Steve_Jones said:Don't forget the yearly Virginia tax on every vehicle you own.
I'm Maryland, but iirc historical vehicles are exempted? Or just much cheaper?
Steve_Jones said:Don't forget the yearly Virginia tax on every vehicle you own.
I'm Maryland, but iirc historical vehicles are exempted? Or just much cheaper?
Steve_Jones said:Don't forget the yearly Virginia tax on every vehicle you own.
My cars register in Texas. And will stay that way.
In reply to yupididit :
And because DC is the Nation's Capitol, seeing all sorts of out-of-state plates around isn't uncommon. When I moved to MD from SC about 8 or 9 years ago, I kept my SC plates for a long time. Finally switched everything over, but never got any guff from the local constabulary about the out of state regs.
I've lived in the MD-DC area twice, once in the 2000's and then moved back about 8 or 9 years ago. Traffic has gotten MUCH worse in the interveing few years. Lots of crappy areas in DC got gentrified- probably due to the traffic. MARC is your commuter rail from MD, and runs along the I-95 and I-270 corridors. VRE can take you from Fredericksburg (south, I-95) or Manassas (I-66, West). DC Metro is semi-reliable.
With the exception of the red line, DC metro is reliable. The red line is like driving a 1980s E36 M3box made in Eastern European country. It may break down on you, or it may try to kill you, there's no knowing which or when.
I was just in DC for a few days, stayed in Reston which is just before Dulles. The Metro ride to town was a bit long, but I work in my basement so anything seems long to me. I was surprised at how big each suburb was on the way in. Reston? About the size as downtown Pittsburgh, but with more high-rises. Tysons Corner? Same. Arlington? Same. All the way down to Quantico it was the same thing. The point is you can do a lot without ever having to go into DC proper, unless you work there of course.
BlueJ used to live in Arlington, so I'm sure he'll chime in here at some point. I can tell you from what I know is that they have an under-school age child, but settled inside the district after factoring in convenience, space, school districts, and taxes...
Good luck regardless. Every time I go and visit him, I fall in love with the city a little more.
In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :
https://twitter.com/IsMetroOnFire
volvoclearinghouse said:In reply to yupididit :
And because DC is the Nation's Capitol, seeing all sorts of out-of-state plates around isn't uncommon. When I moved to MD from SC about 8 or 9 years ago, I kept my SC plates for a long time. Finally switched everything over, but never got any guff from the local constabulary about the out of state regs.
I've lived in the MD-DC area twice, once in the 2000's and then moved back about 8 or 9 years ago. Traffic has gotten MUCH worse in the interveing few years. Lots of crappy areas in DC got gentrified- probably due to the traffic. MARC is your commuter rail from MD, and runs along the I-95 and I-270 corridors. VRE can take you from Fredericksburg (south, I-95) or Manassas (I-66, West). DC Metro is semi-reliable.
Oddly I got called out by official notice that the local sheriff, county tax office, and state police were aware that I still had Michigan plates and they would fine me if I didn't send them confirmation of registration. They had my two VINs of my cars listed on the notice.
The rumor was someone in the neighborhood was providing information to the local sheriff department about cars with out of state plates. Don't know why but it was a thing in MD and VA for a short while.
Try to get a feel for local travel patterns the best you can. I spent 10 years in MD and 1/2 of that was living in Bethesda. My +15 mile commute east to Greenbelt was usually shorter than the 5 mile drive my roommates had. This was back in the mid 2000s, so I'm sure lots have changed. There were certain times of they day you really didn't want to be driving in certain directions. MD and VA people tend to avoid crossing into the the other state.
Delmarva is great. Beaches, mountains, rivers & the Chesapeake Bay. There are lots of things to do both outdoors within a 2 hour drive. Browsing the online ads in that neck of the woods always yields a bunch of interesting oddball cars. Because of all the diplomats you also will regularly see europe-only cars used by diplomats. Lots of great music, art, etc as well.
