Leaving NJ - maybe - not sure where to go. (Richmond: house, employment)

[nic529]

go. My family and I have lived in NJ all our lives. Its getting too expensive up here and we are considering moving. My biggest concerns are: schools, safety, and employment.

I am an executive assistant, so hopefully it won't be too hard find something for me. Does anyone know what the pay range is?

My husband's employment will probably be harder to find. The biggest concern right now. He is Assistant Parts manager at a Chevrolet Dealership. His salary is 60,000+. Any advice on where he should be looking and what his salary range would be great.

I have a daughter in high school - she's gets really good grades, and she's a cheerleader. She's not a "great" cheerleader but she loves it, so I would hope to find somewhere she'd still make the squad. She definately needs to be challenged academically. And I have a son in kindergarten.

I don't know what price range we'd be looking at because I don't know what kind of salaries to expect.

We are currently researching VA, NC, and SC.

Any advice would be great!

Thanks!

[Richmond Commuter]

We moved from northwestern NJ just over 5 years ago for some of the same reasons. I was born up there and lived 35 years mostly in rural northwestern NJ before we moved here. It's great - much better than NJ in many ways.

The schools in the counties around Richmond are overall quite good - a bit of variability depending on where you go, but just about any high school in western Henrico county will be good. Hanover county schools are good also - check them out online - they have lots of really good info on the web, which helped us when we were moving down here.

I recommend you look in Glen Allen, Ashland, and Mechanicsville areas. The good news is your housing will be noticeably cheaper and so will your property taxes. Even if you make the same money (or even slightly less), it's like getting a raise because the cost of housing and property taxes are so much lower. Plus you're paying to live in Central VA, instead of NJ - and that's worth something, as far as I'm concerned!

You can find a perfectly decent house in a decent neighborhood for $300,000 and maybe even a bit less. We sold our previous house in Glen Allen last year - it was only four years old, 2100 sq. ft., 4 br, 2.5 ba. on 0.25 acres, with finished garage, great landscaping, sprinkler system and custom-built backyard shed, in a very nice neighborhood that has a really nice community pool, playgrounds and tennis courts, for $299,000. Taxes were something like $2,200 per year. Play around on Long & Foster's website for examples of housing available.

There are lots of car dealers on West Broad Street and Midlothian Turnpike - another area you might consider is Bon Air (but I don't know anything about the schools there) or Midlothian. I have no idea what salary a car dealer might pay down here. You shouldn't have too hard a time finding a job either - Richmond is the seat of state government, and there are lots of law firms around, as well as banking and investment firms. Capital One is a big employer, CarMax is another - they are out in the far west end, where there are a couple of big corporate parks and a pretty easy commute from anywhere in the Richmond area, generally.

[nic529]

Thank you so much for that information. I will look into those areas. I'm glad things have worked out for you!