As much as I like Baltimore (I lived and worked there for years, as recently as 2011), it's not that cheap. A nice, updated 3br house in Roland Park or Homeland will cost you about $600k. It's true that there are many cheaper houses that look beautiful from the outside, but the interiors are atrocious and havent been updated in decades. Then there's property taxes, which are MUCH higher than Arlington. Then there's private schools, which are a must if you live in the city. And the job market is very tight, as others have said, so you might be doing it all on one income. My spouse still works in Baltimore. I now work in DC. We live in Silver Spring. I have an easy redline commute, and my spouse has a pretty reasonable drive straight up 95. We are definitely better off financially than we would be trying to live in Roland Park with kids in private school.

Ben Carson's retiring, perhaps the OP will apply to the vacancy he's creating. Certainly the OP will be able to afford anywhere in bmore and sending 2+ kids to RPCS or Gilman

Anonymous wrote:I work in Baltimore and concur with posters urging to be conservative about job availability. The job market (and diversity of high paying jobs (or IMO lack thereof)) in Baltimore is VERY different from DC.

+1000

I work in Baltimore and concur with posters urging to be conservative about job availability. The job market (and diversity of high paying jobs (or IMO lack thereof)) in Baltimore is VERY different from DC.

Adding my two cents... private school (elementary, Catholic, which tends to be cheaper) runs about $15,000 per child in the Baltimore area. You wrote that you have two. So, remember, that while you might be able to get a less expensive house, you'll be spending at least (high schools are more expensive) $30,000 in private school a year for 12 years.
Add to that, houses in Roland Park and Mt. Washington aren't exactly cheap, but you'll still have to do private school (even for elementary). Baltimore City taxes are high -- higher than D.C. taxes, higher than most other places in MD and higher than VA. Make sure when you are pricing homes in Roland Park that you include the taxes. I believe Roland Park also has extra levies (similar to HOA).

Public transit in Baltimore is not like DC. Part of why NOVA and Bethesda are so expensive is the metro access. Baltimore does not have anything that even compares to metro. The light rail has very limited stops, limited hours and is not as safe as Metro.

These are all things to consider before moving to Baltimore, and I write this as someone who likes Baltimore. But you're seeking advice, and given you called it "Roland Hills" as opposed to "Roland Park," I get the impression you're not very familiar with Baltimore. I urge you to spend more time there before moving.

Also, if only one of you has a job offer and the other hopes to find a job, be forewarned, the job market in Baltimore is not as strong as DC and NOVA. If you can live on just the one salary, though, it may not matter. But if you're planning on living in Roland Park and sending your kids to private school, it's still going to have to be a pretty good salary.

There are other areas in the DC metro area that perhaps you haven't considered that are safe, have metro access, et cetera. I mean, is N. Arlington/Bethesda the only places good enough?

You will have to pay for private schools....period. There are no magical safe and excellent public schools in the city. Even my most liberal public interest lawyer and social worker friends who are all about diversity ended up sending their kids to private schools in Baltimore.

Okay, I fear that so many of the people posting here haven't lived in Baltimore for a while.

Catonsville has some serious crime issues. I know a few people who live there *now* and one of them was robbed a few months ago. The other one had an attempted robbery on their home a year ago.

As for Towson, it doesn't not connect via public transit with the city. So if you're looking for something walkable with public transit (like Arlington and Bethesda), Towson is not it. Neither is Roland Park. Roland Park is very suburban. Except unlike DC suburbs, there isn't much in the way of public transit. Basically, in Roland Park, you can walk to a grocery store, but that's about it.

Mt. Washington has charm, but it's very small. Again, it's only walkable in the sense that you can walk to a few shops. It has a light rail station, but the light rail only links up to certain areas of the city, and the light rail is not as safe as the metro, especially after dark.

Just trying to give you the straight story.

Another Baltimore native here. I'd definitely second a PP's recommendation to check out Mt. Washington--there's also a very nice public elementary school there, so you could put off private for a while.

Although I wouldn't move back--I really love living in DC and agree with a PP that Baltimore can be provincial--Baltimore was a great place to grow up, and the cost of living is so much better. If you do look in the burbs, Towson and Catonsville are great bets.

love roland park, guilford, homeland housing stock. LOVE IT!

My DH commutes from PG County (near UMD) to Baltimore. It's a reverse commute. You don't HAVE to move to B-more to work there, although I understand the motivation to look for lower-cost housing.

That said, commuting from Arlington to Baltimore would be far worse. Maybe consider Annapolis? It's quite pretty and it's easier to get to DC from Annapolis than Baltimore (by car, at least).

