Be sure you get all electrical and plumbing finished before you close up the walls! If you are thinking of reselling you will need permits also.
We are in Baltimore too- finished our basement several years ago. Can't answer your cost questions since we had it completely finished. However, we were able to use carpet (with pad) and laminate (with pad) directly on the concrete with no problems at all. No subfloor needed.

So as a follow up, I thought I'd post where we are currently on this project, in case anyone else in Baltimore is looking to do something similar.

We have hired a company (Arocon) and they quoted us $5000 to frame, drywall and tape/mud the entire basement, so that it's totally paint ready.

I also took scrappy's advise and since we wanted to install a laundry sink, have rough plumbed the entire sink in (water supply, drain etc). I was able to do the whole thing, sink included, for under 200 bucks.

Also, after talking with others who've done a similar remodel (and based on scrappy's experience - thank you :), we've decided to just carpet over the cement floor and possibly do an interlocking tile flooring in the laundry room.

I'll post again after completion. Any other ideas are very welcome though.

just saw your update!
Be sure to get pictures of your rough plumbing and drainage and anything else inside the walls. I know someone who had to get permits after the fact and they found a plumber who would certify based on pictures of what was done. Also that prevents mishaps in future modifications.

What are you doing for electrical?

So the jobs done, so I thought I'd recap everything that went on.

To scrappy's questions - I plumbed our new utility sink based off of the diagram shown on this site

http://www.terrylove.com/forums/showthread.php?17967-utility-sink-drain

Starting out, I had thought I could just cut into the washing machine stand pipe and be done with it, but it turns out it's not that simple. As per electrical, Arocon had their electrician move a couple of light fixtures and he also installed two new wall sockets on walls that had previously never had power, which was a nice plus.

Now that the jobs done, the basement is looking good. They left some finishing work for me, to help keep the cost down but that's something I'm looking forward to tackling. Plus, after a little light sanding, we'll be ready to paint.

So while the work they completed was nice, we're definitely not going to be using Arocon again based simply on their professionalism (or lack there of). When it came to communication, I was also the one to have to reach out to our foreman and often his answers were so vague that we were left wondering what the status of our job was or whether guys were going to be working any particular day. While not horrible, a few simple phone calls with updates would have gone a loooong way to making us feel more comfortable with the timeline and the work being finished.

The other huge issue we had was with simple, avoidable damages. Over the course of the nine days they worked, we had several problems with things being broken or damaged by the workers. Often times it was a simply a case of them not bringing essential equipment, like a step ladder. Instead of having a ladder the guys used our furniture as ladders, which meant they broke a small bookshelf and a storage bin. Also, while moving furniture upstairs to make room for other equipment they left a big gash in our hardwood floors. Other things like using our broom to sweep up wet wall mud and leaving the job site a complete mess were just icing on the top.

Long story short, while we were happy with the end result of the dry wall we were very far from satisfied with the manner in which it was completed. My reasoning is that while any construction crew can dry wall, I'm only going to repeat my business with one that treats me well.

I did mention all this in an email to the company. I immediately heard from the co-owner and while he was apologetic and asked if we wanted to be compensated for damages, the damage had already been done. No one thing was horrendous in itself but the culmination of the lack of professionalism was too much for an apology to fix.

I hope I'm not turning anyone off to having a contractor do work for them. And I would say "do your research" except that this group was rated A on several sites including ServiceMagicPros and BBB.