Recommendations for where to buy a house near Walter Reed?

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Thomas90

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I'll be moving out there next summer.

Any thoughts with regards to proximity, schools, long-term value? Thanks, and hope everyone is having a great holiday!

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Thomas90 said:
I'll be moving out there next summer.

Any thoughts with regards to proximity, schools, long-term value? Thanks, and hope everyone is having a great holiday!

Unless you're extremely wealthy and can afford the insane prices close to the beltway, I'd head up Georgia Ave past Silver Spring, past Wheaton ... up towards Olney and that area. Still expensive, but more reasonable ... a few of my friends lived there while students at USUHS or interns at WRAMC or NNMC.

WRAMC itself is in the ghetto ... there are some nice neighborhoods between WRAMC and NNMC, sort of in the Rock Creek Park area, but you will pay a fortune for anything there.
 
pgg said:
Unless you're extremely wealthy and can afford the insane prices close to the beltway, I'd head up Georgia Ave past Silver Spring, past Wheaton ... up towards Olney and that area. Still expensive, but more reasonable ... a few of my friends lived there while students at USUHS or interns at WRAMC or NNMC.

WRAMC itself is in the ghetto ... there are some nice neighborhoods between WRAMC and NNMC, sort of in the Rock Creek Park area, but you will pay a fortune for anything there.

How long of a commute is that?
 
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Hawkeye MD said:
How long of a commute is that?
Depends on traffic. :)

I lived in Wheaton for two years (near the corner of Georgia and Randolph) while I was a student at USUHS. Traffic was just starting to pick up around 7-7:30; a typical morning commute to NNMC was about 25 minutes. If I left after 7:30, it was routinely 45+ minutes. I moved to Damascus before my 3rd year clerkships took me to WRAMC ... that was a 35 minute commute to NNMC if there was no traffic, and if I drove fast on 270 ... and at least 50 to get to WRAMC.

The basic problem with WRAMC is that there's no freeway access. :) If you live outside the beltway, you're stuck driving to the beltway, enduring the beltway itself, and then getting off on Georgia Ave for an enjoyabe drive on a 3-lane road with lots of traffic lights.


If you're on a intern or resident's schedule, you'll miss the worst of the traffic. I'd guess that Olney - WRAMC would be about 30 minutes with no traffic, and upwards of an hour if you drove it during rush hour. Google guesses 27: http://makeashorterlink.com/?O23E31E5C

The whole 270/355 corridor (Rockville - Germantown - Gaithersburg) was getting ridiculously expensive when we left in 2003. Traffic where 270 meets the beltway gets incredibly bad. It wasn't unusual for it to be backed up all the way past Rockville, and several times a month I'd get on at exit 16 and immediately slow to 5-10 mph. Again though, if you're driving in a 5 AM, you'll miss all that.

You might have better luck in that triangle of land north of the beltway, east of Georgia, and west of 95. There was a lot of undeveloped land in that area where you might find something reasonable.

If I was going to be working at WRAMC, I'd get on Georgia Ave and drive north until the houses became affordable. I'd also look up 95 a bit, and trust my awful intern/resident hours to keep me away from the awful traffic. I'd avoid the 270 corridor unless I was in an NCC program that put me at NNMC a significant amount of time.

Unless you can afford to drop $500K+ on a detached single family home, you're probably looking at a daily commute of 30-45+ minutes, at best.
 
Unless you can afford to drop $500K+ on a detached single family home, you're probably looking at a daily commute of 30-45+ minutes, at best.

Each way!

(Happy I just left that area!)

And although I never drove, it, the new developments up by 95 (N by NE of beltway) looked to be pretty gummed up with traffic already also.

I lived in Montgomery Village (between Gaithersburg & Germantown), about 2.5 mi away from the 270 ramp. It took me 25 min door-to-door to get to USUHS if I left around 0600- 615 (or earlier, of course). Getting home was about 45 min if I left before 1500.

Once clinicals started, the times for NNMC were the same, except you'd never get out in time to avoid the evening rush.

Going to Wally World my experiences were similar to pgg - about 45 min there, and 1-1.5 hr back home. Riding a motorcycle helped with parking and HOV lane use!

When they finally put a wrecking ball through Walter Reed, things should be a little better since Bethesda has better 270 access (hint: take 270 to the beltway to Connecticut ave and come in the back gate. Saves you 5-10 min fighting the stoplights on Wisconsin in front of the NIH).
 
