Urbana / Ijamsville Area
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Anonymous
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To avoid the skyrocketing prices for good school districts (Ws) in MoCo, we've been considering purchasing a house in the Urbana area instead. It seems like a really cute community with lovely townhomes and SFH in the 400-700k range. (Versus MoCo where you'd be getting very eh townhouses in general in that range, and SFH are few and far between). Specifically we're looking in the Urbana High district as it seems quite highly rated, but we're not specifically attached to the more rural part vs the townhouse part.
We both work in biotech so we'll be commuting somewhere between Rockville - Frederick. For people who have actually lived in that area, or better yet have lived in MoCo and Urbana: - How is the commute both up and down 270? - Is there a lot of traffic in the downtown Urbana area? Do the rotaries get scary crowded? - How are the schools? They're all highly rated and I'm sure in technicality the W schools are "better" but also more cutthroat. Are your kids happy at the Urbana schools? I heard it's getting overcrowded, do they not have much individualized attention? In the elementary schools are there rowdy and disruptive kids? - What's the neighborhood vibe like, both in the Urbana townhouse area and the country-esque outskirts edging towards Ijamsville / New Market / Monrovia? I heard a lot of families live in this district, do parents often talk to each other and are there neighborhood activities or do people keep to themselves? - How do HOAs act in these neighborhoods? - Do you often get to go to Frederick for things like restaurants and activities, or do you find yourself only staying in Urbana? What about going to Gaithersburg/Rockville for restaurants? Thanks to those who reply! |
Anonymous
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Adamstown here. Kids are too young for school, so I can't help you there.
I-270 commute is pretty bad: I-270S morning commute from about 6 am to 9:30 am is usually slow; I-270N from Rockville through exit 26 (Urbana) during the afternoon rush hour can add 30-45 minutes. We go to Urbana for quick dinners, grocery shopping, the library, and the YMCA. Rarely is traffic bad. We will go to Old Town Frederick for special dinners and Sunday visits to downtown. I guess Target, Costco, Home Depot and that area are Frederick, too. We visit those places regularly. We rarely go to Rockville or Gaithersburg. We live in a rural area and spent a lot of time with our neighbors. |
Anonymous
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If your commute is to Germantown or Frederick, then it is ok
Ijamsville has a private quaker school Urbana is a lovely area. Find a job that is not in DC, then consider it |
Anonymous
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Part of me wants to tell you its terrible, so people stay away
But its not. Its amazing. The friendliest people. Really, leaving MoCo was like a breathe of fresh air. Beautiful countryside. Driving to and from LL practice is rolling pastures with the sun setting and glimpses of Sugarloaf as you crest a hill. Schools are great. And tbh, we left downcounty MoCo, and haven't returned. All our social activities now bring us to Frederick, which tbh, has better restaurants, IMO. Downtown Urbana feels a little "planned" but they did a good job mixing commercial and residential. I could see how it could be nice on a weekend morning to stroll to Pump&Rye for a coffee and a bagel. But still have that country feel a few minutes outside the Villages. (And don't sweat the rotaries. They are no big deal) |
Anonymous
| Love, love, love living in Urbana. To be fair, our commutes are only to Gaithersburg and Rockville. Everyone is very friendly. Having grown up in MoCo I was a little shocked at how many friendly people are up here. The schools are great ...better than many I have taught at in MCPS. I would love better options for grocery stores but I'll slide by Trader Joes or Wegmans once a week when I'm down in MoCo. |
Anonymous
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Agree with everyone else. As long as you don't have to go downtown 5 days a week, its amazing.
I will go downtown from Exit 22 to Union Station 1-2 days a week and its totally manageable. People give FredCo a bad rap as super redneck, and some of that vibe is still there in the Ijamsville/Monrovia area, but its really much more purple than it is red. And tbh, people mostly just dont care. Everyone is just so much nicer. It really feels like the communities you grew up with as a kid 30 years ago |
Anonymous
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OP there - this is all EXTREMELY helpful, thank you to everyone who replied! Wow, all positive responses - definitely not what I see when I read forums here about other areas to live.
We are only commuting to Rockville at the farthest - would definitely not consider Urbana if commuting to DC. Good to know though that Rockville to Urbana is 30-45 min - that's actually quite a lot of traffic. Everyone talks about the friendly people in Frederick County and Urbana, and it's nice to see that highlighted here. Thank you for the PP who posted about the rotaries :') I was a little worried those would be impossible to deal with if they had too much traffic. We'll definitely be looking in the area then! |
Anonymous
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Oh I disagree
Urbana is over crowded and not pretty They just built the woodlands 55 and over it’s so many condos apartments townhouses and singles on top each other. It’s so ugly and the traffic at 80 no thanks Houses are on top of each other in new developments. They are strange odd models. Not a fan Schools are mediocre they are overcrowded Traffic 270 is horrible to anywhere south |
Anonymous
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15:03 do you actually live there or are you just taking the opportunity to be scathing?
If you actually live there, how are the schools overcrowded (specifically, do you know class sizes, how it's affected your kids etc?) |
Anonymous
FWIW, I was literally just on 80. Driving my kid back from their camp at UHS. It took about 8 minutes to from the school to the intersection of 80/75. Virtually no traffic at 4:00 And yes, the house in the villages are right on top of each other. But its not like they are trying to hide that; its super obvious to anyone that even visits. But go literally 3 minutes outside the Villages and there are beautiful homes on big lots at reasonable prices. If you don't want to be on top of your neighbors, its still pretty easy to get the benefits of Urbana w/o living in the Villages |
Anonymous
Also, take the school rankings for what their worth (not much but some people still care) and UHS was #11 in the state. Hardly mediocre. Top 5% actually |
Anonymous
| I also live in the Villages of Urbana. We moved up here from Rockville and couldn't be happier. There is such a great sense of community. The new YMCA is amazing. I agree with the PP that the neighborhood grocery store (Giant) could be better, but I can typically get what I need. I usually just make the drive to Wegmans for my big shopping trips. |
Anonymous
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I have lived in frederick county for twenty years, originally from northern nj, and know Urbana well. It is more developed and more crowded than say fifteen years ago obviously, but I agree it (and Frederick county) are still lovely in many ways. Urbana was I think developed under a model of "new urbanism" in the past twenty five years so the new houses were meant to be close, to have alleys in the back, to have porches to facilitate community and to be walkable.
They have a great, modern library that offers a lot of programming. Like s pp said, I have heard the Y is good. The area is physically beautiful, mountains and farm views in many areas of the county and yes most people are very friendly and often very educated, contrary to the stereotypes. Frederick currently has more registered democrats than Republicans, has its fair share too (which surprised me) of former New York and New Jersey residents . We love it here, Urbana is maybe 10 mins to Frederick and that opens up a ton of choices as well: for eating out, antiquing, shows and speakers at the weinburg, dance schools, coffee shops, funky clothes stores and interesting/high end home stores as well. And finally my experiences giving birth and having a couple medical emergencies over the past years have resulted in getting very good, solid care at Frederick memorial hospital. I still see a few specialists in dc area but overall there is access here to high quality healthcare. |
Anonymous
| *maybe closer to 5 mins to frederick |
Anonymous
| *sorry, per Google, about 7 miles, 12 mins |