OOT community advice

amother

Daphne

Thu, May 18 2023, 8:22 am

I grew up in Baltimore and currently live in the tristate area. The community is booming! My siblings and parents still live there. There are neighborhoods opening up within the eruv that people 15 years ago would never have dreamed of living in. Housing is still affordable especially compared to the tristate area, but prices are going up for sure in the nicer areas. It is a much more relaxed community compared. People just do their thing. I wouldn’t consider it a poor community like another poster said. The standard of living is just lower. As a community is is completely self sufficient and all the infrastructure is in place and it even supports smaller surroundings communities too, for example one of meat stores ships to Norfolk Virginia once a month. Pride of the Farm dairy in Pennsylvania is a Baltimore family. The milk is very fresh compared to Golden Flow. There are a myriad of eateries, schools, and shuls for everyone. Two large kosher supermarkets with large kosher sections with c”y products in the non Jewish supermarkets. Spend a shabbos there to get a good feel for the community.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/21209_rb/
Note: a few of these homes are outside the eruv

amother

DarkYellow

Thu, May 18 2023, 8:59 am

amother Daphne wrote:

The link you provided can be useful to OP for assessing housing prices in Baltimore. The ones listed under the frum real estate agencies- Bondar, Lazar, Pickwick, Remax- will most likely be within the erev.
You can also check out 21208 but most will be outside frum Baltimore but look for the frum agencies again here too. 21215 will have a handful of homes for sale in the frum parts and for significantly less since it's an older area and homes will need major renovations or are small, most will be in the 'hood, the parts of Baltimore known for all the crime- closer to the inner city and not where the frum people reside- it's a separate area mostly south of Glen/ N. Parkway and you don't want to live there!
But sites like Zillow really just help with gaging the housing market and are a small percentage of what's actually for sale. Many houses are never listed since neighbors spread the word to their friends. You can check out Zillow in other communities as well to get a feel for the market.

amother

Green

Thu, May 18 2023, 9:12 am

amother Whitesmoke wrote:

I’m thinking housing under 850K

What are the communities in Denver, Memphis and Houston like?

Denver is very small and (from what I hear at least - I moved in 2014) is shrinking. Young adults who go away for school or families outgrowing apartments just can’t afford to live there anymore. Most of the homes in the eruv are around $1-3mil. Small single family are $700k + and go FAST, and condos/townhomes around $300-400k. https://I.imgur.com/JdUIAWn.png

Unfortunately the two high schools are across town in the west side eruv, which is a pretty scary place and doesn’t have much of a community of its own. Bais Yaakov looks like a fortress, but the yeshiva isn’t in a location to do the same unfortunately.

Not sure how Hillel academy is doing these days, but DAT used to be a nice, MO/Dati school.
East side kosher deli is the only meat restaurant/kosher grocery and it’s…fine. Better than it used to be when I was back last August, but nothing to write home about. Brooklyn pizza is pretty good, and the King Soopers does have fresh, kosher donuts and bagels, so that’s very nice.

Not sure about shuls these days, I stayed by a friend across the street from EDOS and it’s largely an older shul. DAT minyan was nice but modern. Mechitzah during services but Bas Mitzvah girls spoke to mixed crowds at Shaleshudis. BHBJ has a large kehilla and preschool, but they were still holding out against a mechitza the last time I was there for Shabbos so I never went for services. Couple Chabad shuls and a yeshivish Kiruv org I know nothing about.

amother

Begonia

Thu, May 18 2023, 12:46 pm

amother Watermelon wrote:

Most out of town communities will have a blend of modern, JPF, and yeshivish, that part is easy.

But I think some OOT communities have more blending, while others are more segregated. I'm sure there are exceptions, but in general I would say that the more schools a community has, the less you will see genuine blending among people of different hashkafos in terms of friendships (child and adult), simcha invites, davening together at each other's shuls, and stuff like that.