Need out of CA! (Richmond, Roanoke: townhome, neighborhood, buy)

[vetterleins]

I am going NUTS trying to find a place to move to from Redondo Beach, CA...Originally from Jersey, I've been here for 14 years. My husband and I don't own a house...the least expensive place we can find is about $850,000- that's for a 4 bedrm townhome!!!NO LAND!
We have 3 kids, 3, 5, 7 and my husband is an avid cyclist- looking for hills. Obviously, we'd miss the beach, so it would be nice to be driving distance...
I'm thinking that Cary, NC, Charlottesville, Va may be nice, or someplace near Annapolis, MD.
We don't have the time or money to travel to all of these places...some advice would be great. Oh yeah..my husband does custom aquariums for a living...maybe you think he'd make NO money in some of these places..any suggestions?

[ALI]

woah and i thought it was expensive here **** 850 for a town house? well newayz i think for your husbands job, i kno they have a lot of aquariams in baltimore, since it's right by the sea, , also there's a lot of houses in northern va, so u could have more options, i think somewhere in northern va would be good, i mean there's places that r really populated, or u could pick one of the less populated quite towns, there's a good variety, and dc is a pretty good city, but very expensive

[buzzkirk]

Austin, Texas, is a great cycling town (home of Lance!), the Hill Country starts on the west side of town (tons of cyclists on Hwy. 360) cheap housing/land costs, is a boom town with bright future, has weather like Cali, and has lots of water with lakes and springs. Don't know about the aquarium market though.

[Snake101]

Wow...Redondo sounds really bad :P
If you move somewhere closer to the beach I am sure your husband will be able to get good business with his aquariums. If you are looking to move to charolettesville, you will be right next to the mountains but about 3 hours from the beach while here in Chesterfield county (just southwest of Richmond) you will be about 1.5 hours from the beach. I don't know if the hills here in midlothian would do it for him (out here a little bit in the country where I live-moseley-the roads are winding with small hills with lots of bikers but I dont know if thats what you meant...)

Houses here with and acre of land, at least in my neighborhood, with over 3500 sq feet and brick will run you about 500,000/600,000 (probably very cheap for you...it was for us also when we moved down from outside DC in maryland).

Good Luck,
Jake

[Stevpla]

NoVa is expensive (i grew up there), but not as much as CA. How about Portland, Oregon. Lots of hills and one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the US. Lots of country backroads to cycle on too. Any of the outlying burbs are cheaper than downtown Portland obviously and living across the river in Vancouver, WA is even cheaper. If you like the West coast vibe than Portland is it. Also the beach is only 1 1/2 hours away. Plus you have the Columbia River Gorge and the Cascade mtns for recreation fun. Plus it isn't as hot or humid as the East coast or TX. Don't know much about the aquarium business out here though.

[skylarkva]

I know exactly why you want to leave CA. My husband and I grew up there and could not take the congestion, smog, high prices, etc. any longer. Five years ago we sold our very small house on a very small lot in Claremont and purchased a 10 acre property that has a large home + a guest house + a 1/3 acre fish pond in Clarke County, VA. Thought we'd miss going to the beach, but we don't. There are so many other outdoor things to do. We hike and bike. Also kayak on the Shenandoah. We're in the middle of the woods - but just an hour or so from D.C. and all the museums, etc. It's a great place to raise children. Please feel free to email if you want more info.

[myusethisname]

You should go back to the East Coast and stay there. We western people have enough to deal with already. We do not appreciate all the problems you migrating new era, superior intellect exuding, mean, arrogant, self-righteous east coast people defile our rights with. If we could buy you for what your worth and sell you to Simon and Garfunkel we all would of became filthy ritch in the 60's.

Originally Posted by vetterleins

I am going NUTS trying to find a place to move to from Redondo Beach, CA...Originally from Jersey, I've been here for 14 years. My husband and I don't own a house...the least expensive place we can find is about $850,000- that's for a 4 bedrm townhome!!!NO LAND!
We have 3 kids, 3, 5, 7 and my husband is an avid cyclist- looking for hills. Obviously, we'd miss the beach, so it would be nice to be driving distance...
I'm thinking that Cary, NC, Charlottesville, Va may be nice, or someplace near Annapolis, MD.
We don't have the time or money to travel to all of these places...some advice would be great. Oh yeah..my husband does custom aquariums for a living...maybe you think he'd make NO money in some of these places..any suggestions?

[breeze823]

Originally Posted by myusethisname

You should go back to the East Coast and stay there. We western people have enough to deal with already. We do not appreciate all the problems you migrating new era, superior intellect exuding, mean, arrogant, self-righteous east coast people defile our rights with. If we could buy you for what your worth and sell you to Simon and Garfunkel we all would of became filthy ritch in the 60's.

what a crazy and ridiculous post, thanks for the laugh!

[Mr_Jonas]

Could one make a living doing custom aquariums in Virginia????

[normie]

Originally Posted by vetterleins

I am going NUTS trying to find a place to move to from Redondo Beach, CA...Originally from Jersey, I've been here for 14 years. My husband and I don't own a house...the least expensive place we can find is about $850,000- that's for a 4 bedrm townhome!!!NO LAND!
We have 3 kids, 3, 5, 7 and my husband is an avid cyclist- looking for hills. Obviously, we'd miss the beach, so it would be nice to be driving distance...
I'm thinking that Cary, NC, Charlottesville, Va may be nice, or someplace near Annapolis, MD.
We don't have the time or money to travel to all of these places...some advice would be great. Oh yeah..my husband does custom aquariums for a living...maybe you think he'd make NO money in some of these places..any suggestions?

I used to live in Redondo and then moved to Virginia.

First off, I wouldn't move anywhere without a job. If you're self employed doing the custom aquariums, I wouldn't move any place where you don't already have a very strong network of customers.

If your reason for moving is mostly because life in Redondo is expensive, you don't want Chalottesville or Annapolis. Those are both very expensive places.

Various towns in Texas could work for you, or maybe Salt Lake City. Greenville, SC is a lovely town, so is Pueblo, CO. Asheville NC, charleston, SC, and Eureka Springs, Arkansas are cool places. The beach cities in southern Delaware might be appealing (and might have customers for that aquarium business). If you're really determined to come to Virginia, Roanoke might be a better bet than Charlottesville.

BTW, I didn't mention Cary because I don't know anything about that town. It might be more affordable, but I don't know.

I also don't think you'd find much custom aquarium work in this part of the world. Just my opinion, but I don't see a lot of aquariums here. Not like you see them in California.

As far as being near the beach.... Annapolis is on the water but I don't know of a beach and it is not a beach town. Charlottesville is quite far from the beach.