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I am looking to relocate to a warmer climate. I have a family friend who lives in Virginia Beach and I absolutely LOVE it there. I plan to go back next month and take a closer look at the area, instead of just admiring the touristy things. I would love to hear from people what they love and hate about Virginia Beach - things I might be overlooking or just didn't see because I was on vacation.
Some of the things I didn't know from just vacationing:
how hot are the summers? how humid?
how cold are the winters?
is there any reliable public transportation? (I know VIrginia Beach requires a car but it is nice to have reliable public transportation when family comes to visit so they are not stuck in the house while I am at work, for a sitter who might not have a car, to know that I can get from point A to point B for a day or two if my car is not working, etc.)
what are some diverse neighborhoods (by this, I mean culturally diverse as well as diverse in terms of family structure)
are there townhome communities in Virginia Beach? any ones in particular I should look at?
Summers can get as hot as the 100's.
In the winter it can get as cold as 20's but that's not too common.
Public transportation is around but you'd have to walk to a bus stop and who knows when the bus comes. I doubt you'd want to have family members just sitting on the street waiting for a bus.
There are a lot of town home communities but I couldn't tell you which ones are good.
Hi: I am thinking of moving to VA Beach as well. It won't be until this time next year when I will be an empty nester. This board is great. People have been so helpful and I've gotten lots of tips. I plan to visit this September after the summer when the hotel prices go down !! I have contacted a relocation specialist who I hope will take a good day or two to show me all the areas that are safe, etc. My biggest fear is finding a job. I'm an HR professional and don't know what exactly is down there where I would be able to make a living...will have to see. My plan is to find a condo/townhouse that is rent-to-own. I'm planning to give it 1 year to see if the area works for me. I live in CT now and am SOOOOO sick of the cold weather and snow. Good luck !!
Hi: I am thinking of moving to VA Beach as well. It won't be until this time next year when I will be an empty nester. This board is great. People have been so helpful and I've gotten lots of tips. I plan to visit this September after the summer when the hotel prices go down !! I have contacted a relocation specialist who I hope will take a good day or two to show me all the areas that are safe, etc. My biggest fear is finding a job. I'm an HR professional and don't know what exactly is down there where I would be able to make a living...will have to see. My plan is to find a condo/townhouse that is rent-to-own. I'm planning to give it 1 year to see if the area works for me. I live in CT now and am SOOOOO sick of the cold weather and snow. Good luck !!
Rent to own sounds nice. And like you, I am aso sick and tired of the cold and snow! I think SHRM and other HR orgs might be able to help you find opportunities.
I am looking to relocate to a warmer climate. I have a family friend who lives in Virginia Beach and I absolutely LOVE it there. I plan to go back next month and take a closer look at the area, instead of just admiring the touristy things. I would love to hear from people what they love and hate about Virginia Beach - things I might be overlooking or just didn't see because I was on vacation.
Some of the things I didn't know from just vacationing:
how hot are the summers? how humid?
how cold are the winters?
is there any reliable public transportation? (I know VIrginia Beach requires a car but it is nice to have reliable public transportation when family comes to visit so they are not stuck in the house while I am at work, for a sitter who might not have a car, to know that I can get from point A to point B for a day or two if my car is not working, etc.)
what are some diverse neighborhoods (by this, I mean culturally diverse as well as diverse in terms of family structure)
are there townhome communities in Virginia Beach? any ones in particular I should look at?
The summers are hot and humid
The winters are generally mild. It does snow but often wont for years at a time.
There is no reliable public transportation. We have a half ass bus sytem, and you are relying on that to get to a job, you might as well just quit yourself right now.
What do I hate about Virginia Beach?
- Housing is completely unaffordable. This includes owning and renting.
- There is absolutely no underlying reason why housing is unaffordable outside of military housing pay.
- There are few things to do outside of booze or go to the parks/beach/mall. Most of the arcades, mini golf places, and other of the such long ago closed down. There is minor league baseball and hockey if you are so inclined. Most anything worth a grain of salt is in Newport News or the historic triangle.
- The best venue in the area is the Ted Constant center. This results in major conventions and musical acts often passing right by. I think the only reason why anyone bothers to show up here at all is because its a logical way to fill a date on the way to Raleigh and/or Charlotte from Washington DC.
