I posted the other day trying to figure out where to live (moving from the NYC area), and I've come up with a slightly new plan.
I'm hoping to get into a grad school program at University of Maryland, College Park. Back up school is Towson. DH will be commuting into DC.
We THINK we want to live near Silver Spring, but we don't really know the area.
Is that a reasonable choice for a young family? What surrounding towns are also good options? We'll be renting til I'm done with school, since we are losing money on the sale of our current house. So we want "affordable" - which I know is a relative term. Any specific parts of town to avoid? DS will end up in starting kindergarten while we still live there, so public schools are important.
Re: FU - where to live - montgomery cty
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You can rent a townhouse or condo in the Burtonsville/Colesville/White Oak areas. Depending on where your DH is commuting in DC adn how he goes, it should take him ~ 1 hour. Your drive to College Park will be about 15-20 minutes.
If your kids are young, you might look at Greenbelt, University Park and Hyattsville which are next door to College Park and closer in suburbs w/ shorter commutes for your DH. I probably wouldn't want my kid going to high school there, but preschool/kindergarten, 1st grade would be OK in most instances.
I would also look in the Howard County section of Laurel,Savage, Elkridge. That's where we are now. We're super close to 95 and DH commutes to University of Maryland every day and it's an easy ride.There are a lot of townhouses for rent in our community and around since we're close to Ft. Meade and they all go for about $1600-1800/mo
Unfortunately, Silver Spring has no easy way to get to Towson every day if that's where you ended up. You want to be a little bit more east (closer to 95) if you can or it will be a nightmare. The traffic in and around Silver Spring is pretty horrible, I used to date someone that lived there while I was at Towson and it was hellish on 29 during rush hour. And 70 can be a nightmare too.
ETA: We are also close to the MARC train and the Metro station is in Greenbelt or College Park so that would help with your DH's commute.
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