Homes In Severn (Columbia, Ellicott City, Elkridge: for sale, house prices, to buy)

[bibyjthoms]

Hi,

I am new to this forum. We are planning to buy a new single family home either in Howard County / Ann Arundel County. We found one home in Ellicott city(Cornerstone builders) and one in Severn (Ryan Home).

Price Range : CornerStone-> $720,000
Ryan Homes>$596,000

We like the area in Howard County more than AA County. But we like the home in Severn (zipcode: 21144) and the community is good in one look, but don't know more details.

I want to know about these builder's homes. I was reading scaring posts all over here aganist Ryan homes?. Is it a bad chose?

Also, I would like to know the growing factor in these two areas. I heard that a lot of people moving to Fort Meade and the price will go up these areas?.

Also, how is serven?

Thanks in advance.....

[Mr. Sparkle]

Interesting. I happened by these forums today searching for posts about Ryan Homes. We are under contract with them in Anne Arundel County, and our house is nearly done. When I'm bored I search for information on them because I am always a little bit worried because of the horror stories I hear about them, but so far our experience has been "mostly good." There have been a few things that irked us about the process so far... but nothing really serious. Still, I am nervous.

I currently live right on the Elkridge, Columbia, Ellicott City border (Where Route 100 and I-95 meet). I can tell you that Columbia/Ellicott City is a great place to live, but unfortunently the house prices reflect that as well. Money Magazine (I think it was that one, may have been something else, but an equally big name) rated Columbia/EC as like #3 best place to live in the whole country last year. I am less experienced with AAC since I don't currently live there (but will soon when our new home is finished). So, Columbia/EC and Howard County in general is "growing" but there is not a lot of room left to grow, so mostly things just get more expensive.
Due to the "Base Realignment and Closing Act (BRAC)" a substanial amount of jobs (somewhere between 5000 and 10000 I think) are moving to Ft. Meade. This will cause huge growth in AAC (where Ft. Meade is located) and neighboring counties.... But you can expect a lot of growing pains with that (the school system is not ready for a sudden influx of several thousand familes). So its a mixed bag, I guess you could say. Search around for info on BRAC to learn more.

[jessy0780]

I live in Ho Co, and if you want to buy- now's the time because of the way the market is. There's a ton of stuff for sale, and prices are negotiable. As for Ryan Homes, I have a Ryan townhome that is 11 years old, and we don't have any major problems.

[newhart]

If you're going to have children in school, you might want to check out the district for your community. At one time, the schools in the Severn area were not considered good at all, especially near Ft. Meade. But that was before a lot of the newer construction in the area, so things could have changed.