Can't go wrong with either of them. You do have to pay a HOA fee in Columbia Association parcels, but that gets you great walking/hiking trails. Not as familiar with EC so I'll let some else speak to the details.

They’re right next to each other, so regardless of where you end up you’ll be able to get to the other easily. Columbia does have the Columbia Association, which maintains a ton of walking paths and tot lots throughout the city, and has gyms and pool memberships for an additional fee. You pay an annual fee to CA each year based on value of your home (assuming you own your home)

Echoing others here, both are great. Columbia is a bit more manicured, ellicott city has some older homes with added charm. They are right next to each other and easy to pop back and forth.

Columbia has gone downhill a bit. Large developers are trying to lure in out people which is slowly degrading the charm of the city. Ellicott city is way more family oriented now

They both have their own appeals and things in between. Ellicott city has the historic old ec and the many nature hiking paths around it. It is also the most cultural diverse area within Howard county, from Asian markets and more as you drive up towards Catonsville.

Columbia has the mall and merryweather area which is known for Concerts, seasonal drive through events such as the Christmas symphony lights, and the Toby theatre. There are plenty of different hiking trails and nature reserves, all throughout. There’s other communities you might like around Columbia as well, such as maple lawn, Fulton, which in my experience has a great community that interacts with each other through the many restaurants and retail buildings within the area. Next to that and still around the Columbia area is Clarksville, one of the more expensive areas around river hill. Plenty of modern homes surrounded by nature and farmland, and town areas.

I think it's a case by case basis. I'd pick some Columbia places over EC and vice versa. Some houses will be worth the CA payments, others won't be.

What do you find family-oriented about EC?

We lived in Columbia for 30 years and just moved to Ellicott City a year and a half ago. Both communities are equally family oriented in my opinion. Columbia has much more population density compared with Ellicott City because there are a lot more condominiums and apartments there. This also means the traffic is worse there; however, I will say there are several different ways to get everywhere so you normally aren't stuck. Columbia has more amenities such as the Columbia Association gyms, skating rink, ice rink, bowling and almost anything else you can think of. I love living in Ellicott City since we have a lot more land but the one thing I really miss is the huge amount of restaurants in Columbia compared with options in Ellicott City.

Wouldn’t recommend Maryland (Columbia resident)

I love living in Columbia and would easily recommend it. So much is convenient because the area has been thoughtfully developed. Columbia Association maintains TONS of open space. Columbia is family friendly, diverse, and often recognized as a great place to live. I'd say it's a great place to raise children.

Others have commented about the CA fees in Columbia. Not all Columbia addresses pay this fee (we call those out parcels). Some addresses in Ellicott City do in fact pay this fee. I find the fee to be reasonable and have it escrowed with my mortgage. If you are going to rent rather than own, this fee won't mean much/anything to you.

I was born and raised in EC and now live in Columbia. Both are great, Columbia is cheaper and has more to do with parks and merriweather and downtown is really getting built up but worse schools overall (Wilde lake, Oakland mills, long reach, Hammond). and EC has no CA fees but and better schools (centennial/Hebron/Marriotts ridge) but costs a good bit more. More stuff to do in Columbia but again it is only a short ride from EC. Both are great for families.

I think outside of the Mall vs. old town, most of the suburbs are very similar. You can be dropped in a neighborhood and you wouldn't necessarily know if you are in Columbia or EC (unless you happen to see the Columbia street names).

I think it really depends on what you are looking for. I actually have lived in both Columbia and EC. Albeit I was only in Columbia for 2 years, but almost 20 years in EC.

Honestly, they might as well be the same town. It's not like there is a border and things just look/feel different once you cross it. If I were to compare them, I guess you can say Columbia is more "urban". You have sort of a "population center" with the mall - high rises, business buildings, etc. EC is more the 'burbs.

Just my opinion of course.

Columbia is really walkeable which isnt necessarily something you could say about ellicott city

You can join the CA even if you don't live in Columbia. We joined with the play package so we can use the pools and ice skating rink.

Why not?

No road on its worst day in Columbia is as bad as 40 in Ellicott City is on its best day.

What's your budget. That's going to be the issue. EC is much more expensive than Columbia.

Both Columbia and Ellicott City cover a large and diverse area. Both have great areas and areas that have major issues.

Recently moved from Catonsville to Ellicott City and absolutely love it. Schools are great, but home prices are higher as a result. Really can’t go wrong with Columbia, we’re always there visiting friends, going to events, and going to the movies when we can. Merriweather is great, but we really only go a handful of times every year. I personally prefer Ellicott City bc the Korean and ethnic restaurants and groceries are outstanding. Columbia has a bit more suburbia feel imho where some of the neighborhoods look truly identical. Just my two cents. Good luck with your search!

Both are excellent places to live. We looked extensively in Ellicott City before deciding on a home in Columbia. Ellicott City has lots of large single family homes in stately residential neighborhoods with all the shopping/restaurants on Route 40. The only real exception is the historic downtown, which is in an odd pocket (and has major floods—be aware). EC has a large Korean population and many Korean restaurants. Schools are top notch. Columbia has more people, is denser and has more shopping, restaurants and activities. It is a much newer city and doesn’t have the quaint downtown. It has a much wider variety of housing, so you need to look at the neighborhood level. Many schools are also top ranking. Columbia is extremely diverse. It has a phenomenal park and trail system. While EC is closer to Baltimore, southern Columbia is accessible to DC, which is great for weekend trips. Columbia is a planned community, and between the Columbia Association and Howard Hughes Corp, there is always something major being planned or built.

