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[quote=Anonymous]I grew up there. Columbia is not walkable like DC or Baltimore. You will be car-dependent. The overall school system is excellent, but there are a few schools that need a bit more research before buying into their district.

Columbia was designed to collocate mixed use housing, businesses, and shopping. It's broken down into 9 or 10 villages, each with a village center of shopping. So it's somewhat walkable depending on where you live. Each village is made up of smaller neighborhoods.

The original intent of Columbia was to have low income housing next to moderate priced housing next to high income housing, but for the past twenty years, it's been mostly high income housing that's being built.   The oldest parts of Columbia like Oakland Mills, Wilde Lake, and Long Reach have a lot of that lower income housing, so it tends to be a more transient population and the schools are not as great. Not bad. But there is more crime, etc.

The best high school in Columbia proper is probably Atholton. Hickory Ridge village feeds into it, particularly the neighborhood Clemens Crossing. You can get very nice houses for $500-600K there.

The areas that surround Columbia are more rural with many McMansions and the schools are considered better, like Mt. Hebron, Centennial, and Glenelg. They are not walkable at all.

Elliott City is the County seat and a quaint little historic town with cute shops. You might find that appealing.

There can be heavy traffic congestion on some major routes, like coming from the west side of Route 32 headed toward 95 and FT. Meade. That might be something to ask a realtor about when considering location.

The library system is great. It has a brand new nature center that is the envy of the area. It's very easy to get to Baltimore and not a bad trip to DC.

Some other neighborhoods to look at:

Maple Lawn. Not Columbia proper but a brand new planned community. http://www.maplelawnmd.com/

Kings Contrivance
River Hill
Highland
Clarksville

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