- No light rail, and likely never will be. Virginia Beach is the conservative stallwart of the region, and follows the Republican mantra of "I'm not going to use it, so its not a positive thing and I shouldnt pay for it". We will continue to depend on an unreliable bus system, poorly laid out roads, and the resulting grid lock traffic. The good thing is that Virginia Beach has essentially stopped growing, so we wont need to worry about additional grid lock.
- There is little diversity. By this, I do not mean "non-white", I mean, something other than American black/American White or Mexican. There is very little trace of Carribean, South American, or European culture and Asian presence stops pretty much outside the Chinese restaurant on every block.
- Decent jobs that arent with or working for the government are hard to come by. The area has completely built around government money sources, and has not bothered to develop self sustaining private industry.
- Housing is completely unaffordable. This includes owning and renting.
- There is absolutely no underlying reason why housing is unaffordable outside of military housing pay.
This is partially true, it has declined a great deal since the bubble and a single family home in a decent VB neighborhood (ocean lakes, kempsville etc...) can be had for around $200k right now. Furthermore, with the current interest rates, your actual cost to live in a house is back to manageable levels (30yr mortgage is ~$1000/month on a 200k home at current rates).
The truly outrageous places are very large McMansions or waterfront property and if you look at price per square foot they are not unreasonable compared to other metros at all. Now I certainly do not need a 2500+ square foot home but those are the ones that cost a fortune.
I will concede that military housing allowances keep the rental market inflated. Rental prices seem $200 - $300 a month higher than they should be in most places and have not come down as home prices have come down. Nor will they probably come down until people start purchasing homes again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lethal2007
- There are few things to do outside of booze or go to the parks/beach/mall. Most of the arcades, mini golf places, and other of the such long ago closed down. There is minor league baseball and hockey if you are so inclined. Most anything worth a grain of salt is in Newport News or the historic triangle.
This is a question of personal taste. VB has the oceanfront, north end, sandbridge, chicks beach, a nice aquarium, American Indoor Karting facilities, Ocean Breeze water park, Motor World, Hanger 09, and VB Town Center. Norfolk has a nice zoo, the botanical gardens, nauticus, the chrysler museum, harrison opera house, d'Art center, town point park, granby street and ghent for bars, and McArthur center if you are into shopping. Just to name a few things to do...
Furthermore, those of us who like the outdoors seem to find plenty to do for free. VB has good rec centers ($72/yr for residents), parks, skate parks, tennis courts, golf courses, places to kayak, places to fish, and places to bike (although the is some tension between bikes and cars around here that needs working on).
You want to talk about a place with nothing to do, try living out in Ivor or Wakefield. VB may not have the things you personally like to do, but it is pretty dishonest to say that there is nothing to do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lethal2007
- The best venue in the area is the Ted Constant center. This results in major conventions and musical acts often passing right by. I think the only reason why anyone bothers to show up here at all is because its a logical way to fill a date on the way to Raleigh and/or Charlotte from Washington DC.
There are many venues and we do get plenty of national acts. It may not be your personal taste but that is a different matter.
- No light rail, and likely never will be. Virginia Beach is the conservative stallwart of the region, and follows the Republican mantra of "I'm not going to use it, so its not a positive thing and I shouldnt pay for it". We will continue to depend on an unreliable bus system, poorly laid out roads, and the resulting grid lock traffic. The good thing is that Virginia Beach has essentially stopped growing, so we wont need to worry about additional grid lock.
Some fair points about the roads and the bus system but not entirely accurate.
- There is little diversity. By this, I do not mean "non-white", I mean, something other than American black/American White or Mexican. There is very little trace of Carribean, South American, or European culture and Asian presence stops pretty much outside the Chinese restaurant on every block.
Certianly it is not as diverse as many other metros but very little trace of asians? really? Maybe you confuse the 40,000+ Filipinos (about 25,000 of which are in Virginia Beach) with Mexicans or something?? At least be honest.
Virginia Beach is actually very representative of the state of Virginia and Country as a whole in terms of its diversity. The only difference being that we have slightly more African Americans, Asians, and Bi-racial people but slightly less Hispanics than VA and the USA.
- Decent jobs that arent with or working for the government are hard to come by. The area has completely built around government money sources, and has not bothered to develop self sustaining private industry.
It is what it is, Norfolk naval station is the largest navy base in the world. Oceana is a master jet base. Hunnington Ingalls builds and services ships for the navy (they are also getting into the wind turbine business). NASA Langley research center is a government research center. These all provide good paying jobs to both civil servants and contractors. So what?