Thanks for the info. I'll be an anesthesiology resident starting in '07 and can probably afford a $375 - $400K loan, judging by the current BAH. Could you give me a couple of areas specifically that I should be looking at? I have a wife and 2 kids, so I will probably need 3 bedrooms.
Also, is there a date for the closure of WRAMC?
 
That completely depends on what you want - are you willing to make a longer drive each day in order to get a detached single family house in suburbia? Or do you prefer city living, shorter commute and want a condo?

Either way, at this point you might want to consider getting a realtor, and then start looking at places online, with some trips to look at nieghborhoods.
 
Hawkeye MD said:
Thanks for the info. I'll be an anesthesiology resident starting in '07 and can probably afford a $375 - $400K loan, judging by the current BAH. Could you give me a couple of areas specifically that I should be looking at? I have a wife and 2 kids, so I will probably need 3 bedrooms.
Also, is there a date for the closure of WRAMC?


You could try older houses in the Wheaton or Kensington area which are both nice commutes to Walter Reed. Both are just north of the beltway. Some people I know have moved out towards Annapolis down 50 and have been able to get new-build townhomes for around that much. If you want a newer house for that amount you're going to be heading out towards Gaithersburg/Germantown and possibly further which would be a commute as described above.

You may think about condo's if you could handle living in a small place. You could probably get a 3 br for that price. Good luck on finding housing, it's a pain in the DC area.
 
Thomas90 said:
I'll be moving out there next summer.

Any thoughts with regards to proximity, schools, long-term value? Thanks, and hope everyone is having a great holiday!

i have lived in maryland most of my life but recently moved out to go to medschool. i have a family and my wife and i are trying to figure out how we can afford moving back to the state if WRAMC becomes a residency location. use realtors.com to find house prices. maryland has relatively high closing costs, etc so keep that in mind.

traffic to work wont be a problem if you are their by around 6-6:30. frederick, howard and montgomery counties offer good schools.
commute: montogomery <30, frederick 45', and howard 30' with no traffic.
frederick more affordable than howard which is more affordable than montgomery. frederick is the gateway to western maryland so you can get some nice outdoor stuff. howard is more central between baltimore, annapolis, and dc. montgomery offers some convienences but is highly congested.

feel free to send me email if you want. fyi i never lived in montgomery county but have lived in washington county(next to frederick) and howard counties recently, and grew up in anne arundel county.

hope this helps some. good luck. i know your decision wont be easy.
 
Hawkeye MD said:
...I'll be an anesthesiology resident starting in '07 and can probably afford a $375 - $400K loan, judging by the current BAH...


How much is the current BAH for the DC area?
 
According to that website BAH is going DOWN for BAMC next month! It hasn't actually gotten cheaper to live here. Good thing I didn't buy the most expensive house I could get into.
 
I just found this on the BAH FAQ:

Q3: I looked up the current year BAH amount for my grade and ZIP Code and it's less than I was getting last year--am I going to lose money?

No. BAH rate protection will keep individuals from having reductions in housing allowances as long as they maintain "uninterrupted eligibility" [see below] for BAH. This means individuals will be entitled to the 1 January rate for their grade and location or the housing allowance they were being paid on 31 December of the previous year, whichever is larger.


I still think the new people moving to San Antonio are getting shafted, though.
 
Sledge2005 said:
woah, that's over twice what it is in a lot of army locations.
Our BAH alone is more than what some young E1, E2 medic with a family is making a month.
 
dtn3t said:
Our BAH alone is more than what some young E1, E2 medic with a family is making a month.

Well mine certainly isn't . . . but don't feel too sorry for the E1's. How much money did you make when you were 18 or 19?
 
My wife and I rent a house in Wheaton (10-12 min. commute to WRAMC) for 1700/ month (outstanding deal from a military family). The houses around us (not that great imo) are selling for 500-600K.

The fact of the matter is: if you want to buy, be prepared to drive to work.

Last year I lived up 270 in north rockville/gaithersburg. It took me 30-40 min in the morning and 45-90min in the evening to commute. Add an additional 20-30 min onto those times to buy a single-family house for less than 400K.
 
<woah, that's over twice what it is in a lot of army locations.>

You'll spend it, too.
 
Yeah, I just started looking into renting and it looks like you can get a much better place a lot closer. I think we are leaning that way at least for the first year.
 
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