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I'm relocating to DC to take a job in Capitol Hill (near Union Station). I am looking at buying a home in the MD Burbs -- Baltimore County seems least expensive --- and commuting to DC by commuter rail. I have about 260K to spend. I also have 2 young children (elementary age) and a spouse who is in the medical/healthcare field. Any opinions (neighborhoods, home prices, crime, commute, anything, etc, etc)? Thanks in advance!
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
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Howard county is ur best option if u have kids. has the best schools in MD. PG's schools are bad and Mont. Co. schools are very overrated and not that much better than PG. don't know much bout Balt Co. Howard is closer than Balt Co in terms of commuting.
Howard county is ur best option if u have kids. has the best schools in MD. PG's schools are bad and Mont. Co. schools are very overrated and not that much better than PG. don't know much bout Balt Co. Howard is closer than Balt Co in terms of commuting.
Thanks. But the thing is, as I mentioned in my post, 260K is what I can spend. Howard County IS nice, but can I get anything decent, safe for 260K in Howard Co.? I think not, based on my research in Howard . . .
Though some people do use it as one, Baltimore County isn't really a suburb of DC at all. You could very easily be looking at a 2-hour door-to-door commute each way to Capitol Hill from there. You might want to look into the idea of renting first until you are sure you can handle that. You are right that home ownership in the DC area on $260K is going to be a challenge, one that will take some work and research. Again if you were renting, you'd have a base of operations to work from, and, bad as moving at all is, it's a lot easier to move from one rental situation to another than from one ownership situation to another. I'd say play it cautious, as what you're looking for is hard to find, and you could end up letting the money factor drive you into something that you'd later regret. If you could deal with being a tenant for a while, I think you'd have some time to get the lay of the land and end up being able to make a better ownership decision for the long run. Even when looking for a needle in a haystack, the object is to end up with a needle, not just some old sharp stick...
I'm relocating to DC to take a job in Capitol Hill (near Union Station). I am looking at buying a home in the MD Burbs -- Baltimore County seems least expensive --- and commuting to DC by commuter rail. I have about 260K to spend. I also have 2 young children (elementary age) and a spouse who is in the medical/healthcare field. Any opinions (neighborhoods, home prices, crime, commute, anything, etc, etc)? Thanks in advance!
You might wanna actually make the commute before you decide to move. Thats a doozy with traffic every morning. Columbia not bad but you have to leave early every morning or take the Marc Train which isn't too far away to union station. You might wanna look into Nova as well....
You can find a house in Montgomery County. Good schools, easiest commute, lots of health care jobs. Feel free to contact with questions.
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