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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old One" data-source="post: 2617941" data-attributes="member: 83">A lot...I live N. of Baltimore, but work in N. VA. and have been house-shopping in the Baltimore-DC 95 corridor off and on for the past 2 years.  I don't know what kind of housing/employment level you are coming in at, so I will just make some general comments.(1) Housing is expensive.  The closer you get to DC, the more it is.  There are still some decent pockets around - Catonsville, Arbutus, Odenton and others - where you can get some reasonable housing and that are very close to BWI, but the prices have skyrocketed in this area over the past 5 years (up close to 100%+ in many areas).  You can also look at places in Baltimore City, with Canton being a prime "urban renewal" area...but prices are on the rise there as well.(2) Housing Selection - Most newer single-family homes (built in the last 10 years) are going to run you in excess of $500k.  New townhouses and condos are less ($250-$450k) and older homes (built in the 30s to 70s) run in the high $100ks to $400k plus.  Duplexes, fourplexes and rowhouses will generally be less...but need more work.(3) Schools - One of the major things driving home prices is school zoning.  People pay lots of money to be in better school districts.  Right around BWI are Baltimore County, Baltimore City and Anne Arundel County.  If you have school age kids, avoid Baltimore City schools like the plague, they are a disaster.  Baltimore and Anne Arundel County are hit or miss...sometimes a street within a neighborhood divides one school district from another.(4) Shopping/Retail - The Columbia Mall and Arundel Mills are the big shopping areas in the BWI corridor (Arundel Mills even has a Medieval Times <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />).  There are also lots of powercenters and strip malls around.(5) Commuting/Travel - Commuting by car around Baltimore/DC can be...challenging!  I-695 (Baltimore Beltway), I-95 (DC/Baltimore Connector), I-295 (another DC/Baltimore connector) and I-495 (DC Beltway) are all very heavy traffic roads, especially during rush hour.  A commuter train, MARC, runs from Baltimore to DC, Baltmore has a half-ass Light Rail system and DC has a pretty good Metro, but linkage/coordination between the 3 systems leaves something to be desired.  The closer you can get to your place of work, the better you are going to be.  Commutes of 1 hour+ each way during rush hours is the norm around here.(6) Living/Lifestyle - Don't know what floats your boat, but both Baltimore and DC have lots to do.  Tons of professional sports (2 pro-football, 2 pro-baseball, 1 pro-basketball and 1 pro-hockey + lots of college sports with U of Maryland (Terps) and the Naval Academy close by.  DC, of course, offers all the museums/national monuments, Annapolis is very close if you like sailing/fishing, lots of public parks, biking, etc and Baltimore's Inner Harbor is a fun destination.  Also lots of clubs, enterntainment venues, bands...blah, blah, blah.(7) Gamer Community - Pretty active.  We held the first "Terpcon" in Oct 2004 and Terpcon III happens in a couple of weeks.  You shouldn't have much trouble scaring up a new game.Let me know if you have other questions.EDIT: Missed the part on taxes.  Depending on your income level, you will pay ~ 5-6% in state/local taxes in MD, definitely a bump from NH.  Sales tax on top of that.  MD is a bit more tax friendly than NJ or PA and about the equivelent with VA.~ OO</blockquote>

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