We have a choice of locations to relocate to and the only two that we are considering at this time is a position in the DC area (he would work at the Pentagon) OR a position in the Sumter South Carolina (he would work at Shaw AFB) area. If my husband accepted the SC position we would stay in Georgia and he would come home on the weekends. That would mean no big change for us except that we would have to sdjust with him not being home each night and he also would have to go ot the middle east for 6 months or so. If we took the DC job we would move. It is a bit scary since we have a daughter that is in 7th grade and is in a GREAT school and has a great core group of friends that she is comfortable with. We do love to vacation in the DC area and I find that exciting and I do not feel like I would be missing out on a city life there (except for Dillards!!!). It is hard but I really do not know much about either place. I have not been able to find much information about Christian schools in DC though. Thank you if you live in either of these places for information.
Feel free to email me at
gotjenks@bellsouth.net
Thanks in advance
Robin

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I grew up in DC. I would not chose to live there..too high cost of living ..traffic and schools leave a lot to admire..

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I grew up in DC. I would not chose to live there..too high cost of living ..traffic and schools leave a lot to admire..

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Live, Love, Laugh

I live in Northern Va in what they call the Washington Metro Area, I can see the Monuments in DC when I drive down the road.

I have been here in this area my whole life and its awful, the traffic is awful, the cost of living is awful, you cant go to a fast food place without needing to know another language, the school systems in DC suck in spite of them trying to improve them. In Fairfax County where I live you are taxed to death, VA has a 5% sales tax, you pay taxes on your personal property (cars, mobiles etc) every year and the schools are overcrowded in some areas and do not meet the state standards under the No Child Left behind Act. We are soooo ready to move its not funny just waiting to get out of debt and then FL here we come. You could live in Prince William County VA things are a bit cheaper, the closer you live to DC the more expensive things are.

HTH

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~ Christine ~
DisAbled SAHM to Stefan 9/30/1998
RIP Daddy~ 01/24/1930-06/01/2007 I miss you !
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I don't much like living here. I live in Prince William County (Manassas) and it's SO expensive, so crowded, so much racism... I never thought I'd miss Texas but I do.

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I lived in Sumter SC with my DH for 1.5 years and on the base as well. I LOVED SC. It was a fantastic base and so beautiful. The base is just the right size, not too terribly large. Those were some of the best memories of my life. Good luck with your choice.

I would disagree will the other posters. I moved to Silver Spring, MD about 20 years ago from Wisconsin. I am about 2 miles from the DC line. I love the weather here. It is so much better than the cold and snow. My kids had just started school when we got here. They got a great education. I am a teacher. My kids attended Catholic grade school and high school. Their high school was in DC. They had more opportunities than they would have had in Wisconsin. My oldest son got a full army scholarship to college because of the high school he attended. He almost got in the Coast Guard Academy. He made it to the last cut. My kids marched in parades down Pennsylvania Ave. The history in the area makes for many side trips. The traffic is bad but it is like that in Chicago and other cities. We do not have a long commute. The only thing I found to be more expensive was the price of a house. But our wages tripled when we moved to Maryland so we could afford it. Everything else I could find at prices like Wisconsin. Actually, WI did and still have higher property taxes than Maryland. I am paying the same amount of property taxes on my home now as I did in WI 20 years ago. I grew up in the city of Milwaukee so I like people not wide open spaces.

Let me add that today they announced that on Rte 95 they will be doing the widening between the Fairfax County PArkway and Woodbridge and shutting down the shoulder lane and possible lane closures starting in March during the day and this will last until 2011. Then of course there is still the Beltway (95/495) Construction at The New Woodrow Wilson Bridge at the VA/MD state line with interchange work still going on at the Rte 1 interchange in VA where I live and penidng work at the Telegraph Road interchange plus they are doing the same in MD to make way for the National Harbor or whatever that place is called where they just moved the Awakening statue too.

I was born here, I have lived here my whole live most of it in the same immediate area, I have lived in Prince William County and the other side of Fairfax County and I have watched this whole area build up to the point you cant breathe easily there are very few open spaces anymore few treed areas its bulidings all over , new houses they are killing our environment for that almighty dollar. The traffic is a nightmare and even with a great Public transporation infrastructure its not used like it should be because of the fact that our Metro/Bus system raised prices makes it harder for those who dont make much money to afford a car to even ride the bus to get to work and many are living paycheck to paycheck with the new rate increases. For many its cheaper to drive than take Metro into the City pretty sad estiamted costs for parking at Metro and Round Trip during Rush hour is now over $10 a day some places you can drive for less and pay no parking,

Also MD/DC areas are among one of the top areas for Foreclosures in the country they are up in some areas over 57%. Dare I say a lot of unfriendly people live here, I have seen a lot racism first handed with my nephews who are bi-racial when I have them I have been called nasty names when I am out with them alone without DH. This is NOT the friendly place I was born in and grew up in its plain nasty and others like REad52 can disagree but I am willing to bet if you polled 100 long-term residents of the area in MD/DC/VA more than 80% would talk about how unhappy they are here, its sad but the cost of living actually makes it impossible to try to move as all your take home pay goes to living expenses.

If I were to be told we were to transfer here I would change jobs.

__________________
~ Christine ~
DisAbled SAHM to Stefan 9/30/1998
RIP Daddy~ 01/24/1930-06/01/2007 I miss you !
Dont Think you Can .. know you can ~ Jeff Hardy

The DC metro area is extremely congested and the cost of living is high. Housing costs are incredible, although there has been a softening in the market lately making some areas more affordable. I do believe that many people who bought their houses 20 years ago could really not afford them today. It is true that incomes are higher in this area, but I am not sure that they are high enough to meet the cost of housing if you want to live close in. Our property taxes are very high and we are reassessed regularly. Traffic just keeps getting worse. but it depends on where you live and where you need to commute. If you live farther out and have a long commute, you are spending a tremendous amount of time in your car and the cost of gas is horrendous. I plan all of my errands for mornings--after rush hour, but before noon. Depending on where you are, schools can be excellent. The weather is far better than the Northeast where I grew up, but I think that I would enjoy the weather in SC even more. Once my children are out of school, I hope to relocate to a community where my money will go farther and it will be easier to get around.

We visit relatives in the Chesapeake Bay area near Hampton,VA area. We go way out of our way when we leave there to go up north to visit my dad near Harrisburg, PA. We do this to avoid the DC area.
Many of the locals there do the same thing ! Everyone says stay off the Beltway.

I hate to go out of our way! Sure would like to find a good route north that stays away from the horrible traffic.

Everything there seems more expensive than it is in Indiana and Ohio.