Maryland..here we come

[Vin100]

Originally Posted by John13

Commuting will be awful for at least one of you. Maybe take the suggestion above and live close to one of the job locations. The traffic here is beyond miserable so be prepared for that.

Best wishes. The bright side is you all have good futures ahead.

No suggestions on schools as I am child free by choice...

I don't think Columbia is a bad suggestion. Traffic is going to be very bad anywhere you pick between the two cities...

FWIW - I live in the old part of Greenbelt and like the community.

One of the issues with Columbia is that we saw only one of the high schools in the town had a good rating. Other high schools were not rated well.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by Vin100

MrRational: Thanks for your advice. That thought did come to our mind and that is the reason we made a preliminary trip to DC and Bethesda to look at schools and the area. As much as I would love to live near Baltimore, it would pain me to see my wife driving 1 hr or may be more one-way everyday to work. She does manages a lot of kids's activities so I think it might be better if she stays nearer to her place of work.

We really liked Bethesda and especially the NW DC. We visited the Wilson school which I was informed is one of the much better high schools of the area. Currently we live in a sub urban town in CT and really miss the in-city living (especially since we came from a country where we lived in the capital city through out our lives before). It's another issue that the cost of housing is exorbitant which makes us think that we may need to rent for a year before plunging into buying a house. Moreover, we will get an idea about the place also before deciding where to buy. I didnt see any significant difference in the commute times from Bethesda/ NW Dc or Rockville to Baltimore.
But on the other hand, the very thought of me commuting from DC to Baltimore everyday seems frightening,. and that's how I thought of Columbia. Just trying to see if we are missing any towns...Ellicot city is good, we have friends there who speak highly about the town...its just a little further from DC than we would want.

Bethesda is nice. Suburban living with a lot of big city amenities. Very walkable, vibrant busy downtown etc. If you can make that work with just one of you commuting, I would do that.

The commute from Bethesda to Baltimore is at least mostly a reverse commute till you get closer to Baltimore at least in the morning. Evening commutes are worse no matter what.

Rockville is nice and depending on where you live, you could take the ICC over to 95 and bypass all the beltway traffic, but it's a toll road.

[BigCityDreamer]

Originally Posted by Vin100

Hi friends,
After months of deliberation and interviewing, finally we are set to finalize our new jobs.
We shall be moving from Connecticut.
My wife has a job in DC and I have got a job in Baltimore. Both of us are physicians. My wife will have standard hours M-F 8-5, I will be a little more busy with M-F 8-6 plus overnight calls 4-5 times a month (mostly home calls) and one weekend a month.
We plan to move next year. I shall be moving about 3 months in advance around March and my wife shall be moving in July. We have 2 kids..one shall be a senior next year and other in high elementary school.

Now comes the predicament. And we really appreciate your help.
We are not able to understand what towns would be good/ suitable for us to live in. Schools are very important to us. At the same time we value towns which are family friendly, have activities for kids, walkable and good downtown or recreational areas, use of public transport, obviously safe with low crime.


We did get a chance for a preliminary visit to few towns..Rockville, Bethesda, NorthWest DC and Ellicot City, all the towns where we would love to live but don't seem to be suitable to one of us as far as commuting is concerned. I do read about the bad...very bad traffic.... how much of it is true practically??

Any suggestions....???

Potomac and Bethesda are the 2 places where most doctors prefer to live. That is where affluent Marylanders cross the finish line. Otherwise, Northwest DC.

So, I would steer you in that direction.

[Vin100]

Nice to hear that... right after fellowships...we are far from being affluent for the next few years. !!!! But yes. I heard the same thing what you said. I know Bethesda is very desirable....But I also read a renewed interest in North West DC. The commute from either place is almost same. So which is better in general opinion??
We need to explore Columbia too, but not very sure if we will be able to find a common ground there since the city's overall feel doesn't match what we would like.

[Cruzincat]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Bethesda is nice. Suburban living with a lot of big city amenities. Very walkable, vibrant busy downtown etc. If you can make that work with just one of you commuting, I would do that.

The commute from Bethesda to Baltimore is at least mostly a reverse commute till you get closer to Baltimore at least in the morning. Evening commutes are worse no matter what.

Rockville is nice and depending on where you live, you could take the ICC over to 95 and bypass all the beltway traffic, but it's a toll road.

There are tolls, but the gas that can be wasted in traffic is nothing to sneeze at either.

[LesLucid]

Originally Posted by Vin100

Hi friends,
After months of deliberation and interviewing, finally we are set to finalize our new jobs.
We shall be moving from Connecticut.
My wife has a job in DC and I have got a job in Baltimore. Both of us are physicians. My wife will have standard hours M-F 8-5, I will be a little more busy with M-F 8-6 plus overnight calls 4-5 times a month (mostly home calls) and one weekend a month.
We plan to move next year. I shall be moving about 3 months in advance around March and my wife shall be moving in July. We have 2 kids..one shall be a senior next year and other in high elementary school.

