Moving from Arkansas to Baltimore (Frederick, Rockville: apartment, rent, low crime)

[spikedforchrist]

I am a 30 year old with a wife and young child. We live in a city with a population of about 60,000 and have lived in small towns with populations of less than 1000 people all our lives, so we know it will be a bit of a change for us. We are planning on moving there in about a year. We are not sure of which neighborhoods are good for small kids. I am a computer tech and my wife is a nurse so I know there are plenty of career opportunities in the Baltimore area. We are use to a commute time of 30 minutes or less and would prefer to stay as close to that as possible. From what I'm seeing of the average income in our occupation fields in the Baltimore area, we are looking to be paying somewhere around $850 per month rent. I'm not sure if this is even feasible for at least a decent neighborhood.

Any help is greatly appreciated

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by spikedforchrist

30 year old with a wife and young child.
looking to be paying somewhere around $850 per month rent.

I'm not sure if this is even feasible for at least a decent neighborhood.

Assuming you want a 2-3 bedroom house or apartment...
in a safe, low crime area with good schools... it's not very likely. Not at $850.

But aside from the dollar amount there are many options.
You should try to live near at least one of your jobs; ideally both of you.
The savings in commuting expense (and time) will count for a lot.

[kanling]

$1200/mo maybe. 30 minute commute time requirement means you live relatively nearby where you work. If you work in Baltimore city, you will have certain options. If you are actually working in Anne Arundel county or Howard County or Baltimore County you will have different options on places to live.

[medfieldbum]

My goodness, I am not sure where you looked at "average income", but on a nurse's salary alone in Baltimore (not to mention overtime), you should be easily able to afford better than $850/month in rent.

If you also become employed, of course, that would be extra.

[Miss Crabcakes]

Originally Posted by medfieldbum

My goodness, I am not sure where you looked at "average income", but on a nurse's salary alone in Baltimore (not to mention overtime), you should be easily able to afford better than $850/month in rent.

If you also become employed, of course, that would be extra.

Yeah, I'm guessing Baltimore salaries are higher that AK, if you both have jobs here, you should be able to afford something at least in the $1200 range and that would open you up to better options.

We may be able to give you better advice if we knew what part of town your job will be in.

[MidValleyDad]

When you say 'computer tech' that covers a big range. There are a lot of lower end folks working for peanuts because of 'outsourcing' The company I work for recently outsourced their desktop support. No one that was doing it before would stay because of the low salaries the outsource company was offering. Please make sure you are looking at realistic salaries and don't trust the 'salary surveys' you see in trade rags or online they just aren't true people fudge their salaries, their experience, etc. I've been in the industry for 25+ years both as a tech and as a hiring tech lead in a medium size company. I had friends who worked for the Big Boys (Sun, IBM, DEC, HP, and others) and many have contracted or outsourced their tech staff to be competitive

[spikedforchrist]

Me and my wife don't have anything set and are considering other areas as well. Areas such as Rockville, Fredrick, and Hagerstown. My wife doesn't want to live in a row house or apartment.
I have been working as a support tech for a school here in Arkansas for 25K a year. I've only been working as a tech for aout a year and a half, so I'm still just getting started. My wife is an LPN, which is on the lower pay scale of nursing and from what we've been hearing, Maryland is moving away from using LPN's and toward RN's.

Is 40,000/year High/Low or Average for an entry level Support Tech in Maryland around the Rockville or Fredrick areas? And does anybody know what LPN's make on average in the same areas?

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by spikedforchrist

Me and my wife don't have anything set and are considering other areas as well. Areas such as Rockville, Fredrick, and Hagerstown. My wife doesn't want to live in a row house or apartment.
I have been working as a support tech for a school here in Arkansas for 25K a year. I've only been working as a tech for aout a year and a half, so I'm still just getting started. My wife is an LPN, which is on the lower pay scale of nursing and from what we've been hearing, Maryland is moving away from using LPN's and toward RN's.

Is 40,000/year High/Low or Average for an entry level Support Tech in Maryland around the Rockville or Fredrick areas? And does anybody know what LPN's make on average in the same areas?

