Reviews & Comments
Hagerstown, MD
Continued...hmm, they don't tell you that you have -
8/11/2006On the flip side, I won't be totally negative about my experience - there really are some nice things about Hagerstown. There are great old houses and buildings if you're into that like I am. The town (I'm sorry, I can't bring myself to call this place a city) is very old and has great history - Antietam battlefield is nearby, too. There are some nice parks - City Park is particularly lovely and there is a pretty cool little art museum there. All in all it's a pretty quiet place to live. It's a great place for people who are raising families or thinking of starting one, especially if you're more of a homebody and don't feel the need to go out a lot or actively seek entertainment. It's pleasantly rural with some city-like amenities, but beware - it's quickly becoming another extension of DC suburbia in the way that Frederick has (if you're familiar with the area). It's not as crowded as some areas, but it's definitely taking the same form...same types of shopping centers, same chain stores and restaurants. I guess there are few places that you're going to escape that entirely...
Hagerstown, MD
A great price...but not without sacrifice. -
8/10/2006Hagerstown is...interesting. I have lived here for almost 3 years now and I'm ready to leave. I am originally from the DC area and after attending college in VA, I landed a sweet job in Frederick, MD. The problem was that I couldn't afford to live in Frederick. Everyone told me to go to Hagerstown because it was much more affordable. This was true. I bought a house a half-hour away for less than half the price I would have paid for it in Frederick. This is changing though, as more and more commuters are moving to Hagerstown. Homes have appreciated more than 20% since I bought my house 2 years ago.
For people that work in Frederick, DC, or Baltimore this is a great place to buy right now in terms of cost of living (if you don't mind the commute). For people that have lived in Hagerstown for years...it's not. Hagerstown is traditionally a blue collar town and the people that have lived there for a long time are now struggling to deal with the rapidly increasing cost of living. It's exploding in the same way that Frederick did.
The oddest part about this explosion is...there's not much that Hagerstown has to offer besides cheap housing. I would not recommend moving here if you are young and/or single - there are a few interesting bars, but there isn't much else in the form of entertainment or ways to meet people. There are a few nice independent restaurants around town, but far greater is the number of generic chains. There is technically a downtown area, but there really isn't too much in it - a few good restaurants, a few high-priced boutiques owned by people with old money that could care less if they sold anything at all, a lot of dive bars, and recently a small branch of the University of Maryland. The culture is lacking, unless you consider "redneck" a form of culture. I guess some might... Let's put it this way - the area is not very diverse. I think they are trying to appeal to a more urban group of people with the new influx from DC, but the city council is notorious for arguing a lot and for not being able to accomplish much of anything.
On the flip side, I won't be totally negative about my experience - there really are some nice things about Hagerstown. There are great old houses and buildings if you're into that like I am. The town (I'm sorry, I can't bring myself to call this place a city) is very old and has great history - Antietam battlefield is nearby, too. There are some nice parks - City Park is particularly l