Can you live on $80,000 a year in Frederick or Howard County? (Baltimore: for sale, real estate)

[bjohn209]

I posted here not too long ago saying that I was interviewing for a federal job in DC. I was offered the job at a GS-12 with a salary of $80,000. (This was after some negotiation--the initial offer was lower.)

I accepted the job and am now looking for a place to live. My wife and I are attracted to Frederick and Howard counties. We realize that the tradeoff of living further out from work is a longer commute, but we've concluded that living out that far would be much more affordable. Would you say that's a valid conclusion?

Is there anyone out there with experience living on $80,000 in those areas? Will things work on $80,000? Are they good areas for families? Positive and negative opinions welcome. Thanks in advance.

[TarHeelColt]

Does your wife work too?

[bjohn209]

No. My wife is a stay-at-home mom. Good questions: We have 2 young kids--a 3-year-old and a nearly one-year-old. We live very modestly and have no debt.

[sobo16]

Originally Posted by bjohn209

I posted here not too long ago saying that I was interviewing for a federal job in DC. I was offered the job at a GS-12 with a salary of $80,000. (This was after some negotiation--the initial offer was lower.)

I accepted the job and am now looking for a place to live. My wife and I are attracted to Frederick and Howard counties. We realize that the tradeoff of living further out from work is a longer commute, but we've concluded that living out that far would be much more affordable. Would you say that's a valid conclusion?

Is there anyone out there with experience living on $80,000 in those areas? Will things work on $80,000? Are they good areas for families? Positive and negative opinions welcome. Thanks in advance.

The decision to live further out to afford more house is of course up to each family, but yes, Howard and Frederick Counties are generally nice places to live. Just realize that your commute will make your work days very long. I strongly recommend taking the MARC train and/or the metro instead of driving. The roads get very congested here, especially in the evening rush hour.

[TarHeelColt]

Originally Posted by bjohn209

No. My wife is a stay-at-home mom. Good questions: We have 2 young kids--a 3-year-old and a nearly one-year-old. We live very modestly and have no debt.

Well Ill give you my scenario. I recently relocated to the Maryland area from TN as a federal gov't employee and make close to 80k myself. My wife also works and she makes close to 70k. We dont have any kids...yet. I would say that those areas are much more affordable. We have been looking mostly in the areas of New Market and Frederick thus far and those areas seem to be suited for raising a family. On 80k it can be done but the quality of homes you get here are going to be much different than what you're used to depending on the price range you're looking in. Its just very expensive here compared to where we came from.

[tonyc]

My sis-in-law owns/lives in 5 year old TH in Fredderick, and does fine making probably close to 75k. However, she doesn't spend a bad penny and has no kids.

[NJ2MDdude]

Originally Posted by bjohn209

I posted here not too long ago saying that I was interviewing for a federal job in DC. I was offered the job at a GS-12 with a salary of $80,000. (This was after some negotiation--the initial offer was lower.)

I accepted the job and am now looking for a place to live. My wife and I are attracted to Frederick and Howard counties. We realize that the tradeoff of living further out from work is a longer commute, but we've concluded that living out that far would be much more affordable. Would you say that's a valid conclusion?

Is there anyone out there with experience living on $80,000 in those areas? Will things work on $80,000? Are they good areas for families? Positive and negative opinions welcome. Thanks in advance.

I think it's doable, especially if your job is non-compete to GS-13 and your agency provides its employees a quarterly transportation subsidy. If you also have equity, then your transition should be easy.

[Kamaaina]

$80K is certainly do-able, however a lot will depend on what you will pay in either rent or mortgage. Which means you are correct to look at different areas for housing.

Howard County (along with Montgomery County) is one of the most affluent in the nation - i.e. expensive. Commuting into DC by car is an hour minimum each way each day; double it if there is bad traffic (no joke). Frederick County is more affordable and a nice place to live, however it's become an enormous bedroom community and as such has lots of traffic congestion getting to the Beltway every day. Two recommendations: consider the MARC train as suggested above, however the lines from western Maryland are notorious for being off schedule (long story; CSX has the right-of-way for rail traffic). However, the lines which run from and beyond Baltimore are reliable - and Harford County and everything east/northeast of Baltimore is very affordable and nice.

The second suggestion: consider south of DC. I lived in Charles County for three years and it's very affordable and still "undiscovered" by much of the suburban expansion in this state. Your $80K would go a long way in that part of the state.

[cpterp]

Frederick maybe (if you live in the more rural areas), Howard not so much. Howard is the wealthiest county in Maryland, and 3rd wealthiest in the country.

[paposo]

Originally Posted by bjohn209

I posted here not too long ago saying that I was interviewing for a federal job in DC. I was offered the job at a GS-12 with a salary of $80,000. (This was after some negotiation--the initial offer was lower.)

I accepted the job and am now looking for a place to live. My wife and I are attracted to Frederick and Howard counties. We realize that the tradeoff of living further out from work is a longer commute, but we've concluded that living out that far would be much more affordable. Would you say that's a valid conclusion?

Is there anyone out there with experience living on $80,000 in those areas? Will things work on $80,000? Are they good areas for families? Positive and negative opinions welcome. Thanks in advance.

Yes it will be doable in Frederick/Howard.
However, housing prices went up here recently.

Frederick, MD Real Estate on Yahoo! Real Estate - Houses for Sale & more
Go the the link above and take a look at the 10 Year Market Value Change.

(another nice link)
http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Fr...market-trends/

When I lived in frederick in early 2000 housing was dirt cheap. 100K for a really nice new townhouse, but by 2006/2007 townhouses were going for 3x that amount in the low 300K. Don't get pulled into an expensive proposition because you'll get stuck with something that won't be worth that much in a few years.
Frederick has undergone a huge amount of overbuilding since the late 90's so there's ALOT of places to choose from. Unfortunately theres alot of people 'underwater' who aren't selling. Just be smart about where you live.

Also figure in about $400 a month in overhead for commuting costs into your budget back and forth to D.C./lower montgomery county.