Haha yeah – at least it feels healthier :)

The internet’s def. made it easier to diversify investments too… Whether in career or wealth, etc. We’re still fully invested in index funds and don’t have any real estate, but the wife is starting to itch for some – ack!

Haha right??? I used to live there too, and now you have to go a handful of miles out before you can reach the current countryside :)

Is the country-side still cheaper? Well, maybe if I owned a cow and a chicken, but if you visit a country town today they have the exact same chain grocery stores. The prices are the same too, exactly as you would find “in the city”.

As far as gardening in the country goes… well I’ve spent a lot of time looking into the economics of gardening. My own personal numbers over the last 9 years seem to indicated that the cost of gardening is roughly comparable in price to just buying groceries at the store. Vegetables are pretty cheap!

As far as the country being healthier… well, that’s probably still true. ;)

I haven’t checked out Laytonsville or Columbia yet, though I do love me some Frederick! Oh – and drove by this quaint little town called “Brookville” the other month here in MoCo – so beautiful!! And been around for over 200 years apparently!

I fell in love with it after the 1st flood, so if it was better than that then color me impressed!

Christine, Ill give you this, if I were to move to MoCo it would be Laytonsville. Such a cool town, reminds me of a legit Midwestern town with a main street and the way the houses are laid out. I drive through it to get to the metro, it looks like a really cool place (at least from the outside looking in). Virtues of Hoco: #1 first and foremost, is its not MoCo, #2 if you have kids for the amount of money you pay to live there you’d think you’d at least get good schools. but no, MoCo schools are rated very poorly. #3 HoCo schools are rated #1 in MD and MD is rated #1 in the US, so… The rest depends on if you like city or country. I live in the western part of the county bordering MoCo, Carroll, and Frederick. I like that I can be out in the farm land but also accessible to Columbia and Frederick. I used to live in the Columbia area for about 25 years. When I was a kid it was great, but now the population has exploded to the point where I cant stand it anymore. red lights every 10th of a mile, reminds me of Gaithersburg and Rockville but about 20% less busy. both counties are prohibitively expensive but you get slightly more here. I live in a 2400 sq ft (4000 sq ft total finished) home on 3 acres and we paid just under 600K back in 2013. For that price in MoCo you could get the shed in someone else’s backyard. If you like City, you could probably live your life in Downtown Columbia without the need for a car (you still need one but most days you could probably get by walking, biking, or taking public transit).

Also, as a transplant from a small town in the Midwest, looking back, I feel incredibly fortunate to have grown up in an environment modeled after Rouse’s vision of racial and economic diversity. It has completely shaped my life for the better and is part of the reason I think about moving back to the eastern part of the county as the western end is not so much that way. That is really the only thing I don’t like about having moved away from Columbia. I have 4 kids and I would like that for them as well but I just don’t think I could stand the busy lifestyle anymore. All of this is really hard to explain to people that didn’t grow up there, but when I talk to old high school friends about it, its like we just all kind of get it…

You should have seen it before all the floods. Its basically a shell now… Having grown up not too far away in Columbia, I have so many fond memories of being a teenager getting into trouble at night there. I even worked in old Ellicott City for a short time in college.

I’d live in the city again in a heartbeat if I didn’t have a million kids… But at long as I can walk to *somewhere* decent from my house I’m okay until they’re all off to college :)