DC/MD/VA folks - relocation advice?

[Scaramouch]

Most of the threads about this are several years old, so I figured I’d ask afresh.

DH has been offered his dream job in Arlington starting in October most likely. I am a slightly overwhelmed country mouse trying to figure out what that move looks like. He lived in Rockville when he previously worked in DC 10+ years ago. Neither of us is super interested in living that close in.

So my question is where would I look to be theoretically, a reasonable commute (to a terminal metro line if not Arlington proper) but also not an unreasonable time suck getting out to horse things? Does this even exist or is it all pure congestion for 1-2 hours in every direction during peak hours? We are childfree so schools are not a factor to consider.

I’m not at all familiar with specific barns or trainers in the area so I would like to focus on specific areas and see where the pieces can come together as far as finding a house to rent, board, training. I would love to rent a small/modest horse property but I imagine that is a pipe dream? I will be bringing one horse up (retiree can stay where he is for economy’s sake) and while the goal is for her to event she is 4 and ultra green so discipline isn’t super important at this point. And I have a trailer so can haul out as needed.

What I’ll be doing for work will probably have to fall into place later. I have been a journalist for the last 12 years and am approaching burnout, so I would rather work at Starbucks for a year if it came down to that. Fortunately I really just need to make enough to pay for the horses.

I would sort of like to find a full-time job as a groom/assistant where board and possibly training could be part of the compensation. So a lot is up in the air, but in what areas would I be best positioned to explore those options? I know northern VA is hunt/horse country but it sounds like the commute is a nightmare from anywhere south of the district - is Loudon County more doable? I know a lot of people make living in DC and riding work but I feel like I’m throwing darts at a map and hoping for the best right now.

[2tempe]

I have friends in Loudon County, Hubby has commuted to Pentagon area for work via metro. They bought a farm probably 15 yrs ago. Wife works from home, and rides w/ Loudon Hunt.
That’s as much input as I have, other than that whatever you decide, it wont be cheap…

[dmveventer]

@Scaramouch

So my question is where would I look to be theoretically, a reasonable commute (to a terminal metro line if not Arlington proper) but also not an unreasonable time suck getting out to horse things? Does this even exist or is it all pure congestion for 1-2 hours in every direction during peak hours?

This is definitely possible. Finding a horse property to rent that’s both commuting distance to DC and also not astronomically priced might be a stretch but there are a ton of boarding options that aren’t too far from convenient areas. It sounds like you want to live somewhere relatively rural, or are you ok with suburbs? I don’t consider Rockville that close in, but it takes a lot less distance to get from city to rural in Maryland than it does on the Virginia side. Western Maryland comes to mind for you, the Poolesville/Boyds area has a ton of barns and is only an hour from Arlington even in rush hour (back roads, not subject to highway traffic). Montgomery County has a lot of protected agricultural areas so there hasn’t been as much development as there has been in Virginia. Loudoun County has become more and more suburban over the past decade so you have to go farther to get to rural parts, and the highways just aren’t great for getting into the city.

[ShenanAnna]

I used to work at the Montgomery County Planning Department, and we made a concerted effort to really control development and only allow it in certain areas well-served by services that include transportation. We would allow increased, denser development in areas that we found could handle it, leaving other areas less developed.

When a new development was proposed, before deciding whether to approve it we would run computer simulations to see whether the roads could handle the increased traffic. If the answer was no, the developers were given the opportunity to propose measures to reduce traffic.

We practiced what we preached; the agency gave me discounted bus tickets to use from the Park and Ride lot that our agency required to be built that was walking distance from my apartment.

[Mango20]

It was originally called the “Wedges and Corridors Plan”. When I was in college in the late 80s, we had a book of case studies in my planning class, and there were chapters for Montgomery County and Fairfax county as contrasting stories about who made a good plan and who didn’t. I worked for the Montgomery Co. planning department at the information/plats/master plans desk for a summer internship.

To OP, I think Maryland would work better not only for the commute, but for positioning yourself best for eventing.

[Baybear]

Your best bet is to probably live near hubbys job in Arlington and then commute to barns in Montgomery Co Maryland. As someone else mentioned, western Montgomery County is probably the most doable and there are several good eventing barns in that area as well.

[JenEM]

I work in downtown DC. For several years, I lived not far from the WFalls Church Metro stop. It was great from a commuter point of view, and I thought it would be great to get out 66 to barns in VA. It was a nightmare and lasted less than a year. I ended up moving my horse back to Montgomery County, MD because it was easier/faster to get to barns there than in NoVA.

Eventually moved to Anne Arundel Co (not a good choice if your husband is commuting to Arlington) and it was still faster for a while to get to the horse in AA Co from FC than it ever was to get out into VA.

That said, if you’re really interested in getting your own property, your best bet would be to look out near the end of the new Silver line, past Dulles, where your husband could Metro straight in from there. Not sure where you’re moving from, but expect real estate sticker shock. It was cheaper for us to buy a house in AACo than it was a 2BR condo in FC/Arlington, and that was well before the COVID real estate market insanity.

[trubandloki]

Question from the clueless - I assume that DMV here is not the Department of Motor Vehicles, which is what I know those three letters to mean.
What does it stand for here?

[foursocks]

DMV is shorthand for DelMarVa- Delaware, MD, VA.

ETA: NO! STOP!!! THIS IS WRONG! I have been corrected: it stands for DC/MD/VA.

[eponacelt]

@Baybear

Your best bet is to probably live near hubbys job in Arlington and then commute to barns in Montgomery Co Maryland

Arlington to MoCo will be a nightmare. On Metro you’d be coming all the way through the City, or on the roads, halfway around the Beltway.