The only hangup is there are a few hundred thousand people that also want to jump in their cars and go to the same places on Friday afternoon.
In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah Reston/Herndon has become the spot for people that can't afford Tyson's Corner housing. I have a coworker that inherited her parents home in Reston and she love it.
Living in DC is crazy, makes Chicago seem quaint. Even more crazy is working a while in Suzhou a "small town" west of Shanghai area which makes New York seem small. Then consider the shanghai/suzhou metro area and it made my return to the DMV seem like I was going back to Pittsburgh/Detroit
Thus why I recommended not listening to locals as they just can't have knowledge about all areas of the DMV. Just too much.
Apexcarver said:Steve_Jones said:Don't forget the yearly Virginia tax on every vehicle you own.
I'm Maryland, but iirc historical vehicles are exempted? Or just much cheaper?
The Virginia "Personal Property Tax" was quite onerous when I first moved here--IIRC 3.5% of the assessed value of the vehicle to be paid each year. Of course, it was unpopular, and for a time there was a push to abolish it. One of our governors, of the Not So Tax-ey Spend-ey persuasion instituted a phase-out (Tax Relief Act), where the tax would be reduced by a percentage each year and then be gone altogether. And there was jubilation in the Old Dominion. I think it got down to like 40% of the original percentage.
Elections do have consequences, and after a few years, we got a new governor of the Extremely Tax-ey Spend-ey You Don't Know How to Spend Your Money But We Do persuasion. He immediately halted the phase out, but figured it would be too unpopular to re-institute it, so he let it remain at the current reduced amount.
And there it has remained. Honestly, my old junk is valued quite modestly in the eyes of the State, and the tax on those cars is negligible. The new stuff adds up to a few hundred dollars a year, but not nearly so bad as in the years prior to the Tax Relief Act.
Edit: None of my antiques are valued above what DMV values them at, which is peanuts. If you have a mint '71 Hemi 'Cuda worth a million dollars, they will call it a '71 Plymouth Sedan and value it at $700 for the purpose of assessing the property tax amount.
Advan046 said:In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah Reston/Herndon has become the spot for people that can't afford Tyson's Corner housing. I have a coworker that inherited her parents home in Reston and she love it.
Living in DC is crazy, makes Chicago seem quaint. Even more crazy is working a while in Suzhou a "small town" west of Shanghai area which makes New York seem small. Then consider the shanghai/suzhou metro area and it made my return to the DMV seem like I was going back to Pittsburgh/Detroit
Thus why I recommended not listening to locals as they just can't have knowledge about all areas of the DMV. Just too much.
Reston is a great place to live. Its a planned community, and its clear when you live there vs. other places how it impacts things.
The bike/walking trail/park system is very extensive locally and you can get anywhere in Reston fairly easily. Many kids *walk* to school. Larger bike trails intersect as well, allowing you to get to Alexandria or Western Loudoun on bike paths only (W&OD), anywhere in Fairfax (Cross County Connector), and of course you could cross the Potomac and grab the C&O Canal trail as well and get all the way to Pittsburg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reston,_Virginia
All that said, its a great place to live and work. I would definitely not want to commute from there to the Pentagon.
I loved living in north arlington for six years. Lived in the west over neighborhood. Lots of excellent schools, easy access to metro, and three(?!?) different bike trails out my back door. I'd see if the wife is ok with cycling to the pentagon - from west over it would be less than six miles if I recall. Easy money, and you'd get accustomed to the cold and hot. And if the weather either direction sucks, easy excuse to telework.
Downsides are same with any other place in the area- lots of people, so planning weekend excursions out of town is necessary. Cars and coffee in McLean is awesome. Access to dc is awesome. I'm a "live inside the beltway in Virginia" snob so take that for what it's worth. Congratulations on getting out of mobile!
I would buy this house today. Two doors down from my old place. And is a relative steal. Probably will sell for 900.
