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Crossing State Lines
Jay and Kacey Hoffman, who both grew up in Culpeper County and now live in Odenton, say they don't think of themselves as Marylanders just yet.
(By Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)
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"Before, there were people who would say, 'I just wouldn't feel comfortable moving to south of the Potomac,' " Lang said. "It's a pretty permeable boundary now. It's hardly the Berlin Wall."
These days, he added, the driving forces behind where people settle have less to do with ideology than with hard numbers: housing costs, property tax rates, school test scores and commuting times.
Ted Unnikumaran, a real estate agent who works in Fairfax County, examined such numbers for his move to Silver Spring from Falls Church this fall.
The bottom line? The move is costing him several hundred dollars a month. But he said being closer to family more than makes up for it. Both he and his wife, Yekaterina, grew up in Maryland.
His commute is longer, which means that he spends more money not only on gasoline, but also on car insurance, which went up by about $80 a month. His take-home pay, he said, shrunk by $173 a month because of state taxes.
Not all costs increased. The Unnikumarans no longer will pay the Virginia state car tax. And although the couple's house is larger than the Falls Church townhouse they used to own, their property tax will not rise significantly because the tax rate is lower in Montgomery County.
Unnikumaran, a sports fan, also likes that he is closer to Baltimore teams and to sports events at the University of Maryland. He does miss the easier drive downtown to the Kennedy Center and Smithsonian.
Kacey and Jay Hoffman both grew up in Culpeper County, attended James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., and were renting in Alexandria. But in 2003, when they married, they were ready to look elsewhere.
The traffic was "too ridiculous, and the housing was too expensive," Jay Hoffman said. "All the things people complain about Northern Virginia became too much to bear."
Because Jay Hoffman was commuting to Calvert County at the time, moving farther out in Virginia wouldn't work. Besides, "that area is a little bit too slow," he said. They purchased a townhouse in Odenton in Anne Arundel County.
Although the Hoffmans, both 28, don't think of themselves as Marylanders just yet, they are enjoying their lives in a residential community, without having to give up the urban conveniences.
"It's all there in Maryland, too," said Kacey Hoffman, adding that they shop in Annapolis. It's about a 15-minute drive. "I have no issue with it. I'd rather drive somewhere to do something rather than sit in traffic and do nothing."
