Frederick, Maryland (MD)

CountryGirl (currently lives here; has lived here for Under 5 years):

""Great Place to Live on a Budget""

I love living here. Shopping centers, movies, grocery stores, & restaurants are within walking distance. Frederick Memorial Hospital is close by & also most doctors offices.

If you want to find housing that is reasonably priced, move to Frederick. You can get a lot more for your money. It is also a great place to retire.

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lbpsfl (currently lives here; has lived here for 5-10 years):

"Has it's points for pre-retirement."

First, general government. Corrupt machine politics dominates MD. Recall Spiro Agnew. Tax code and regulations make it very unfriendly to business. Estate tax code is unfriendly to retirees. If politics matters to you, this is one of the bluest states. I plan to leave MD as soon as I can without a career disruption. Frederick government has a particularly unsavory reputation for picayune regulation. Many businessmen from other parts of the state have told me that they try to avoid doing business in Frederick County. An example of the Frederick attitude, trash pickup by government workers is a pain compared to the previous places that I've lived.

Now for things about Frederick. It's a tale of two cities. Formerly a nice, but somewhat run down county seat with a small college. Home to Fort Detrick, which may have finally solved their contamination problems from decades ago. Recently, it's role as a bedroom community expanded greatly. Mostly DC, but also Baltimore --which is farther, but the traffic is much better. Trains and buses to downtown DC, but not B'more. Convenient to BWI and IAD. Local traffic has improved significantly since I got here, but that might be partly due to the economy. The traffic on the main N-S route through town--US15 should be avoided, if possible. Check out Frederick in Google Maps--local traffic.

The small town has been hurt badly by the economy. Solar cell plant recently closed. Many other blue color jobs have gone in the last year or two. The bedroom community has done better--because DC is doing well, but gas prices are a continuing threat. As with many ex-urbs, real estate prices and home construction ballooned until about '06. Currently, foreclosures on homes built in the last 15 years are selling for about half of their peak prices. Of course, non-foreclosures are only down about 20%.

Some increase in white-collar employment due to relocation of government workers from DC to the Fort.

When I first moved here from the DC area, I recall the dichotomy between the local economy and the bedroom economy. Local salaries were surprisingly low, but local prices for ex-urb services weren't that different from DC. Go another 20 miles west to find cheaper services. Real estate prices weren't as low as I'd hoped, because I missed out on most of the balloon.

Weather-wise Frederick is to DC as Siberia is to Moscow. We're colder in the winter and hotter in the summer, but summer night tend to be cooler since we're not a heat island.

I like the arts and restaurant scenes, but have cut back quite a bit since I moved here. Used to hike in the mountains nearby, but between physical setbacks and many rumors of gang activities, I've stopped. There is significant gang activity. The rumors were about activity in the parks.

The schools appear to be quite good. The local government has begun to think about their unfunded pension liabilities. They had a chance to do something about it recently, but they caved to the teachers union.

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