The MM Network

[*insertusernamehere*]

I'm gonna chime in too.

I go from exactly where the map says "seven corners" to sterling and back everyday. In the morning my drive is 45mins and in the evening my drive is 60mins. I take route 7, reverse commute and tysons is the only part of the drive that is bad, morning and evening. West of Tysons, morning and evening, i'm doing 70mph and the other side is doing 0, seriously. I'll send pics in groupme tomorrow. 

Why are you considering the two greatest extremes? I'm in falls church and directly behind my house is this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Mile_Run_Trail which is fantastic. The parts of Arlington like where Jake lives is 13mins away, the metro is 8mins away, the DC line is 4 miles away (drive time will vary depending on time of day), alexandria is 20mins away and the price of an apt can also be a good bit cheaper, but at least even if you end up shelling out the same money your access to some green space is greater. Is there a reason why it seems you're ruling out that little 495 corridor from Merrifield to Tysons? 

If it counts for anything, I'm rather satisfied with my location in falls church and I'm in DC (and all over the DMV!) damn near every weekend. One of my roommates works in DC and some days he makes it home before I do! As long as you're inside the beltway, wherever, you're fine. Outside the beltway...eeehhhh. So shop around and find which areas between tysons, arlington and alexandria fit well.