Moving to Maryland from Washington State (Bowie: house, school, club)

[North Beach Person]

WA state mom, we really could give you a better idea if we knew your price point and the type of house/area (town, suburban style development, rural with a couple or more acres, near the Bay or Patuxent River, etc.).

I would also ask why near Annapolis? Nothing wrong with that, but if it's for just an occasional night out lower Anne Arundel and northern Calvert Counties are close enough (especially AA) for the travel time to not be a real issue. I'm 25 miles from downtown Annapolis, which works out to about a 35 or 40 minute drive most times. Once you get there you'll spend almost as much time finding parking.

[WA state mom]

We will be looking for a rental at first and are more picky about enough room for my 10 and 14 year old to not kill eachother. We are use to a lot of space here, but know that we will have to be flexible when moving. Trying to stay on a lower end of budget $2,000-2,500 a month. It doesn't necessarily have to be close to Annapolis, just not too far North away from his work. The Anne Arundel area looks great for schools, but for affordability in that area I'm not sure what fits the bill? Also, I would love to still do hair so hopefully a great salon in the area.

[TheCaliforniaMarylandPers]

In Davidsonville, you could find homes for rent at that price. The school for Davidsonville is South River High School (which is where I teach) and it is one of Anne Arundel's best schools. Renting in Crofton seems about the same price for a town home with the same amount of beds/baths in a single family Davidsonville home, but their single family homes seem a bit more expensive than Davidsonville's SFH for rent. The schools in Crofton are South River and Arundel. Arundel High is also one of the county's best schools. Renting in Odenton and Gambrills seems like the same way renting in Crofton is. I would suggest some of the Annapolis suburbs on the other side of Annapolis (Arnold, Cape St. Claire, Severna Park, Pasadena), but that may be too far from Upper Marlboro. So it seems your best bet is to rent somewhere in west/upper south Anne Arundel County. Good luck!

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by cjmeck

Yes, its not **exactly** in the middle of the two; it is however in a decent commutable location to both cities. I assumed that was what the OP was looking for...

Fair enough. Crofton is indeed a good option.

[WA state mom]

Ok we're moving to Maryland in January and my husbands office will be moving to Bowie apparently. We have been back and looked at places in Northern Calvert County and we really like it there, but can anyone tell me anything they know about Southern High school vs Northern High School? obviously we are looking in Anne Arundel AND Calvert at this point. I am so confused at to where to buy or rent. It's so hard to find a rental so we might just buy. Any information/opinions on schools and areas would be great.

[TheCaliforniaMarylandPers]

Southern High School is a small rural-ish high school in Harwood. It is only roughly 1,000 students. It looks like it performs really well on paper, and it is also a Maryland and National blue ribbon school. Northern High School is larger, but still fairly small. It's a 10 on greatschools.org, and looks very high performing. However, Harwood and Lothian are like a 30 minute commute to Bowie. The Northern High School zone would be even further. I think you'd be better off somewhere in the Arundel or South River districts to keep your husband's commute to Bowie shorter. Crownsville isn't that far, either.

[cjmeck]

I still think Crofton would be a good bet for you guys. Plus, I saw that you do hair so I imagine you'll want to be close to areas to work. There is a great salon called Robert Andrew in the Crofton area (well, technically its Odenton). If you area still considering Anne Arundel County, I'll throw in the Piney Orchard area of Odenton as well. Those will feed into either Arundel HS or South River HS; you'd focus on 21113 or 21114 zip codes. Check greatschools.org for reviews. I'm not familiar enough with Calvert County to speak on it, but it would seem it would put you farther from Bowie.

[kcmo]

I would have thought that Upper Marlboro schools would be pretty good, same with Bowie. If you have to avoid PG County schools, then I would go for Edgewater or Crofton as both would be okay commutes.

[EducatedBro82]

Crofton and Davidsonville would suit your list... Bowie isnt that good of a school anymore and most parts of Bowie are zoned for DuVal or Flowers as well and arent that great either. Upper Marlboro puts you at Douglass and Wise and both are not good either.

[phoenixmike11]

you might want to post this in the Maryland suburbs of DC for some more responses if you want-- did you goto the University of WA or WA state university- are you all seahawks fans?