Communities in Baltimore 'burbs (Columbia, Towson: section 8, apartment complexes, low crime)

[keyser1070]

My girlfriend and I, currently living in Boston, have been looking at some apartments online in the Baltimore 'burbs. We've identified apartments we like in some communities and we would appreciate any positive or negative feedback (security, amenities, commute time to Inner Harbor in rush hour, etc) on these. I've listed the communities below:

Owings Mills
Pikesville
White Marsh/Nottingham
Cockeysville
Millersville
Perry Hall
Columbia
Westminster

[Zhennie]

Keyser,

I chose White Marsh on your list, but you and your girlfriend might also want to consider Towson and Hunt Valley. Both are really nice, safe, secure areas with lots of amenities. Cockeysville is nice as well. Good luck!

[sobo16]

I second the recommendation to look at Towson, Timonium, and Cockeysville if you are looking for a suburb. There are many apartment communities in these areas.

[nlblueyes]

I currently live in the White Marsh area.. It has a lot of eating/shopping places and it is convenient to I-95 and the Beltway. Towson is another good area with plenty of amenities but there are also a lot of college students. Cockeysville has a large illegal immigrant and section 8 population.

[Tallybalt]

Where are you working?

How much time do you want to spend in daily commutes? The beltway and I-83 get very backed up.

What can you afford?

What do you want out of a community?

Most of the communities you listed are very similiar places: rather homogenous, white-bread suburban communities with plenty of big box stores and chain restaurants. Since you clearly want that kind of environment, you won't go wrong with most of the places you listed.

The I-83/York Road corridor north of the city (starting in Towson, then running through Timonium, Cockeysville and then Hunt Valley) is probably the most upscale of the chain-store communities. There's a plethora of apartment complexes just off York Road. To buy a house is very expensive.

White Marsh and Perry Hall have a more blue-collar element, populated by many people who are one generation removed from the working class (and many self-made people as well). The chains are here, but not as upscale as in Towson or along I-83/York Road.

Owings Mills is a large area encompassing everything from the hunt country of multi-million dollars mansions on rolling acres to section-8 subsidized housing. It's very new, and a popular place for middle class black families to migrate to.

Millersville has expensive waterfront neighborhoods, and modest apartment complexes. Shopping will be big-boxes and chain stores, and there's very little personality. But you are close to Annapolis, which is a charming town.

My vote goes with Columbia. I have a gut instinct you would be very happy in Columbia.

[keyser1070]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Tallybalt, to address some of your questions:
Where are you working?
I'll be working in the Inner Harbor are mostly.

How much time do you want to spend in daily commutes? The beltway and I-83 get very backed up.
I'm looking at a commute time of under an hour each way. That's pretty much what I have at the moment so I'm OK with that. Let me know if any of the places above would rule that out.

What can you afford?
I'm looking for something under $1,300

What do you want out of a community?
I'm pretty laid back on this. Generally a few restaurants (chains and other), bars, some shopping and an easy way to move about. I don't see driving for an hour so to get somewhere to be too bad. The main things I would look for is a relatively quite area with low crime.

If there are other areas we should consider that meets that match please suggest - however the one factor that has limited our search so far is our 40lb dog. Many apartments don't seem to be pet friendly enough for our dog!

[sobo16]

Since you will be working downtown and want to live in the suburbs, you might want to concentrate your seach in Owings Mills, the Timonium/Lutherville area, or Linthicum (near the airport Anne Arundel County).

Owings Mills has the Metro, and there are plans to build a town center there around the Metro stop.

And the Light Rail, which runs North-South, would be an easy commute to downtown as well.

Public transportation will save you some headaches as this area becomes more and more congested.

[nursedianne]

Is College Park not a "burb" of Baltimore?

[newhart]

Originally Posted by nursedianne

Is College Park not a "burb" of Baltimore?

No, it's just to the north of DC and is about 30 miles from Baltimore