Relocating to Middletown, Lovettsville, Knoxville, Brunswick, POR, or Adamstown (Frederick: houses, transfer)

[military spouse]

Help! We're here in the area, and love it. We're not from this area and just arrived about a week ago. Does anyone have any thoughts on any of these areas or others? Issues for us include taxes and utility costs, particularly those for an older house. Also, some houses we've seen are on a well and septic, which we've never experienced before. Any suggestions, hints, tips. Our budget will likely be under $650,000 and we're flexible with size...

Somebody did mention that car taxes in Virginia would run a few thousand for each newer car. Is that true?

Thank you!!

[MidValleyDad]

That is a pretty diverse area to talk about. Your name implies that this was a Military transfer. If so where will you be based at, or if no longer military where will you (or other family member) need to commute to. Traffic is always a consideration around here.



I will start on one question you had - Well and septic: You will find this on rural properties or subdivisions of larger (usually at least 1+ acre) properties. There are some subdivisions and town with municipal water systems. Middletown and Brunswick both operate public systems. I think some of Adamstown is on a county run system. But you will find areas in each of the zipcodes those names represent that are on well and septic.


Are schools important? Most of the areas you name in Maryland are in Frederick County which is good to very good overall (in my opinion) but individual schools can have different reputations.


I am in the Middletown area and think very highly of the Town, schools and area in general. $650K is a reasonable amount for a good single family home. You might look at the Frederick News Post Saturday paper. It lists the houses that have sold in the last week in the entire county with addresses and prices so you can map things out and get an idea. You can look back over the past few weeks and see how things have ranged.


If you cross 'over the river' things may change. Virginia structures their taxes on cars different than MD using something called 'personal property tax' which has the County tax the value of the vehicle (and boats if you have any, etc) separate from the State vehicle tag fee. It has been years since I was in the military but VA had some 'gotchas' for military families (if the vehicle was in both member and spouse name it had to be tagged in VA)


Feel free to PM me for more specific info if you don't want to be more specific on the board

[DaveinMtAiry]

The personal property tax is only in Maryland as are the towns you listed so no issue. I can give you a basic overview. The towns along the river, Brunswick and Knoxville, are in a word dumpy. Brunswick has a new development not far from the highway 340 and it's nice but the town itself, as well as Knoxville, is well....

Middletown is really nice and has newer developments as well as nice more rural homes. And it's a short drive to Frederick. Adamstown is really nice too with farmland framed by mountains, the sunsets are beautiful, and it is an even shorter drive to Frederick, Buckeystown is close but does not have the newer developments of Adamstown. I'm stumped at what POR is.

I live in Mt. Airy which is 20 minutes east of Frederick. I had never had a well/septic before and I can tell you I love it. Sure you may need to replace the well pump, I've done that once in 20 years, and the water pressure may be a bit lower. But not having to pay for water, running the garden sprinkler as long as I feel like it etc, is really great and more than offsets the cost of any well maintenance. No chlorine taste to the tap water like city water, it's great the way it is. Septic is a really not an issue either. Have it drained once every decade and that's about it.

[MidValleyDad]

Originally Posted by DaveinMtAiry

The personal property tax is only in Maryland as are the towns you listed so no issue. I can give you a basic overview. The towns along the river, Brunswick and Knoxville, are in a word dumpy. Brunswick has a new development not far from the highway 340 and it's nice but the town itself, as well as Knoxville, is well....

What Personal property Tax in MD? I don't remember paying one in the 50+ years I have been paying taxes in MD.

Middletown is really nice and has newer developments as well as nice more rural homes. And it's a short drive to Frederick. Adamstown is really nice too with farmland framed by mountains, the sunsets are beautiful, and it is an even shorter drive to Frederick, Buckeystown is close but does not have the newer developments of Adamstown. I'm stumped at what POR is.

A lot of Buckeystown seems to be turning commercial except for larger (5+ acre) lots. Adamstown has had some concerns with groundwater contamination from a small manufacturing plant, but that goes back yeats and may be resolved by moving to public water.

I live in Mt. Airy which is 20 minutes east of Frederick. I had never had a well/septic before and I can tell you I love it. Sure you may need to replace the well pump, I've done that once in 20 years, and the water pressure may be a bit lower. But not having to pay for water, running the garden sprinkler as long as I feel like it etc, is really great and more than offsets the cost of any well maintenance. No chlorine taste to the tap water like city water, it's great the way it is. Septic is a really not an issue either. Have it drained once every decade and that's about it.

I grew up on well and septic and we were always concerned about water useage so never watered gardens or yards. We had neighbors who had wells deeper than our which would run dry so there was always a concern that water was to valuable to waste on grass and flowers. We only had one problem when the pump died and had to be replaced (it was over 30 years old at the time) and the replacement was still working fine when my parents sold the place 20 years later) No real problems with septic system but we were somewhat careful what went down the drain. The whole idea of having to 'pump out the septic tank' was foreign to us. I think we had to do it once in the 40 years we had the house.


But the OP has never come back and since they first posted almost 3 months ago I assume they made a decision. I just wish they would come back and let us know what it was.

[westsideboy]

POR = Point of Rocks

[DaveinMtAiry]

Originally Posted by MidValleyDad

What Personal property Tax in MD? I don't remember paying one in the 50+ years I have been paying taxes in MD.





A lot of Buckeystown seems to be turning commercial except for larger (5+ acre) lots. Adamstown has had some concerns with groundwater contamination from a small manufacturing plant, but that goes back yeats and may be resolved by moving to public water.





I grew up on well and septic and we were always concerned about water useage so never watered gardens or yards. We had neighbors who had wells deeper than our which would run dry so there was always a concern that water was to valuable to waste on grass and flowers. We only had one problem when the pump died and had to be replaced (it was over 30 years old at the time) and the replacement was still working fine when my parents sold the place 20 years later) No real problems with septic system but we were somewhat careful what went down the drain. The whole idea of having to 'pump out the septic tank' was foreign to us. I think we had to do it once in the 40 years we had the house.


But the OP has never come back and since they first posted almost 3 months ago I assume they made a decision. I just wish they would come back and let us know what it was.

Thanks for catching that, I meant to say Virginia. Agreed about the OP, this is a pattern on CD but it never stops us from posting our thoughts. We've never had a concern about the well running dry, it's about 100 feet down so not that deep. I left the hose on to the garden for days once and we still had water.

Point of Rocks. My best friend moved there. No way for me, it has like one pizza place and that's about it. Access to the river is great, I go there all the time, but not willing to give up on basic necessities. And to me a basic necessity is several restaurants close by.

[slowlane3]

Originally Posted by MidValleyDad

T
If you cross 'over the river' things may change. Virginia structures their taxes on cars different than MD using something called 'personal property tax' which has the County tax the value of the vehicle (and boats if you have any, etc) separate from the State vehicle tag fee. It has been years since I was in the military but VA had some 'gotchas' for military families (if the vehicle was in both member and spouse name it had to be tagged in VA)

Virginia's yearly vehicle tax, the last time I checked, was the 2nd highest in the nation.