Best place in MD to rent a single-family house for $750/mo? (Baltimore: neighborhood, theatres)

[North Beach Person]

Here's the problem whenever this type of question comes up (ignoring the unrealistic rent number for 99% of the state): definitions.

What's meant by "amenities" and "shopping"? Is that groceries? If so, how many and what kind (the regional ones here like Giant or do you also want Trader Joe's and Whole Foods)?

What kind of "shopping". Basics or quaint shoppes that change when the lease expires?

What kind of "amenities"? A money losing performing arts center and regular disruptive street fairs or the typical Friday night high school sports?

Medical care? The typical rural hospital that can treat 95% of the people that come through its doors with doctors who know when to send the remaining 5% for specialty care or a trauma center with a helipad?

[G1..]

Originally Posted by GunsMass

By 'best' place I mean closest to amenities (medical, shopping, &c), safest (not West Baltimore), but without regard to proximity to jobs. For the sake of this, let's say I can work from any location.

By single-family home I do not mean trailer. But, any size otherwise will do, as long as it's not attached to another house and includes at least 50 ft between the nearest neighbor.

Areas adjacent to MD can be considered, as well as anywhere in the USA if you've special insight.

If you don't know rents per se, than assume this would be an area with home prices that average $150,000 or less.

Other than these criteria, consider that it does not 'depend' on any other factors of my person. Please just answer what you yourself would consider the best area meeting them. Happy Christmas.

There is none.

[GunsMass]

I should have just asked, "Where is the least ****ty place that these places exist?" If you read the thread, you'd see they do. I'm only asking whether it's best to live far NW, W, SE, PA, DE, &c.

It's obviously not an easy question. Those answering 'NONE LOL' aren't as clever as they wish to seem.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by GunsMass

I should have just asked, "Where is the least ****ty place that these places exist?" If you read the thread, you'd see they do. I'm only asking whether it's best to live far NW, W, SE, PA, DE, &c.

It's obviously not an easy question. Those answering 'NONE LOL' aren't as clever as they wish to seem.

Of course these places exist. They are just so far afield from the typical suburban bubble life experience that they might as well be invisible to some people.

Check out Trulia today. Lots of options close to your price range. You would have to compromise on the distance to neighbors for most of them, but otherwise you have options all over town that meet or are close to your price range.

https://www.trulia.com/for_rent/Cumberland,MD/

[Lemminkainen86]

I get the sense that this is a test thread and that you're not actually looking. $750 is a hard price to find for a single family home almost anywhere in the US, let alone Maryland.


Maybe, maybe, you could find something out in the boonies between Garrett and Washington counties, or out in very isolated areas of the Eastern Shore like Somerset and Dorchester counties where transportation infrastructure isn't well-developed and where both population and job opportunities are sparse.


If you find something to rent below $1,000 it's likely to be in very poor condition and the landlord likely has no intentions to improve the place. That price range simply does not cover the costs of operating a rental unit or providing any cash flow to make it worth the risk.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by Lemminkainen86

I get the sense that this is a test thread and that you're not actually looking. $750 is a hard price to find for a single family home almost anywhere in the US, let alone Maryland.


Maybe, maybe, you could find something out in the boonies between Garrett and Washington counties, or out in very isolated areas of the Eastern Shore like Somerset and Dorchester counties where transportation infrastructure isn't well-developed and where both population and job opportunities are sparse.


If you find something to rent below $1,000 it's likely to be in very poor condition and the landlord likely has no intentions to improve the place. That price range simply does not cover the costs of operating a rental unit or providing any cash flow to make it worth the risk.

Cumberland! Not Garrett, tourism raises the rent. Not Washington Co., Hagerstown is too close to the metro markets.

CUMBERLAND is your sweet spot in Maryland at that low price point. When you can buy those places for 60k or less, you can rent them out from $750 a month. I would personally live on some on the streets and in the properties in the link I posted above. No, they aren't 21st century builds. No, they won't be updated to the taste and preference of a Maryland suburbanite. But they do exist and people live there and are quite happy and fulfilled.

I know our concerns out here are mostly ignored in downstate Maryland, but I had no idea our entire community was invisible to basic Google searching for rent prices.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

Cumberland! Not Garrett, tourism raises the rent. Not Washington Co., Hagerstown is too close to the metro markets.

CUMBERLAND is your sweet spot in Maryland at that low price point. When you can buy those places for 60k or less, you can rent them out from $750 a month. I would personally live on some on the streets and in the properties in the link I posted above. No, they aren't 21st century builds. No, they won't be updated to the taste and preference of a Maryland suburbanite. But they do exist and people live there and are quite happy and fulfilled.

I know our concerns out here are mostly ignored in downstate Maryland, but I had no idea our entire community was invisible to basic Google searching for rent prices.

Yes, but are you close to shopping, medical and other amenities? Plus, do you have a thriving arts and cultural scene?

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Yes, but are you close to shopping, medical and other amenities? Plus, do you have a thriving arts and cultural scene?

Actually.....yes. Many of those houses are within walking distance to stores, both functional and recreational. Cumberland has a newer hospital (10 years old roughly) and medical offices clustered around it in the city limits. We have several theatres and art galleries in the city as well.

There is never a shortage of things to do, places to go, things to see. I sincerely question how many of our detractors are actually frequent attenders of art shows, theatre productions, and so forth. I am willing to bet I catch more live theatre and attend more art exhibitions each year than the vast majority of the people in this forum, all without leaving my home county.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

Actually.....yes. Many of those houses are within walking distance to stores, both functional and recreational. Cumberland has a newer hospital (10 years old roughly) and medical offices clustered around it in the city limits. We have several theatres and art galleries in the city as well.

There is never a shortage of things to do, places to go, things to see. I sincerely question how many of our detractors are actually frequent attenders of art shows, theatre productions, and so forth. I am willing to bet I catch more live theatre and attend more art exhibitions each year than the vast majority of the people in this forum, all without leaving my home county.

Go back a few posts and see what I said about definitions. Friday night football still doesn't count as "art".

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Go back a few posts and see what I said about definitions. Friday night football still doesn't count as "art".

Now you're just trolling again.............

Check this guy out. My wife and I know him personally. We got an invitation to his show last year, and then followed it up with a personal tour of a private art collection in town from a family acquaintance in attendance that rivals that of small museums.

Hilmar Gottesthal

...........then we went to the football game


But seriously, I didn't get to any football games this year for the first time in a decade. I did get to see the #1 and #4 ranked high school boys basketball teams in the country play at my Alma mater, also in the city limits, last season though.