Where to rent?

My roommates and I are all moving out of our place on January first. They’re old friends, but they’re not the right roommates for me.

I moved from Maryland to northern Virginia a year and a half ago. For a couple months I paid rent to my friend informally, and about 14 months ago I was added to the lease. I’ve been wanting to go back to school for a career change. To get in-state tuition, you have to prove that you’ve lived in the state for at least a year and a few other things. At my local community college the in-state price is a third of the out of state price.

I’ve been gathering residency documents, and all I need is one more piece of information before making my case to the registrar.

In the mean time, I’ve been looking for new rentals for January 1st. The northern Virginia roommate market is SO depressing. I’m getting leads on a couple great places in DC from friends. I work in the city, most of my social life is there, and I pretty much spend all my time there other than to sleep. A few parts of NOVA also give me really bad vibes, because I lived there during bad years of my life.

I’m finding plenty of places in my budget in both areas. But for whatever reason, in NOVA the vibe is “room in basement, share bathroom with 50-year-old man,” and in the city I’m finding places that are warm and eclectic.

So on the one hand, my quality of life would be better for a lot of reasons if I lived in the city. For a lot of my 20s, my quality of life was VERY BAD, so this holds more weight with me than it would for someone else. On the other hand, I just became a Virginia resident and could probably pay cash for community college classes here. If I moved to DC, I would have to wait another year to get local tuition pricing.

Thoughts?