Moving for a New Job in Baltimore — Torn Between Montgomery County and Howard County for Our Family

[Anonymous]

OP. Before you settle on some depressing cookie cutter suburb in HoCo or MoCo, take PPs advice and look north of Baltimore. You are not going to find 9/9/10 schools for this price point anywhere else and you can access all the great restaurants and shops in North Baltimore pretty quickly. You can go further south than this in northern Baltimore County if this is too far.

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Monkton/17435-Big-Falls-Rd-21111/home/9589575

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you find Baltimore run down you may be disappointed in DC. There’s no part that is like the commons in Boston with a pretty park and an easy walk down cobblestone roads to Great restaurants and shopping. The National mall has terrible food around it except Chinatown, which has a lot of CVS locks. Even the wealthy enclaves of DC have homeless people loitering by the metro. In this sense, it’s a grittier, more Brooklyn/Manhattan type of urban.

The closest might be Georgetown, which has the waterfront and some restaurants. But Harbor East in Baltimore by the Four Seasons has a similar vibe, better restaurants, and is closer to institutions like the National Aquarium. Roland Park is a short drive.

I’d say that Baltimore is more like Brooklyn than DC, but in a good way. More charm, better restaurants, more hip.

DC manages to be both more pretentious and snooty than Baltimore and less safe. You will see a lot more shady stuff happening in Chevy Chase and Cleveland Park than in comparable places like Roland Park. Same goes for Navy Yard vs Harbor East.

Unfortunately, I think that’s because the DC metro makes it easy for shady activity to be transported in and out. Roland Park, being only accessible by car, is more cloistered. Regardless, it is less shady.

[Anonymous]

Howard County please do yourself a favor . Schools are great. Lived in both places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. Before you settle on some depressing cookie cutter suburb in HoCo or MoCo, take PPs advice and look north of Baltimore. You are not going to find 9/9/10 schools for this price point anywhere else and you can access all the great restaurants and shops in North Baltimore pretty quickly. You can go further south than this in northern Baltimore County if this is too far.

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Monkton/17435-Big-Falls-Rd-21111/home/9589575

I was also going to suggest Hereford, Monkton, Parkton, etc. Any area that feeds into Hereford MS and HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. Before you settle on some depressing cookie cutter suburb in HoCo or MoCo, take PPs advice and look north of Baltimore. You are not going to find 9/9/10 schools for this price point anywhere else and you can access all the great restaurants and shops in North Baltimore pretty quickly. You can go further south than this in northern Baltimore County if this is too far.

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Monkton/17435-Big-Falls-Rd-21111/home/9589575

Pretty sure OP has his heart set on cookie cutter suburbia. Which is why any advice outside Howard is useless to him.

[Anonymous]

Howard County - commute & schools solid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. Before you settle on some depressing cookie cutter suburb in HoCo or MoCo, take PPs advice and look north of Baltimore. You are not going to find 9/9/10 schools for this price point anywhere else and you can access all the great restaurants and shops in North Baltimore pretty quickly. You can go further south than this in northern Baltimore County if this is too far.

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Monkton/17435-Big-Falls-Rd-21111/home/9589575

Please don’t live in Monkton, it’s practically PA. North Baltimore or southern Baltimore County is where op wants to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Rockville and the Potomac area caught my attention because I have two friends who live there. They’ve always spoken highly of the schools, the convenience, and the strong sense of community. Interestingly, they mentioned that several people in their neighborhood commute to Baltimore daily, which made me think these two counties are among the top choices.

I also toured Baltimore City. No offense intended, but I didn’t feel as drawn to the city. When I visited a CVS and saw most items locked up, the overall atmosphere felt a bit run-down. It just didn’t leave the best impression on me personally.

OP, you've said a great deal about yourself in this one brief post to know there's no point making recommendations about anything else. Just buy in Howard County. Ellicott City will be fine and reasonably close to Baltimore. You'll get a decent house in your budget. Thinking about Rockville is silly. If someone lives there and works in the Baltimore area it's because they were previously working in the DMV or have a spouse who works in the DMV and they chose to be the one to suffer a long commute. Rockville is not notable or impressive by any measures.