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/5949-10th-Rd-N_Arlington_VA_22205_M50089-80547
I worked in northern Alexandria very near to the pentagon and commuted from Woodbridge. I bought a motorcycle, so the free HOV lanes made it almost bearable, but the worst part of my commute was the snail's pace outside of HOV lanes. Just the roads to/from the interstate could be half an hour for just a couple miles. That's what killed me. Before living in Woodbridge, we were in a tiny apt close to my work, but it still was 20 minutes of stop and slightly less than stop. I'm curious how traffic is now with more people teleworking.
In reply to cyow5 :
My coworker that commutes from Prince George County, MD to Reston says his commute is 1/4 the usual time. Until this month he didn't have to worry much about weather related traffic either. But he said earlier this month he had deja vu with a multihour commute home.
In the past he has found a hotel rather than go home if there are flurries along his commute. He hired two new engineers and he keeps letting them know that eventually the commute will get very much worse.
In reply to Advan046 :
Yeah, weather.... I knew that my commute would go up 50% just because of a drizzle. It was crazy, but that's when you get when the roadways are saturated with traffic. Any disturbance whatsoever had a disproportionate effect. Speaking of which, I could always tell the time of sunrise by looking at google traffic on 495E. The road is aimed at the sun and would nearly shut down until the sun got higher.
cyow5 said:In reply to Advan046 :
Yeah, weather.... I knew that my commute would go up 50% just because of a drizzle. It was crazy, but that's when you get when the roadways are saturated with traffic. Any disturbance whatsoever had a disproportionate effect.
Does anyone remember that snowstorm in 2010? 11? Maybe even early 2012? That came a few hours early and the entire area was gridlocked overnight. People abandoned their cars when they ran out of gas and walked home. I slept on the office floor until about 3am, then drove home and it was like a scene from the walking dead.
Edit: Jan 26, 2011.
Edit:
ProDarwin said:Does anyone remember that snowstorm in 2010? 11? Maybe even early 2012? That came a few hours early and the entire area was gridlocked overnight. People abandoned their cars when they ran out of gas and walked home. I slept on the office floor until about 3am, then drove home and it was like a scene from the walking dead.
Edit: Jan 26, 2011.
I have a google maps image from that evening saved where every road is BLACK (complete gridlock), but I can't find it.
My first post-college job in '92 was in Lanham, MD, just outside the beltway and east of 295. My supervisor lived in Alexandria, about 20 miles away. He told me about a snowstorm that resulted in him getting home at 11 the following morning.
My company has a few thousand people in McLean, VA. I had an interesting conversation with a recent transplant. She told me that one thing that struck her when she first moved to the area was that, when describing how far away something was, everyone used time rather than distance.
ProDarwin said:cyow5 said:In reply to Advan046 :
Yeah, weather.... I knew that my commute would go up 50% just because of a drizzle. It was crazy, but that's when you get when the roadways are saturated with traffic. Any disturbance whatsoever had a disproportionate effect.
Does anyone remember that snowstorm in 2010? 11? Maybe even early 2012? That came a few hours early and the entire area was gridlocked overnight. People abandoned their cars when they ran out of gas and walked home. I slept on the office floor until about 3am, then drove home and it was like a scene from the walking dead.
Edit: Jan 26, 2011.
Edit:
I got stuck in that storm while leaving Arlington with my son in the car, he was just a month old at the time. I drove back to Yorktown Virginia on that day. I forgot how long it took but it's normally a few hours drive.
How is the commute from Fort Belvoir to the Pentagon?
We're thinking about just living on Fort Belvoir for the first year. As much as we don't like living on base. It'll save us money and time.
yupididit said:How is the commute from Fort Belvoir to the Pentagon?
395 is like 66. HOV only during commute hours. If you can HOV, it might be tolerable. But still going to be close to an hour I imagine.
Unless remote work has totally changed the game.
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