Now comes the predicament. And we really appreciate your help.
We are not able to understand what towns would be good/ suitable for us to live in. Schools are very important to us. At the same time we value towns which are family friendly, have activities for kids, walkable and good downtown or recreational areas, use of public transport, obviously safe with low crime.


We did get a chance for a preliminary visit to few towns..Rockville, Bethesda, NorthWest DC and Ellicot City, all the towns where we would love to live but don't seem to be suitable to one of us as far as commuting is concerned. I do read about the bad...very bad traffic.... how much of it is true practically??

Any suggestions....???

Traffic is pretty bad. The DC metro region has been rated as being among the worst in the nation, just below places like L.A. For the two job locations you mention, you should probably look into Columbia, Maryland as well or Howard County in general.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia,_Maryland

[HankH]

Originally Posted by Vin100

Hi friends,
After months of deliberation and interviewing, finally we are set to finalize our new jobs.
We shall be moving from Connecticut.
My wife has a job in DC and I have got a job in Baltimore. Both of us are physicians. My wife will have standard hours M-F 8-5, I will be a little more busy with M-F 8-6 plus overnight calls 4-5 times a month (mostly home calls) and one weekend a month.
We plan to move next year. I shall be moving about 3 months in advance around March and my wife shall be moving in July. We have 2 kids..one shall be a senior next year and other in high elementary school.

Now comes the predicament. And we really appreciate your help.
We are not able to understand what towns would be good/ suitable for us to live in. Schools are very important to us. At the same time we value towns which are family friendly, have activities for kids, walkable and good downtown or recreational areas, use of public transport, obviously safe with low crime.


We did get a chance for a preliminary visit to few towns..Rockville, Bethesda, NorthWest DC and Ellicot City, all the towns where we would love to live but don't seem to be suitable to one of us as far as commuting is concerned. I do read about the bad...very bad traffic.... how much of it is true practically??

Any suggestions....???

Hello

I live in Bethesda and work for a large bank. I have lived in DC Md and Va over the past 40 years. Raised 2 college grads here. I do residential lending and we offer a very competitive "Doctor" loan.

Feel free to call my cell 202-352-8657

HankH.

[NJ2MDdude]

In HoCo, the best schools are located in Ellicott City, Clarksville, Fulton, and generally in the western part of the County.

[MrMaryland455]

You should definitely check out Fulton, Md (Maple Lawn area). Its a really nice area in Howard County and its a close distance to both location.

[mikeyo321]

Originally Posted by Vin100

MrRational: Thanks for your advice. That thought did come to our mind and that is the reason we made a preliminary trip to DC and Bethesda to look at schools and the area. As much as I would love to live near Baltimore, it would pain me to see my wife driving 1 hr or may be more one-way everyday to work. She does manages a lot of kids's activities so I think it might be better if she stays nearer to her place of work.

We really liked Bethesda and especially the NW DC. We visited the Wilson school which I was informed is one of the much better high schools of the area. Currently we live in a sub urban town in CT and really miss the in-city living (especially since we came from a country where we lived in the capital city through out our lives before). It's another issue that the cost of housing is exorbitant which makes us think that we may need to rent for a year before plunging into buying a house. Moreover, we will get an idea about the place also before deciding where to buy. I didnt see any significant difference in the commute times from Bethesda/ NW Dc or Rockville to Baltimore.
But on the other hand, the very thought of me commuting from DC to Baltimore everyday seems frightening,. and that's how I thought of Columbia. Just trying to see if we are missing any towns...Ellicot city is good, we have friends there who speak highly about the town...its just a little further from DC than we would want.

Sounds like you're leaning towards Bethesda/Upper Northwest DC. Not too shabby if you can afford it. Even with you both being physicians you'll probably start off a bit house poor (at least at first) and it will likely be a smaller place but if you can hang tight the investment will pay off in the end if you are able to buy. Right now, it sounds like your priority is to get your family settled and in a good place which means you might need to rent until you have your feet underneath you financially. Bethesda has some of the best public schools in the area (including Bethesda/Chevy Chase, Walter Johnson and Walt Whitman High School) and if you cross over to the DC side Wilson High School is by far the best non-magnet public high school in the city though it probably doesn't rate as highly as its neighbors I just mentioned in Maryland. Rockville's slightly (and I really mean only slightly) cheaper and Richard Montgomery High School is another excellent high school as well and it's also pretty centrally located, perhaps a few minutes easier commute for you as well.

Sounds like an interesting set of options for you. Let us know how it all turns out!