Moving to Hampton Roads in May 2014 (Virginia Beach, Norfolk: rental market, low crime, new home)

[felt4626]

Hi! I'm a single mom of 4 moving to the VaBeach area in May of 2014. I know NOTHING about the area, although I've been many times for my jobs yearly convention.

Now, I'll be working in Virginia Beach on Corporate Landing Pkwy. I want to live in Newport News, but my kids are only 1, 7, 9, and 12. I don't want a super-long commute. I'm open to good areas in and outside of VaBeach, but with a reasonable commute, good schools, extra-curricular activities for the kids (baseball, football, etc), public trans (I have a car, but I need to be able to get around if it should break down, low crime, and a good, family-friendly neighborhood. How is Chesapeake? My heart wants NN... in reality, how long is the commute from NN to VaBeach?

I know... Tall order.

Coming from Northern NJ, so I know crime and ghetto. That's exactly what I DON'T want, lol!

I'll need a 4 bedroom house. Prefer a private house, but open to a complex. What should I expect to pay in rent? Buying is not an option. I want to rent for at least a year to two.

I also would like an area with racial tolerance, as I am an adoptive mom with a very multiracial family...

Any and all ideas are appreciated. My move date is 05/15/14, so I'll need to visit twice before then. Once to scope out the neighborhood. Again to settle on a house.

Please help!!

[LilyLady]

There is no getting around the fact that is a LONG commute. You'll be dealing with tunnel traffic, backups and then traffic going through Virginia Beach to get to where you'll be working. I just ran it through Google and it shows a distance of 43 miles and even at this early hour, it would take 50 minutes. If you add in tunnel backups which are almost a daily occurrence now, so much so that the traffic reports on the backups are given in length of miles.


And I regret to tell you that our public transportation system is very poor. Bus routes don't cover very much of the city. The area is highly car-dependent.

I would suggest seriously re-thinking where you want to live. I'm sure there will be other posters who can provide more information on that part of town than I can.

Good luck.

[artistatheart]

My family lives in NN, and we're very happy here, but I would never recommend a daily commute from NN to VB. The only way to get from NN to VB is through the area's many tunnels, and those are subject to frequent, unpredictable back-ups. I would just consider the stress of never knowing how long my commute would be from day to day to be too much. Even having a once-in-awhile doctor's appointment southside (as the VB-Chesapeake-Portsmouth-Norfolk area is sometimes known) is a little too much for me, and I've now taken to making sure that the vast majority of my family's appointments are on the peninsula.

Commuting through the tunnels is not unheard of around here (one of my husband's co-workers commutes daily from VB to his office in NN, but he's arranged his schedule to work slightly off-hours), but it's really not ideal. If you really want help knowing some good areas of NN to settle, I'd be happy to help; but, really, you should think long and hard before committing to that commute.

Best of luck!

[bbguy05]

First, that commute from NN to Virginia Beach (especially DEEP Virginia Beach) is going to be BRUTAL. Although people make this commute daily with no problems, the fact you are deep in VB makes it worse. Not only will you have to deal with tunnel traffic, you will have to deal with 264 which also has bi polar traffic, then London Bridge Road, and Dam Neck Road, which are traffic nightmares on their own during rush hour. And your commute could easily get to 2 hours if you have to take the MMMBT.

The rental market here is on the high side, especially in Virginia Beach. I do recommend you stay on the Southside (Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk). Commuting to either of this cities outside of Virginia Beach won't be nearly as bad as coming from the Peninsula (Hampton, Newport News).

Public transportation is pretty much nonexistent here. A car is the main way to go.

As far as racial harmony, I'm black I am from here and grew up here and never had a problem. Lots of interracial families, so you should not have a problem.

[randomlikeme]

I really like Chesapeake. A friend of mine just moved out of a 3300 square foot house with 3.5 bathrooms that she rented for $1500 a month, which seemed reasonable out in the Mount Pleasant area. Great schools and would be centrally located to your work place.

[felt4626]

Well, this was why I was reaching out to you guys! While I want to live in NN, I'm okay with NOT living there, lol! I just want some read deal people to tell me about the neighborhoods, the commute, etc...

I don't plan to ever be without a car, but you never know! So even if the trans system isn't quite like what I'm used to, a little is better than non, you know?

Thanks for all of your help... And your realness...
o(",)o

[UHgrad]

Originally Posted by felt4626

Hi! I'm a single mom of 4 moving to the VaBeach area in May of 2014. I know NOTHING about the area, although I've been many times for my jobs yearly convention.

Now, I'll be working in Virginia Beach on Corporate Landing Pkwy. I want to live in Newport News, but my kids are only 1, 7, 9, and 12. I don't want a super-long commute. I'm open to good areas in and outside of VaBeach, but with a reasonable commute, good schools, extra-curricular activities for the kids (baseball, football, etc), public trans (I have a car, but I need to be able to get around if it should break down, low crime, and a good, family-friendly neighborhood. How is Chesapeake? My heart wants NN... in reality, how long is the commute from NN to VaBeach?

I know... Tall order.

Coming from Northern NJ, so I know crime and ghetto. That's exactly what I DON'T want, lol!

I'll need a 4 bedroom house. Prefer a private house, but open to a complex. What should I expect to pay in rent? Buying is not an option. I want to rent for at least a year to two.

