Moving to Maryland, like so many. (Waldorf, Leonardtown: relocation company, houses, safe neighborhoods)

[bcody]

My husband will be working at Pax River. We are looking for a nice, safe place in the area (up to 30 minute commute) that has great schools.

We are coming from Texas, pretty rural area so I think the country life of southern Maryland will be OK. I know the houses cost more up there, has the recession effected prices any?

Our first priority is good schools, safe neighborhood and not horrendous commute for my husband, any suggestions as to where to go?

Thank you!

[tercel95]

You are lucky in my opinion you are moving to the nicest area in MD... What is your budget? What size house are you looking for? You really have a lot of options, I lived in Southern MD for 8 years and worked at PAX River NAS... The schools all around the area are top notch... Even the worst high school in the area is still better than most... The best school in St. Marys county is Leonardtown so you might want to look into houses around there, you also avoid the commute over the Solomons bridge which is pretty rough...

If you want the best public school in the area I would check out Lusby, that feeds to Patuxent High school... I am a bit partial because I graduated from there but the school is amazing... It is extremely safe, the facility is nice, the faculty are top notch, it has an awesome AP program, an excellent marching band and the third highest ranked NJROTC unit in the country...

Also in terms of safe neighborhoods in Calvert or St. Mary's county you really have to go out of your way to find any rough areas... In St. Marys just stay away from Great Mills road and you should be fine...

[bcody]

Thanks for the information! The size house is not as important as layout, we figure 2500 sqft, give or take. I would love 10 acres with a barn, but know that is not going to happen, so at least an acre. I am guessing around 400,000, I do not want to go over that, and would love to go under but figuring that as the average range. Is Leonardtown schools better then mechanicsville? Is Lusby a part of Leonardstown?

Thanks again for the help. I am excited about moving, but nervous for how the kids will do.

[North Beach Person]

Lusby-Calvert County
Leonardtown-St. Mary's County


Don't know where you're coming from but school systems in MD are drawn along county lines so the two areas are in different school systems. Leonardtown is an incorporated municipality while Lusby is not (it's considered a Town Center, a zoning classification). Calvert in general has higher ranked schools than St. Mary's but really not by much. Both counties have the usual modern ills of drug use and disconnected teens and minor crime. St. Mary's more so, maybe because of the base.

Your desire for a larger area (acres) combined with price is probably more doable in southern St. Mary's rather than Calvert.

Living in Lusby would have your husband crossing the Thomas Johnson Bridge over the Patuxent and that can be a pain 3 days out of 5.

[rick12]

I live in Waldorf and I can help you find something in a safe place. I have been here since 1995 and believe me I understand. This is my field of work and I will make sure you will get what you want.

[dawnmich]

i was having trouble finding schools with jrotc in maryland.
is Paxtuctant the only one?

[tercel95]

Originally Posted by dawnmich

i was having trouble finding schools with jrotc in maryland.
is Paxtuctant the only one?

Patuxent has Navy, Calvert has Navy, Great Mills has Navy, Leonardtown has Army, Chopticon has Air Force... You were asking about Southern MD right?

[bcody]

We have our house in Texas on the market, and as soon as we have an offer on it we will take a house hunting trip. I am going to need a good vet lined up for our move, one of my dogs is diabetic, any suggestions? Rick12, what realestate compnay do you work for? i ask because we need to go through the relocation company. Now, I need to check out were Waldorf is! Being in a rural area of Texas, our schools have kids from a wide range of area in them, my kids school covers a huge area and many different towns, so I guess it will be different there, one more thing to get use to! I m guessing I will have to learn to tolerate traffic again, there is not much of that around here.

I am sure I will request more help, thank you all for your assistance.

[tercel95]

Originally Posted by bcody

We have our house in Texas on the market, and as soon as we have an offer on it we will take a house hunting trip. I am going to need a good vet lined up for our move, one of my dogs is diabetic, any suggestions? Rick12, what realestate compnay do you work for? i ask because we need to go through the relocation company. Now, I need to check out were Waldorf is! Being in a rural area of Texas, our schools have kids from a wide range of area in them, my kids school covers a huge area and many different towns, so I guess it will be different there, one more thing to get use to! I m guessing I will have to learn to tolerate traffic again, there is not much of that around here.

I am sure I will request more help, thank you all for your assistance.

Waldorf is probably last on the list of places I would recommend in Southern MD... It can be expensive there, higher concentration of crime, worse schools, and it is about an hour drive from Pax River

[bcody]

Thanks tercel, I think we are going to be looking in Leanordtown or Mechanicsville, any information on schools and neighborhoods in those places?