In the private sector there is also tourism, medical, and a few companies that headquarter here (Amerigroup, Geico, Stihl, but the private sector development is lacking to some degree. Virginia Beach could also use a good research university in my opinion. Things to work towards in the future.
The area is not perfect and has plenty of things to work on but the outright hate on here from a select few people baffles me.
I am looking to relocate to a warmer climate. I have a family friend who lives in Virginia Beach and I absolutely LOVE it there. I plan to go back next month and take a closer look at the area, instead of just admiring the touristy things. I would love to hear from people what they love and hate about Virginia Beach - things I might be overlooking or just didn't see because I was on vacation.
Some of the things I didn't know from just vacationing:
how hot are the summers? how humid?
how cold are the winters?
is there any reliable public transportation? (I know VIrginia Beach requires a car but it is nice to have reliable public transportation when family comes to visit so they are not stuck in the house while I am at work, for a sitter who might not have a car, to know that I can get from point A to point B for a day or two if my car is not working, etc.)
what are some diverse neighborhoods (by this, I mean culturally diverse as well as diverse in terms of family structure)
are there townhome communities in Virginia Beach? any ones in particular I should look at?
- Summers tend to be hot and humid in july and august. Average temperatures are in the mid-upper 80's for the summer but it is not uncommon to get stretches of the low-mid 90's. Last summer was brutal, two years before that we barely hit 90 all year.
- Winters are typically mild with January and February temperatures in the 40's and 50's during the day and 30's at night. It is not uncommon to have stretches where temperatures reach the 60's in the dead of winter but we also get occasional cold snaps where we have highs in the 30's. Last winter was unusually cold and we had a couple of snow events but that is not common. Typically we get maybe 6" of snow per year and it is short lived when it falls. It makes it fun because it is rare enough that people get excited but it doesn't linger long enough to be a hassle.
Wikipedia has a good climate summary showing monthly average temps and precipitations amounts. I like the weather here a lot. Certainly there are stretches during the summer where it is uncomfortably hot (if you are not at the beach) but overall it is very pleasant and lends itself to seasonal activities.
- In terms of diversity I would say that areas near Salem, Kempsville, Tallwood, Landstown, Princess Anne and Ocean Lakes tend to be the most diverse in terms of both racial/ethnic demographics, place of origin (the military brings folks from all over the country) and also family structure. Here is a great tool for looking at the neighborhoods in terms of education, race, income, and housing/families. Rather than listen to the stories people tell you on here just look at the data and see for yourself (put in virginia beach into the search window and click on the "view more maps tab to see the different categories):
- There are many townhome communities in VB. In order to make a recommendation though I would really need to know what your priorities are:
Do you want to be close to the beach? If so, the bay or the ocean?
Do you like to bike?
Do you need a bus route nearby? The mass transit system as a whole is lacking but there are pockets where you can get by walking, biking, or taking the bus.
Do you care about nightlife nearby or do you want peace and quiet where you live?
I like it here a lot. I recognize that it is somewhat bland in terms of strip malls and subdivisions but find that the overall quality of life is high for my wife and I. We have great neighbors, enjoy the climate and water activities, make a good living (both of us), frequent the parks and rec centers, know of enough mom & pop restaurants to keep us happy, and appreciate the diversity of people in the area (there is more to diversity than race and ethnicity, we have neighbors from Michigan, Indiana, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, California,the Phillipines, and Puerto Rico). That is my 2cents.
This is partially true, it has declined a great deal since the bubble and a single family home in a decent VB neighborhood (ocean lakes, kempsville etc...) can be had for around $200k right now. Furthermore, with the current interest rates, your actual cost to live in a house is back to manageable levels (30yr mortgage is ~$1000/month on a 200k home at current rates).
On what planet is $1000 a month affordable to the average person? That is about 50% of the take home pay for someone making about 40k a year. That doesnt include the property taxes (which are high) and insurance either.
The median income for a male in Virginia Beach is under this, and the median for a household is 58k.
This means that it either takes one person making significantly more than the median for a single person, or a two income family to afford that.
By the way, most of what you are finding in Virginia Beach under 200k are townhouses in not so great areas of the city.
