Anyone moved from Deep South before? (Baltimore, Silver Spring: fit in, condo, credit)

[lasershen111]

Originally Posted by pgtitans

As far as the schools are concerned, if you want good schools, be prepared to pay. As with most places, getting into a good school district is going to cost you some money. Montgomery County has an overall good school system, but it is largely successful because of schools in places like Bethesda, which to be honest, is probably out of your price range. You may find a decent place in Rockville. I'm not a big expert on Rockville, so I will let someone else address it, but from what I know you definitely have to be careful to what part you decide to move to.

What he said... :-)

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by CaniMove

Best High Schools in the US | Top US High Schools | US News & World Report

here's a link on high schools. According to the list, Maryland is not too bad nationally. I don't need my kid to go to the best of the best, and I believe parenting has more to do with outcome than what school you go to as a child. But wife and I get excited when we consider moving because of what our child can be exposed to for educational and personal development somewhere vs where we are currently.

We are going to look at Dallas and Atlanta too. Just started the search last week, and haven't had much time because I didn't expect to get a call from DC after sending my resume. I've spent a good deal of my evenings this week researching your area. I'm going to direct focus on the other locations tonight.

We have exclaimed so many times this week, "how in the hell are people able to afford a life up there!" But we realize there has to be some draw to that area because people are indeed living there and not thinking about moving down here.

I wouldn't put a lot of weight to those rankings. Maryland has some good schools systems, but a lot of those national rankings has flawed ways of assessing and really don't give you a clear picture of what each individual school provides. MD may have great schools but we also have some poor school system too.

Check these sites out. You can find out more about school districts, individuals schools, test scores, FARM rates, demographics, etc.

Maryland Schools - Find a Public or Private Maryland School - SchoolDigger.com
Maryland Schools - Maryland State School Ratings - Public and Private

[goldenage1]

Originally Posted by CaniMove

We have exclaimed so many times this week, "how in the hell are people able to afford a life up there!".

One factor is that a large percentage of married women with children have full time jobs. With an $80K income in Bethesda, one really needs a second wage earner to have a middle-class standard of living. There are many young kids left with nannys, and some areas have few stay-at-home moms.

[CaniMove]

Originally Posted by pgtitans

.....I will preface this by saying that everyone isn't bad up here. I think depending on where in this area you live in, you get a different type of setting. For the most part, the closer you are to DC the more you will feel the northern culture, but as you go further out in the some of the more spread out suburban places, it really feels more southern. It's weird because I literally had to change my way of thinking between NC and DC. When I was down there, most people spoke and were polite, but when I got up here, the level that people don't use common courtesy seemed magnified to a degree that I never realized before because I had become so used to it for so long. My recommendation for you, if you don't want your family to have a complete culture shock, look for places that will give you a decent commute that aren't too close to the city. A lot of people that I've known who have moved from the south, hate living here because of how people can be. I just believe this area is diverse enough that you can have the job you want without having the typical native attitude around you and your family.

............Montgomery County has an overall good school system, but it is largely successful because of schools in places like Bethesda, which to be honest, is probably out of your price range. ............

Pgtitans,
Thank you for your perspective. I do wonder how the culture difference would affect our feelings of well being. And I definitely need to hear things like Bethesda being out of our $$ range. I don't mind renting for a year or two to figure things out if we did head that way.

Lasershen,
My wife will definitely come up with questions again, so thank you very much for offering any insight about your area.

[rsh56]

OP all I can say is that you would have to make adjustments as you move here. Getting a house might not be as easy as where you are now.

As for the people, I mean there are all different walks of life. I can say that people here aren't going to judge you based on race or beliefs or make you unwelcome since its diverse here.

[jmwbaw]

I'm going to hop on this thread if you all don't mind.

I'm in a similar situation as OP. I'm currently interviewing for a position in Landover, MD and the salary is 80k as well. We are from the Louisville, KY area. We're a family of 4 and my wife is not planning on working (kids are 3 and under). Is there an area commutable where that salary sounds reasonable? We don't have many other expenses (have some student loans, but not too bad). Still, everything I'm seeing seems a little out of our price range. We would rent at first but would like to rent somewhere where we could eventually buy.

Length of commute to DC is a non-issue since I would be working in the outer suburbs. We are definitely willing to live further out and just let D.C be something we visit on the weekends. So, basically, we would just need to commute into the outer burbs.

Any recommendations? Thanks!

[UrbanScholar]

Originally Posted by jmwbaw

I'm going to hop on this thread if you all don't mind.

I'm in a similar situation as OP. I'm currently interviewing for a position in Landover, MD and the salary is 80k as well. We are from the Louisville, KY area. We're a family of 4 and my wife is not planning on working (kids are 3 and under). Is there an area commutable where that salary sounds reasonable? We don't have many other expenses (have some student loans, but not too bad). Still, everything I'm seeing seems a little out of our price range. We would rent at first but would like to rent somewhere where we could eventually buy.

Length of commute to DC is a non-issue since I would be working in the outer suburbs. We are definitely willing to live further out and just let D.C be something we visit on the weekends. So, basically, we would just need to commute into the outer burbs.

Any recommendations? Thanks!

From what you have stated so far your best bet would be PG. The area would depend on your needs. Give some additional details as to what your wish list would be for your family (rent or own, type of housing, educational options, etc).

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by jmwbaw

I'm going to hop on this thread if you all don't mind.

I'm in a similar situation as OP. I'm currently interviewing for a position in Landover, MD and the salary is 80k as well. We are from the Louisville, KY area. We're a family of 4 and my wife is not planning on working (kids are 3 and under). Is there an area commutable where that salary sounds reasonable? We don't have many other expenses (have some student loans, but not too bad). Still, everything I'm seeing seems a little out of our price range. We would rent at first but would like to rent somewhere where we could eventually buy.

Length of commute to DC is a non-issue since I would be working in the outer suburbs. We are definitely willing to live further out and just let D.C be something we visit on the weekends. So, basically, we would just need to commute into the outer burbs.

Any recommendations? Thanks!

My immediate thought is live in Bowie, but like UrbanScholar said, we need a little more detail.

[jmwbaw]

Originally Posted by UrbanScholar

From what you have stated so far your best bet would be PG. The area would depend on your needs. Give some additional details as to what your wish list would be for your family (rent or own, type of housing, educational options, etc).

We are looking to rent. Would prefer to rent a house if possible, but that is not a requirement.

We live in a "cookie-cutter" sub-division now and are totally cool with that. Basically just want a nice, comfortable neighborhood with quality schools. On my initial estimate, it looks like our budget might be about $1,500 per month (thats the high end).

I've looked at Bowie and it seems like a reasonable option. I've also taken a look at Odenton and Crofton. What is Odenton like? It looks like there is a train station there? The place I would be working is right beside a station in Landover.

We obviously have a lot of exploring to do before any big decisions are made. Just trying to pinpoint a few towns to check out if things continue to progress. Thanks everyone!

[MidValleyDad]

Depending on whare your job is you could do like many of us do and live in Frederick County and commute in to your job. Besides driving there are commuter buses down to Metro & Bethesda, train to Rockville and DC. I think Frederick schools are very good to excellent, cost of living is a little better and we find it very family friendly. If (when) your wife gets back in the work force there are some finance/mortgage companies with operations in Frederick as well as a pretty stable medium size city economy