Thanks y8s. Although my move isn't strictly voluntary and I wouldn't call myself a "city-person" I'm actually looking forward to living in the area for a while. One of the things I've learned moving every few years is that every location has something good about it and that if I'm willing to adapt and leave my comfort zone a little I can always find fun things to do. I suspect that it will be more difficult to do my outdoor hobbies, but I'm looking forward to the museums, food scene, and just trying something different for a while. I am fortunate though that I get a housing allowance that helps to offset the higher housing costs.

Shirlington looks like a pretty small area. Is there a specific section that is "good" or does it vary street by street?

It kinda just depends. There's still a lot of areas right there that are low-income housing that have stayed with the same family for 70 years. But there are plenty of affordable apts and houses in the general area. Being central to Shirlington is nice for all it has to offer there, and then it's easy to go north to clarendon area, or alexandria or wherever.

I am indeed from Santa Clara originally but haven't lived there really since college. I moved around the SF bay area until late 2005 and then drove to DC. Lived on Capitol Hill for a couple years and then moved to a SFH in Arlington in 2008 and still reside there.

My friends are currently selling their rental property condo near Arlington Mill Community Center off columbia pike if youre intersted. But it's probably already sold by now since it's been a day or two.


Pretty close to y8s and the best pizza in the US.

Sure. Can you please PM me the address or a link to their listing?

In all honesty my hate for NoVA/DC/MD is really 100% towards housing costs and commute times. I love when I get to visit, I just hate that unless I hit the area at night, getting north of mile marker 120 on i95 sucks.

They went under contract like an hour before i reached out...

The traffic has been pretty good lately. rofl.

Current real-estate market in NOVA is a knife-fight. We have a couple inside sources... anything remotely priced "reasonably" has multiple full-price offers wthin 24hrs and a bidding war. Anything that isn't selling has a big red-flag or is simply priced way out even the current market. But, there's actually no shortage of sellers... don't know if it's the time of year, or something COVID related, but there are TONS of houses for sale daily that meet all of my requirements... trick is gonna be finding a real-estate agent worth the fucking price to get us a leg up on the bidding war.

I mean short of 2008-2011, that is probably the norm for the real-estate market in Nova. I remember in 2005 when my parents were selling their house. They put the house up for sale on Friday. Had an open house on Saturday. On Sunday my parents had a choice between 3 to 5 offers on the house. Overall yeah the housing market is CrayCray in that area.

We saw our house listed on a friday, viewed it the next day, saturday, and were under contract by sunday. Being flexible is necessary here.

I had a coworker put an offer on a house a few months ago on a whim, and it got accepted contingent on selling their own house within 30 days, so they put their house on the market, and had it sold within a week and made it happen.

I know where I'm at isn't as crazy competitive as the east coast, but I know back when I bought my place in 2017.......it was bizarre.

We went to more than one open house where by the time we left and called the agent, it was under contract and they didn't want counters. Multiple homes that went under contract while I was literally on my way to go view them. So my current place, I think I was the first one to view it, and immediately told the realtor to draw up the offer and went under contract the day it went on the market.

Now all they build in this area is shit townhomes. People moving so far west just to have land/sq footage.

I've never understood townhomes.

You share walls with people. You have no yard. And they are typically priced very high per sq ft for their location. At least here in the flyover states.

It's all they build here anymore. it's disgusting.

I mean, I understand why. Price of land and all that. I'd rather have a bit longer commute to do it.

We are trying to get everything in order so we can buy a smaller home on 5-10 acres 30-45 minutes from downtown in a few years. Have the peace and quiet, but also be less than an hour from an NBA game.

Ever decide?

I'm doing a short term rental for a few months so I can get a better feel for the areas and look around in person. Right now I'm focusing on some of the areas in Arlington, but I'm I've postponed serious searching until I get there in a few weeks.

^We've seen about a dozen homes via Facetime with a realtor. We put an offer in on one out in Brambleton and figured we lost by about $10k. Now targeting Oakton/Vienna and could get away with $900k, but scared to death of such a huge number not knowing what will happen in November. A finance buddy of mine who pays attention to such things says that if "anybody but Trump" wins in November, the recession will hit hard and fast and it will be real ugly. Real estate will be an early industry to shit itself now that there's been a solid bounce-back since the 08-10 plunge. But with Amazon ramping up in Arlington, people may be playing a waiting game... Trump wins just as Amazon brings a couple thousand new hi-salary people to the area and the housing market explodes... then they sell. But it's a sellers market now for those who choose to because not enough inventory for the demand. Every property worth a shit is being listed low with an "offer window"... submit your offers between X date and Y date and may the odds be ever in your favor. Most of the ones we're looking at between $700k-$900k are going to $20k-$40k over list with closing costs to the buyer and fuck whatever the home inspection shows.

We've decided to pick a high school and rent for a year to see what happens. The rental market is surprisingly robust, just a matter of picking a the high school we want to end up in and rent there... save a shit-ton over the next year and then buy when things have settled of kick ourselves in the ass over waiting too long.

The DC area is insane. We have many clients who are buying to "step up" to a new bigger property and the homes are selling same day for tens of thousands over asking (this is mostly IN DC).

I'm pretty sure my house would sell in a day. Possibly before listing if the agent had clients lined up.

I would love to move where.theres no neighbors, my current is starting to redraw our boundry lines and its not goingto go well when we drop a fence next month.