<p>D2’s roommate has an internship on the Mall in Washington DC. (Actually she’ll be a White House intern–no Lewinski jokes, please!) She needs housing that is not a short term (summer) rental since she’ll be there for a full year.</p>
<p>I’ve discouraged from trying to commute by car and suggested she look along the Metro routes, but don’t know which neighborhoods/areas to suggest. She may be working odd hours and coming home late at night and wants an area that is reasonable safe at night.</p>
<p>Any suggestions for areas she should start looking?</p>
<p>You don’t need a car to live in DC. In fact, owning one is probably more trouble than it’s worth. If you need one occasionally, you join ZipCar. There are ZipCars parked all around the District.</p>
<p>Your daughter’s roommate could try the series of neighborhoods along Connecticut Avenue (they’re also along the Metro’s Red Line). Try Woodley Park, Cleveland Park, or the area around the Van Ness Metro station. All are reasonably safe, and there are quite a few older apartment buildings that are only moderately (rather than outrageously) expensive. </p>
<p>Another possibility is Foggy Bottom. This is where George Washington University is located. Since it’s a college area, there tend to be people on the streets at all hours, which is a good thing in terms of safety but a bad thing in terms of noise. Some of the older apartment buildings are in the moderately expensive (rather than outrageously expensive) price range.</p>
<p>For someone who’s planning to live with roommates, Crystal City might work. It’s basically a huge office park with some 50-year-old apartment buildings in it. The prices are fairly decent if you’re sharing with other people – and most of the apartments are big enough to share comfortably. Disadvantage: Crystal City doesn’t have a supermarket. This would drive me nuts, but several thousand people live there and apparently survive. Crystal City is actually in Virginia, but it’s close in, and the Metro goes there.</p>
<p>There are other options, but these are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head.</p>
<p>The neighborhoods Marian describes are lovely, but also crazy expensive. On a student budget she may need to go further afield. I agree that along the metro is a great idea. I wouldn’t write off most of DC as “unsafe” but I would look for neighborhoods were there’s still a lot of action at night, and find a place with a short walk. </p>
<p>In DC, I’d look right around the GA Ave./Petworth metro. Lots of people there have basement apartments and there are some high rises too. Petworth is a wonderfully DC neighborhood in that you’ve go a wide range of ages, races, ethinicities, incomes etc . . . , and it’s well established with students living beside grandmas who raise their own children there and yuppy professionals.</p>
<p>If she’ll need to sacrifice convenience for costs, there are lots of less expensive options if you look out the Eastern arm of the Red line in Silver Spring (Forest Glen, Wheaton, Glenmont), or around Hyattsville on the Green Line. </p>
<p>Another option would be to look for a group houses on the Hill itself. Super convenient, although probably crowded because the houses there are cheap.</p>
<p>I’m sure VA has good options too, but I only know “my” side of the river.</p>
<p>Not knowing her budget, I can tell you that my daughter was able to get a sublet in a 3BR Capitol Hill rowhouse for a not completely unreasonable price. She works downtown and takes the Blue Line to work, but often walks home. Anything on or within a reasonable walk to a Metro line would be a good choice. She also rides the Metro in the evenings (up to 10-11pm) and feels totally comfortable. DC is an expensive city, regardless of where you live.</p>
<p>Nephew just got a govt job in northern VA and found several places on Craigslist. He is close to the Metro and is renting a room in a house and really likes his landlord.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions. I’ll pass them along.</p>
<p>The roomie would prefer to share housing (and costs) and is hoping for around $1000/month for rent/utilities. Do her numbers sound reasonable? Or should I tell her to budget more?</p>
<p>In that price range will she need to look farther out on the Metro?</p>
<p>What about the metrobus? I have a friend who used to commute in from Columbia by bus, but IIRC, he also mentioned 75+ minutes on the bus at rush hour. Does the bus even run later at night?</p>
<p>Aside from Foggy Bottom and Crystal City any other ideas from the VA side?</p>
