We're #1! We're #1!

The reason we're spending what feels like a kazillion dollars to live by a Metro stop: DC officially has the worst traffic in the country (source), beating out no lesser competitors than LA, San Francisco, and NYC.

(image via WTOP)

Your Limousine, My Dear?

Homes are selling fast!

In our community, the developer (Woodlawn Development Group) is required to either have a walking path in place or hire a shuttle bus service to the metro station by the time they issue the 200th building permit.

Well, guess what came before the city council on April 13? Hiring a shuttle bus service! The proposal was for Reston Limousine to provide weekday service during peak commuting times, from 6:30 to 9:30 am and from 4:30 to 7:30 pm.

In related news, I guess there's some dispute about where the walking path to the metro should actually go. The Greenbelt News Review reported that a potential easement for the FBI headquarters "would not permit the proposed hiker/biker trail connections approved in detailed site plans for Greenbelt Station" (p. 5).

I'm all for the FBI next door... but let's be clear, we called dibs on the land first, suckers!

Why Choose Greenbelt Station?

So, why did we choose to buy a home in Greenbelt?

I've mentioned before how the two most important factors for us were price and Metro accessibility, which narrowed our search considerably. But I thought it might be helpful to talk a little bit about how we chose the Greenbelt Station neighborhood in particular.

1. Distance
The community sits less than ten miles as the crow flies from where we work in downtown Washington, and less than a mile to the door of the Greenbelt metro station. (We actually measured this in Google Maps ourselves, and it's exactly .78 miles. Trust, but verify, right?)

2. Neighborhood
With our budget, we couldn't afford to buy a home we liked that was both in a well-established neighborhood and close to DC. While I'll admit the area immediately surrounding the subdivision is a little industrial looking, Greenbelt already has a nice community – you can see lots of different organizations here – and stores that we frequent (Target, IKEA, groceries, local restaurants, etc).

The other thing that really caught our attention is that the surrounding area is seeing a lot of positive development and growth. Some examples...

• Greenbelt is one of the top contenders under consideration for the relocation of the FBI headquarters. There's a good Washington Post editorial about that here, and Greater Greater Washington blog posted the renderings of what it would look like if the FBI moved in.
• Whole Foods is moving in just down the road in Riverdale Park, and will include space for "upscale restaurants, cafes and coffeehouses, boutique shops, a fitness club and a hotel." (Source here.) Construction is already underway on this project, and an Apple Store and Founding Farmers are among the rumored future tenants.
• Several projects in neighboring College Park: new Urban Outfitters, new Marriot TownePlace Suites, new Courtyard Marriott, new University of Maryland Hotel, Knox Village, Target Express, etc. This map really gives a sense of just how many large scale development projects are in the works.
• The mixed-use Hyattsville Arts District project.
• Support for the Purple Line light rail project is uncertain, but Obama has said he's be willing to put in $100 million in federal aid. (Source here.) Dan Reed at Greater Greater Washington reports that Hogan is setting aside $313 million for the Purple Line and $106 million for the Red Line — enough to keep the projects progressing. Edit 7/25/15: Purple line is officially a go. It isn't projected to be completed till 2020, but it's still great news.

Especially as these projects come to completion – many of which are scheduled to finish by the end of 2015 – not only will these revitalize Route 1, these will translate to an increase in property value. Win for the community, win for our pocketbook.

3. Nature
The model of townhouse we're building doesn't include a yard, as you can sort of tell from the site plan, but the community has a lot of opportunity for greenspace. The neighborhood is building a two acre park, and there are all sorts of parks and trails nearby. We are not nearly this ambitious or fit enough to do this, but you can even bike all the way from Greenbelt to downtown in fourteen minutes!

House Hunting: Ryan Homes Matisse at Greenbelt Station

And, finally, what probably drew you to this blog: we checked out the Ryan Homes community at Greenbelt Station. There were two models in our price range, the Matisse and the Picasso, both of which are townhome condos. The Picasso is a great size at 2,600 square feet, but we ruled it out for the same reason we nixed the nice condo in Rockville: too many stairs. So, on to the Matisse.

