Before here I lived in the Seattle area. Hard for me to gauge cost of living since everything seems so much cheaper than where I was but for the most part it seems pretty on par with the us average maybe slightly higher? Social wise there's a lot to do and people are generally pretty laid-back and easy to talk to. Public transit is a little abysmal so you may need a car depending on which neighborhood you live in and work. That said it's pretty easy to get to other metropolitan cities in the northeast by train. Safety is largely neighborhood/block dependant, so far I haven't had any run ins. Porch pirates are a really problem so you'll probably want a PO box if you receive a lot of packages. Restaurants tend to put old bay in everything which gets a little annoying but it's a Maryland thing.