best area for $400,000 house? (Virginia Beach, Chesapeake: real estate, sex offender, low crime)

[Leanne23]

My husband is looking to take a job in Suffolk. We have 2 young children and are looking to spend about $400,000 on a house. What would be the best area that would accomplish these goals:

1. Top rated schools
2. Very safe area
3. Suburban area with the most upscale feel

Is this possible within commuting distance to Suffolk? Is Chesapeake nice?

Thank you.

Leanne

[shellytc]

Leanne, North Suffolk has some very nice subdivisions, with some new schools. It is a very growing area. If you don't want to be in suffolk, chesapeake is a good alternative. Fairly easy commute. There are some great neighborhoods. The most sought after schools right now are Great Bridge, Hickory and the new Grassfields area.

Where are you moving from?

shelly

[Leanne23]

Is Chesapeake suburban or rural or both? We like upscale suburbs. Not sure if 400,000 can buy you that in this area???

Are the schools excellent or just good?

Leanne

[shellytc]

Leanne, you can get rural and suburbs. Chesapeake is a very large incorporated city. there are some very highly sought after schools in Chesapeake. I cannot say whether they are good or not, as that is very subjective, but I can tell you that they rate extremely high at greatschools.net.

How old are your children? One of the most sought after is Hickory High, with Butts Road Primary and Elementary. There are some nice, upscale suburbs that feed into those schools. and you can buy for 400k.

Shelly

[stacylee926]

With the housing market right now, I would think 400K would get you what you want. Maybe not the biggest, brand new subdivision, but a large house in a good area. I work in the constuction field and the trend in new subdivisions is to only build basic houses now. Buyers cannot afford all the extras any more, so they are cutting back on square footage in order to sell.

There are many new houses out there just sitting, waiting for a buyer to come in and add the finishing touches and they are ready to go in 4-6 wks.

[kisimone]

The Hickory area of Chesapeake is great for city living in the country and you still have a nice lot. No one is on top of you, other subdivisions sit you so close you your neighbor you'd feel like you were on a New York City block.

[ellar]

We researched Chesapeake and western Virginia Beach for months before moving here, looking in a similar price range. We kept track of houses selling up to $400,000 though we really strived to find something closer to $350,000.(I originally looked at houses lower than that, but they all seemed to be too small for us or in borderline areas) $350,000 is the median or average cost (I can't remember which) of a house in Chesapeake, so I was concerned at first about finding what we were looking for. Many of the neighborhoods I considered upscale and nice were out of our price range. However, some of those neighborhoods are in mediocre or even bad school districts. In terms of schools, as already mentioned, Chesapeake's Great Bridge and Hickory do rate well at Great Schools. The new Grassfield High is pulling from those schools so it should do well also. I think Western Branch also rated okay, but I'm not sure since we didn't spend that much time looking that far West. If your husband is working in Suffolk, it may be worthwhile to look there. In the area we looked at--there is a very large block of housing sandwiched off Waters Road, Johnstown Road and Cedar Road that includes several nice subdivisions. Cheshire Forest was my favorite in terms of being "upscale" (in my view) but most of the nicer houses were a little out of our price range. In that region, we also watched Briarwood, Stonegate farther south, and Las Gaviotas, which is farther west. The new neighborhoods being built in that area have houses that in many cases are significantly higher than $400,000. There also are a few lower priced neighborhoods in that area with smaller, ranch houses. Farther east there seemed to be several neighborhoods beginning with Etheridge that were nice, but we didn't look too much over there because of commuting reasons, etc. We never made it to Suffolk, so maybe you can find something nice there. I used the William E Wood website for much of my searching because you can search by subdivision there. That way you can get a feel for the price range in a neighborhood or region. Also, the city of Chesapeake has neighborhood maps that include all the neighborhood names. You can look on its website for that. I am not sure if Suffolk has something similar. Finally, I checked the sex offender lists as an indication of safety. Good Luck!

[hastings]

Hi,

We moved to Cobb County Georgia about a little over year ago from NY. We're feeling as though this area isn't quite our cup of tea. We're taking a trip up to Virginia next month to do some scouting around. How are you liking Chesapeake so far? Does it have lots of strip malls, subdivisions, etc.; the same feel as the Georgia suburbs?
We're trying to target some Virginia areas to visit. Any information that you can share, I'd really appreciate!

[shellytc]

hastings, I used to live in Alpharetta Ga, and am familiar with Cobb County. And since I sell real estate in Chesapeake, I am familiar with it, : ) They are different. chesapeake still has some very rural areas. there is good shopping but it is centered around particular areas, and not as sprawling as Cobb County. You can still get large yards. There are older homes that are highly sought after due to location, and some new subdivisions. It just depends on what you want.

Do you have any specific questions that I can help answer?

shelly

[hastings]

Hi Shelly,
We're in search of a location that has low crime rates, proximity to the water (feeling terribly land locked here in Georgia!), suburban not urban in-city, without the endless sprawl of chain store after chain store and endless "cookie cutter" homes. We'd love an area with some sort of walkable town center. Something with character.
I can't seems to find much info on the Middle Peninsula (around Gloucester County). There only seems to be The Gazzete newspaper online for this county. Our friends have their boat in a Deltaville marina for the next couple of months, so we'll head over there first, scout out the Middle Penninsula, the Northern Neck and then over to Chesapeake.

We'll both be working from home for the next year, so commutes aren't an issue.
Any direction that you can point us in to narrow our search is appreciated!