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I don't know much about Baltimore, but I live about an hour away. There are a lot of Baltimore commuters in my area of Pennsylvania. Depending on your needs for commuting and where jobs will be, you might look into southern York County (in PA). It's a growing area, and a lot of people live there and work in Maryland.

No advice about Baltimore, but for the logistics, pay the movers to do as much as you can afford. Have them pack and unpack if possible and remove boxes/wrappings. We have moved several times with our LO, most recently at the beginning of this month (but just within the same city). I have a 3yo and a 6 month old and there is no way we could have done the packing ourselves without spending a month before the move doing nothing but that. The movers did all the packing in about 7 hours and then moved everything the next day.

As for your son, stay excited about the move and talk up the positive aspects, new house, new bedroom, new fun things to do in the new city. Get him excited about it. We got our son excited about the new apartment and the move went very well for him.

For your salary range, I think renting to start would be best. That area boomed hard in 2005 and it hasn't come back to normal since. Will your husband's job be in Baltimore city? There are lots of very nice areas in a 30 mile radius around the area. I'm from there so feel free to contact me for any suggestions on where to live or if you start looking and need some tips.

Baltimore is a great place. I wouldn't live IN the city with young kids if I could help it but the suburbs of Baltimore are so nice. We lived in the country and we were about 25 minutes from Baltimore.

I would also suggest people to help you pack the u-haul and unpack it when you get there. All you have to do is pack your things and they put it all in your truck.

Best wishes! We just moved (just over a week ago) with a just turned 3 yo and a 7 month old. We packed and unboxed ourselves but hired movers to load, drive and carry in. We got recommendations from friends on movers and it was just a bit more for them to drive then for us to rent a uhaul, and that we could each drive one of our cars down.

The move was a little hard on my 3 yo, she was usually fine during the day but would get scared at night. So one of us usually slept in her room. We try to make it as fun as possible for her though and get her introduced to kids in the neighborhood and go fun places and not only focus on unpacking. So she's happy but she does miss her friends and asks for them, which has been a bit sad.

As for Bmore, figure out how much commuting is reasonable and see what you can get for your price in different spots in and out of the city. The one thing with living in the city is it's very patchy, you'll have nice spots next to a very not nice spot so if there's places you know you want to walk to daily, find a place that has a nice walk. It's a fun city, hope you like Old Bay and crabs!

@glimmersnaps: I would be more than happy to help you with areas. Baltimore city is known to be very "swiss cheese," in that really, really bad areas are a block or two from really, really good areas. I absolutely adore the area of the city that I live in. It is on the outskirts and has a great family friendly, neighborhood feel. However, the schools aren't great so we will eventually have to do do private schools.

@wheres_c: Owings Mills really isn't great anymore! Towson and White Marsh are nice areas in Baltimore County but are pricier areas (although, White Marsh is more affordable than Towson).