The Matisse clocks in at 1,642 square feet, with 3 bedrooms, and 2.5 bathrooms. It has a reasonable condo fee of about $250, which takes care of snow shoveling, mowing, and landscaping around the community.

The Pros:

• Under budget & closing assistance
• Safe neighborhood
• Home would be under a 10-year structural warranty
• Home would be energy efficient
• Lots of natural light
• Less than a mile to the metro & MARC trains
• Community includes plans for a 2 acre park
• Garage for the car
• Inside the Beltway

The Cons:

• In a struggling school district
• The Matisse's first level doesn't leave a lot of room for a dining table

Obviously, a big plus was the price tag, especially with how expensive the DC Metro area is. Buying a place under-budget gives us the breathing room to save for house repairs, furniture, or just paying down the mortgage faster. It also means we have the flexibility of going out to eat every once in a while without feeling like we're breaking the bank.

Beyond the price tag, though, we loved the home's design. Each room receives a huge amount of natural light, and the master bedroom is enormous, with two separate walk in closets. We liked that the laundry was upstairs, convenient to all the bedrooms. We also liked that the home came with a lot of luxury items standard: double sinks in the master bathroom, granite in the kitchen, stainless appliances, etc.

We took a while to make our decision, but the combination of having a great house, Metro access, and under budget makes it the perfect fit for us.

House Hunting: The Tired Townhouse

Another option we checked out was a colonial-style townhouse very close to the Wheaton metro, which was 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, and 1,408 square feet. This house was offered at $318,000, and had a monthly condo fee of $260. Wheaton has seen a lot of growth and development recently, and it's a pretty neat neighborhood.

The Pros:

• Under budget
• Close to the Wheaton metro
• Nice neighborhood
• End unit townhouse
• Fenced backyard
• Huge space in basement

The Cons:

• No natural light, despite being an end unit (no windows on the side)
• Outside of the Beltway
• Carpeting on the main level
• Standard apartment-height ceilings
• Parquet floors (I know this is nice for some folks, just not our personal style)

For how close this place was to the metro, this was probably the best value we saw, from what we could tell without an inspection. Although it felt a little dated in places (mirrored closet doors, parquet flooring), it seemed like it was in pretty good shape. With a dog and a kitty in the family, we weren't crazy about the carpeting on the main level, although that was certainly fixable. More problematic is that despite being an end unit, it had very few windows, so the place felt super dark to us. The apartment level ceilings made a nice-sized townhouse feel smaller than it was.

The House Hunt Process, Part II

Once we had our wish list in hand, we started looking in earnest and visiting lots of houses. Although we did research on our own, we were glad to have a realtor with us: she brought us to communities we hadn't considered, and also pointed out potential flaws. We had a budget of $350,000, although we saw several places that cost a little more in the hopes that there was possibility for negotiating down.

Here are just some of the houses we visited, mapped out relative to the Metro system lines. Although we do own a car, being close to public transit was really important to us since that's what we use to get to work in downtown Washington every day. In a perfect world, we'd love to be closer to downtown, but wallet-wise, our budget wouldn't have put us in neighborhoods or spaces that made us happy.

We really liked several of the neighborhoods we saw, but virtually all of them had things we'd need to change - nasty carpeting, bizarre kitchens, doll sized sinks, etc. Carpeting and sinks are cosmetic fixes, but when the places are already at the top of the budget, who can afford the fixes?

If you're unfamiliar with the DC metro area you might wonder, as we did, how the townhouse in the Greenbelt area (yellow marker on the map) could be so affordable relative to the rest of the places we saw. The short answer is that Montgomery County is, by and large, more thoroughly developed than Prince George's County. Another significant factor is that the Montgomery County school system is leaps and bounds better than PG County, as you can gather from this WaPo article.