moving to MD!

Hey there!!  Congrats on your (hopefully) new job.  How far are you willing to commute to work?  Not to knock Prince George's county and the College Park area since I can also recommend some places there that are OK for families, but I think some other surrounding areas are a bit more family friendly.  Certain areas in Prince George's County can look deceivingly nice (especially if you won't be able to check out the place before you actually move), but you are probably better off avoiding them.

Just let me know how close you'd like to be to work and I'll try and help you out.  I lived in MD my entire life.. College Park for 3 years when I went to U of MD.  I grew up in Severna Park (near Annapolis) and now live in the Columbia area. 

Looking at the map,  I'd recommend living as far away from Camp Springs as possible if you want a place that's family friendly   That part of the state is considered a rough part and you really don't want to be living in any of those surrounding areas: Oxon Hill, Suitland, District Heights... yipes!

Your commute is going to be sort of tough because you'll be on 495.  That road is ALWAYS backed up and, unless you have really weird working hours, you'll be dealing with traffic everyday. 

If you're looking to get to work in under an hour I'd suggest looking for places in Waldorf, Davidsonville, I've heard there are some nice areas in Bowie, College Park is OK but most of the apartments are going to have college kids there.  I was a college kid living in a CP apartment a few years ago and I don't think I would want to raise a baby there   Crofton and Odenton would probably be a little longer than an hour commute, but those are both nice places too.  Upper Marlboro might be worth taking a look at too. 

awesome, thank you guys for all your help.

The office will be moving to college park in another year or so, so if I find a place close to College Park now, I will only have to gut out the commute for a little while.

I'll be sure to post more questions and updates once we get further along.

I can recommend the part of Greenbelt which is called "Old Greenbelt" (which is just down the road from College Park).  I'm not sure if you can get into the co-op from long distance (the co-op is a really inexpensive set of New Deal era townhouses that functions alot like a condo organization in that they take care of alot of big ticket problems with the buildings for a relatively small monthly fee) but there are single family homes in the old part of Greenbelt too.  There are also some nice areas in Greenbelt East.  Basically any single family home is in a nice area and some townhouses/condos are in pretty nice areas.

It's a pretty family-oriented area with alot of cool community organizations, an extremely inexpensive pool/mini-gym (around $200/year), community center, youth center, etc. There's some decent biking in the area, and plenty of nice places to run.  And it's right where the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and the Beltway meet, so easy to get on major roads.

I commute from here to Andrews Air Force Base, which is near Camp Springs.  I leave at 6:30 and come home around 3 and rarely ever hit traffic that slows me down.  Takes me about 20 minutes each way.  Going in that direction (clockwise) on the Beltway is not nearly as bad as heading the other way.  Sadly no hope of biking though as there are too many bad neighborhoods between there and here.

Okay, enough about my adopted home town.   Let me know if you want to know anything else about it.  I'm always happy to brag about it

Other options would be La Plata or Waldorf.  I know alot of people who live there who work at Andrews and the commute is under an hour except on really bad days. 

I live in Calvert County (south of Anne Arundel & PG), which is a manageable commute to College Park but only worth it if you stay long enough for your little one to take advantage of the schools.  I live about 3 miles from the Chesapeake Bay and the commute to DC is about 65 minutes for me.  But it has been worth it for my kids to be in a great school system and community. 

I would also suggest Howard County (north of PG County, between DC and Baltimore).  Look in the Laurel/Savage/Columbia areas.  My sister-in-law lives there and loves it.  The commute can be a bear occasionally, but there are lots of bail-out alternatives that may work regularly. 

Laurie