My Time In the East

DC Musings

Wow! What a trip (and its not yet over as I'm on a layover on the City By the Bay; San Franciscio for those of you not in the know)!

I could have another post on San Francisco, but that is another time as it has been a looooong time since I've live here and many things have changed. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

So, for roughly the last week, I've been living and working the in greater Washington, DC area (actually, I guess I never left Virginia!).

The first couple of days that I was there, my mission was to look for and find suitable housing for the family to move into when we get to DC for my next job posting. While living in Korea has been interesting to say the least. It is getting on time to go and get back with the family. As you've notice from DVN2RCKR's posts, they are currently over in Korea visiting me right now. Yes, it is odd, but my business trip back to DC was rather late notice and unexpected, but it meet our needs and they weren't entirely strangers to Korea.

Back to housing in the DC metroplex. The prices are downright crazy and overpriced. A small/simple townhome (on postage stamp property) located in Alexandria, VA was priced at about $499,000. Looking and housing quickly became non-event as: 1) the market is changing to rapidly for something available now to be available later this summer, and 2) in order to be within our price range, we'd have to move to West Virginia and take a 2 hour commute one way. So... I turned to look for apartment complexes that are located within walking distance or have shuttles to metro stops. I found a couple, but again, I was too soon to be guarenteed that something would be available later this year. Based on where I will be working and some of the places that I looked at, I could concivibly be home in 30-45 minutes after leaving my office (includes going down the elevator and walking out of the building).

DC beltway traffic is just weird and I'm not sure if it is a result of the Springfield interchange (where I-95 goes south to Richmond), which is under construction/improvement or something else, like work. But during the morning rush (5a-10a) it is a parking lot and then during the evening rush (3p-6p) it is a parking lot, but any other time you can drive the limit.

Not sure I'm going to like living in the DC area due to the traffic, but the closeness to all that culture and history is going to be a bonus.

posted by Unknown @ 2:48 AM