Montgomery, MD

Montgomery County, MD is just north of Washington, DC and is bordered by the Potomac River to the West. The County consistently ranks as one of the most affluent counties in the nation and has one of the highest percentages of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate degrees. The county is made up of large unincorporated areas like Bethesda, Silver Spring, and Germantown, and incorporated towns like Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Chevy Chase. Just to confuse things a little further, since the postal zip codes do not follow the incorporated boundaries, one can live in Rockville, but not be in the city of Rockville. For house hunting, postal zip codes are a very helpful tool.

The County is home to many large businesses and has one of the nation’s largest biotechnology centers. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), along with John Hopkins University’s Montgomery County Campus, University of Maryland’s Shady Grove Campus and private employers like MedImmune help bolster the area’s economy. Additionally large firms located in the county include: Discovery Communications, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Ritz-Carlton, Choice Hotels, GEICO, BAE Systems, Hughes Network Systems, and Capital One.