What $400k Gets You in Baltimore

[Anonymous]

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Baltimore/615-Deepdene-Rd-21210/home/11157692

In Roland Park, a few blocks from Eddie’s, a 7/10 ES/MS, and two of the best private schools in the city. This place would be ideal for a family with one DC or two small DCs who could share a room.

The basement bathroom is something you would see in a $3M home in higher COL cities.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand why more people who work in-person 3x/week don’t just commute via Amtrak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why more people who work in-person 3x/week don’t just commute via Amtrak.

Why don’t you? For that price you can get a similar house closer in. Ugly house badly renovated.

[Anonymous]

That house is terrible.

[Anonymous]

Who wants to live in Baltimore?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why more people who work in-person 3x/week don’t just commute via Amtrak.

A big factor for me is the VAST majority of job growth in this metro area is happening in NoVA and I expect that trend to continue. Then some in DC, and very little job growth in MD.

So if i bought in Baltimore based on a hybrid work schedule at an office walkable from Union Station in DC, I guess it could work, but what happens when my spouse gets a new job offer in Arlington or Tysons Corner 3 years later in NoVA?

Also the Amtrak commute is pretty long, unless you happen to live 3 blocks from the station in Baltimore and work near Union Station in DC.

[Anonymous]

It isn’t Roland Park, it’s on the other side of Roland Ave (Tuxedo Park), where houses and lots are smaller. Still a very convenient location at a great price.

[Anonymous]

(1) What do you do when your kids are out of elementary school? Yes, private schools in Baltimore are cheaper than in DC but they are not free. And property taxes are high and housing does not appreciate the way it does here.

(2) You could stretch this budget a smidge and get a similarly sized condo in DC or close in suburbs, with better MS/HS options, lower taxes, and better likelihood of appreciation.

(3) Roland Park is tricky. There are a lot of genuinely rich people there. Yes, there are MC and UMC families as well, especially as you go south towards Hampden. But it's not an easy neighborhood to just move to out of the blue without a real connection to the city. This is true throughout Baltimore. Unlike DC where people move here from all over all the time, Baltimore has far fewer transplants and a lot of lifers. It can be hard to build community there.

(4) For the people suggesting that if you work remotely much of the time, this is an easy commute to DC, it's not! First off, this house is nowhere near Penn Station, so it's going to take you 20-30 minutes just to get to the train station. Then, while there are a lot of Marc trains daily (though less than pre-Covid), most are locals and take a good hour each way. The train is also not free, and those add up, especially because if you are not commuting daily, the monthly passes just don't make any sense at all. It's a lot of time in transit, especially if you are doing it twice a week. If you have young kids, that's going to feel like an incredibly long day.

I love Baltimore and we've looked at this option a bunch of times, but it's very hard to make it make sense financially. You see the sticker price on houses and think "oh this is so much cheaper, we can buy so much more with our money there." But when you get into nuts and bolts, it only makes sense if you really, really want to live in Baltimore, and most people who really want to be in Baltimore have some kind of history with the city.

Also, if I DID buy in Baltimore, you can do a lot better than this weird small house. It's fine (I don't think it's terrible) but if you are going to buy in Baltimore for the discount, buy something great! There are so many incredibly charming houses there with original details and terrific yards, etc. This house does not cut it, sorry. It will go for asking because of the neighborhod/schools, but the house itself is nothing to get excited about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(1) What do you do when your kids are out of elementary school? Yes, private schools in Baltimore are cheaper than in DC but they are not free. And property taxes are high and housing does not appreciate the way it does here.

(2) You could stretch this budget a smidge and get a similarly sized condo in DC or close in suburbs, with better MS/HS options, lower taxes, and better likelihood of appreciation.

(3) Roland Park is tricky. There are a lot of genuinely rich people there. Yes, there are MC and UMC families as well, especially as you go south towards Hampden. But it's not an easy neighborhood to just move to out of the blue without a real connection to the city. This is true throughout Baltimore. Unlike DC where people move here from all over all the time, Baltimore has far fewer transplants and a lot of lifers. It can be hard to build community there.

