A Tough Initiation to D.C.

Area's High Rents Force Young Transplants to Scramble for Money, Roommates

When Jessica Otto thinks back to eight months ago, when she arrived in Washington, she still sounds bewildered.

"I had no idea what to expect," she said.

Renting a place on a limited budget in the Washington area is already hard enough. Most young college grads can't afford more than $1,000 a month, and even most basement apartments and studios cost more than that in the neighborhoods young people are attracted to.

Searching from out of town and having never lived in this city makes it even trickier. Many new arrivals are ignorant -- or apprehensive -- about cheaper neighborhoods like Petworth, Brookland and Takoma, so that leaves living with roommates. And those roommates are going to want to meet you -- and compare you to the 10 or 20 other applicants they've got.

Otto had tried to find a place while living with her parents in Atlantic, Iowa, population 7,257, but nearly all the ads she saw were for immediate openings. Even if they were planning ahead for August, few were so desperate that they'd pick a roommate without meeting her first. She had to stay at a friend's place and search once she arrived.

Otto checked out group houses in Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights during their open houses, at which three, four, five or more roommates lobbed questions at her.

She likened the experience to a sorority interview. "It was kind of uncomfortable. What you do, where you went to school. . . . If you want to live there, you kind of have to sell yourself," she said. "And often, there are lots of people there. It's a very bizarre arrangement."

And after all that, the rejections. "You can go to 10 of those without being accepted to live at one," she said.

Otto ended up in a studio in Arlington's Rosslyn, where she pays $1,000 a month, utilities included, and $100 a month for parking. She can afford that rent because she chose to work as a legal assistant rather than at an environmental nonprofit, where salaries are in the low $30,000s, "or even less," she said.

She's unhappy with how it worked out. "The first year out of college, it's a big shock to my system anyway. Studios can be isolating."

Her restlessness might help some friends from Wheaton College, her alma mater, avoid the struggles she had. She's been scoping out three-bedroom places, with the thought of rooming with two women graduating next month.

At least she has a middle-class salary to rely on.