Moving to the Norfolk Area (Chesapeake, Newport News: apartment, rental, houses)

[MilitaryFamily]

My husband (who's in the military) will be going to ODU next Fall. We have 3 young children, and I want to rent a house in a nice area with good schools. Anybody have any suggestions? I have never been to the Norfolk area, and because there are so many cities (Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Newport News) I'm not sure where to even begin. Anybody know the area enought tell me certain places to NOT live?? Any suggestions will be very helpful. We'd like to stay close to ODU, but not be surrounded by the partying college kids.

Thanks!!!

[Alanboy395]

I am a college student considering ODU and i used to live in hampton/york co. if you want the best schools i would say york county. but the cheaper housing would be in hampton. the north side of hampton is a quiet clean area with schools that are adjacent and has a major military presence. the commute would be a little crazy yo odu. East Newport News is a stay away for sure.

[MilitaryFamily]

Thanks for the reply... How far away is Chesapeake from ODU? I have heard good things about Chesapeake and VA Beach. Since I am not familiar with the area at all, I'm not sure how the commute would be.

[afvet]

I lived in Norfolk and went to ODU a couple years ago. Take a look at Historic Lafayette/Winona, it'll be about a ten minute drive to ODU. Larchmont and Edgewater are right next to the university and many professors live there. Ghent is a nice area as well. One drawback for Norfolk, you would probably want to send the kids to private school. I first lived in Yorktown when attending ODU and the drive was at least 45 minutes, as I was leaving about 4pm. I loved the area though, and heard schools were good.

A friend of mine lived in Norfolk and commuted about 20 minutes to Cheasapeake. From what I understand the schools are some of the best in the area. The housing seems to be nicer also. If your husband will be stationed on the north side (Langley, Eustis) you may want to seriously consider living on that side as the commute would be awful.

[rich.klein]

If you did want to stay near to ODU, the neighborhood known as Larchmont to the north of the campus would be a good area. ODU is generally bounded on the north by 49th Street, and there are a lot of student rental houses in that immediate area. But if you go a few blocks farther north you will get away from the students. We lived for years on Magnolia Ave about 6 blocks from the campus and there were always a few houses rented by military families in that area. The public schools are very good in that section. Larchmont Elementary is a neighborhood school and most of the children walk to it. You could find out more on the local schools on greatschools.net and look up by city. There is also a new school in Larchmont called St. Patrick's.

[Tom Colan]

prefer large developments?

[MilitaryFamily]

We really don't have a preference. I think the main thing that concerns us is the elementary schools because of our children. We are hoping to rent a house because we don't think that we could fit comfortably in an apartment.