Loudoun County to DC is pretty awful unless you’re in the Dulles area and then it’ll just be icky. NoVA traffic just continues to get worse. Looking at places that are a reasonable distance to Metro for hubby to commute is the best bet. Look for barns possibly in Nokesville for a mix of not too far from transit (VRE is out that way) and not a terrible drive from most places. The Haymarket and Warrenton area also have a lot of farms, but starts to get a little further out. It would be a good place to look for boarding though.

[ShenanAnna]

I only looked at this thread out of curiosity, as to me DMV is Dept. of Motor Vehicles, and discovered it was about the place where I grew up. Ive never heard it called, or anything called, DMV, but assumed the OP meant (Washington) District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

The DelMarVa peninsula, a familiar term to me, is east of and across the Chesapeake Bay from the D.C. area, which is what I’m used to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area (which includes surrounding Maryland and Virginia counties) being called.

ETA: the city of Washington’s real name is Washington, District of Columbia, usually abbreviated Washington, D.C.

[LookinForSpace]

Yep, natives call it the DC area, or the metro area, not the DMV. The DMV is the Dept of Motor Vehicles, unless you’re a newbie to the DC area.

But the newbies are talking about DC, MD, and VA, not Delaware.

[LookinForSpace]

@ShenanAnna

I only looked at this thread out of curiosity, as to me DMV is Dept. of Motor Vehicles, and discovered it was about the place where I grew up. Ive never heard it called, or anything called, DMV, but assumed the OP meant (Washington) District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

OP, you may get more responses if you correct the title to identify the area better. I also didn’t realize you meant the DC area and weren’t asking about getting a new drivers’ license.

[I_dratherbe]

Where in Arlington would his office be? If it is in the Pentagon/Crystal City area, then living out towards Manassas or down towards Fredericksburg would be possible, using the VRE train to get to and from work. All assuming he works normal hours and would not have to work late often. If it is in the Roslyn to Ballston corridor, then the suggestion to be out towards the end of the silver line metro would make more commuting sense if you want to stay on the Virginia side of the river. I live in Alexandria, worked in DC and Arlington for many many years, and have boarded/ridden out in the Poolesville/Boyds area for more than 20 years as it is actually faster for me to go there to get out to where there is good turnout and trails than in Virginia. Rush hour commuting out that way can be time consuming, and will be worse for the next year while they do major renovations on the GW Parkway.

[BrownMareDon_tCare]

Elliot in the morning on DC101 calls it the DMV, meaning DC, Maryland and Virginia. Though I may have now lost all credibility by using Elliot in the Morning as a source…

[luvmyhackney]

I work in Arlington, rarely go in the office anymore, but I drive from Eastern panhandle of WV. I would avoid Loudoun County completely unless you want to get divorced. It’s a doable but sucky commute to Arlington. My boss is in Leesburg and it takes him 45min-1hr commute to Arlington.

If you have a flex schedule live in MD and keep horse further out in MD.

There are very few farms for rent here and are $$$. I purchased 3 years.

[Janet]

(I hear /see plenty of people saying/writing DMV for DC/MD/VA aka Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia. Including the local NPR station)

I can’t help much from the MD side, but in Virginia the VRE (Virginia Railway Express) runs from Broad Run (near Manassas) to Union Station (downtown DC) with a stop in Crystal City Arlington, which also connects to Metro. Another branch of the VRE runs south through Fredericksburg to Spotsylvania. It only runs “commuting” hours, e.g. 5AM to 8 AM inbound and 1PM to 7 PM outbound.

There are plenty of horse related places within 10 miles of Broad Run, I do not know about Spotsylvania.

The other commuter option is the Silver line on the Metro, which now runs out to Dulles Airport. There used to be horse places near there, but a lot of it has been developed.

[Scaramouch]

Apologies for the nomenclature confusion, I will change the thread title!

@Baybear

Your best bet is to probably live near hubbys job in Arlington and then commute to barns in Montgomery Co Maryland.

Where I struggle with living in Arlington and commuting to the barn is that I am so used to being involved with my horses’ care. My childhood horses lived on my parents’ property and I currently live 10 minutes away from my self-care barn. If I see a facebook post at 10 p.m. about a loose bay horse wearing a blue halter two roads over from the barn, I run out to make sure that my bay horse with a blue halter is in her paddock. So full boarding itself involves a big paradigm shift and I have a mild panic attack at the idea of living an hour+ away. Also DH is used to needing an hour or so to get to work just about everywhere he’s been based, and has dealt with a DC area commute before, so he’s willing for the commuting burden to fall on him within reason.

@eponacelt

The Haymarket and Warrenton area also have a lot of farms, but starts to get a little further out. It would be a good place to look for boarding though.

This was my initial instinct just based on the map, but as JenEM posted 66 seems like a nonstarter as far as him even getting to the Vienna metro station with sanity intact.

The company that he’ll be working for is actually headquartered in Reston but he would be contracted out and working in Rosslyn for probably six months at first.

Thanks for the VRE tips, that gives me some leads for sure, and it seems like MD is worth investigating. That is a little counterintuitive since his job will be in VA and we’re coming from NC, but I can believe it. We drove out to Damascus from Crystal City when I was horse shopping last year and it didn’t take as long as I would have imagined to get around DC into rural-ish areas. Granted that was on a Sunday…

[Janet]

@Scaramouch

Thanks for the VRE tips, that gives me some leads for sure, and it seems like MD is worth investigating

The Maryland equivalent is called MARC, but I do not have any personal experience with it (though I do know people who used it).

[FitToBeTied]

Using DMV to designate the DC area is relatively new (last 20 years). The first time I heard it I though they were referring to the dept of motor vehicles. Given the bad reputations of departments of motor vehicles I thought it was a bad idea to brand the area that way.