Sorry, meant Charles Street, not York Road. (they run parallel)

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind that Baltimore is a different world than DC--the people are completely different there. I don't mean that in a bad way (I'm from there after all) and that may be one of the reasons that you are looking to move there. Also, a lot of people who live in Baltimore are from Baltimore and have extended families in Baltimore (not a lot of transplants like here) so you may find that your neighbors already have a strong, established network of friends but the people there tend to be very friendly so you will likely be welcomed into their circles rather than feel like an outsider.

I moved from DC to Baltimore and then back to DC, all pre-kids. I agree strongly with the bolded portion of what the PP wrote above. People there are very friendly, but we found it difficult to form real social connections because it seemed like everybody we met already had a circle of friends they had known since high school. That said, I think we would have had a much easier time making friends if we had kids. There is something about kids that makes social connections easier, IME.

Compared to DC, Baltimore can feel very provincial and that was something my husband really hated about it. Personally, I preferred that to the competitive atmosphere in DC. Now that we have children, I would actually really like to move back to Baltimore.

Are you saying that you already have a job?

I'm from Baltimore. And I can tell you firmly that the job market in Baltimore is not good *unless* you are in the medical field (Hopkins). Otherwise, it's a crapshoot.

If you have a job offer there, though, then it's not a bad idea. But just be sure it's a solid offer, because if you were to get laid off, you'd probably have to move back toward DC to get a decent white collar job.

If you're definition of a safe neighborhood is limited to Bethesda/N. Arlington, then you probably will not like Baltimore.

You see, in Baltimore, the wealthy upscale neighborhoods are ALL in close proximity to the really bad areas. It's not like the D.C. area, where the wealthier/upscale sections are like little enclaves all to themselves.

Roland Park (not Roland Hill), for example, arguably one of the wealthiest, most upscale sections of the city, is near some very undesirable sections that you have to drive through to get to Roland Park. That's why there is still a lot of crime even in the good neighborhoods in Baltimore -- because they're sort of interwoven with the bad neighborhoods.

And Roland Park is not very walkable. It's on the outskirts of Baltimore, bordering the suburbs.

I'm not saying that Baltimore is bad. I'm saying that even the fancier sections are not at all like Bethesda/N. Arlington. I suspect you'll be disappointed.

I would suggest that before you pick up and move, you spend a lot of time in Baltimore, at different times. Drive around.

Roland Park is nice, but you go a few blocks down York Road, and it's really rough. In order to go anywhere, you'll likely be driving through really rough areas.

I'm not saying that is necessarily bad. It's a unique feature of Baltimore -- really upscale one block and then vacant buildings one block over. Some people looking for a cheaper version of DC have been very disappointed when they moved to Baltimore.

And I can emphasize enough the job market. If the job offer is strong and with a stable company, great. But part of why I moved down to the DC area is because the job market was more robust down here. And the cheaper cost of living in Baltimore didn't make up for not being able to find a job.

I grew up in Baltimore, in Roland Park, and I loved it. I would move back in a heartbeat if it weren't for DH's job being here. Since you understand that you will have to pay for private schools and can afford it, that won't be a surprise to you. And most people in that area do send their kids to private school so it's not like they will not feel like they are part of the community if they do not use the local public school. You should also look into Mount Washington--equally charming and more walkable IMO. Baltimore City taxes are very high though and the services are not great so you should also look into towns in the surrounding counties (Towson, Catonsville, etc) and compare. Schools in the county are much better than city schools.

Keep in mind that Baltimore is a different world than DC--the people are completely different there. I don't mean that in a bad way (I'm from there after all) and that may be one of the reasons that you are looking to move there. Also, a lot of people who live in Baltimore are from Baltimore and have extended families in Baltimore (not a lot of transplants like here) so you may find that your neighbors already have a strong, established network of friends but the people there tend to be very friendly so you will likely be welcomed into their circles rather than feel like an outsider.

I will say that the one thing that I like about DC vs Baltimore (at least where I live here) is that DC has so much more diversity than Baltimore. There are many more people here from all over the world/country and I find that fascinating.

Do you regret it or are you happy? We are thinking about making the move for jobs and for a better cost of living. We have two small kids here in DC (Arlington) but feel like, even though we make good salaries, it will never be enough financially to get what we want in this area. It seems that you need to make $300k at least to live comfortably as we'd like (house in a safe neighborhood in the city or Bethesda/N Arlington, walkable, not totally in need of major renovations). We feel like living here will mean we continue to scrape by and don't have extra money to take family vacations, pay for enrichment for our kids, etc. Baltimore is appealing because of the job offer and also for the lower cost of living. It seems one can live in a pretty area such as Roland Hill in the city, but real estate is much cheaper. I think we could even afford private elementary school there, which we could never do here in the DC area.

Anyway, does anyone have thoughts, particularly those that have made a similar move?