I also would like an area with racial tolerance, as I am an adoptive mom with a very multiracial family...

Any and all ideas are appreciated. My move date is 05/15/14, so I'll need to visit twice before then. Once to scope out the neighborhood. Again to settle on a house.

Please help!!

Live in or near the Ocean Lakes neighborhood in Virginia Beach and ride your bike to work. The schools are great, neighborhood has lots of parks and families, Red Mill shopping center is right down the road, beach is just a few miles away. Crime is minimal and it is not ghetto at all. Virginia Beach is consistently one of the safest cities in the country in terms of violent crime. Newport News has more crime than VB. A multiracial family is a non-issue in VB. I am in a mixed-race marriage myself... nobody cares.

This is typical of the houses in that area. Nothing to look at but fine to live in.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/10...60744328_zpid/

Trust me, do not live in NN and commute to corporate landing. Whatever money you might save on rent will be lost in gas, traffic, repairs, and time.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by felt4626

Hi! I'm a single mom of 4 moving to the VaBeach area in May of 2014. I know NOTHING about the area, although I've been many times for my jobs yearly convention.

Now, I'll be working in Virginia Beach on Corporate Landing Pkwy. I want to live in Newport News, but my kids are only 1, 7, 9, and 12. I don't want a super-long commute. I'm open to good areas in and outside of VaBeach, but with a reasonable commute, good schools, extra-curricular activities for the kids (baseball, football, etc), public trans (I have a car, but I need to be able to get around if it should break down, low crime, and a good, family-friendly neighborhood. How is Chesapeake? My heart wants NN... in reality, how long is the commute from NN to VaBeach?

I know... Tall order.

Coming from Northern NJ, so I know crime and ghetto. That's exactly what I DON'T want, lol!

I'll need a 4 bedroom house. Prefer a private house, but open to a complex. What should I expect to pay in rent? Buying is not an option. I want to rent for at least a year to two.

I also would like an area with racial tolerance, as I am an adoptive mom with a very multiracial family...

Any and all ideas are appreciated. My move date is 05/15/14, so I'll need to visit twice before then. Once to scope out the neighborhood. Again to settle on a house.

Please help!!

Parts of Newport News and Northern NJ have a lot in common in the crime department, so I'm not sure why you would want to live there, other than its cheap.

Norfolk and Portsmouth would be a better bet, if price is your issue. I prefer Norfolk as it has its ghetto, but also has some really nice areas. You can walk through those areas in the daytime, they're not that bad. At night is a different issue, I wouldn't recommend it. Portsmouth the ghettos are too large, too deep, to take your chances in that way. But again it all depends on what you're accustomed to; I don't think any of it has anything on Newark, Camden, Jersey City, etc.

As far as your commute, if you want a short commute, you have to live in the city in which you work. I always say this, and no one on this thread ever listens to me. You are not going to get a short commute until the work/play/living arrangement is in an area at the EDGE of that other city. Living DEEP in another city is not going to work. And going across the Peninsula is not going to work either.

In reality, the commute could be done in a half hour but will probably take an hour and a half. There are sporting events, concerts, traffic to and from the Peninsula and the Southside, and a hundred other anomalies that is going to make this a long commute. If your employer does not mind you getting to work late, or super early, take your chances. But if you want to be realistic, do everything in the same city.

Chesapeake is okay. It is more of a suburb than Virginia Beach, which is a suburb of Norfolk, depending on who you ask or how you look at it. But at least Virginia Beach has a downtown, as pretentious and artificial that downtown is, Chesapeake is like the exurbs of where you live now. A good neighborhood in Newport News, to a good neighborhood in Virginia Beach (it has some sketchy areas as well), is too far of a drive IMHO.

Also, I like racial tolerance, for obvious reasons, but I never felt profiled in Virginia Beach, was never pulled over for anything, and received decent customer service in the stores. Chesapeake is an entirely different beast. Ironically, Chesapeake has more Black people, or at least a greater percentage of Blacks, than Virginia Beach.

[Spazkat9696]

If schools are your deciding factor then VAB is the way to go. Avoid Norfolk and Portsmouth at all costs the schools are very bad. Chesapeake schools are hit and miss. Plus they do not offer daily PE at the elementary level like VA beach, and art is only every other week.

[tidewaterkayaker]

I think I would rather stab myself in the eye with a long rusty nail than do the NN-VA Beach commute daily. Don't do any commute in Hampton Roads that involves going through a tunnel or over a bridge on one of the highways. I can't stress this enough. Just don't do it. You'll live a longer and happier life that way.

Definitely go for Virginia Beach if you are looking for the best school system, but avoid the Green Run area and the Lynnhaven Parkway corridor when looking for your new home. Best high school district is Cox, but housing tends to be pricier up there. The two closest high school school districts to your workplace would be Ocean Lakes and Kellam.

I don't think anybody has mentioned yet that VA Beach has great recreation centers with reasonable member fees for residents. VA Beach also has a lot of neighborhood parks with playground equipment, and there is a big interest in youth soccer here as well as baseball/softball/football. Lots of stuff to keep the kids busy.

One final thought, when you are looking for a place to live in Virginia Beach, ask about the noise from the Navy jets. There are some neighborhoods where the "Sound of Freedom" is especially loud. If you look at a map of VA Beach, you can see the runways of Oceana and get an idea of where the noise will be bad.