HELP!!!!! I need some advice from locals in the hampton roads area! (Virginia Beach: rentals)

[aht0807]

Okay, I am from Chattanooga, TN and I am moving to VA in less than two months so my time is pressed and I am lost at where I need to be looking for a place to live. I know crime rate is bad in hampton road or at least ive heard that, but I am from chattanooga and its not much better than Memphis, TN << like #13 on worst cities to live in. I do not want to live in the ghetto but I dont want to pay outrageous amounts for rent either. Can anyone help me?

[Spazkat9696]

Hampton Roads is made up of 7 cities, and is a large area. What city are you moving to?

[Hybrid AWD]

It's definitely going to depend on where you will be working. I've lived in Poquoson, Williamsburg, Newport News, Suffolk and now Virginia Beach. Every city (for the most part) has it's bad areas.

Let us know where you'll be trying to move around and we can give you some better ideas on neighborhoods and the surrounding areas.

As for rent, it all depends on where you are.

Here is a general rough estimate on what you will expect to pay in average areas of Hampton Roads when it comes to rentals. This doesn't cover high end areas like VB Town Center which are much higher.

Studio: 500 -700
1 bedroom 650 - 850
2 bedroom 850 - 1200
3 bedroom 1200 -1600
4 bedroom 1500 - 1800+

[Erma]

Wow, I guess from the news on here, we live in a crime ridden environment....NOT! There are many nice areas to live in Hampton Roads where people enjoy living and it's SAFE! Every town has a bad/poor area. Unfortunately, the cancers of society won't move to a remote area.

[UHgrad]

According to Wikipedia (which bases their data on FBI Uniform Crime Reports) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_..._by_crime_rate , violent crime rates in the following cities are:

Memphis(population 673,000)=1541/100,000 (3rd worst in country for cities 250,000+)
Chattanooga(pop 172,000)=902/100,000

Chesapeake(pop 225,000)= 383/100,000
Hampton(pop 144,000)=273/100,000
Norfolk(pop 234,000)=617/100,000
Newport News(pop 195,000)= 488/100,000
Portsmouth(pop 100,000)=611/100,000
Virginia Beach(pop 435,000) = 188/100,000 (2nd best in country for cities 250,000+)

Since Portsmouth is generally considered the sketchiest part of Hampton Roads, and it has a violent crime rate that is 33% lower than Chattanooga, it looks like you will be moving to a safer city no matter where you go in Hampton Roads. Geez, I didn't realize that Tennessee had so much crime. LOL.

As others have said, the real questions are your budget, where you are working, what your demographic is (age, single or married, kids etc...), your preferred lifestyle (urban, suburban, beach) and what kind of commute you are comfortable with. There are lots of choices on either side of the water depending on those factors.

As a general rule, if you work on the Southside you want to live on the Southside, if you work on the Peninsula you want to live on the Peninsula. Can't really answer anything else without more info.

[artistatheart]

I agree with the others-this is not a dangerous place to live. Like anywhere, you need to choose your location wisely, but, overall, Hampton Roads is a very nice, safe place to be. We moved here almost three years ago and got some great advice on good areas/neighborhoods from these boards. I'm sure there are lots of people on here who'll be happy to help you choose a good location once you've narrowed down your search to one particular city.