Young family of 5 looking to relocate to Richmond this summer. Need advice please! (Charlottesville: transplants)

[Movingsouth4good]

Hi, We are a young family of five that currently live in Staten Island, NY. I myself am a cdl truck driver (Have a AS degree in Criminal Justice) and would like to eventually join the police department or correctional facility. My wife is a stay at home mom/student/pt-online sales. We are relocating this summer as the COL is unbearable here and we just miss the south. Yes we have lived in Florida and South Carolina (A short stint in MB). We relocated back to NYC and have regretted it since day one. After one year we are ready to move back down south and for good this time! We are choosing Richmond because of the awesome city it is! (We visited three times in the past and love it!). We feel like its the place down south we truely belong! The seasons are there but lighter which is great. The culture, food, activities, proximity to beaches, mountains, dc. We would like to be within 30-40 mins to the city. Our budget would allow us to pay $1300 max for a 3/2 in a safe and quiet area with good schools. If there are any recommendations that would be awesome! Thanks so much for your help!

[burtonrider3889]

Somewhere in Chesterfield would probably fit you nicely. You can easily find a place to rent or buy for $1,300 a month, you'll be less than 20 minutes from the West End, and probably about 20-25 minutes to the city. Check out the zip codes 23114, 23113, and 23112.

[ellieb128]

You can get into an OK house, safe, in fantastic schools in those zips.

[snatale1]

Look into Western Henrico Co. Great Schools, Awesome area, plenty to do, has everything you ever need and 15 min from the city. Also mostly transplants so you'll feel at home lol. There's also plenty of work here for CDL Drivers. I was also looking into joining a PD, you'll make more driving! I got nothing against being a cop (obviously since I attempted it). BUT they get paid crap, sure they make a lot by the end of the year but that's because of details, That's like having 2 jobs....NOPE! My buddy made almost 80k last year (first year) and only saw the inside of his house when he was sleeping. No thanks. Because of all the trucking around here and proximity to ports and gas terminals there are drivers making 70k year as employee drivers! Keep in mind 70k in Central VA is like making 100k in NY. Something to consider.

[novanwbie]

I was just on Trulia looking at rentals -- look at Midlothian, VA and in the 23832 zip code, there are several rentals that will put you in good schools in your price range. Chesterfield County Schools are great, and the places in your price range in the West End will be in the weaker schools in Henrico County -- not worth the trade off. You can also search Chesterfield, there are some nice rentals elsewhere in the county, as well. Most of Chesterfield is easily within 1/2 hour of Richmond proper, and you'll find this area to be very easy to get around, especially compared to NYC. You will hate how slow everyone drives, though! But you'll get used to the slower southern pace again soon.

Good luck!

[Movingsouth4good]

Thanks for the info! I've been looking into these prospective areas and hopefully will line something up soon enough. It seems that some of Chesterfield is alot cheaper than others? I'm assuming there is a rough side to Chesterfield? Is there any parts or zip codes we should stay away from?

[novanwbie]

Well, if you look at Richmond on the map, the areas of Chesterfield County adjacent to the city of Richmond, to the south of Richmond, are really rough. The further south you get, the better it gets, but the city really sprawls over the line to the south. The Chester area is cheaper than the northwestern parts of Chesterfield County, around Midlothian, but there are also some very reasonable areas along Hull Street and Huguenot. Just depends on what you're looking for. A lot of Richmonders consider Chester to be somewhat country, but there are several posters on here who really like it, and the people I know who live down there like it. I don't know that area at all, so I tend to advocate for the northwestern part of the county, because we've always enjoyed living there, and are looking forward to moving back (we're in Short Pump/Henrico now). Most of 23113, 23112 and 23114 will be good. The area down around Ironbridge and Beach Rd also has some nice developments, and some decent schools. Stay away from anything that's close to Jeff Davis. That is super rough. Hopkins and Belmont has parts that are rough, too. Perhaps someone who lives down there can elaborate. I'd make sure you're west of Chippenham. There are some nice moderate neighborhoods around the new Manchester HS, too. Spring Run Elementary is a great school.

In general the schools in Chesterfield are really good. I used GreatSchools just as a baseline, because the number of students passing the SOLs does give you some indication of the population and the school's success at educating its students. And yes, I know there are many factors that contribute to passing test scores. But in the absence of visiting each school myself and observing, those sites at least give me a baseline. If all the schools in the area score a 2-4, there's some factor keeping the kids from passing their tests. The state also publishes report cards for every single school by county on doe.virginia.gov.

One other tool I like to use is the Street View feature on Google Maps. We've looked at several houses that looked great in the listing photo, but once we scanned the whole neighborhood, we thought -- oh no!

[onevthoki]

I think the area near Enon Elementary School in Chester would work well and fit your budget. That would put you zoned for Enon Elementary, Elizabeth Davis Middle, and Thomas Dale H.S. You can easily hop on i95 to get to Richmond (22miles to the VCU parking garage), i295 to get to 64 to head to the beach, and take scenic Route 5 if you would like to get over to Williamsburg. Hope this helps and let us know if you have any more questions!

[Movingsouth4good]

Wow,Novanwbie thats a great way to do research! I actually never thought to use those tools. I will defintely being doing that. Onevthoki Thanks for the info! I do appreciate all the help.

[Armyvet1]

I'm from Putnam/Northern Westchester area and like Virginia just fine. I live outside Charlottesville.