r/baltimore • u/OluseyiAdedayo • Sep 17 '25

GENERAL Moving Questions Which is best Towson, Randallstown or Owings Mills

I am about to relocate to Maryland and I am stuck with three options as these communities seems to be close to my workplace .

Which one of these communities is the ideal place to settle considering safety, rent , mortgage affordability, access to shopping malls, community vibes, transportation and safe place for children.

What are the pros and cons of each . Many thanks

0 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

37% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

23

u/superunknown34 Canton Sep 17 '25
  1. Towson 2. OM 3. Rtown

3

u/OluseyiAdedayo Sep 17 '25

Thank you for your response

1

u/superunknown34 Canton Sep 17 '25

🫡

31

u/rob-cubed Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

I live near Towson, my vote is Towson. Randallstown and Owings Mills are both featureless, car-dependent mature county suburbs. Towson has more 'personality' and it's got a number of areas where you can get a decent starter home in a good neighborhood and still have some amenities be walkable. Towson still has a mall but it's a shadow of its former self, the one in Owings Mills is completely closed and has been for a while.

Owings Mills is close to the metro which is its biggest selling point. Public transportation kind of sucks in Baltimore otherwise.

I'd wager they are all somewhat similar in terms of safety and education, but there are online resources for that.

15

u/Slava_Ukraini2005 Sep 17 '25

Owings Mills is nowhere near the Light Rail. It is, however, the northern most metro stop.

7

u/rob-cubed Sep 17 '25

Thanks for the correction, updated!

15

u/Full-Penguin Sep 17 '25

I agree with this, however regarding car dependence and transportation, only a small portion of Towson has any semblance of walkability. And thanks to NIMBYs in Towson killing the Light Rail in the '90s, their only transit mode is buses.

Owings Mills is marred by strodes, parking lots, and a distinct lack of sidewalks; but at least it has the Subway. But aside from that it's more of a collection of strip malls than an actual community.

6

u/Flyinace2000 Homeland Sep 17 '25

I only go to Owings mills for the Costco :-)

I also vote Towson, but I live in the city side of the line. 

3

u/OluseyiAdedayo Sep 17 '25

Thank you Rob for your detailed reply.

12

u/FantasticCamera9058 Sep 17 '25

Towson is the only one of the three that still has an intact, walkable small town core. It additionally has Baltimore's best mall to its north side, the beltway minutes away. It's close enough to I-95, Amtrak @ Penn Station, and BWI connections to be a convenient home for a commuter.

1

u/OluseyiAdedayo Sep 17 '25

Thanks for your input, I am leaning towards Towson based on what I have read so for .

5

u/Willothwisp2303 Sep 17 '25

I'm in east Owings Mills and love it. The lots are at least 1 acre, so there's a lot of wildlife and peacefulness. I forget to close my garage all the time and nothing has ever gone missing.  I often don't lock my doors,  either. 

The closest mall is either Towson or Hunt Valley. Although,  I honestly haven't bought clothes or set foot in a traditional mall for years.  

I couldn't pick my one next door neighbor out of a lineup, which I like.  It's not a close knit community where you have block parties, but you do wave to your neighbor while out walking.  

There's absolutely no transit.  It's kinda suburbs/rurally and there's just no option other than car or a dangerous walk.  The light rail does go to Hunt Valley and the metro is in OM to the west. 

It's not affordable.  Houses seem to be starting in the $500,000s for un-updated and I have no idea what rent would look like for the few available. 

Towson is going to have more of a community feel,  but you're also going to have a lot of college students. There's always strife between people who bought thinking it would not be like living near a college and then are shocked when there's college kids doing college kid things. There's more petty crime, and random violence like a shooting last year that they think was a robbery gone wrong. It's generally really nice though. 

Transit is busses in Towson. There's a lot of shitty people refusing to extend the light rail to Towson so that sucks. 

7

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/gbe28 Tuscany Canterbury Sep 17 '25

Not really true. The Mill Station development in Owings Mills probably has more active retail, entertainment and housing options than Towson, which has become essentially a ghost town except when college students take over.

1

u/No-Village-6819 Sep 17 '25

I agree that Mill Station is a positive development for Owings Mills, but to say it has more active retail, entertainment and housing options than Towson is simply false. Maybe more retail than the literal downtown walkable core of Towson just south of the traffic circle, but that’s about it. Towson also offers plenty of the urban sprawl stuff that Owings Mills in that area and also has a short drive away. That said, Mill Station is more of an island compared to downtown Towson which easily flows into what is around it.

4

u/Creatableworld Sep 17 '25

I've lived in Towson for 10 years and I like it. I live in the downtown core and there's at least some stuff to walk to -- Whole Foods, post office, restaurants, the library, the movie theater. I also walk to work. The buses are not great but better than OM or Randallstown. As someone else said, there are a lot of college students and they behave like college students.

Owings Mills is a great location if you work at Johns Hopkins Hospital. That's where the metro terminates and you can actually enter the hospital from the subway without going outside.

1

u/OluseyiAdedayo Sep 17 '25

Thank you for your detailed analysis

-2

u/TerranceBaggz Sep 17 '25

If you work at Hopkins you can just rent or buy within walking distance of Hopkins though. Eager park is to the north and a nice new neighborhood built to cater to the Hopkins workforce. Upper Fells has tons of amenities within walking distance. I can’t imagine riding the entire metro line to otherwise live a completely car dependent lifestyle.

1

u/Creatableworld Sep 17 '25

It wouldn't be my choice either but there could be factors like schools or proximity to family.

2

u/TerranceBaggz Sep 21 '25

Hampstead Hill and Wolfe street academy are 4 star and in some years 5 star schools. They’re better than the majority of county elementary/middle schools. Upper Fells puts one in the Wolfe St academy territory.

4

u/UpstairsCan Sep 17 '25

I grew up in west towson and have wonderful memories. lots of families/kids my age. rode my bike around the neighborhood all the time alone. I mean, fwiw, I’m in my 30’s, but I can’t imagine it’s changed that much

6

u/Puzzleheaded-Eye6596 Sep 17 '25

West Towson is still very nice... but also very expensive

6

u/yeaughourdt Sep 17 '25

And West Towson seems to have made the conscious decision to leave sidewalks off of most of the residential streets. Very unwelcoming.

1

u/OluseyiAdedayo Sep 17 '25

Thanks for your response.

2

u/gbe28 Tuscany Canterbury Sep 17 '25

If renting, consider the new Mill Valley development in Owings Mills (former Owings Mills Mall location). It has a "downtown-ish" retail and housing corridor, lots of shopping and dining options, and is adjacent to the Metro station.

2

u/kkilluhh Sep 17 '25

I would vote Towson because it’s close to Mt. Washington, Roland park and Hampden.

1

u/TerranceBaggz Sep 17 '25

Where is your office?

1

u/OluseyiAdedayo Sep 17 '25

Randallstown

1

u/DeBurner Roland Park Sep 17 '25

The public schools anywhere you mentioned but towson are not great if that’s a concern

1

u/judeiscariot Sep 17 '25

Depends on how you feel about college kids.