How high of a salary would it take you to move to Baltimore? (Columbia: middle-class, rent)

[roamviet]

Well you may already be in Baltimore, but if you were not then what type of money would it take you to move there?

Currently myself, my wife, and one year old live in metro Atlanta. Our suburb is exploding, our home has doubled in value since locldowns began, new stores are going up everywhere, and we rent out an in law suite at our home for over 1.5x our mortgage! My wife works for a fortune 50 headquartered here, we have good friends, and family within reasonable driving distance. All this to say it's a very desirable place and we love where were at.

Fall of 2020 I was approached by a company in Linthicum Heights. I interviewed and was offered the job, but turned it down because a family member became really sick. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and their HR reached out again to see if I would reconsider this position. Well my initial reaction was no, but I decided to reach out to the person who got the position in 2020 and pick their brain. Nothing sold me till I asked, and he gave me, the salary he was making and my eyes lit up.

Considering a fairly lateral career position move, from a job you like, and a city you love, how much higher salary would it take to convince you to move to Baltimore? 20%, 50%, 100%, 5000%?

How much is a good upper middle class household income in Baltimore greater. I see median household income in Locust Point is listed as $142k and $116k in Federal Hill, which seems really low. I don't know much about Baltimore but on visits these neighborhoods seemed decent and a reasonable drive. Median household income in my current city is $174k and there has been only two recorded murders in the last 10 years.

Bottom line, what kind of pay bump would it take you to consider moving to Baltimore and what kind of household income would it take a young upwardly mobile couple to live carefree in Baltimore greater?

[Hemlock140]

Where we live the median income is the same as yours, $174k, and median home price is now $1.9 million. More importantly, we have very low crime, rate of 0.25 per 1,000 residents. I have been to Baltimore, though not recently, and was not impressed. Their crime rate today is 31.36 per 1000 residents. I wouldn't move there for any amount of money.

[ion475]

You live in Metro Atlanta suburbs...and trying to compare that to the middle of an urban area?

You should look at numbers out in Howard County or something like that for an apple to apple comparison. I can't really think of an apple-to-apple comparison to Federal Hill/Locust Point in Atlanta either (Midtown is much more urbanized while Buckhead is way more expensive). A zip like 21029 (Clarksville in Howard County) is something like 187k median household income, comparable to whatever place the OP came from (I'm assuming Alpharetta/Milton area? I can't find any other zip in GA that has that high of median household income that's not in Buckhead).

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by roamviet

Considering a fairly lateral career position move, from a job you like, and a city you love,
how much higher salary would it take to convince you to move to <wherever>

You're looking in the wrong direction.

You wouldn't be moving to Baltimore... you would be living in Howard County.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_County,_Maryland
That public school system is reason enough to set up there.

Three or four times a year you'll go to a Ballgame or theater event (etc) downtown.
Most of that stuff will probably draw you down to DC.

[GunsMass]

If your job were based in Linthicum Heights, with a household income of 174k, you could easily live in the suburbs, e.g., Columbia or Annapolis area, without concern for the crime rates within Baltimore City, and with a better chance of upward mobility given the share of people in those areas who work a DC job.

[DXBtoFL]

Linthicum Heights, while technically part of the Baltimore region, has many defense contracting or general government contracting firms feeding off the DC behemoth. Their salaries are going to reflect DC market expectations, which will be significantly higher than in Atlanta. Whether it's high enough to offset the higher cost of living, especially housing, in the better nearby suburbs, is a different story.

I would think most 6-fig income employees in Linthicum Height live in either Howard or Anne Arundel Counties, not Baltimore City. The young singles may live in Federal Hill or Locust Point or Canton for a few years before moving to the suburbs to have a family. A six-figure income is excellent for an urban area and cannot be compared to a suburban town with nearly 100% SFH housing stock and minimal socioeconomic diversity. There are *plenty* of people in Federal Hill or Canton who make more than most people in Howard or Anne Arundel. And Baltimore's Buckhead is north of the city in Baltimore County, including the northern portions of the city itself.

Either way, I can tell you're looking for a reason not to move to Baltimore, and that is the answer for you.

[island_maryland]

Originally Posted by roamviet

Well you may already be in Baltimore, but if you were not then what type of money would it take you to move there?

