Mosdefinately

Mosdefinately t1_irrssqt wrote

Lived in DC/Maryland suburb and now live in Northern NJ. Based on your post even without knowing other variables (family, etc…). I would say DC/Maryland is far superior. You will hear this all the time; your mileage my vary blah blah. NJ has the worst drivers I have experienced in my 21 years of driving (based on my time in Midwest, The South, and Middle East like Iraq). Of course this is all anecdotal, I don’t have the data to support. A sober driver drove their car thru my neighbors front door for example, and there are maybe 1,000 other examples.

You get more for your money in DC/Maryland suburbs. And the school systems are superior depending on where you look. We lived in blue ribbon area and had minimal taxes in Maryland.

The people are much nicer. In NJ my neighbor left her dogs out for 6 hours when it was cold and I went to check on her, she threatened to shoot me in my face if I ever knocked on her door again. Plus countless more examples.

Traffic sucks everywhere but Route 17 is a nightmare 24/7 compared to the major routes I drove in Maryland.

I work in healthcare, and the market is vastly superior in Maryland. Compensation is equal to NJ and with the 25% lower cost of living (depends where and how you live) your money goes further.

Maryland/DC suburbs have tons of trails and hiking places very close by. B&A trail is very popular and easy to access year round and very well maintained. NJ has some solid hikes too but they are very crowded and far to commute to depending on where you live.

NJ has a lot of corruption that affects you personally. The Maryland corruption is white collar stuff in my experience, unless you are super rich/poor you aren’t affected much.

The weather is far superior in DC/Maryland especially if you are coming from Boston. If you love really cold weather that’s the only aspect that north NJ has a leg up.

Good food is highly subjective. I had some of the best kabob, Italian, and other “fancy” cuisine in Maryland/DC. NJ has better pizza but that’s about it. All places have delis and the sort there is no real advantage.

This is just my own two cents. Access to museums and other fun stuff is significantly easier to access in Maryland/DC than NJ. I just went to Bronx zoo and it took 30 min to get there and 79 min to come back. Again your experience may vary.

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