Originally Posted by katjoeuk

Thanks, Guys, for your replies - you're basically confirming what I was thinking....I'll definitely check that city data website, thanks for the tip!

When I said walkable, I didn't mean so much groceries - I'm quite happy to drive to get my groceries as it's usually too much to carry anyway; I was more after something like a High Street with various things and a bit of a city centre feel, but I do realize that in that part of the country, there really aren't a lot of city centres as they are mostly purpose built communities (suburbs).
On the other hand, I'm looking forward to having a relatively nice big house with a bit of land (which is virtually impossible to have here in the UK, unless you really live in the sticks!) I'm going to have to get used to calling it a yard instead of a garden, though....Lots of things I'll have to get used to!!

I think overall, we'll go for commutability over desirable area as I don't want my husband to have to spend ages in the car each day! To be fair, we're pretty homey people anyway - we're usually quite happy to sit on the couch with our two cats, but it was nice here in Cheltenham to have that option of just walking 5 minutes to catch a bus and go downtown (even if we didn't d it very often )
Ididn't know Severn had a waterfront?? Does that not get very muggy in the summer, with loads of mosquitoes etc.? I would love a waterfront location, provided it's not too swampy...

So you think we'd be best of in Columbia for our first 6 weeks? Another option is that Arbors at Arundel in Hanover - or even possibly something a little more interesting like downtown Annapolis or downtown DC. I've been to Baltimore before and didn't really care for it, apart from Fell's Point which I thought was quite charming - but that's a little out of the way for driving around, looking at houses, maybe??