Your best bet is trying to choose from the single family 1940's-1950's housing stock in the couple decent neighborhoods in Norfolk. Sure, youll get a less than 1000 sqft house, needing many repairs, and likely with 1 bathroom and no garage, but you might get those nifty 50's window awnings and you might be lucky to get it under 175K. Or you can just go to a suburb of Charlotte, get a house twice as big, built after 1990, for less than 150k, but then again, schematics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UHgrad
This is a question of personal taste. VB has the oceanfront, north end, sandbridge, chicks beach, a nice aquarium, American Indoor Karting facilities, Ocean Breeze water park, Motor World, Hanger 09, and VB Town Center. Norfolk has a nice zoo, the botanical gardens, nauticus, the chrysler museum, harrison opera house, d'Art center, town point park, granby street and ghent for bars, and McArthur center if you are into shopping. Just to name a few things to do...
Furthermore, those of us who like the outdoors seem to find plenty to do for free. VB has good rec centers ($72/yr for residents), parks, skate parks, tennis courts, golf courses, places to kayak, places to fish, and places to bike (although the is some tension between bikes and cars around here that needs working on).
About 75% of what you mentioned are parks/beaches or bars/clubs. As for our "museums", you have got to be kidding me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UHgrad
You want to talk about a place with nothing to do, try living out in Ivor or Wakefield. VB may not have the things you personally like to do, but it is pretty dishonest to say that there is nothing to do.
These also do not have over 400k people. If I lived in the middle of nowhere, Id expect nothing to do, or low end entertainment. All of the following MSA's have within 200k people more or have less people, and have better entertainment, San Jose, CA, Columbus, OH, Charlotte, NC, Austin, TX, Indianapolis, IN, Nashville, TN, Milwaukee, WI, Jacksonville, FL, Memphis, TN, Oklahoma City, OK, New Orleans, LA, Buffalo, NY. All of them outside of Austin have atleast 1 major league sports team, and many have 2. Most of them have a good corporate presence, and most of them are major cultural centers.
If you look down the list of MSAs ranked by population, Hampton Roads is badly out of place. It belongs down with Albany, Omaha, or Greensboro, metros with half the people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UHgrad
There are many venues and we do get plenty of national acts. It may not be your personal taste but that is a different matter.
These venues are garbage. Have you ever been to the RBC Center in Raleigh or Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte? Those are major venues. Not some junk box that boasts the majority of its seats on a grassy knoll with complete view of nothing.
Check any major act that plays here. Usually you will see it coming from Washington DC or Richmond, and going to Raleigh or Charlotte. If they dont have a show in those areas, they absolutely will not go out of their way to come here. If Hampton Roads wasnt geographically convenient between real cities, noone would care about it. Thats a fact.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UHgrad
Some fair points about the roads and the bus system but not entirely accurate.
If only Virginia Beach wasnt protesting light rail
Quote:
Originally Posted by UHgrad
Certianly it is not as diverse as many other metros but very little trace of asians? really? Maybe you confuse the 40,000+ Filipinos (about 25,000 of which are in Virginia Beach) with Mexicans or something?? At least be honest.
Im aware that we have an abnormally high percentage of Filipinos (who by the way, largely came here connected to the Navy, not by their own choice), however, that is like calling everyone from Spanish speaking countries in the western hemisphere Latino or Hispanic, and grouping them together. Outside of Filipinos, what is there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by UHgrad
Virginia Beach is actually very representative of the state of Virginia and Country as a whole in terms of its diversity. The only difference being that we have slightly more African Americans, Asians, and Bi-racial people but slightly less Hispanics than VA and the USA.
Unfortunatley, Virginia, and the country on a whole are not diverse beyond American black and white. People from other backgrounds generally settle in thriving metro areas, that often already have established enclaves of those backgrounds. Checking my latest almanac, Raleigh, NC was more attractive to immigrants than Hampton Roads. How is that immigrants would rather settle in an MSA with 1/3 of the population?
Quote:
Originally Posted by UHgrad
It is what it is, Norfolk naval station is the largest navy base in the world. Oceana is a master jet base. Hunnington Ingalls builds and services ships for the navy (they are also getting into the wind turbine business). NASA Langley research center is a government research center. These all provide good paying jobs to both civil servants and contractors. So what?
So what? It sucks us all in to that vaccuum. We all are either government contractors or government employees, or we are servicing them.
On what planet is $1000 a month affordable to the average person? That is about 50% of the take home pay for someone making about 40k a year. That doesnt include the property taxes (which are high) and insurance either.
The median income for a male in Virginia Beach is under this, and the median for a household is 58k.
This means that it either takes one person making significantly more than the median for a single person, or a two income family to afford that.
By the way, most of what you are finding in Virginia Beach under 200k are townhouses in not so great areas of the city.
