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Amateur Night
Citizen
Username: Deborahg
Post Number: 1726
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 9:17 am: |     |
My parents may be relocating to that area, and i was wondering how it stacks up as a place to live and raise kids. Any thoughts? Is it expensive? How are schools? What towns would you recommend? |
Amateur Night
Citizen
Username: Deborahg
Post Number: 1727
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 9:19 am: | |
Sorry this should have been in please help, don't know how to relocate it though. |
Smarty Jones
Citizen
Username: Birdstone
Post Number: 116
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 9:23 am: | |
Annapolis- Incredibly beautiful place, recently gone through the ROOF expensive.
Baltimore- Start out by looking at Northern Baltimore towns such as Towson/Timonium, which is 20 min north of the City. |
Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1318
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 10:16 am: | |
My parents relocated down to Montgomery County,MD when they retired a few years ago. They're in a town called Olney about smack-dab between Baltimore and Washington, maybe a tad closer to DC. They chose it for a few reasons: warmer weather (they are from Rochester NY, so to them it's practically the South), proximity to my sister in Kensington, MD, and low taxes. They are paying about $3500 a year in property taxes on a huge property...1.5 acres...and a good-sized roomy house. In return they get a nice community with great public facilities. They love the area. They have yet to explore Baltimore as much but they have been doing tons of things in DC and love the Cheseapeake/Annapolis area. They have also gone out to Harpers Ferry in the west, toward West Virginia, and they love that too. THey're still close to the beaches, and not far from NJ -- about a four-hour drive. To get to DC, they drive to the end of the red line on the Metro, park, and take the Metro in. They're doing so much in DC -- the museums, White House events (tours, holiday lights, etc), concerts, art things, etc. And of course when their NJ grandchildren visit, we do the National Zoo (free) and the Smithsonian (also free). IT's a great place to live!!! Housing prices, however, are rising fast. THey paid about $450K for their house about 5 years ago, and they are now told after they sunk a ton into it that it is worth in ther $750K range. So it's not a cheap place to buy. |
Amateur Night
Citizen
Username: Deborahg
Post Number: 1728
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 11:15 am: | |
Thanks, I should have stipulated that they have to be able to get a decent, small (3BR) house for under $300K. |
campbell29
Citizen
Username: Campbell29
Post Number: 303
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 3:38 pm: | |
Try the Baltimore suburbs - no such animal exists in either the Annapolis or DC area (both of which I believe are considerably more expensive). I think the north side of Baltimore is less developed than the B-W corridor and should be cheaper.
Zoesky - my sisters both live in Kensington and I grew up in Potomac - small world. |
Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1322
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 7:44 pm: | |
Potomac is beautiful! We drove through it a bit on one of our more recent visits. I think we were actually on our way back from the Potomac itself -- those rapids, whitewater and canals to the northwest of DC. My sister likes Kensington a lot. She works at NIH (she's a scientist), so the proximity to Bethesda is great but it's a little more affordable. |
Copperfield
Citizen
Username: Copperfield
Post Number: 239
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 8:33 pm: | |
Baltimore real estate was a real bargain for a long time, compared with other metro areas in the Northeast (NYC, Boston) - that seems to be changing recently.
It's a smaller city than NYC, so the commute from the burbs is much shorter as well. NW burbs (Pikesville, Owings Mills, Reisterstown) have good schools and the city iteself is really booming- lots of new developments, etc.
That said, it's still a place where most of the people who live there have roots in the Baltimore area, whereas the DC area is filled with people who came from elsewhere. |
Bob K
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 10135
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, December 31, 2005 - 10:25 am: | |
Both Dick and Rummy have homes in the Annapolis area. I think they commute by helicopter. Nice, but very, very pricey. |
Amateur Night
Citizen
Username: Deborahg
Post Number: 1731
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, January 1, 2006 - 12:07 pm: | |
You're not making it osund appealing, Mr. K. On the other hand, no way my family could afford their neighborhood. |
kendalbill
Citizen
Username: Kendalbill
Post Number: 25
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, January 1, 2006 - 10:01 pm: | |
That is actually the area we reloacated from 14 years ago. We spent about 2 years in Baltimore (Charles Village, near Johns Hopkins). Baltimore is (or was, since it has been 14 years)a wonderful city with its own identity and charm. It has great ethnic neighborhoods, great old homes much like Maplewood and it extremely accesible. We moved there from NYC and thought we went to heaven. And theres more: great crab feasts and the bay always gives you something to do on the weekend.
Downside: high crime in certain areas, cost of living going up, lousy schools drive many to prep schools.
All in all, I would move back to Baltimore. Annapolis is great as well, although pricey as was covered before. }} |
Bob K
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 10143
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, January 2, 2006 - 6:44 am: | |
Amateur Night, Joe Trippi also has a home there, just to balance the politics a little.  |
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