Should we move to Chantilly, VA? HELP! (lease, mobile home)

[missarose22]

My other half is considering a movie to Chantilly, VA. He was offered a job through a company for $65k a year. My question is what is the cost of living there? We currently live in Barre, VT and it is SO expensive to live here. We are currently living in a $200k home w/ $5k a year taxes. Vermont is a very expensive place to live with all the welfare benefits we working folk have to pay for.

I've googled living costs and every where I look it says that to live in VA would only be like $1k more then VT but I can't imagine VA would have the heating costs, plowing costs, tire costs, inspection costs as VT does.

I've also looked and ther are extremely cute homes for $120k-175k but on other sites people are saying we would need to fork out $300k for a home. That wouldn't even be possible with his salary.

Please help. Thanks.

[michgc]

You probably want to move this question to the Northern Virginia subforum. That's where Chantilly is. Yes, Northern Virginia is a very expensive place to live. Taxes don't sound like they'd be as high as in Vermont because we pay $5000 in taxes on a $500,000 home. However, the price of housing is very expensive. $500,000 is probably the median price for a single family home in the Northern Virginia area. I don't know where you found homes for under $200K. I do agree that heating costs would be much lower than in VT, but of course we run the AC a lot more than you probably do (if you even need it there) in VT.

[abogusid]

Don't expect the cost of living to be cheaper in Northern Va. Housing will be more expensive as well.

[Rhett_Butler]

However, you don't necessarily have to live IN Chantilly... MANY people buy further out west and commute in...

[choff5]

I live in Chantilly and have no clue where you found houses for that price, with the exception of one mobile home park that advertises homes in that price range. If it is that (Meadows of Chantilly), just remember you aren't buying the land but are also paying to lease the land beneath your home that you've bought for that price. Also, those homes will not appreciate like another home will. You may find some homes in the $400K range if you look at older neighborhoods, or as someone said, go further west. If the job is in Chantilly, then you can afford to go further west. I don't know a thing about Vermont, other than one friend who lived there misses the lack of traffic, which you will have plenty of here!