The commute to CP is not bad by city standards. If you'll be working at the university, I would recommend using the UMD DOTS 142 bus or the Camden Marc train line. Traffic can be slow at peak hours, but average commute to the university would be about 30 minutes.
I'm not a librarian, but our family loves the Howard County libraries! Excellent facilities, great programming for all ages, and very welcoming. Another neat thing about Maryland is that you can get reciprocal memberships across the state. If you go to another county's branch, you just have them add your HC library card number to a record in their system and you can check out books there, too.
5./6. At that price range, you'll probably be looking at a row home--they're more common here than single family homes. It's also important to know that if you buy within Columbia city limits, you'll have steep HOA fees. I'd recommend looking in Fulton, North Laurel, and Savage.
Best of luck navigating the move, and welcome to the area!
industrious-elephant t1_j3k3w49 wrote
Reply to Moving to MD for work in College Park & considering Columbia by RBGismypatronus
Hi! I can speak to a few items:
The commute to CP is not bad by city standards. If you'll be working at the university, I would recommend using the UMD DOTS 142 bus or the Camden Marc train line. Traffic can be slow at peak hours, but average commute to the university would be about 30 minutes.
I'm not a librarian, but our family loves the Howard County libraries! Excellent facilities, great programming for all ages, and very welcoming. Another neat thing about Maryland is that you can get reciprocal memberships across the state. If you go to another county's branch, you just have them add your HC library card number to a record in their system and you can check out books there, too.
5./6. At that price range, you'll probably be looking at a row home--they're more common here than single family homes. It's also important to know that if you buy within Columbia city limits, you'll have steep HOA fees. I'd recommend looking in Fulton, North Laurel, and Savage.
Best of luck navigating the move, and welcome to the area!