<p>$1,000 a month will do fine on Capitol Hill, in Petworth, or in Downtown Silver Spring. Connecticut Ave. would be tight – many 2 BRs there are around $2,500 utilities included. She won’t to go too far out. At that level she could also look in Downtown Bethesda.</p>
<p>I think the roommate is a big factor. I’d look on Craigslist for options. If she already has a roommate, PM me and I can make more specific suggestions.</p>
<p>Edited to add: Foggy Bottom is another good suggestion, it’s on the DC side though. In VA, I’d look around the Arlington metro, and maybe Falls Church, although I can’t speak to prices or specifics. I wouldn’t go further than that because of commute.</p>
<p>What’s her preference for kinds of neighborhood?</p>
<p>You’re not going to find a studio on Connecticut Avenue for $1000, and that amount probably won’t pay half the rent in a two-bedroom, either.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if this girl has a potential roommate she already knows, they might want to consider sharing a one-bedroom apartment. That’s do-able for $1000 per person per month in a lot of neighborhoods. It might even be do-able in Pentagon City (yet another part of Arlington that’s on the Metro), which I didn’t mention before because it’s a little more upscale than the other places I mentioned.</p>
<p>Foggy Bottom, which is the GWU area, is 4-6 blocks from the White House - an easy walk. There are lots of condos for rent in the area. Try craigslist to find them - put ‘foggy bottom’ in the search criteria. It’s a pretty safe area. There are lots of students in the area so it might not be too hard to find someone looking for a roomie.</p>
<p>If looking for roommate situations, just be sure that the roommates are not undergrads. Their schedule & sleep habits will be decidedly different from a White House intern’s.</p>
<p>My D is starting her NIH SIP on June 11 at NIDA which is in Bay view campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. We are looking for housing options. She is 17. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>DD found a lovely, if somewhat tatty, vegetarian group house in Petworth right by a metro stop. She went from an hour and half commute to a twenty minute commute to the downtown area. She had a small room to herself and shared bathroom, and cooking duties every other week. Cost… $550 a month plus $150 for food and utilities. Really lovely people and the house was affiliated with other group homes. Mount Pleasant and eastern market area also has group houses. This is definitely the way to go if you are not planning on staying in Dc for more than a few years. usually they are already furnished and have all the kitchen equipment, etc. You have to be willing to pitch in and follow house rules. DD loved it.</p>
<p>Our S is living in Arlington, near the metro line. He likes it much better there than Herndon, VA (which is closer to IAD - Dulles Airport & had no young people about). His apartment is a one-bedroom and considerably more than $1000/month. Since he’s paying it, I’m not sure on the exact cost but he has no complaints.</p>
<p>S found padmapper.com and craigslist to be useful in helping find a place. It could also be useful to communicate with the place where she’ll be interning to see if the person leaving the position she’s taking has a place she could take over. They might also have suggestions on where their staff lives and where their interns rent.</p>
<p>Oh yea, S does have a car (with covered parking in gated garage), which he uses to get to & from work, since the area where he works is NOT served by the metro line. This does add to his expenses. For folks who don’t need a car, it is great to use the metro and just rent one if and when you want one, say for the weekend.</p>
<p>anxiousmom: National Institutes of Health (NIH) Summer Internship Program (SIP) at National Institutes of Drug Abuse (NIDA) which is located in Baltimore, MD adjacent to the Johns Hopkins University Bay View Campus</p>
<p>Also on the Virginia side check out Rosslyn, specifically River Place. Great location, METRO, walk over the bridge to Georgetown. IMHO has a lot more life and a younger feel than Crystal City.</p>
<p>Take a look at the Adams Morgan or Logan Square areas. Both are much less pricey than DuPont Circle. Both are close to the METRO line. My D and son-in-law have been in the Logan Square area for the last two years while in grad school and like the neighborhood. It’s walking distance to DuPont Circle and several METRO stops.</p>