Moving to Maryland and need advice! (Baltimore, Odenton: apartments, rent, home)

[armclaur]

My husband and I are moving from Indiana to Maryland in January. He will be working in D.C. and I will be working at the John Hopkins in Maryland. What would be a good area to look into as far as living? We will be living an apartment for a year until we are more familiar with the area and decide on a house. We found a couple of nice apartments in Odenton. It's hard to find apartments that have gotten decent ratings in other areas. We are also interested in public transportation to our work places. Any information would be wonderful!

[NJ2MDdude]

The State of Maryland runs a commuter service between Baltimore and DC called the MARC train service. Yesterday, the state announced that it would be scaling back the service:

MTA plans to reduce MARC service, cut six bus routes -- baltimoresun.com (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/traffic/bal-mta1016,0,2854649.story - broken link)

[PenguinSix]

My view on 'split the difference' living is that it ends up with both people equally tired. You get home and would like some dinner but both of you are too tired to cook, or clean, or sort out the bills, etc.

My general advice, perhaps when you are ready to buy, is that you find a 'home' close to one or the other's place of work. One person has a longer commute, one the shorter. The shorter commuter is responsible for more of the 'around the home' things.

That said, you really have a lot of options in that there is a train between DC and Baltimore. I'd try to find someplace along the line.

What is your budget?

[armclaur]

well, for an apartment, no more than $2,000 a month. We want to make sure we are happy with our jobs and the area before we take out a mortgage. Luckily, I only work 3 days a week at the hospital, so I will only be commuting 3 times a week.

[Kensington]

If you only have to commute up to Baltimore three days a week, I would definitely live close to DC. The key for you is to be close to the beltway so you get to either 95N or 295N quickly. You would have a reverse commute out to Baltimore. If you want something more urban you could do an apartment in downtown silver spring and be right by a metro stop.

You might also consider something in Arlington, VA. I'd rent in South Arlington near Crystal City or Pentagon City metros. Your husband would be super close to downtown dc, and you could drive out to Baltimore taking 395N to 295N.