Currently myself, my wife, and one year old live in metro Atlanta. Our suburb is exploding, our home has doubled in value since locldowns began, new stores are going up everywhere, and we rent out an in law suite at our home for over 1.5x our mortgage! My wife works for a fortune 50 headquartered here, we have good friends, and family within reasonable driving distance. All this to say it's a very desirable place and we love where were at.

Fall of 2020 I was approached by a company in Linthicum Heights. I interviewed and was offered the job, but turned it down because a family member became really sick. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and their HR reached out again to see if I would reconsider this position. Well my initial reaction was no, but I decided to reach out to the person who got the position in 2020 and pick their brain. Nothing sold me till I asked, and he gave me, the salary he was making and my eyes lit up.

Considering a fairly lateral career position move, from a job you like, and a city you love, how much higher salary would it take to convince you to move to Baltimore? 20%, 50%, 100%, 5000%?

How much is a good upper middle class household income in Baltimore greater. I see median household income in Locust Point is listed as $142k and $116k in Federal Hill, which seems really low. I don't know much about Baltimore but on visits these neighborhoods seemed decent and a reasonable drive. Median household income in my current city is $174k and there has been only two recorded murders in the last 10 years.

Bottom line, what kind of pay bump would it take you to consider moving to Baltimore and what kind of household income would it take a young upwardly mobile couple to live carefree in Baltimore greater?

Your post doesn't make a lot of sense. You do NOT have to live in Baltimore to take this job. If you are used to living in a middle/upper-middle class low crime neighborhood and like that lifestyle, you would HATE Baltimore with a passion and probably most other urban areas as well.
What you are really asking is "Would I want to move to Maryland and work someplace in commuting range of Linthicum Heights", which is a vastly different question.
In commuting range of your proposed work site, you have:
Downtown Baltimore
Annapolis
Kent Island (an island across the Bay from the Baltimore area)
Baltimore County
Anne Arundel County

Ellicot City
Howard County


This includes expensive suburban neighborhoods, REALLY expensive suburban neighborhoods, working class neighborhoods, rural areas, an island, places with world-class schools, places with terrible schools, a colonial-era state capitol with 17th and 18th century housing stock, abandoned rowhouses, houses on an airport where you can pull your plane into your garage, horse farms, places where you never need to lock your house, places where just one armed guard isn't enough, and a whole bunch more.


To make it a little easier, do you have kids or think you might have kids, schools are EVERYTHING. We have some areas with amazing schools and some with horrible schools. Generally you pay for it with property values, but not always. Once you get past a certain level of income people are OK with paying $18k-$24K a year for private schools, so it isn't 100% that expensive house = good school.


How much is enough is a hard question to answer. Despite grinding poverty in a lot of Baltimore, this is a wealthy area overall. I would say that under 6 figures you won't be happy here from the sounds of it. A typical middle-class neighborhood here will have a lot of $150K-$200K family income people.



I think you really need to take a week and come up here and drive around and see a lot of places. We can describe a lot, but you really need to see some of it for yourself.


You could live here:



Or here:



Or here:




Or here:



Or here:

[ion475]

Originally Posted by island_maryland

This includes expensive suburban neighborhoods, REALLY expensive suburban neighborhoods, working class neighborhoods, rural areas, an island, places with world-class schools, places with terrible schools, a colonial-era state capitol with 17th and 18th century housing stock, abandoned rowhouses, houses on an airport where you can pull your plane into your garage, horse farms, places where you never need to lock your house, places where just one armed guard isn't enough, and a whole bunch more.
Or here:

I guess I'm way too new to this area and didn't even know this exist .

I'm actually thinking about Kent Island myself commuting to BWI area...maybe I should get one of those house and fly to work, so I don't have to deal with possible Bay Bridge traffic.

[skeddy]

Originally Posted by ion475

I guess I'm way too new to this area and didn't even know this exist .

I'm actually thinking about Kent Island myself commuting to BWI area...maybe I should get one of those house and fly to work, so I don't have to deal with possible Bay Bridge traffic.

Route 97 from 50 toward Baltimore is probably worse than Bay Bridge traffic.

[james777]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

Where we live the median income is the same as yours, $174k, and median home price is now $1.9 million. More importantly, we have very low crime, rate of 0.25 per 1,000 residents. I have been to Baltimore, though not recently, and was not impressed. Their crime rate today is 31.36 per 1000 residents. I wouldn't move there for any amount of money.

Yeah, and I wouldn't move to Settle for any amount of money. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't even visit your #$%^&* city.