Movin' b/w DC and Baltimore (Columbia, Ellicott City: rental, credit, how much)

[Shack]

Hi, my wife and I are moving to the area at the end of August and in need of accommodation right away. My wife is going to be a law student at Georgetown and I will be working on a PhD at Johns Hopkins. We are thinking about living somewhere between DC and Baltimore. Does anyone happen to be renting a place between DC and Baltimore? We need to be close to the MARC. We’re considering living in Jessup or Odenton. What are your thoughts on the two towns?

[pkoons]

Try Savage as well. Odenton woul be my next choice, then Jessup. Jessup has the truck stop & prison - if you're looking for a starter home it's a good buy, but there's not any good rental communities (Autumn Woods - shudder..)

Or try Country Meadows on Rt. 1 (technically Laurel - the best apt. complex in all of Laurel).

Good luck!

[montco78]

What about Columbia or Ellicott City? I would live there is my job was near there... Great area.

[Mike from back east]

I love these problems, reminds me of the old "word problems" from school daze...you know the ones....if train A leaves city A traveling east at 60 MPH, and train B leaves city B traveling west at 90 MPH, where will they meet for a latte....but I digress....

Hopkins has several places in the region, I'll assume Homewood Campus, in uptown Bal'mer. Okay, some things to figure....

Living halfway between two major cities, means both of you take the MARC trains, plus subway (DC) and light rail (Bal'mer). This means that both of you pay a fare. Compute the fares from Jessup or Laurel to both DC and Baltimore and add that up. Then add subway and light rail fares. That's your mobility cost. Also note the time it takes for each.

Next, calculate fares from the perspective of living near one of the two schools, so that only one of you has to commute. Is this cheaper? Enough so to make it worth considering?

What does living space cost near Jessup? Near Hopkins? Near Georgetown? Surprises? Bal'mer should be cheaper, not sure by how much.

Can either person tolerate an approximate 90-120 minute commute EACH way if you lived near one Campus? Can the non-traveling party do the housework or cooking in the time spent not commuting - to balance out the workload for the one with the long commute?

Is it possible that both of you could take a studio apt or a room near EACH campus and NEITHER one commute? Money saved by NOT commuting might cover a good chunk of rent. Time saved could be spent learning. You can get together weekends. Could this be an option?

Living mid-way between both schools means both are far from their campus, a problem for evening sessions/events and a big problem for weekend events as there is no weekend MARC service and it ends around 7PM weeknights.

If you've already done the math and mid-way is the answer, I'd say go more to the south, Laurel or Bowie areas.

Keep in mind that there are two MARC lines in the corridor, both MARC, one is the Penn Line and one is the Camden Line. Penn line will get you to uptown Baltimore (Penn Station, near North Avenue and Charles St). The Camden line only get you into south Baltimore (Camden Station, near the ballpark) and it's the light rail up from there or a bus. I think the Penn line is more dependable, it's on AMTRAKs Northeast Corridor and is a passenger-only operation. The Camden line runs on CSX tracks, and they are a bit notorious for delays and outages as they are very much a freight railroad and passengers come last.

For Extra Credit: Do pie charts for each option, showing the family budget and displaying cost of housing and transportation as discreet elements for each.

s/Mike

[teleblazer]

Originally Posted by montco78

What about Columbia or Ellicott City? I would live there is my job was near there... Great area.

Columbia is a well established and great place to live. You have some rural areas where you can escape the city lifestyle but you're close enough to everything you could want when you're ready to get something.

I believe I saw some postings on commutes which are right on. For me, it made more sense to live as close to my work as possible since I had the worst commute. If not for anything else but to be able to spend some quality time at home as oppsed to 1 1/2 hours each way on the road.

Whatever your priority in lifestyle AFTER work should really drive where you live. If you don't have a problem staying on the road for hours at a time it really doesn't matter then where you live so you should go as far out as possible and get more home for your dollar. Otherwise, I think the commuting advice was quite sound.

Good luck!