Possibly moving to Maryland (Baltimore, Annapolis: homes, buyer, living in)

[scottfs]

Originally Posted by md to nc

Ok, Md is expensive housing is expensive, but moving to the Carolinas may not be the answer within the next couple years. Union Co is running out of Sewer Waste space meaning they are limiting building. We are severely running out of water both because of the drought and growth. We have only been here a year and I am ready to move on, possibly South Carolina. Taxes are going up due the growth, traffic is bad, just as bad as Bmore but not quite DC due to the growth. Everybody wants to move to Carolina because it is "cheaper" NO IT IS NOT. Last time I checked, a gallon of whole milk in MD cost $2.89, Here it is $3.99 if you are lucky. Small jar of generic peanut butter is $1.89, MD it is $.99. Expect your savings to go to groceries and increased taxes. Even then the housing here is going up drastically so don't expect to find a house too much cheaper. In one year our house has went up $50K so housing is not as cheap as it use to be. I would look at all options and choose the one that is best for YOU. It is great to take in all ideas from everybody but just build you own opinion based on their responses. I wish now I would have made my own opinion instead of just relying on what I heard.

I disagree...the groceries here are just as expensive as they are down there.

[Tesaje]

MD is certainly not as bad as some of the anti O'Malley posters have said. Some places do have a very high crime rate but other places are very low. It is not solid city up and down the coast and is isn't hell here. It has some great history and wonderful old architecture. The countryside is full of pretty bucolic farms and the standard new house is a plastic version of colonial architecture so it isn't as ugly as a lot of tract housing in the country. There are commuter trains and the metro subway is great.

It is not cheap. 15 years ago you could have gotten what you are looking for at that price with an hour + commute but now property values have tripled. Even W VA won't get you those kind of prices for a single family house. If you tried rural PA and planned on a 2+ hr commute, you might find what you are looking for. We have a lot of trouble getting people to bid on jobs in this area because of the very high cost of housing.

Taxes are not low, but not impossibly high either. There are higher tax places like NY and CA. I have noticed that most of the tax comparison places miss the local income tax here so I don't trust them for anyplace. Income tax is usually about 6-7% of your actual gross once deductions are taken into account. Property tax is usually 1% of value with caps on how fast it can be raised. Sales tax is 5%, food and medicine excepted. They will tax you 5% once on the blue book value of your car when you register it. It would be very hard coming from a low cost area to this area.

[chaddukes]

Originally Posted by shirlbowl

St Marys County has low crime rate and is just 40 minutes from everything 60 minutes from DC. We live on a nice farm. There are Amish near us. Yet every store you want within a few miles. We are near Pax River Naval Base 25 minutes. Your price range for a house will be hard to find. It would be something old. You would need to fix up. Not sure havne't looked at all prices of homes in awhile.

I grew up in St. Mary's. I love it there. I really do. But the housing prices are still too high. Even in St. Mary's which is pretty far from any kind of city you're looking at $200K minimum for a townhouse. But, there is a lot of positive in St. Mary's. Good outdoor recreation, relatively low crime, schools are OK at best, Jobs are great if you are in the military contracting field and have a security clearance, otherwise....not so much!

[Mike Jones 1999]

OP you will not find homes here in your price range unless it is row house in Baltimore....and then you would have to worry about crime....and the failing school system.
My wife and I are moving to the suburbs of Atlanta. One can still find a nice home in the range you listed.

