Is Virginia Beach THE city to raise a family??

[Serenity2019]

I grew up in Va. beach and lived there 28 years. I went to school (public) all through high school there. I also graduated from Old Dominion and the University of South Carolina. The schools in Va. Beach are great compared to other states. I have lived in Charleston, Sc for 12 years, and want to return to Va. beach when my daughter starts school because the public schools here are so bad. I love Va. Beach and miss it. Charleston is very nice too, but I am a native to Va. Beach and still miss it. I think it is a great place to raise a family.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by Chicago Suburbanite

Wow this website provides so much information on so many cities; it's great! I've read most of the other Virginia Beach threads but wanted to throw a new one out there with a spin specific to me; so please reply with a helpful post if possible.

My wife and I are in our late twenties (kids on way) and currently live in Chicago Suburbs. For the most part we like it here; we're 30 minutes from downtown, plenty of culture, golf, high paying jobs, entertainment, etc. However one thing that we cannot stand are the months December through March; the dreaded Chicago winters... they are brutal! We are looking to relocate someplace considerably warmer. We've been to several cities across America but mostly as tourists so we didn't know where to begin. Don't laugh but I googled "best cities to raise a family" and the first site to come up was www.******. We filled out the 50 or so question questionnaire and it spits out your top 25ish "compatible" cities. Virginia Beach was in my top 5 (along with Tampa, Houston, West Palm, & Charleston)

I've since done some research on these cities and became fixated on VB due to it's geographic location. Wikipedia has desirable things to say about VB's climate that are of interest to us. I've read in other VB threads that crime is an issue. I can get over that as you'll get that in any larger city. I've read that education is good and also read that airplane noise is a common complaint about the area.

Basically what I'm asking is, and shoot me straight here, is VB the ideal city to raise a family? I understand the answer is dependent on what's important and I'm saying that climate, and an overall good environment for children especially education options are what's important. My wife and I make in the ballpark of 140K (I'm in business development and she's in IT). I browsed local real estate at www.realtor.com and saw some nice places by TPC golf course, Signature at West Neck golf course, and the Heron Ridge Golf course. Would this be a nice area to raise a family??? If in your opinion, other cities along the eastern seaboard would be more ideal I'd love to hear about them so I could research them as well. We'll likely fly out and visit these places when we get closer to moving..... still in the early stages of research right now.

Oh and if we bought a plot of land and built a custom house... can we have a walk-out basement put in????? I heard walkout basements (& basements all-together) aren't too common out there. Thanks in advance for any opinions you'd like to share. Best regards.

You could have a basement but you would have to elevate the entire house significantly. I stay in Norfolk, which is an even lower elevation than Virginia Beach, and while the majority of the basement is underground the entire house is elevated a few feet off of the ground. And no, while you can go into the basement it is not "residential" in the fact that is just there for the purposes of a water pump that extracts water and prevents it from flooding the first floor. To me that just isn't a basement. My mother's house, in Ohio, has a basement that is completely underground, and you could live there if you wanted to. It is fully furnished. You only have a foot elevation to let in sunlight through glass block, but the ceiling is a good 7 or 8 feet from the floor in that basement. That would be very difficult to do in Virginia Beach, because of the flooding and infrastructural damage that would occur. Not that the technology does not exist to make it possible, but it simply is not viable in my honest opinion.

If you want a basement try Washington DC or Richmond. Those areas are hilly and do not flood as easily as Hampton Roads. Washington DC is three hours away, Richmond is like, 75 minutes. Williamsburg is also at a higher elevation, and that is part of Hampton Roads. The Peninsula in general may be better for that purpose, some other posters on this forum could tell you more.

Crime isn't that bad at all. It is nothing in comparison to Chicago. If you could continue to make 140K here I would go for it, because on that salary you can pretty much live where you want. If you take a big cut, like to 70K, while you can get by it might not be the type of lifestyle you have become accustomed to. How much are you paying in Chicagoland? I'm not sure that Virginia Beach is that much cheaper than Chicago suburbs, if it is cheaper than Chicago at all.

It really depends on what type of environment you want for your kids. Chicago is a very urban environment, even out in the suburbs. There are urban environments here, but they are far and few in between. Most people will point to downtown Norfolk, but that is like a city block in downtown Chicago to be honest. If you're trying to get away from that type of thing this is the place to be. If you are looking for a more traditional city, try DC, Richmond, or even Baltimore. On 140K you could afford to live in a decent neighborhood in those cities. The climate is pretty much the same throughout the Mid-Atlantic.