<p>Does anyone know a good place to stay for the summer in or around washington DC and its suburbs (arlington, alexandria, etc)? I'm looking for a sublet.</p>
<p>Ah, finding temporary housing in DC. Always so much fun.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind a small apartment or dorm situation, GWU (metro stop: Foggy Bottom), American University (metro stop: Tenleytown), and Georgetown offer a variety of housing options for students taking part in an internship program in the DMV area or enrolled in courses at that university.</p>
<p>There’s also Washington Intern Student Housing (WISH), which several of my friends did last summer and were very happy with. They had good living situations for affordable prices.</p>
<p>If you’re specifically looking for a sublet, there’s always Craigslist and Sublet.com, as well as Rent by Owner. My own experience with Craigslist was very trying. I probably wrote to 30 people and only heard back from one to say that their place was already taken. Sometimes people get lucky…but of course, it’s a little more complicated if you’re bring your car or a pet. </p>
<p>I managed to find a four month lease last summer for a place in Dupont Circle (The Flats at Dupont Circle). My building was VERY nice but VERY expensive. The shorter your lease terms, the higher the price. With pet fee and parking, my rent each month was almost $2700. For a studio. I had less than two weeks to find housing, so I just went for this, but later learned that there was no reason for me to pay that much. Do not live in Dupont Circle. You’re in the heart of all the nightlife and you’re twenty minutes walk from the White House, the Mall, etc. but it’s not worth as much as you’ll pay to live there.</p>
<p>I would suggest browsing by area. I’ve got friends in the Van Ness / Tenleytown area who found awesome 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom apartments that cost $2700 split between the three of them. U Street and Columbia Heights are a little bit on the seedy side sometimes, but they’re both up and coming areas and generally safe. Adams Morgan is a nice area that’s a bit more affordable. Eastern Market has a lot of basement apartments that are sometimes less than renting in Northern Virginia (NoVa). Logan Circle is the same distance from major downtown things as Dupont but probably a bit less expensive. Can’t say that for sure, but I have a lot of friends making entry level ~$30-50K / year who live comfortably in the Logan Circle area, though generally with roommates. </p>
<p>Other things to consider when looking at apartments, in addition to parking availability if you’re bringing a car is to think about transportation to and from work (metro, buses, etc.) and also look at how convenient it will be for you to move in, do grocery shopping, do dry cleaning, and do laundry. I have a friend whose building advertised in-apartment laundry machines…which turned out to mean in-building laundry machines. She had to go to the basement to do it. Not quite the same thing as having the machines in her apartment unit. My issue this past summer was being too far from Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s to do a big grocery buy, unless I drove, but that wasn’t always an option with bad traffic and limited parking. My building turned out to have send-out dry cleaning, but I have other friends who ended up wearing their suits longer than they would have preferred because they were having issues finding a dry cleaner with hours that they could handle with their internship hours. If you are bringing a pet, especially a dog, make sure there is a dog walker in your building or a day care nearby. If I could do my DC summer over again, I would have left my dog with family…it was very expensive to have her and she spent a lot of time alone in the apartment.</p>
<p>“Airbnb” is awesome and cheap.</p>