Living in Bowie MD?

[Mos82]

Originally Posted by cassieulsh

If you have kids stay in Ashburn. Loudon County has a great school district! We almost bought in Bowie. However, PG Country and Bowie HS especially are not good schools at all. Also, I heard Bowie is on a negative trend in terms of crime and quality of life.

Huh?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...98197061,d.cWw

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...ak0LPfODzVV8AA

[Silvercedes]

Hi wumarshall82,

I live in Bowie, in the Fairwood area. We've been here about two years, we moved here after my DH retired from the military (both of us are originally from the Midwest/Great Plains). We looked at houses in NOVA, the District, and Montgomery County and just couldn't justify the housing prices in those areas. Plus, as you've noted, the commutes from anywhere in NOVA are just, well, yuck.

The one reallly important thing with the Fairwood area though, is the real estate market is still recovering from the foreclosure crisis. But if you're purchasing a house with the intent to stay for at least 5 years, hopefully the market will have recovered by then. In our subdivison, houses that sold in 2006 for over 1 million are now going for around 500K-800K, depending on if it's a straight sale or foreclosure.

It is a nice neighborhood, we feel safe here and have great neighbors. You can always contact the local PD and ask for a crime report in the 20720 Zip code, and the Washington Post publishes a weekly crime report for PG county, broken down by city, in their Thursday paper.

Taxes on a home in the price range you quoted will probably be around 7-8k/year, and remember that PG county real estate taxes are going to go up by another 4%, I think this month, so factor that in to your real estate search. Your insurance rate is going to depend on the company and coverage you choose.

The area you are looking at, is about 10 minutes away from the New Carrollton Metro (Orange), and maybe 15 from Largo (Blue). The commute from Bowie to Reston would be pretty icky though, but if you only have to do that 1-2 times a week that may be worth it for the savings on housing costs. We also have a MARC station at Bowie State University, which is what I use to come into the city, with my door-to-door commute being about 50 minutes. But - since the majority of the time is on a train, where I can either read or work, I don't really count that as "wasted time."

We don't have kids, so school quality did not factor into our choice of where to live, so unfortunately I can't help you there.

The one complaint I have about Bowie/PG county (and it's a minor complaint), is that the customer service at restaurants (mostly the chains) and stores really is horrible, especially at Bowie Towne Center. We have given up eating or shopping at any place local and just go to Annapolis for eating out and big purchases. Fairwood has a new Safeway store that we use for small purchases, but for the big shopping trips we either use the commissaries at Ft. Meade or the Naval base in Annapolis, or we head to Wegmans in Gambrills.

Hope this helps!

[WhoDatInMD]

Originally Posted by cassieulsh

If you have kids stay in Ashburn. Loudon County has a great school district! We almost bought in Bowie. However, PG Country and Bowie HS especially are not good schools at all. Also, I heard Bowie is on a negative trend in terms of crime and quality of life.

I don't know who's feeding you your information but they're wrong on both subjects. Care to share what specifically you heard about Bowie HS and the quality of life?

[EducatedBro82]

Originally Posted by cassieulsh

If you have kids stay in Ashburn. Loudon County has a great school district! We almost bought in Bowie. However, PG Country and Bowie HS especially are not good schools at all. Also, I heard Bowie is on a negative trend in terms of crime and quality of life.

You only have 2 posts... You're PG bashing is not needed

[selhars]

is the 90 percent of your time you speak of for work or social time?

The commute from Bowie to DC in morning rush is a full hour (driving or public transit). And It may seem crazy but for Bowie to Reston I'd allow an hour and a half to 2 hours in rush hour.

You've been in the area a while, so I suppose I don't need to tell you commutes can get tired real fast here.
I suppose Bowie to Reston twice a week isn't the end of the world So if you're up for it, to each his own.

As for Bowie schools I don't have kids.
To be honest, though, if I did I don't think PG public schools wouldn't be my first choice.
Other than that Bowie is a great place...great location for travel to Dc, Baltimore, Annapolis....day or weekend trips for Virginia, Central MD or the eastern shore.