Reply to What $400k Gets You in Baltimore

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There seems to be such a snobbery about NOVA being better than Baltimore. The area where that $650k home is, is beautiful and very nice. It's not the inner city, near a lot of really cool stuff. The issue with the area, however, is that it has a fantastic K-8 school, but the high school is awful. So, what you save in housing costs, you'll probably end up spending on private school tuition if you have children.[/quote]

Heres a $650k house in Fairfax:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/10917-Adare-Dr-Fairfax-VA-22032/51891993_zpid/

Nothing you can ever say will convince anyone that the Baltimore house with $5k more in property tax per year is worth it. Do you just like throwing money downa black hole of taxes they provides negative ROI?  It's not like you even get anything for your taxes in Baltimore too.

Here's a $650k home in Cstonsville, MD right over the border:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/216-Rosewood-Ave-Catonsville-MD-21228/36201422_zpid/?

OK elementary school and $7k less per year property tax than Baltimore.  You can enjoy all of the amenities in Baltimore and avoid all of the taxes by driving 10 extra minutes.

It just makes zero sense to live in Baltimore with nose bleed taxes, getting back nothing for those taxes, high crime, corrupt police, terrible infrastructure, and terrible schools. I mean I suppose there are people out there who like to pay $5-10k more in taxes for no reason at all other than to be 10 minutes closer to amenities, but to me it seems like an extremely foolish financial decision. Baltimore will go nowhere until they drastically cut their property taxes like Boston and SF did to revive their cities. Baltimore's taxes should be cut in half to start.

[/quote]

Thanks for the examples. That house in Fairfax is ugly on the outside and has the horrendous grey flooring on the side, and is also considerably smaller. If you're going to send a comp, at least make it a true comp.

I also believe Fairfax has a lot more to offer than Baltimore, especially for young families, but to completely blanketly describe Baltimore as all of those terrible things is not fair and ignorant. [/quote]

I lived in Baltimore for years. Please enlighten me as to what makes Baltimore worth it to live in.   Go back to the Catonsville house vs Baltimore house with then $7k property tax difference. Let's assume nothing changes and someone lives in those homes for 30 years. Assuming you took the $7k property tax difference and invested it instead to earn a measly 4% return, your opportunity cost for living in Baltimore balloons to almost $400k for those 30 years due to tax burden alone. This also ignores the massive opportunity costs we have to add in for a Baltimore address, like [b]sky high car insurance[/b] and home owners insurance rates because of a high crime city.

Living in Baltimore is a huge financial albatross compared to the price differentials right over the city line. It's not like you get anything amazing for all of the extra cost either. Blowing almost half a million dollars just for the privilege of having a Baltimore zip code is dumb.[/quote]

Generally, the point of living within city limits vs living in the suburbs is to not own a car. I have never lived in Baltimore, but I did live in Philadelphia (which Baltimore is often compared to) without a car easily. [/quote]

You need a car in Baltimore..

That's entirely the reason for bellyaching for the gigantic Baltimore property tax bill - you don't get anything for paying all of those taxes, like efficient public transportation, for example.[/quote]

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