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Comment by rdtsc | Hacker News Reader

Well technically it is in Northern Virginia but saying "Washington, DC" sounds cooler I think. I've been guilty of that too, can't blame them. "Virginia startup IPO" doesn't have the same ring to it.

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The lede says "Washington Area" and "Reston-based", so not exactly misleading. DC Metro area is commonly known to include NOVA and Maryland ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Somewhat related, the DC/NOVA/Maryland divide is a struggle for software engineers trying to decide where to set down roots, but still have job flexibility. Because DC and Reston are an hour apart.

Nah. Silver line. I'm on jt right now. 35 mins to Foggy bottom.

This might be fine for 20 somethings, but for the older folks with families looking for homes, I don't think Foggy Bottom or the surrounding area offer any realistic real estate. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I meant that yoh can live in Reston with (more) reasonable housing costs (1600ish for a 3br 2bath townhouse 10 mins walk from metro) and take Silver Line to work in the city... you could also do it the other way if you are a 20ish who wants to live in DC and work in NOVA.

my friend did it the other way, bought a place near the Chinatown metro. He figures it is better to live near the hub rather than on one of the spokes.

True, but it's all tradeoffs. While not the murderhouse that SF/SV real estate is, it's still a little pricey in the middle of the Red line. You can get 3-4x the house if you go 25-ish minutes out on one of the "spokes" and still get to the hub pretty quickly. Even spoke-to-spoke isn't out of the question if you can stomach the extra 30 minutes or so.

If you want real flexibility as a consultant or something.

I recommend living in the Crystal City/Arlington area until you have kids. You got easy access to DC/Pentagon, but you can go as west as Dulles Airport, north to Bathesda, or even slightly south on 95 because of the opposite commute.

There are even some jobs in the area.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's pretty common in the US to have cities where the principle city is just a small portion of the whole metro area, and it's common to refer to the whole area by the name of the city. Los Angeles is another prominent example. I live in NoVA and whenever people ask me where I live, I say "DC" and then clarify if they're interested in detail.

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