I think we need to know exactly where your wife (and you, if possible) will be working before we can really give you the best options. I personally love DC. I live close in (Arlington, VA) now, but lived in Falls Church for many years. Lots of homes out there with yards, older and newer. It will be difficult for you to find anything with a yard under $500K, though, in a nicer neighborhood inside the beltway, whether it's VA or MD. The subway is great if you can get to it. Lots of people carpool, also. My +1 is retired Navy - nuclear submariner (bubblehead). Are you? There are many contracting firms here. He is working for one now in Crystal City, on a Navy contract. So you should have no trouble finding something. Good luck! For the record, the +1 heard all those stories, too. He moved here from FL and loves it. I'm sure he'd be more than willing to help you out regarding a job if you need some.

 

BTW- I work for Lockheed Martin, if you need help finding a job.

 

^ Lockheed Martin is building one of the new littoral combat ships (LCS) for the Navy. That's the program the +1 works on.

 

And we're desperate for mechanical engineers at my place in Hanover, MD.

BTW, we have a nice front and back yard, homes in the area are going for $3-400k, sometimes in the high $200s.

 

I'm not the correct person to answer this question.

Welcome to the community, though.

 

I could use an internship for next summer.

 

Send me your resume soon. Internships usually get filled over the winter. I don't have any connections to internship people, but I can ask my manager to help.

 

Thanks for everyones inputs, most likely I will be working at the washington navy yard and my wife will be in crystal city/pentagon area.

Msperky, I am a bubblehead. 6 years, USS Birmingham SSN 695.

This information is great!

 

^ My +1 works in Crystal City, with visits to the Navy Yard and Pentagon quite often. Many of his co-workers live farther out, though, so I'm sure they would be happy to help regarding neighborhoods in VA.

 

Considering that the Navy Yard, Crystal City and Pentagon are all easily accessible via Metro, I would recommend you live somewhere Metro accessible -- or somewhere you could easily gain access to Metro.

The area where I live (Herndon, VA zip code 20171 or 20170) will allow you to take a bus to the metro pretty easily. Like I said earlier, it would be about an hour commute or so I would estimate.

Sounds like there might be some areas in MD too that are cheap to live with metro within walking distance.

I doubt you'd find anything within walking distance of a metro in VA that would have a backyard and would be affordable.

You can use the Metro Trip Planner to estimate your commute: http://www.wmata.com/tripplanner_d/t..._form_solo.cfm

According to the Metro Trip Planner, a bus ride from the Herndon Monroe Park & Ride to the Navy Yard would be about an hour and 3 minutes, and costs $4.35.

Crystal City is the same price, but would take a little less than an hour (56 minutes) not including the walk to your destination.