Agree unless it is one of the 90 concert days at Columbia’s Pavilion or a December weekend evening at Columbia’s Festival of Lights. Then you, after a long day at work, have a good chance of being stuck in a traffic jam for an hour where you can see your spouse waiting for you in the window of your apartment at Juniper Apartment bldg.

Snowden river parkway is definitely worse than route 40 after work.

Because people are making left hand turns across 3 lanes of traffic with out controls every 20 feet on Snowden?

I drive Snowden river parkway from just north of Broken Land all the way to 108 every week around 515pm. And I'd take it over 40 any day.

I would add that there is a slight difference between Columbia and EC, whereas Columbia is a little bit more walkable and bikeable within neighborhoods. In Ellicott City a lot of areas don’t even have sidewalks, whereas the majority of Columbia does. In EC, you’ll be lucky if you can walk to an elementary school or playground. In Columbia, you can usually walk or bike to a village center with some stores and amenities, a pool, a playground, an elementary school.

I like that we don’t have to do everything by car. After a certain age the kids can walk to their friends in the neighborhood, can ride the bike to the pool themselves, and can ride to the grocery store to get themselves some snacks and ice cream. If that’s something you like, then Columbia would be the better choice.

I would like to add that the schools in Columbia are not worse, they just have lower ratings because there are more students with lower scores which unfortunately correlates with families from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. But that says nothing about the quality of the schools. All HoCo schools have the same policies, same curriculum, the same engaged staff, and plenty of opportunities to learn. We’ve had nothing but great learning experiences in the Columbia schools so far.

In terms of neighborhoods, I think you'll find a lot more variety in EC compared to Columbia. I'd be comfortable talking about Columbia as a whole, but not as much EC. But like others have said, plenty of family-friendly options in both.

The amount of lights on Snowden it can take 15 mins or more to go from broken land to 100. 40 has their fair share of idiots but the stretch of road from 29 to enchanted forest is pretty short.

I don’t think 40 itself is that bad unless there are accidents on 70. But any alternate routes can have that. Certainly the area by St John’s and 70 sucks during rush hour and I’ve personally seen it as a parking lot by Turf Valley a few times when 70 was actually shut down. But the worst area is just the choke points where 40, 70, and 29 all converge. Which IMO isn’t any different than various areas on 29, 32, 175 and 108.

And try going down 108 in the Long Reach area during rush hour or Snowden around Kendall Ridge/Columbia Gateway area. Those are areas I don’t even go near during rush hour.

LOL this is rough. If you go down Banneker Drive near the fire house, there's a community towards the bottom with some visitor spots that are almost always open where you should have no issue parking for a day, or even more at times (as long as it's not 3 or more I think).

From there, you can walk the path through the woods and Merriweather is about 1,000 steps and the buildings on the other side of it are about 2,000. Just figured I'd let you know in case you know this is going to happen again. There are probably some closer public spots, but these ones are safe as far as I know.

the coolest thing about columbia is that you can walk from basically anywhere in the 'city' across to other regions using bike trails. the city is really well designed and I feel at peace there. EC has a main corridor (rt 40) and the old EC area which is really cool but the rest of it is mostly generic suburban family stuff. EC is generally wealthier and has more asians and better schools

They both fall under Howard county government: so same police , fire, county exec, taxes etc.

Columbia you get the massive trail network and "tot lots" over most of the area. A lot of the properties are Columbia Association assessed, which is a few grand a year (tied to property value). Its technically an HOA, but you can have a second HOA if you buy a town house. The theory behind Columbia is that the yards are smaller, but you get more shared parks and open spaces. Schools range from great to below average. Redistricting happens every few years, so look at past maps before making assumptions.

Ellicott city is a straight up suburb for most of it. Bigger yards and houses. Sidewalk coverage is mixed. There are some larger county run playgrounds. Schools, for the most part are good in EC. Housing prices reflect this.

I would honestly look at both and Clarksville as well. Your budget is probably going to eliminate large chunks of the county.

I completely agree, the county has done a great job at keeping apartments out of west county and therefore keeping lower income families from utilizing these areas/schools. That needs to change but don’t see Clarksville and Glenelg all of a sudden allowing that.

Thank you for this comment! I can’t stand when people call schools better or worse based on who attends them. It’s pure test scores and socioeconomics. I also prefer to be in one of these schools over a school with a more homogeneous socioeconomic population.

One plus of Columbia not noted above is many (not all) of the power lines are buried and you avoid issues with power loss that we saw this past week. I think an exception would be areas like Allview, etc, so not everywhere in Columbia.

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For a family with small children, I would say Columbia. Columbia has so many programs for children, parks and tot lots throughout the neighborhoods, walking trails, etc etc.. The association with a family is so cost effective if you are a Columbia resident and they have 25or so pools in the summer, many of which have great areas for younger kids. I raised my child in Columbia when they were young and it was excellent.

Some people are just unhappy. I’m not a native Marylander and I can tell you that Maryland is an excellent place to live. You’ll find rude people anywhere, and yes it is expensive, but overall there is so much offered in Maryland, I love it here.

Yes! I lived in my house for 15 years and only lost power once.