This is a smart fella

No downtown Olathe? Thread fail. I’ve always loved SoCal. I would love to stay in one of those beach cities south of L.A or in Orange County. Probably Newport Beach.

Or Santa Monica?
You an live beside the ocean, leave the fire behind, swim out past the breakers and watch the world die

Sure, I mean if you got to live in one of those places and didn’t have to commute in traffic every day I think life would be pretty sweet.

HERMOSA BEACH :drool:

Good luck. You won't need much help getting a job. That degree will have people begging you to work for them. Orbital Sciences, Rolls Royce Engines, Lockheed, Gruman, Blackhawk Technologies, CAIC, and a million more there within spitting distance from Dulles Airport. Either on Rt 28 or the Dulles Toll Road.

Aside from the horrific traffic and sky high rent/property, it's a GREAT place to live. I loved it for the last 10 years.

You'll never get bored.....

Yeah, I figure I probably won't have too much trouble with that degree. Is rent/property that high out in Loudoun/Clarke? I looked around a little when I was there and it looked pretty damn good. I was looking out in the boonies, though. I'm in Denver where it's absolutely horrid. Over $1000/month would get me a closet studio in Little Honduras here. Any decent newish home with a yard is around 3k now. If I can get views like below I don't care about a long commute.

EDIT: So I looked around some real estate sites for shits n giggles. There are definitely a lot of hoity toity areas but there's some really reasonable stuff there. A 5 bedroom, 5 bath, 5,000 sq ft for 440K. That's not happening in Denver for less than a million.

I've never been there, but I think if I was young and single, I might try living in downtown Nashville for a year or two.

I called it first.

"Portland is a city where young people go to retire." LMAO

The further away from Wash DC you move, the lower the prices generally.

Areas like Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Potomac MD are sky high and exclusive.

Places like McLean and many areas of Reston have sky high prices. In Reston Town Center, a BEAUTIFUL location, they have several newly built apartment complexes getting $2,500-$6,000 a month, NY style prices. I lived there for a year when I first moved to NoVA in 2007, splitting a 2 BR 2 BA luxury apt with someone for $900 each plus utilities.

Loudoun County has a big footprint and unless you want to live with 40,000 Indian developers avoid Brambleton. It's a brand new town that in the last 20 years went from around 10,000 people to 40,000. Ashburn, where I lived is great and has a good affordability.

I would be shocked if you don't have starting pay of at least $85,000 a year and possibly $100K+ if you work for someone like Orbital or Lockheed or Northrop Grumman. If you have a clean background, you should start preparing yourself for a government security clearance, which can bump your pay another $20K most times or more. I think you can go to the FBI and request one for a fee but I'm not positive.

Clarke County is much cheaper but there is a small problem: so many people have moved West from DC and places like Alexandria and Arlington plus the explosive population growth that traffic coming East every morning is ridiculous. You should see the line of cars every day coming out of Maryland across Point of Rocks bridge on Rt 15 through wine country and small towns. It takes 90 minutes to go 15-20 miles of stop and go with lights.

You have to judge for yourself your pain level of commute versus the sanctity of open space and cost of living.

In Loudoun County, the HIGHEST per capita county in the US, you pay a fee each year for your car to be in the county as a resident.

Towns like Herndon also have another fee. Herndon is a nice little town with many amenities, not too expensive but very very Hispanic with a small MS-13 factor that does not stand out too much.

Manassas is THE Hispanic capital of Northern VA along with Langley Takoma Park in MD. Both places you do not want to live in, no matter how cheap.

Another big factor is how old you are and what you like to do in your spare time. There are SO MANY things to do you will NEVER get bored, I can guarantee you that.

Hope this helps.