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anyone live nearby? anyone have any suggestions for housing? id like a house and garage, but i work for the gov and money isnt the best. any place better to look than others? thinking of buying, but then again may rent. thanks!

I have no advice on housing, but I expect that it will be expensive to live nearby, and if you live farther out, the traffic will truly suck. But I don't know what housing costs are like in Seattle, so I can't compare. The Washington Post is the biggest newspaper in the DC area, they have a decent web site http://www.washingtonpost.com/ with some real estate classifieds section. hard to know how useful it will be but it might give some idea of the housing market. I think the web site might require you to "sign up" but it's free, and they don't spam.I have been to Seattle and was surprised how few people exceeded the speed limit on the interstate. That is not the case around DC, where the words "Speed limit" on a speed limit sign alternate between meaning "Curse anyone who dares to go as slow as " and "Imagine being able to go as fast as"

you'll be nice and close if you wanna come to any northeast meets!only 4 hours from jersey to dc...

I live in Leesburg, about 30 miles west of DC. The entire DC/Northern VA/MD area has an very high priced realstate market. It's really a seller's market. I recently started my career after graduating in December and was looking for a place to buy in the past month. Alexandria is very close to Ft. Belvoir and you can find some old 1-2 bedroom condos in the $150-200k price range. I thought about moving to that area because it was one of the more affordable locations, but turns out a lot of them are not exactly nice locations. Something with a garage will run you probably starting around $300k, you may not even be able to find one in that price range. I have decided to hold out on buying, really wanted to and was approved for a mortgage, but for what you get for the money, you don't get much. I found a nice place to rent, so I'll be moving next month. If you can afford a place, you have the potential to make a lot of money. Some condos I looked at sold for $115k in September last year, now they are going for $175k! $60k in 6 months, that's crazy and it makes it so hard for someone just starting out to find a place. If I had only graduated last summer and found a job then . Renting is about $900/month starting for a single bedroom, 2 bedrooms often start around $1100/month and they can go well above $2k/month depending on location. I used rent.com and they will be giving me $100 for telling my apartment complex I used them. Start checking out online realstate sites, I've used the one MSN links to and then my realtor had a great link to the MLS listings, but you have to get a login through them. Check out the washingtonpost like joatman said. They have some good info on realstate and renting.Later,

thanks everyone for the info. hiowever i am kind of bummed with the info i got back. i could always live on ft belvoir, but ive been told the army has lots of little rules that limit what you can do . who knows...ill find something. thanks again.

hey meat, you local yet?

meat you in dc yet? I'm supposed to be reporting up to Ft. Myer on 31JAN2006 looking for someplace to live.

shoot, my whole family lives in NOVA (nothern virginia) from fredricksburg to fairfax, dulles, viena etc. I was stationed at Ft. Belvoir in 2003 and loved the base, hated the area, nobody speaks english, the cost of living is wayyyyyyyyyyy to high. and the realestate in fairfax county is the highest in the nation. So glad I am at Ft. Pickett in the boonies of virginia now. Hopfully I will be here for a while. going to kosovo in 07 probably.