[Boog]

guess i'm the "anti Omalley" poster here.. Tesaje, you may not like the way I said it but you dont seem to disagree with me.. ummm. actually its kind of refreshing to find someone who is supportive of Martin.. I havent even been able to find anyone who actually voted for him and will admit it...LOL... . you are right tho. Maryland is a beautiful state outside of the immediate DC/Baltimore corridor.... its just really expansive to live here.... my point is that it is about to become much more expansive to live here if the current governor gets his way .. we arent that far behind NY or Ca and if all the tax proposals are passed we will be MUCH closer to those states tax wise, local taxes or not..that doesnt even include the proposed Ca emission proposal that will add about $3000.00 (plus 6 sales tax) to EVER car sold in the state (or are we supposed to not consider that a tax???) should I mention the next energy increase we are facing or can Martin stop that one too??? (he didnt actually stop the first one despite his empty promises) ..property taxes are capped in alot of places thats true.. however appraisals are not "capped" ..housing cost have increased well over 300% in some areas in the past 8-10 years and so has the tax rate.. and you do have to be careful about where you live.... places in Md have some of the highest crime rates in the country.. If all of that works for someone looking to movie here.. super... but they should do their homework and make sure the bottom line is something they can live with..there other safer and less expansive places to live in the country, especially for young families

[Tesaje]

Boog, I don't think we are disagreeing about the cost of living in MD. I'm glad I own a house and bought it 17 years ago. I have a long commute because back then, I couldn't get a house closer in for what I could afford. The upside is that the crime rate is very low. There's tradeoffs. I don't know how people manage on the low salaries in the high cost areas of the country. The high appraisals do increase taxes but they don't go up as fast as the appraisal has because of the caps. I think that happens everywhere and some places don't have the caps so they can get huge increases in a year. Its hard to argue with the appraised values when similar houses are selling for more.

I just like to talk facts so they can understand what they will be paying. The tax increases are not fact yet.

As for O'Malley, I'm neither for or against. I didn't like Erlich either. Politicians are a necessary evil. It is difficult to know what the tax answer is. As the nation's infrastructure crumbles, we need to start addressing the huge backlog of problems and that takes money. I think I'd feel better if taxes were fairer across the board instead of the very rich paying a smaller percentage than the middle class. MD income taxes follow along with the Fed, so the benefits to the wealthy trickle down to the state. Warren Buffett is publicaly appalled that he pays a substantially smaller percentage of his income without taking any effort to dodge taxes than all of his staff who make normal incomes. But that's a whole other discussion.

[dogdawn135]

Yikes! So MD is not a place to move to, eh? My husband is considering a job down at the Baltimore harbor, decent salary, low 6 figures. We currently live in the SoCal mountains & cost of living is going up (CA in general is outrageous). So we were kinda hoping for a better life for our family (we have a 4yo son). But we also have 2 large dogs, so a town home would not be a good option.
I'm getting the impression that my husband should not pursue this job?

[cutgarden]

Dogdawn, with the salary you're talking, if you lived in Carroll or even northern Baltimore county I think you'd like it. There is a metro train or "subway" that goes from Owings Mills to the Inner Harbor (or very close by... check with someone more familiar with it than myself) The outlying areas around Westminster, Hampstead, and Finksburg are very nice. The school system isn't bad if that matters to you. Homeschooling is also fairly common around here, or at least not unheard of. From Westminster/Finksburg area you're talking roughly an hour commute, maybe a bit less taking the train from O.M. Hope this helps...

[evilgenius]

Check out Bowie, MD. 20 min to DC, 45 to Baltimore, 15 to Annapolis, 3 hours to OC, 1.5 to skiing. Small town feel, good schools, family oriented neighborhoods. I grew up there. It was very central to everything the DC area has to offer while being a little set apart from the hustle, and it's not crazy expensive like Mont. County since it's in PG county.

[jmrk]

My husband and I recently moved to Edgewater, Maryland (very close to Annapolis and only 30 min. from DC) from CA....and I just happen to glance across this website out of curiousity when I saw your post. What a lot of complaining these people are going on about!! Goodness, get over yourselves. Do you realize how most of the world lives? We are blessed to live in a land of abundance and freedom. Let's be grateful instead of grumbling about it! It is absolutely beautiful here in Maryland, we have in fact discovered a wonderful small town atmosphere here, and the people are quite friendly. This area is rich in history and heritage. Your price for a home is a little low for this area, and I would do a little research on realtor. com and perhaps contact a real estate agent.