Chesapeake Beach, Maryland (Frederick, Annapolis, Dunkirk: rentals, crime, house)

[Idaho guy]

Hi everyone...I am looking at transferring to Washington DC to work. Married with 3 small kids. I keep hearing about Chesapeake Beach area as a great place to live and commute to DC. Can anyone confirm? Crime? Looking at the 450 K range for a house. Thank you in advance!

[North Beach Person]

The commute can be a pain, there are commuter buses contracted by the State. A house in your price range is very doable. Chesapeake Beach and North Beach share a Sheriff's detachment, based temporarily in CB until NB builds a new town hall. Crime is your typical small town variety, some low level theft from cars, a very small number of breaking and enterings, domestic disputes, low level drug dealing. Small grocery store, specialty stores in both towns, Subway, mini-McDonalds, Dominos, Papa John's, local restaurants. Ten miles away is are the two local big chain groceries (Safeway and Giant). The County seat of Prince Frederick (12 miles) has those plus more national chain restaurants plus some locals. Nearest mall is Annapolis about 25 miles.

[PenguinSix]

The commute is do-able but it can get old. It helps a lot if you have a bit of flexibility in your hours, say 9:30 to 6:30 is much better than 8:30 to 5:30, etc.

Most of the restaurants here are cheap fast food or cheap sit down. If you want some Thai food or something a bit nicer you'll be in for a bit of a drive. Dunkirk and PF, both about a 10 minute drive, have big groceries and Walmart and other things like that, though for more speciality shopping you'll probably head to Annapolis or DC itself.

Crime is mostly mickey-mouse kind of stuff. I think the county has a few murders a year (i.e. < 6), but usually heat of passion between folks, domestic disputes, etc. Not sure when the last 'random' murder was. Other than that mostly small town stuff. Small break ins, a few druggies, random packs of kids hanging around occasionally vandalizing a car because they are bored, etc. I think you'll have a greater risk of a car accident than a crime.

It's rural by Maryland standards (which is 'rural, but with commuter buses' which is sort of at odds with one another in my book). Probably not the same kind of rural as the Midwest or the Great Plains but you'll see a few tractors and wildlife now and then.

I think 450 is more than do-able. You might want to start comparing schools and looking at the Calvert County school map to see where you want to live. I think Mt. Harmony Elementary is one of the better ones in the state (Dunkirk, Owings area) but Beach Elementary isn't that bad. Depends on the ages of the kids.

My one bit of advice applies to everyone moving--RENT FIRST if at all possible. Even if for only a month or three, you'll learn far more with your feet on the ground than rushing into a house in an area you are not certain about. You'll see something great on paper but when you get there you discover the 'swamp gas' really is strong at night. Or the fire station is next door and they love to hit the sirens at all hours of the night, etc. The only down side is that rentals in the Beach are (were) not always as popular. There might be a few more available now (haven't looked) given the economy.

Good luck with your choice.

[Idaho guy]

Thank you for the replies..very helpful.

[tercel95]

Chesapeake beach is a great place to live and it seems like you have enough money to buy a nice house there... Also the schools are some of the best in MD... The commute will be a little rough but the pros of living there should easily outweigh that one con...