(4) For the people suggesting that if you work remotely much of the time, this is an easy commute to DC, it's not! First off, this house is nowhere near Penn Station, so it's going to take you 20-30 minutes just to get to the train station. Then, while there are a lot of Marc trains daily (though less than pre-Covid), most are locals and take a good hour each way. The train is also not free, and those add up, especially because if you are not commuting daily, the monthly passes just don't make any sense at all. It's a lot of time in transit, especially if you are doing it twice a week. If you have young kids, that's going to feel like an incredibly long day.

I love Baltimore and we've looked at this option a bunch of times, but it's very hard to make it make sense financially. You see the sticker price on houses and think "oh this is so much cheaper, we can buy so much more with our money there." But when you get into nuts and bolts, it only makes sense if you really, really want to live in Baltimore, and most people who really want to be in Baltimore have some kind of history with the city.

Also, if I DID buy in Baltimore, you can do a lot better than this weird small house. It's fine (I don't think it's terrible) but if you are going to buy in Baltimore for the discount, buy something great! There are so many incredibly charming houses there with original details and terrific yards, etc. This house does not cut it, sorry. It will go for asking because of the neighborhod/schools, but the house itself is nothing to get excited about.

There is a bus that goes 0.2 miles from this house to Penn Station in Baltimore.

[Anonymous]

People see the low price but forget that Baltimore City's property tax rate is nearly three times higher than DC's. The annual property tax for this place is almost the same as my SFH in CCDC, which is worth nearly four times as much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why more people who work in-person 3x/week don’t just commute via Amtrak.

A big factor for me is the VAST majority of job growth in this metro area is happening in NoVA and I expect that trend to continue. Then some in DC, and very little job growth in MD.

So if i bought in Baltimore based on a hybrid work schedule at an office walkable from Union Station in DC, I guess it could work, but what happens when my spouse gets a new job offer in Arlington or Tysons Corner 3 years later in NoVA?

Also the Amtrak commute is pretty long, unless you happen to live 3 blocks from the station in Baltimore and work near Union Station in DC.

No business is not coming to VA. Youngkin made sure of that didn't he?

MD just added a ton of jobs National Security Cyber Security hiring like crazy. And Sciences and pharma, etc.

Hogan is thankfully gone.

[Anonymous]

It's Baltimore. Huge crime, terrible schools, terrible roads, corrupt police, extremely high taxes.

Gi lookup how much taxes cost on that home. What a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why more people who work in-person 3x/week don’t just commute via Amtrak.

A big factor for me is the VAST majority of job growth in this metro area is happening in NoVA and I expect that trend to continue. Then some in DC, and very little job growth in MD.

So if i bought in Baltimore based on a hybrid work schedule at an office walkable from Union Station in DC, I guess it could work, but what happens when my spouse gets a new job offer in Arlington or Tysons Corner 3 years later in NoVA?

Also the Amtrak commute is pretty long, unless you happen to live 3 blocks from the station in Baltimore and work near Union Station in DC.

No business is not coming to VA. Youngkin made sure of that didn't he?

MD just added a ton of jobs National Security Cyber Security hiring like crazy. And Sciences and pharma, etc.

Hogan is thankfully gone.

Lol. BLS says Virginia added 96k civilian jobs in 2022 while Maryland added 8k. Yes, you read that right. Virginia added more than 10 times as many jobs last year

[Anonymous]

looks small and cramped to me.

But, there's also Marc and amtrak. both are nice commutes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why more people who work in-person 3x/week don’t just commute via Amtrak.

A big factor for me is the VAST majority of job growth in this metro area is happening in NoVA and I expect that trend to continue. Then some in DC, and very little job growth in MD.

So if i bought in Baltimore based on a hybrid work schedule at an office walkable from Union Station in DC, I guess it could work, but what happens when my spouse gets a new job offer in Arlington or Tysons Corner 3 years later in NoVA?

Also the Amtrak commute is pretty long, unless you happen to live 3 blocks from the station in Baltimore and work near Union Station in DC.

No business is not coming to VA. Youngkin made sure of that didn't he?

MD just added a ton of jobs National Security Cyber Security hiring like crazy. And Sciences and pharma, etc.

Hogan is thankfully gone.

So why is housing an hour from DC in NoVA much more expensive than housing in MD around Baltimore (equivalent distance to DC)?