Your best bet is trying to choose from the single family 1940's-1950's housing stock in the couple decent neighborhoods in Norfolk. Sure, youll get a less than 1000 sqft house, needing many repairs, and likely with 1 bathroom and no garage, but you might get those nifty 50's window awnings and you might be lucky to get it under 175K. Or you can just go to a suburb of Charlotte, get a house twice as big, built after 1990, for less than 150k, but then again, schematics.
Why does a single person with the median income need to afford a single family home? You can get a townhouse or condo in these same areas for ~125k - $175k. I was talking 3br 2ba 1500 sq feet houses in nice areas with good schools. I said single family home in Ocean Lakes or Kempsville for ~$200K. Maybe it is still a little higher than it used to be but it is not unaffordable for a young family. Honolulu is unaffordable, San Francisco is unaffordable. VB is just a little high still.
Where did norfolk or charlotte even come into the equation? Go to Charlotte, they have 11% unemployment right now... good luck finding a job.
And property taxes are not high. New Jersey has high property taxes. In VB you will pay about $1700 a year on a house like that.
Recently Sold: 1169 Broadlawn Road, Virginia Beach VA - Trulia
About 75% of what you mentioned are parks/beaches or bars/clubs. As for our "museums", you have got to be kidding me.
I'm looking for a point in here somewhere but have yet to find it. I like the Aquarium, Nauticus, Botanical Gardens, and Chrysler museum. Sorry you don't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lethal2007
These also do not have over 400k people. If I lived in the middle of nowhere, Id expect nothing to do, or low end entertainment. All of the following MSA's have within 200k people more or have less people, and have better entertainment, San Jose, CA, Columbus, OH, Charlotte, NC, Austin, TX, Indianapolis, IN, Nashville, TN, Milwaukee, WI, Jacksonville, FL, Memphis, TN, Oklahoma City, OK, New Orleans, LA, Buffalo, NY. All of them outside of Austin have atleast 1 major league sports team, and many have 2. Most of them have a good corporate presence, and most of them are major cultural centers.
If you look down the list of MSAs ranked by population, Hampton Roads is badly out of place. It belongs down with Albany, Omaha, or Greensboro, metros with half the people.
Fair enough, you don't like the night life and wish you could pay $50+ a ticket to see a professional ballgame. I don't have a problem with that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lethal2007
These venues are garbage. Have you ever been to the RBC Center in Raleigh or Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte? Those are major venues. Not some junk box that boasts the majority of its seats on a grassy knoll with complete view of nothing.
Check any major act that plays here. Usually you will see it coming from Washington DC or Richmond, and going to Raleigh or Charlotte. If they dont have a show in those areas, they absolutely will not go out of their way to come here. If Hampton Roads wasnt geographically convenient between real cities, noone would care about it. Thats a fact.
Again searching for the point, so are you implying that a major artist on tour should skip other lucrative markets in the region to come directly to us? What is the point of this statement anyways?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lethal2007
If only Virginia Beach wasnt protesting light rail
Who is Virginia Beach? How does a city protest? Do you mean that there are people who live in the city that have differing opinions on a topic?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lethal2007
Im aware that we have an abnormally high percentage of Filipinos (who by the way, largely came here connected to the Navy, not by their own choice), however, that is like calling everyone from Spanish speaking countries in the western hemisphere Latino or Hispanic, and grouping them together. Outside of Filipinos, what is there?
What are you getting at? They came in the navy, liked it, and stayed... so what? You said very few asians and I listed census data that disputed that statement. If you wish we had more Japanese or Vietnamese or Indian folks that is fine... just say what you mean.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lethal2007
Unfortunatley, Virginia, and the country on a whole are not diverse beyond American black and white. People from other backgrounds generally settle in thriving metro areas, that often already have established enclaves of those backgrounds. Checking my latest almanac, Raleigh, NC was more attractive to immigrants than Hampton Roads. How is that immigrants would rather settle in an MSA with 1/3 of the population?
RTP perhaps? NCSU, Duke, and UNC perhaps? just guesses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lethal2007
So what? It sucks us all in to that vaccuum. We all are either government contractors or government employees, or we are servicing them.
Doesn't seem to hurt NOVA. There is no reason that we can't have both govt and private sector jobs in the area. It is not an all or nothing question. VB just needs to do a better job of attracting private sector companies. Nobody disputes that.
OH man, it sucks so much living with this crappy beach and estuary system! LOL
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Me Too !!!
