How important is a garage in NoVA?

[MissyAg94]

We found a nice house to rent but it has no garage. Will we regret not having one? Should we keep looking?

[merianne16]

My husband and I live in NoVa in a townhouse- no garage. It would be nice on rainy days or on the few days it snows in the winter to have one but we've been fine. If you found a great house I would go for it!

[LarsMal]

We have a 2-car attached garage in NoVA and we don't park either car in it! We use it mainly for storage and all the kids bikes and outside play stuff. We have a partially finished basement that doesn't have quite enough storage room. I can pull a car in if the weather is really bad, but I don't always do that.

I guess it depends on how much stuff you have/if you need more storage space and how far the car will be from the house.

[Hawkeyewife]

Have you looked on militarybyowner.com. Lots of good rentals there. My friend just got a 4 bedroom with a garage in a nice neighborhood for $2400 a month. I would recommend looking there.

[HallsofVA]

We always say that we paid a lot for our garage, since finding a house with a two car garage took us up a price point or two when we bought our house, and took us out of some more convenient neighborhoods where the older homes had one car or no garage only. It is awesome when it is snowing or raining. But we've had one or both cars parked outside of the garage for a month or so now and it's not horrible.

[lowrioh]

We've live in the DC metro area for 10 years and have never had a garage....we didn't have off street parking until recently. Most of the houses in the "inner" suburbs won't have garages or if they do they are really small and are generally used for storage.
It would be nice to have a garage for the snow and rain but it isn't like living in upstate NY where it is necessary (at least in my mind).

[sdoyle]

We lived in NOVA without a garage for 3 years. I had always had a garage in the past but I have to tell you, I did not miss it at all. A lot of the houses don't have garages. That being said- they all had sheds which is where everyone kept their lawn mowers.

Stacy

[egoldber]

Well, we are wimps. I have an attached garage and adore it. :)

The thing to remember is that we get a fair amount of ice in the winter and de-icing your car at 6 am to get to work is seriously no fun. How much that tradeoff is worth to you is hard to say.

[amandabea]

It's totally personal. For us it was a must-have, not an option at all. We just moved here from CA last year and would not have bought a house without one, but both DH and I have always had a garage for cars and not just stuff; and have not had to deal with snow.

[crl]

We lived in NoVA for 9 years with no garage and for another year with a garage that we never used for a car. It was fine. Of course it would be nice on those snowy/icy days. But not essential, IMO.

Catherine

[HIU8]

I'm on the other side of the river in MD, but still the same climate etc.... A garage is an absolute must for me. I've never not had one. I actually will not buy a house without a garage--which pretty much limits us to not very close in suburbs in MD or VA b/c it's a real crapshoot to find a house with a garage the closer in to DC you get. We currently only have a 1 car garage and it's a real problem. I get to park in the garage. Most ppl I know use it for storage. I forced DH to get a shed b/c I wanted to actually use the garage for a car. I have a skewed view b/c I grew up with a 2 car garage and we never had to get into the car in the rain/snow/bad weather since it was always in the garage. It makes loading and unloading the kids much easier for me.

[ncat]

My parents lived in NOVA for 30 years with a 1 car garage and 2-4 cars (4 when my brother and I were high school and college age and driving). They probably didn't put a car in their garage until they had lived there 15 years.

I would get a garage if I was buying a house, but I think you'll be OK without one if you rent.

[MissyAg94]

Thanks for all of the replies. We normally wouldn't consider a house without a garage but there are several nice homes in the areas that we would like to live in that don't have them or have only a one car garage. I guess we'll have to prioritize and decide if living closer in is more important than having a garage. I am wimpy when it comes to ice and snow so that has to factor in somewhat.

Hawkeyewife, we are using MBO! It's a great site.

[crayonblue]

We bought a townhouse in NoVa with no garage. Sold that one and bought a townhouse in MD with a 2 car garage. LOVED that garage. :) Now in a townhouse with a 1 car garage but it is so small that my van won't fit in it. I miss having a garage, especially in the winter with snow. But, it's not the end of the world!

[ahisma]

I grew up in NoVA with no garage - 10 years. Now, I live in MI and we haven't had a garage in 7 years. Even here, it's not a big deal really.

[daisymommy]

We have never parked our cars in ours. It's full of kids bikes, scooters, lawn equipment, etc.

Thankfully the weather here is mild enough (except for a few Winter weeks) that it's not an issue.

Maybe if we had a super-high-end car that I babied and wanted protected. But my Toyota Sienna and hubby's Buick Regal can handle it :)

[vonfirmath]

We found a nice house to rent but it has no garage. Will we regret not having one? Should we keep looking?

For me a garage is storage and a place to park bicycles/lawnmowers/etc. We have looked at rentals that did not have a garage -- but have realized it will at least need some sort of outside storage.

[lablover]

We have a two car garage. One side is full of bikes, scooters, etc. so we only park one car in the garage. It is nice in the winter not to have to scrape the frost of the car in the morning, and nice in the spring/summer not to get in a blazing hot car (our driveway is not shaded), but overall it isn't a huge deal.

I would choose a shorter commute over a garage. It really doesn't snow that much.

[weech]

I live near NOVA in MD, and I have a townhouse with what is supposed to be a two car garage. Both of our cars don't fit in it, though (grrr) so we can only park one car in it. However, we've both decided that we are going to physically drive both of our cars into the garages of prospective homes to make sure they fit. That's how serious we are about our garage :)

[MissyAg94]

Thanks, everyone! The house has outdoor storage in the backyard so maybe we can live without a garage.

[dcmom2b3]

I would choose a shorter commute over a garage. It really doesn't snow that much.

:yeahthat: :yeahthat::yeahthat:

And even if it did snow a bunch here, I would think long and hard about this tradeoff. NoVa rush hour traffic can be brutal; unless you have an especially flexible schedule or other special circumstances that would allow you to avoid traffic, I'd factor in the commute in making this decision. And generally, but certainly not always, closer in usually means easier commute.