Relocating to Baltimore (Towson, Catonsville, Pikesville: house, neighborhoods, private schools)

[ehunter720]

I am looking for information on relocating to the Baltimore area with my family this summer. I have a teenager and two small babies. I am looking for an area where my teenage child will not have to be held hostage in the house and I will feel comfortable taking the babies for walks and to the park. I also need to havea reasonable commute to the convention center. I have heard that the public schools in Baltimore are horrendous...what about the private schools?

Any information will be helpful. I guess I should mention that I am pretty picky when it comes to the area I live in. Thanks!

[euphline]

Baltimore has had bad public schools long enough to develop a plethora of good private schools. I'm sure folks here with kids may have opinions about them.

What's your budget for a house?

-jbn

[ehunter720]

Originally Posted by euphline

Baltimore has had bad public schools long enough to develop a plethora of good private schools. I'm sure folks here with kids may have opinions about them.

What's your budget for a house?

-jbn

Approximately $250,000. Hopefully we will be able to find a duplex or something we can convert for my parents

[euphline]

If you were to watch neighborhoods I promote, you'd see that I really like the Glen neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore (21215). It's where I live, and would not hesitate to introduce it to anyone. I did a quick search and noticed a house on Menlo in the low $200's. (3BR/3BA's). This is a very nice block - I'm surprised it's been on the market so long. Perhaps it's in bad shape?

There's a 5BR/2BA at the upper end of Upper Park Heights (North of the Glen neighborhood) in the low $200's that's likely on a nice block.

There are some properties in the Cylburn area (just South of Sinai Hospital). That area has some very nice parts, but it's close enough to rough areas that you'll want to drive down potential blocks - as you probably already know, Baltimore changes a lot block by block.

Moving across town, the Overlea area has some nice properties; one on Fairdel caught my eye. There's a quite large house on Beechland in Hamilton. Some folks like Hamilton - others don't. Probably very block dependent. I also noticed a 4BR/3BA in the 2300 block of Guilford. It's advertised as Charles Village. I think of that as wAAAAy too far South to be Charles Village.

None of these properties fit your criteria of a duplex - in Baltimore, each half generally gets sold separately. That said, you might try searching the multi-unit listings for 2-3 unit properties. You may find something there that's not in the single family lists. A 3 unit very likely could be converted back to a 2 unit. Many such properties "started out" as single families, when constructed.

Hope this helps!

Yours,

-jbn

DISCLAIMER: Neither I or anyone I know has any financial interest, as owner, agent or otherwise, with any of the aforementioned properties.

[oneworld25]

You may also want to check out the Colonial Village, Sudbrook Park, and Ralston sections of Pikesville. Both of these areas are relatively walkable and the high school they are assigned to is very good so if you wanted to you could send your teen to the public school. You may also want to check out Towson and Catonsville, though these areas are relatively expensive. All the areas I suggested are in Baltimore County but they are within easy commuting distance of downtown and relatively walkable.