Military family settling down on the East Coast (Richmond, Newport News: fit in, loan)

[AmyOledzki]

Hi there. We are a military family (1 young son, 1 on the way) who will be moving back to the east coast in about a year or so once the husband gets out. I’ve decided to start looking into places to live to get an idea of our options (as opposed to waiting until next year and having to make rush, unresearched decisions). I am from central Ohio, husband is from Philly area. We have no desire to move back to Ohio, though we may consider southern PA. My mother lives in Nashville, so I’m trying to find a happy medium in terms of proximity to our family and the kind of area we want to settle down in. We currently live in San Diego, so yes, we are very spoiled when it comes to things like weather and a wide variety of “things to do.” But we don’t enjoy being so far away from family (and the insane costs of plane tickets) so we’re moving back “home.”

Both of us intend to work full time, but we have no job leads at the moment (obviously). We are Penn State grads with degrees in marketing (me) and criminal justice (him). My biggest factor is the public school system. With 2 young children, I want to settle down somewhere where I know my kids will receive a quality education (good to excellent school rankings). After schools, our other concerns are crime/safety, affordable housing, the job market, and “things to do”(in no particular order).

-Where you are working
No jobs at the moment. Husband is a Marine Corps pilot and may be considering going back to school or taking a government contract job. My background is marketing, specifically in the nonprofit industry

-How much you are willing to spend on housing
I want to say anywhere from 100-300k, as long as it meets our needs: 4 bedrooms, decent amount of yard space (for the dog/kids and for a garden), within walking distance (or a short drive) to schools, parks, etc. I admit, I have no idea what housing like this costs, so I could be way off base.

-How long of a commute you're willing to tolerate
45min-1 hour

-If you have kids: Private school or public school?
Public, good to excellent ratings, with comparable extracurriculars (including sports)

-What type of neighborhood environment you are looking for: small town feeling? small city excitement? suburbia delight?
A combination of small town feel and small city. We like our privacy, but we like to get out and have fun. Wouldn’t mind being less than an hour away from big-city life

-Community amenities important to you
Parks, pools, library, small stores for quick errands, farmers markets/organic food

-Pie or cake?
Definitely pie

[Flamingo13]

Sorry but for most of Virginia (Northern for sure and probably a lot of the rest of it) - that housing allowance won't get you anything. Pennsylvania maybe since you both went to school there?

[TN Lily]

The housing allowance will get you a nice home in many parts of Virginia - excluding northern Virginia.

I live in a neighborhood in Newport News within walking distance of the Mariners Museum. Many of the houses are under $300K. They are older homes. The elementary school is very good. My daughter (high school) attends a magnet school & loves it.

$300K won't get you a new home with 4 bedrooms in Newport News. And it won't get you waterfront. But if those are not must-haves, you can find housing in this area.

Don't give up on Virginia.

[GeorgiaTransplant]

Originally Posted by AmyOledzki

Hi there. We are a military family (1 young son, 1 on the way) who will be moving back to the east coast in about a year or so once the husband gets out. I’ve decided to start looking into places to live to get an idea of our options (as opposed to waiting until next year and having to make rush, unresearched decisions). I am from central Ohio, husband is from Philly area. We have no desire to move back to Ohio, though we may consider southern PA. My mother lives in Nashville, so I’m trying to find a happy medium in terms of proximity to our family and the kind of area we want to settle down in. We currently live in San Diego, so yes, we are very spoiled when it comes to things like weather and a wide variety of “things to do.” But we don’t enjoy being so far away from family (and the insane costs of plane tickets) so we’re moving back “home.”

Both of us intend to work full time, but we have no job leads at the moment (obviously). We are Penn State grads with degrees in marketing (me) and criminal justice (him). My biggest factor is the public school system. With 2 young children, I want to settle down somewhere where I know my kids will receive a quality education (good to excellent school rankings). After schools, our other concerns are crime/safety, affordable housing, the job market, and “things to do”(in no particular order).

-Where you are working
No jobs at the moment. Husband is a Marine Corps pilot and may be considering going back to school or taking a government contract job. My background is marketing, specifically in the nonprofit industry

-How much you are willing to spend on housing
I want to say anywhere from 100-300k, as long as it meets our needs: 4 bedrooms, decent amount of yard space (for the dog/kids and for a garden), within walking distance (or a short drive) to schools, parks, etc. I admit, I have no idea what housing like this costs, so I could be way off base.

-How long of a commute you're willing to tolerate
45min-1 hour

-If you have kids: Private school or public school?
Public, good to excellent ratings, with comparable extracurriculars (including sports)

-What type of neighborhood environment you are looking for: small town feeling? small city excitement? suburbia delight?
A combination of small town feel and small city. We like our privacy, but we like to get out and have fun. Wouldn’t mind being less than an hour away from big-city life

-Community amenities important to you
Parks, pools, library, small stores for quick errands, farmers markets/organic food

-Pie or cake?
Definitely pie

Metro Richmond: Chesterfield or Hanover, VA. West End of Richmond (Henrico County) if you can find something under 300K, but it probably won't have lots of yard space. Watch the school district when picking.

[LynchburgLover]

I'd say any of the smaller cities -- Lynchburg, Harrisonburg, Roanoke, etc. in the Shenandoah Valley would have housing in that range. The bigger question is where to find a job. I'd suggest finding the job first and then finding the neighborhood.

You mentioned that your husband may return to school so focus the job hunt around the areas that have a college -- James Madison is in Harrisonburg, Longwood is in Farmville, Radford U is in Radford, and so on. There are also a lot of small private colleges in small cities -- Emory & Henry is not too far from Bristol. Lynchburg has Liberty and Lynchburg College.

Best of luck.

[onevthoki]

Congrats on making the decision to ETS. It is definitely a hard one when it comes time to make the decision.

I'm guessing your husband will be right at the ten year mark. If your are thinking he may want to try and get a GS job so that he can buy back his time, you might want to focus your search around military installations. Here in Virginia, you will have lots of choices, but to keep the housing costs at your desired budget, Hampton Roads and the counties around Fort Lee will probably be your best bet. For those areas of Virginia, if you chose to use your VA eligibility, your loan limit will actually be $417,000, but it is so nice to realize there are folks out there who realize they don't have to borrow the entire amount they are approved for!

If your husband decides to return to school using his post 9-11 GI Bill, there are lots of colleges that are excellent in both areas, plus more are beginning to offer the Homeland Security specialization, which your husband may be interested in with the Criminal Justice undergrad degree.

Good luck with your search and keep us posted on how it goes!