As far as living and commuting in NVA, it really matters where you live and where you work as with timing. NVA has some of the worst traffic in North America, I believe last year it ranked 2nd due to road construction, they finely finished the express lanes a few months back, that should help out some, but only some.
NVA is great because it has such a big mix of people, on the flip side, drivers in NVA suck fucking ass like no other, because they're from all over the world. I've seen some crazy stuff like stopping in the middle of a highway or intersection because they were not sure if they missed their exit/turn as with making left turn from the far right lane of a THREE LANE ROAD!
VA police are not bad, its Fairfax county police. they are well known for being the worst of the worst when it comes to facking you. When you enter VA everyone slows down, when you enter maryland from VA everyone speeds up, its really funny to see.
VA also = no radar detectors
My wife's friends all get on her for living 50+ miles away from where she works (she works in VA) they all live 10-15 miles from their jobs. They can't get over just how far she drives.
Her drive time is 45-50 minutes, her friends drive time that are in VA is around 1-2 hours.
VA Traffic........
Out of DC, VA, and MD, Maryland is hands down the best state car wise, one inspection, once thats done you never have to do anything inspection wise ever again, you do have a smog test that happens once every 2 years, they plug into your OBD2 port and if no codes show, you pass. $14.00
You also pay tax only when you buy the car, in VA you pay personal property tax so you pay tax every year on your cars for the life of owning them.
I love visiting VA but I could never live there, Linh grew up in VA and never had issues with it, now that shes on the other side of the bridge she also says she could never go back.
The DC Metro area is pretty small but very well packed, so house prices are going to be all over the place, that will depend on how bad the area is, My town house was $305K and I gutted the place as soon as I moved in, it was nasty. 5 miles away I can get a turn key newer town home with all the good upgrades, more sq ft, and a cheaper HOA, for about 50-75K less than what I paid. Sadly the area is total shit.