Housing recommendations
Hi everyone! My boyfriend and I are planning to move to Arlington sometime between November and January, ideally before Christmas, and we’re hoping to get some advice from people who actually live in the area.
We’re both 23,he works in corporate and I work in healthcare, and we’re really looking forward to living somewhere with a lot of people our age. Right now we’re mainly looking at Ballston,and Clarendon/Courthouse.
We’re looking for a 1 bed/1 bath within about a 15-minute walk of a Metro. One thing we’re having a hard time figuring out is the actual monthly cost of different apartments since additionally monthly cost vary from building to building. Our absolute max is around $2,800/month total, including rent, utilities, parking, water/sewer, trash, and any mandatory fees. Ideally, we’d like to keep base rent around $2,300 or less so we have about $500 to cover everything else. If there’s a place where the additional monthly costs are lower, we’d absolutely be willing to go higher on base rent.
We’re also open to using a cheaper local parking garage instead of paying for apartment parking, as long as it’s relatively safe. I’ll have to leave for work pretty early and be coming home after dark, so safety is definitely important to us. We’re hoping to find somewhere walkable, safe, and with a good mix of people in their early/mid-20s and young professionals. We’d also really like to avoid places that have a reputation for major pest or mold issues.
If you live or have lived in a complex, condo, or townhome that you’d recommend with the above, I’d really appreciate hearing about it. If you recommend a specific place, it would be especially helpful if you could mention roughly an estimate of how much you paid on top of the advertised rent for things like parking, utilities, and mandatory fees. Even a general idea of what your total monthly cost ended up being would be super helpful.
We’re also wondering how realistic it is to expect rents to drop 10–15% during November–January. I’ve heard winter is generally a better time to rent in the area, but I’d love to hear from people who have actually rented during those months.
Thanks in advance! Any recommendations, warnings, or general advice would be really appreciated.