Hi Jason, As people have mentioned, there are many areas in and around Washington DC. Like many urban metro areas, there are distinct characters to different neighborhoods and it would be really hard to give you a comprehensive list of those here. I'll recommend a site I've found to be pretty useful in that it's geared towards discussions about particular neighborhoods. Lots of discussions already enough to make your head spin!
http://www.city-data.com/forum/washington-dc-suburbs-maryland/ for Maryland suburbs http://www.city-data.com/forum/northern-virginia/ for Virginia Suburbs http://www.city-data.com/forum/washington-dc/ for DC propper Other than that, you might try looking up the Washingtonian Magazine to see if they have some articles archived or you might even be able to buy a past issue that details one of their "best neighborhoods" pieces that they do every years. As folks have mentioned, DC itself will be the priciest, at least in the more safe parts. Generally you want to look in the "Northwest" section of the city - all addresses will have "NW." You could certainly find things in parts of NE that are livable, but they probably will have somewhat higher crime figures. DC is great if you don't want to deal with a lot of driving, but so is Arlington and Alexandria which are both on the Metro and parts of both are pretty walkable. Other areas are on the Metro as well, but may not be as walkable except if you live in a fairly small area near their downtowns. If walking isn't a concern, than you have a lot to pick from, except that I would urge you to not make a final decision until you have a good idea where you and your spouse will be working. As you may or may not have heard, traffic in the area can be pretty horrible and commutes of well over an hour each way (by car) are common. So optimally you want to do as much planning as possible when it comes to finding something near where you work. While there are lots of jobs in DC itself, there are also a ton in the suburbs due to many gov't contracting facilities being pushed out for lack of space, or just companies that have located further out of town so as not to pay exorbitant rent. As far as salaries, I couldn't tell you offhand since it's been many years since I've done Cold Fusion, but I'm guessing you could probably get anywhere from $60K to $100K++ depending on your experience level, degrees, etc. There are lots of beautiful neighborhoods but along with the higher salaries, the prices of homes are a lot higher hear than in many areas of the country. Generally it's going to be hard to find a decent single family home for much under $300K unless you go pretty far out (ie 30+ miles from DC or are in a less desirable neighborhood in the city (or one of the closer burbs). Hope this helps! @LeviWallach <http://www.twitter.com/leviwallach> On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 3:24 PM, Jason Birchman <birchma...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > I am a Senior ColdFusion Developer that is moving out to the Washington, > DC. Obviously housing is a premium in the DC area. I would like to buy or > rent a house in one of the suburbs, so that we can have a fenced in yard for > my dogs. What suburbs are the safest and most affordable in DC that have > single family homes (not townhomes/apartments)? Which area is lower in > taxes? Commuting by train/light rail would be ideal. Also, what is a typical > salary range for Senior CF Developers in the DC area? Thanks! > > - Jason > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-jobs-talk/message.cfm/messageid:4350 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-jobs-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-jobs-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