After reading op’s post, agree. Bland suburbs with an hour commute to work and tied to car to go anywhere is what he wants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Rockville and the Potomac area caught my attention because I have two friends who live there. They’ve always spoken highly of the schools, the convenience, and the strong sense of community. Interestingly, they mentioned that several people in their neighborhood commute to Baltimore daily, which made me think these two counties are among the top choices.

I also toured Baltimore City. No offense intended, but I didn’t feel as drawn to the city. When I visited a CVS and saw most items locked up, the overall atmosphere felt a bit run-down. It just didn’t leave the best impression on me personally.

Both Rockville and Potomac would be nightmare commutes. Its an hour without traffic, and could be two hours or more with traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in Georgetown DC and just went to Baltimore for the day on Juneteenth. Took one hour of driving each way. We do this once a quarter, our family really loves Baltimore.

Live in HoCo, if you want. Personally, I’d do Baltimore County as there is so some amazing housing stock from the early 1900s.

Can you link an example? I would like to be tempted!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Hi all,

I’m getting a new job in Baltimore city, and my family(with two school age kids and currently in new England area) and I are deciding between two areas to settle down: Montgomery County (looking specifically at Rockville or North Potomac) and Howard County in Maryland.
Each option has its pros and cons I can think of:

Montgomery County: Excellent public schools, closer to Washington, DC, which is a plus since my family would love to spend more time exploring the city

Downsides: higher housing prices and a much longer commute to my office near Baltimore(the new job requires 3 days in the office)

Howard County: Much closer to my office, meaning a more manageable commute, More affordable housing

Downsides: farther from DC.

My wife works from home, so both locations works well for her. Our household income allows us to afford a home in the $800K–$1M range(1m is a little strech).

We’d really appreciate any advice, experiences, or perspectives—especially from families who’ve faced a similar decision. School quality, community feel, and quality of life are all important to us.

Thanks in advance!

Howard County hands-down. No offense, but you would be insane to live in Montgomery county and work in Baltimore even if you’re only going in three days a week. The commute alone would kill you even on a good day.

Far eastern MOCO-rockville by 200 and working in Howard County is doable, but further is insane imho.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve lived in Baltimore, DC and Boston. DC lacks some of the parts of Boston that Baltimore has. For example, Baltimore has the National Aquarium, Science Center and Children’s Museum, all of which DC families travel for. (DC’s KID museum and children’s museum are small and don’t compare to the ones in Baltimore and Boston).

Baltimore also has the Peabody whereas DC doesn’t have a comparable conservatory. This is good both for music lesson s and concerts.

Baltimore has much better university programming for youth. John’s Hopkins runs the Center for Talented Youth and other youth programs, similar to the way MIT runs youth programming. DC’s universities have summer programs but they’re not nearly as rigorous.

+1 to Ruxton or Roland Park. I would actually choose Roland Park as a first choice.

DC has this thing called the Smithsonian.

[Anonymous]

Would look at Baltimore City/County and do Baltimore private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in Georgetown DC and just went to Baltimore for the day on Juneteenth. Took one hour of driving each way. We do this once a quarter, our family really loves Baltimore.

Live in HoCo, if you want. Personally, I’d do Baltimore County as there is so some amazing housing stock from the early 1900s.

Can you link an example? I would like to be tempted!

This is obviously out of your price range but you could find something in this area in your price range. Gives a sense to what the neighborhood is like north of Baltimore in Baltimore County. Note the 10/9/10 school district. You’re not finding homes like this in cheesy places like Rockville or Columbia.

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Sparks-Glencoe/1623-Glencoe-Rd-21152/home/21908175

[Anonymous]

Hard to believe this beauty in Baltimore County with almost one acre and pool is only $800,000.

https://www.trulia.com/home/2424-stanwick-rd-phoenix-md-21131-36188839