When People Leave NOVA, Where Do They Go? (Arlington, Woodbridge: apartment, condo)

[normie]

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

I'm planning to move from NoVA to the greater Ft. Knox and Louisville area of Kentucky thanks to BRAC in 2010.

I'll miss ya, Alan Boy. I've been to Louisville a few times. That is a really mellow town with a lot of charm. What a loss for Alexandria though--I remember when you had a tag line claiming you were running for mayor of that town. Hey, I would have voted for ya. I always thought you'd make a great one!

[leighland]

Its interesting that most of these posts are state where I would move to if I could vs. where people temporarily 'stationed' in NoVa end up in.
To the OP, I'm sure you'd get a lot more of those temp residents reactions in the DC forum.

[nvared]

ScranBarre, from all your posts, I could see you living in the Fan area perhaps of Richmond. Boston is expensive although very interesting. Hartford too can be very expensive and taxes are high. Some of the other cites are smaller and may not have the job opportunities available and may be more expensive than you think. I can understand how you feel to an extent. I'm currently living in Denver, but lived 14 years in NOVA. I'm coming back because although there are negatives, it's where I feel my home is and where I'm more comfortable. I have to be out here in Denver until spring and when you feel uncomfortable, it hurts.

[blueorbitz]

Hi,
I left Nova a little over a year ago. I wanted to move for a long time, decided to head to Denver. I wasn't a good match with Va, not my cup of tea, mostly b/c I found the people to be unfriendly. Denver is exactly the opposite and very friendly. More laid back here, people work to live rather than living to work. I like that Denver isn't an overwelmingly large city, so it has a good sense of neighborliness. There's a strong sense of community here and the people are very nice. People here take more time to chat with others and to be courteous. The job market is definitly not nearly as good as Va/Dc/Md but it is noticable cheaper. Rent tends to be less of course it is also hard to make decent money here. I'm much happier b/c I like the friendly people and find it easy to meet people. It's also walkable, not so much that I could get rid of my car, but it's very green and sunny here, so I do much more walking. There are lots of local parks. Plenty of libraries and plenty of things to do here. And much easier to find parking when you go out to do things. Over the summer there are lots of activities, festivals and outdoors events.
Traffic can get a little hairy in certain places at certain times, but nothing like DC/VA traffic. Oddly, I find the drivers to be sort of aggressive here. They don't let you merge in or merge onto highways and the merge ramps here are very short. People don't like to use their blinkers. The aggressive driving thing I still haven't figured out b/c otherwise people are generally polite one would think they would also be polite drivers.

[Teebyrd86]

Plan on staying here to help build up my career with my company, then hopefully move back to Richmond when my company expands into that area where my family is..

[DownEastB]

Two years ago my husband (then my fiancee) moved to Raleigh NC to manage a new branch for his company, which is based in NoVA. They just pulled the plug on the branch. He wanted to stay in Raleigh and find another job, but nobody down here pays nearly as well. So we're headed back to VA. It's a shame, we have a 3500 sq. ft. house on a big lot in a gorgeous neighborhood in Durham on the market for $305,000 (and no takers so far) and we'll barely be able to afford a 2BR townhouse when we move back. Too bad NC salaries suck!

[Newk]

I lived in Virginia my whole life. NOVA before college in Harrisonburg, and then three years back in NOVA after graduation. I moved to San Antonio in Sept. 2008 within my company for a promotion and raise. I was tried of snow and ice, and wanted some warm weather, and boy did I get it, 59 days of 100+ degrees in San Antonio last summer. But right now the weather is perfect. I have my wife down here now and we are going to look at buying a SFH early next year, which would have not been possible with NOVA prices.

I think it was a good move for me, but I do miss Virginia, and my family, and she misses her parents as well, but my career needed a boost.

[leighland]

Originally Posted by Newk

I lived in Virginia my whole life. NOVA before college in Harrisonburg, and then three years back in NOVA after graduation. I moved to San Antonio in Sept. 2008 within my company for a promotion and raise. I was tried of snow and ice, and wanted some warm weather, and boy did I get it, 59 days of 100+ degrees in San Antonio last summer. But right now the weather is perfect. I have my wife down here now and we are going to look at buying a SFH early next year, which would have not been possible with NOVA prices.

I think it was a good move for me, but I do miss Virginia, and my family, and she misses her parents as well, but my career needed a boost.

I love San Antonio- hate the scorpions/bugs tho. The lizards didn't bother me much. I hope you get settled there and become to love it!

[DennyCrane]

Even though I don't live in NOVA, I thought I would add my two cents. I lived in a city that was very affordable, had only minor traffic issues, and where the people were friendly. But there were hardly any jobs and it didn't offer a lot in terms of culture. Then I moved to a city with plenty of jobs and lots of culture. But the traffic was horrible, the cost of living was high, and people were always in a crabby mood, probably because of the traffic and high cost of living.

No matter where you go, you'll make trade-offs. Do you want to live in a city where you can buy a really big house for under 300K and never have to deal with a lousy commute to work? Great. But then you'll discover why things are so cheap and why there's no traffic. It's because no one wants to live there. Why? Probably because there aren't any jobs and/or the city is really boring. The alternative is to go to a city with lots of jobs that has lots of stuff to do. But everyone else goes there too, adding to the traffic and pushing up home prices. DC obviously falls into this category.

The ideal city seems to be the middle of these two extremes. But what American city really falls in the middle? A city that offers a decent job market, homes that are reasonably affordable, and traffic that's only moderately bad. A city that has just enough places to go and stuff to do to keep you from getting bored. I've spent the last couple years trying to figure out which city that is and what I keep finding is that most American cities seem to fall into one of the two extremes. What's the saying about something that's too good to be true? As someone who's thinking of moving to DC, I know the cost of living is high and the traffic is awful. But I also know that's where the jobs are and where I'll never get bored. So you folks thinking of leaving DC, keep in mind why other cities are more affordable and have less traffic.

[normie]

Hahaha, with a name like DennyCrane, Boston should be your ideal city!

Just kidding, I really liked your post and thought you made some good points. I wish there was some way the people leaving could sign over their apartments to folks like you who are moving in.