old, so the neighborhoods are mature, lots of trees, etc.
I wouldn’t look in Northern Virginia under any circumstances.