You are really talking about drastically different areas when you mention Rockville, Frederick, Baltimore, and Hagerstown.

Baltimore is a large city with all the benefits and drawbacks that entails.

Rockville is a suburb of D.C. and generally pretty pricey.

Frederick is a small city of about 60k in a county that has urban, suburban and rural areas.

Hagerstown is the fringe of D.C. area, you still have commuting options and commuter housing, but overall the county is still mostly farmland. Hagerstown itself is smaller than Frederick and has less of a gentrified vibe.

Maryland is a small state, but we have a great deal of regional diversity.

[MidValleyDad]

Originally Posted by spikedforchrist

Is 40,000/year High/Low or Average for an entry level Support Tech in Maryland around the Rockville or Fredrick areas? And does anybody know what LPN's make on average in the same areas?

$40,000 a year is about $19,00 an hour. I think that is a little high for entry level tech support. Do you have any certifications? Do you have formal training? What do you bring that is special? As one of our techs said about the salaries being offered by outsourcing companies 'They must be looking at kids just out of school who are still living at home because you can't rent a place and live on what they are paying' Its been 10+ years since I was a Hiring manager (I had 2-4 people working for me) Even in the good economy back then I would get 80-100 or more resumes from a single ad (That was before web sites became a popular hiring tool) in the Washington Post. Of those over half met the basic qualifications. I would do phone interviews with at least 25 and get at least 5 that I would bring in for interviews. During those interviews I would decided if they were worth having the managers of the two groups I supported at our site interview them. We hoped to get 3 successful candidates after the first round interviews. Then the three of us would get together and select the candidate that we liked best. I ended up doing this about once or twice a year (We were a technical company and the other departments kept stealing my people :-)) The company I work for now does a very centralized hiring process (It is a Fortune 200 Technical company) and everyone goes through a DC area recruitment center if they like your resume.

I hate to sound so negative but iit is a tough market There are everything from Kids just out of high school who have been playing with PCs all their life to trade school graduates and Veterans getting out of the service. Personally I like vets even if they meet the minimum technical standard. The successful ones had a great work ethic and if they generally had good experience. You need something that makes you stand out.

[MidValleyDad]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

You are really talking about drastically different areas when you mention Rockville, Frederick, Baltimore, and Hagerstown.

Baltimore is a large city with all the benefits and drawbacks that entails.

Rockville is a suburb of D.C. and generally pretty pricey.

Frederick is a small city of about 60k in a county that has urban, suburban and rural areas.

Hagerstown is the fringe of D.C. area, you still have commuting options and commuter housing, but overall the county is still mostly farmland. Hagerstown itself is smaller than Frederick and has less of a gentrified vibe.

Maryland is a small state, but we have a great deal of regional diversity.

I live west of Frederick (about 1/3 the way to Hagerstown) I commute down to Rockville everyday (35 miles each way) Many folks around here commute down to the DC area (I define as Montgomery County and closer to the District) There are opportunities in the Frederick area. It is a medium size city. There is a decent size hospital (not a trauma center, they are in Baltimore, Hagerstown, and Rockville). Frederick also has a major Government employer (Ft Detrick) and used to have several Financial services processing centers (most closed with the recession) Hagerstown has some Finacial services and distribution center businesses. They used to have an Aircraft assembly plant and a Mack Truck Factory. Fairchild closed years ago (when the A-10 assembly line closed) and Mack has either downsized or closed.

The whole are seems to commute 'down the road' Salaries are higher as you get closer to DC so Frederick commutes to Rockville, Hagerstown commutes to Frederick further Western Maryland and southern PA commutes to Hagerstown. I know it is a generalization but it seems to be truer than some people want to believe.

I'm not trying to dissuade you. My father came to Baltimore from Little Rock as an army draftee in 1951. He met my mother at Ft Holabird, went to Korea for a year and came back here to settle. He swore he never had Hayfever before he came here but stayed here the rest of his life (except for occasional trips back to see family) I will say it's harder to find good Barbeque up here!