Buying & selling in Takoma Park

Takoma Park at a glance

Takoma Park began as a railroad suburb: developer Benjamin Franklin Gilbert bought a tract of roughly 90 acres straddling the DC–Maryland line in 1883 and began laying out streets and lots, selling it as a sylvan suburb of Washington (Source: Historic Takoma). The State of Maryland incorporated the city in 1890, and by 1913 it was the largest municipality in Montgomery County; for most of its history it straddled Montgomery and Prince George's counties, until a 1995 referendum approved consolidation and the whole city became part of Montgomery County on July 1, 1997 (Source: City of Takoma Park). It sits immediately north of the District along Eastern Avenue, adjoining the Takoma neighborhood of DC, with Silver Spring to the north and New Hampshire Avenue on its eastern edge (Source: Wikipedia).

The housing is mostly detached houses from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Queen Anne, Stick Style and Shingle Style Victorians from the original development era, with Georgian Revival, Tudor Revival and Art Deco infill as the streetcar suburb filled in, plus bungalows (Source: Wikipedia). The densest run of that stock is inside the Takoma Park Historic District, so a large share of houses here carry exterior review on top of the ordinary permit process. The address itself needs checking: the city bills its own property tax, and a Takoma Park mailing address does not by itself confirm that a parcel sits inside the city limits.

Takoma Park, block by block

The city is small, but the ground rules change from the DC line to New Hampshire Avenue — the DC side of the shared downtown is covered in the Takoma guide, and these are the Maryland pieces buyers ask about:

• Old Takoma & Carroll Avenue — The historic downtown straddles the DC–Maryland line around Carroll and Laurel Avenues, near the old Baltimore & Ohio station site, and it keeps much of the commercial streetscape from Gilbert's original development (Source: Historic Takoma). The storefronts on the Maryland side answer to Takoma Park; the ones across Eastern Avenue answer to DC, which is why the same block can have two sets of rules.
• The historic district core — The Takoma Park Historic District covers roughly 145 acres, bounded by the DC line, Silver Spring, and the junction of Woodland and Elm Avenues to the east, and it holds the largest concentration of the city's Victorian and early-twentieth-century houses; it was listed on the National Register in 1976 (Source: Wikipedia). It is also a Montgomery County master-plan historic district, so exterior work visible from the street goes through the county's Historic Preservation Commission (Source: Montgomery Planning).
• Takoma Junction — Where Carroll Avenue meets Ethan Allen Avenue, the state route through the city, a small commercial node that has been the subject of city planning and development-review processes for years (Source: Wikipedia). The member-owned Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-op grocery sits on Ethan Allen Avenue here (Source: TPSS Co-op), and anything proposed for the junction runs through the city's own Development Review process (Source: City of Takoma Park).
• Sligo Creek corridor — Sligo Creek runs along the edge of the city, crossed by the Carroll Avenue Bridge, and the paved Sligo Creek Trail follows the stream valley through Montgomery County parkland with access points inside the city; the Metropolitan Branch Trail also reaches the area (Source: City of Takoma Park). Houses backing onto the parkland trade a rear neighbor for a public path.
• New Hampshire Avenue & Takoma Langley Crossroads — The city's eastern edge, where the Takoma Langley Crossroads Transit Center at New Hampshire Avenue and University Boulevard handles up to 12,000 daily riders across roughly 11 bus routes (Source: City of Takoma Park). The Purple Line light rail is under construction along this side of the city, with an estimated opening of winter 2027 per the Maryland Transit Administration (Source: Purple Line MD), so this is an active construction corridor today, not a finished one.
• Inside the city line: two tax bills — Takoma Park is one of the Montgomery County municipalities that levies its own real property tax, so an owner inside the city limits receives a Montgomery County bill and a separate City of Takoma Park bill (Source: City of Takoma Park). For the July 2026 through June 2027 levy year, the county-billed rate on a parcel inside the city is $1.1871 per $100 of assessed value, combining the general county tax of $0.6706, the schools-only tax of $0.0470, the state tax of $0.1120, a $0.0350 municipal district tax and $0.3225 in county district taxes for transit, fire, parks, recreation and storm drainage (Source: Montgomery County 2026 levy year rate schedule); the city sets its own rate each year through its budget, most recently the FY2027 adopted budget (Source: City of Takoma Park, August 2026). At closing, Montgomery County charges a transfer tax at rates that vary with the value of the property, plus a recordation tax that carries a surcharge on transactions exceeding $500,000 (Source: Maryland Department of Legislative Services, FY2026 local tax rates). That recordation tax has been tiered since October 1, 2023 under Bill 17-23: the base rate of $2.08 per $500 and the school increment of $2.37 per $500 apply to all amounts, and a premium rate is added on top of them for the part of the price above $500,000 — Premium 1 at $2.30 per $500 from $500,000 to $600,000, then $5.75 per $500 from $600,000.01 to $750,000, $6.33 per $500 from $750,000.01 to $1,000,000, and $6.90 per $500 from $1,000,000.01 and over (Source: Montgomery County Department of Finance, Bill 17-23). Combined, the county's own worked examples put the rate at $4.45 per $500 on the first $500,000, $6.75 per $500 on the amount exceeding $500,000 up to $600,000, $10.20 per $500 up to $750,000, $10.78 per $500 up to $1,000,000 and $11.35 per $500 above $1,000,000, and the first $100,000 of consideration is exempt from recordation tax when the buyer files a principal-residence affidavit (Source: Montgomery County recordation tax examples); Maryland adds its own state transfer tax on top.

