Moving to Maryland.. places to live??? (Baltimore, Columbia: sales, townhouse, neighborhood)

[Terri40]

Hi,
My husband and 2 little ones and I are moving to Maryland next month. My husband got a job selling heavy equipment parts and services and his territory is basically all of northern Maryland over to Washington county and to the other end in Cecil. We were given the advice to live somewhere in Frederick county and I think we leaning towards there but I have heard that Hagerstown is very nice as well. I guess I would like some info on any of the northern counties but especially Frederick, Carroll, and Washington counties. We need to find an affordable, safe, nice place to live. Thank you so much for your help and any info would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks again!
Terri

[kdastonjr]

hello
Well Hagerstown is nice I am sure there is a website so you can check out all the stats. i used to live in Randallstown but worked on the MD/PA state line. If you are looking for a nice place to raise childern, quite, not much traffic and close to Frederick MD. Try Taneytown or Westminster MD. you are about 30-45mins SW of Baltimore City. You dont have to deal with the heavy traffic and both towns are very family friendly. Not sure what the housing market is like but I was looking to move there and I found a townhouse for 130K. I always liked Taneytown because it's a small town but Westminster is only 25mins away and they have the Target,Wal-mart,movies, and about 3 bigh shopping centers.

[pkoons]

Out of KDastonJr's recommendations I like Westminster the best. Taneytown is nice, quaint, and inexpensive, but I can't imagine living there... And Hagerstown can be a little rough - not too bad, just less safe than most surrounding areas.

Since you have kids here are my top 5 choices for northern MD...

New Market - Especially the area near Lake Linganore. Nice homes, proximity to the water and major routes, and good schools. Known as the "antiques capital" of MD.

Ijamsville - Frederick County's most expensive address. Very good school district, great golf, not too far from Frederick City and easy access to major roads.

Boonsboro - The nicest place to live in Washington County. You will be close to the conveniences of Frederick and Hagerstown in a more rural setting, but home prices are much higher than Hagerstown.

Mt. Airy - Located at the intersection of Howard, Carroll, Frederick, and Montgomery Counties. Used to be known as a pretty redneck area but really nice now. Building moratorium means most homes have nice amounts of land.

Eldersburg - Really in the Sykesville zip code, this is the most developed (modern) part of Carroll County. Really nice new and old homes, close to western Howard County, and close to Baltimore as well. Even becoming a bedroom community for DC due to lower home prices than Howard Co.

[Mike from back east]

That northern band of Maryland from Cecil County over to Washington County is a nice area. Fairly rural, far enough from Baltimore and DC to be quiet, clean and safe. It will be much more affordable than the DC suburbs, which is generally anywhere within 10 miles of I-70 and south of I-70, from Columbia, MD on the east to Hagerstown on the West.

Frederick is now a DC suburb, Hagerstown is starting to become that way. I think you'd be best off to locate at a central area between the two extremes of the sales territory. I recommend northern Carroll County, in the area of Hampstead, a neat little town with a classic old Main Street. My sister lives there, zip code is 21074, which you can use to do internet searches for property with your favorite tool, my favorite being the realtor site (I'm not in the business in any way). Her town is small. Other small quaint rural towns in that area are Sabillasville, Emmitsburg, Taneytown and Manchester.

If your husband is near retirement age, consider moving up over the line into PA, as they do NOT tax pensions, a very nice advantage. Check local property taxes in PA very carefully before making any decisions, as they vary widely. Nice towns up there are Greencastle (which we almost moved to when we left northern virginia), New Oxford, and Hanover.

PKKOONS listed some nice towns too, we've been to most of them. Both New Market and Mt. Airy are located on I-70, which puts hubby into a better commuting status, but also into some house-price competition with both the DC and Baltimore markets. Hagerstown is a fairly large burg, on the I-81 corridor, and even now some people use it as a bedroom community for DC, but there are stretches of area along I-70 that are low density and very peaceful.

One town not mentioned is Westminster, MD. This is a good sized town, about ten miles from my sister (Hampsted) and has all the usual big box stores and other shopping. I was there on a weekly basis when my Mom spent her final years in a large nursing home there, just below town. In fact, just below Westminster are small burgs like Union Bridge and New Windsor that are very quaint farm-like towns.

Good luck and let us here on the list know how you do and what you decide.

s/Mike

[Terri40]

Thank you all so much for the info and advice!! This will definitely help in trying to figure out where to live. I have heard that New Market is very nice and we will definitely check it out but I'm thinking we may not be able to afford that area. At least not until my hubby starts making big bucks! LOL! Which he will but it may take a little while. I will definitely check out Westminster and surrounding areas as well. Boonsboro sounds great too but not sure we can afford it right now. Well anyhoo thanks again everyone! I really appreciate it!

[pkoons]

Check Realtor.com - Boonsboro is probably cheaper than Westminster, it is just higher than Hagerstown. I recently saw a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house with a sun room & hot tub on an acre for under $275K... the same house would be over $300K in Westminster easily (and probably pushing $600K where I live...ouch!)

I think the neighborhood my family lives in in Westminster is called Chazadale South - nice homes on big plots of land, probably $325-400K.

New Market, though, is expensive. You can still find decent townhomes and old ranchers in the $300K range if you're lucky.

Good luck!

[jenne03]

My friends live out and Frederick and really like it...Since housing prices are ghastly in Maryland...they bought a townhome...it is in a real nice community. They said their money goes farther there. Cecil county is nice...however, one thing to pay attention too when you are looking..there are parts of Cecil county that are very racist.

When we moved here, we looked in the Carrol county area also. Well we looked in all areas. We were in housing price shock. It depends what you want. ..but the Eldersburg -Sykesville are didn't appeal to us..because there wasn't a lot of convenience shopping wise. Westminster has much more convenience shopping wise..I loved the look of Mt. Airy...though I thought it was expensive<like all of maryland> but I can't remember.

[lookiehere]

Since you have kids, I wuld suggest my town, Ellicott City, pop. 56,000. It's in Howard County, which is known across the country for its great schools. Also, since it sounds like your husband will be working all over the place, Ellicott City would be good, because it is located in Central MD. Prices on houses are high, but there are some very nice new town homes that are very reasonably priced. If you like safe, friendly suburban towns, Ellicott City is the place for you!

[kdastonjr]

yea Pkoons has great recommendations and I 4got about Eldersburg. I just left B'more county (Randallstown) and used to drive through Eldersburg alot, and its very nice

[blackpeach]

you can try :

-rockville
-potomac
-gaithesburg
-germantown
-darnestown
-silver spring
-ellicott city

montgomery county has a wonderful schools known to be at the top of good education,school programs and activities
and i think you will be please because theses cities are load of good restaurants, gym center, shopping mall , grocery stores, entertainment facilities and of course great museum and night clubs..
hope i've helped