Five things locals know

A few things that shape a purchase here and rarely make the listing sheet:

• The city has been a nuclear-free zone since 1983 — Takoma Park passed a nuclear-free-zone ordinance in 1983, and it remains on the books: city contractors sign a notarized statement that they are not engaged in nuclear weapons development or related work. It is a piece of municipal history that still shows up in city contracting paperwork (Source: Wikipedia).
• Sixteen-year-olds vote in city elections — In 2013 Takoma Park became the first city in the United States to lower its municipal voting age from 18 to 16. It applies to city elections only — council and mayor — not to county, state or federal ballots (Source: Wikipedia).
• It was two counties until 1997 — For most of its history the city was split between Montgomery and Prince George's counties. A 1995 referendum approved consolidation, and the Prince George's portion was unified into Montgomery County on July 1, 1997, which is why older deeds, plats and tax records on the eastern side of the city can reference a different county than the one that bills today (Source: City of Takoma Park).
• The historic district was nominated in 1973 and listed in 1976 — The Takoma Park Historic District went onto the National Register of Historic Places on July 16, 1976, on a nomination prepared for the Maryland Historical Trust in April 1973 covering roughly 145 acres. County-level protection under the Montgomery County Master Plan for Historic Preservation is what actually triggers review on an individual house (Source: Wikipedia).
• The library came home in September 2025 — The Takoma Park Maryland Library at 101 Philadelphia Avenue closed for a code-compliance rebuild, ran for three years from a temporary site at 7505 New Hampshire Avenue, and reopened at its original address in September 2025 in a renovated and expanded building, open Monday to Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday to Sunday noon to 6 p.m. (Source: Takoma Park Maryland Library).

Getting around

Rail is the Red Line at Takoma station, with Glenmont and Shady Grove service — and the station is physically across the line in Washington, DC's Takoma neighborhood, not inside the city of Takoma Park, a point the city's own transportation page makes plainly (Source: WMATA; City of Takoma Park). Buses are Ride On, the Montgomery County system, on the main avenues, and the Takoma Langley Crossroads Transit Center at the city's eastern edge handles up to 12,000 daily riders across roughly 11 routes (Source: City of Takoma Park). There is no MARC or VRE station in the city. The Purple Line light rail, Bethesda to New Carrollton with 21 stations, 10 of them in Montgomery County, is under construction along the eastern side of the city with an estimated opening of winter 2027 per the Maryland Transit Administration (Source: Purple Line MD). By bike, the Sligo Creek Trail and the Metropolitan Branch Trail have access points in the city, signed on-street routes connect the commercial areas to transit, and the city has 7 Capital Bikeshare stations (Source: City of Takoma Park).

In practice the old core around Carroll Avenue is a walk to the Metro across Eastern Avenue, and the farther east a house sits toward New Hampshire Avenue, the more the commute leans on Ride On, the transit center and, later, the Purple Line. By car, Ethan Allen Avenue is the state route through the city, New Hampshire Avenue is the eastern spine, and Eastern Avenue is the DC boundary, so a trip downtown starts by crossing into the District. Most detached houses come with a driveway or on-street parking; the city publishes its own parking rules, separate from the county's, so check the city's transportation page for the current permit and street-parking regime on a specific block rather than assuming county practice applies (Source: City of Takoma Park).

The market & what to expect

Price differences here track three things before anything else: whether the house is inside the historic district, whether the parcel is inside the city limits, and how much of the original fabric survives. A Queen Anne on a large lot in the district core, a Tudor Revival infill house on a side street, and a bungalow near the New Hampshire Avenue corridor are different transactions, and the district houses carry a Historic Area Work Permit obligation on exterior changes that shapes what a buyer can do with a porch, windows or an addition. The city's separate property tax bill is a carrying cost the county-only suburbs next door do not have, and it belongs in any monthly-payment comparison against Silver Spring or the DC side of Takoma.

Across Montgomery County as a whole, the median sale price in June 2026 was $680,000, up 5.4% from June 2025, with homes taking a median 22 days to sell and 1,022 new listings for the month (Source: GCAAR via MoCoShow, June 2026). That is a county-wide figure, not a Takoma Park one.

For buyers, the first work is jurisdiction: confirm the parcel is inside the city limits and inside or outside the historic district before you price the monthly cost or plan a renovation, then read the county's work-permit rules against what you intend to change. For sellers, the job is documenting prior exterior work and any historic approvals before they become a contract question, and pricing to the buyer pool a specific house reaches rather than to a county number. The buyer's guide and seller's guide lay out how Kelly runs each side, and the Takoma guide covers the DC side of the same downtown if you are weighing both. For a read on a specific street or house, get in touch.

Why work with Kelly in Takoma Park

Kelly Balmer is Vice President & Partner, Mollaan Babbington Group at Compass, licensed in DC, Maryland and Virginia, with $130M+ sold over 13+ years and a 5.0 Best-of-Zillow record across 130+ reviews. Her office is at 1313 14th Street NW in DC, which matters in Takoma Park more than almost anywhere else, because many buyers here are comparing a house on the Maryland side of Carroll Avenue against one on the DC side, and the two sides differ on tax bills, permits, historic review and closing costs while sharing a Metro station.

In practice that means telling you early whether an address is inside the city limits and inside the historic district, and what each does to the tax bill and the renovation plan; reading the county's Historic Area Work Permit rules against the specific changes you have in mind before an offer rather than after; and pulling comparables by street and house type rather than by county. On the sell side she documents prior exterior work and approvals, prices to the buyer pool a Victorian, a Tudor Revival or a bungalow actually reaches, and handles every transaction personally.

Kelly Balmer
Vice President & Partner, Mollaan Babbington Group at Compass · Licensed in DC · MD · VA