Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Virginia > Hampton Roads area
 [Register]
Hampton Roads area Chesapeake - Hampton - Newport News - Norfolk - Portsmouth - Suffolk - Virginia Beach
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 03-23-2013, 06:20 AM
 
14 posts, read 23,056 times
Reputation: 10

Advertisements

We are a Coast Guard family being relocated to Portsmouth in June/July. We have two boys, 13 & 19. Looking for a safe family oriented suburb with good middle & high school. Looking to rent a single family home for between $1900 & $2200. From what I'm reading, Chesapeake seems to be the town we should look at, but most of the forums are outdated. Anyone have any advise/suggestions on other towns we should look at?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 03-23-2013, 06:35 AM
 
6,292 posts, read 10,601,733 times
Reputation: 7505
If you're planning on living Portsmouth don't plan on good schools. Virginia Beach has the best schools in the area with Chesapeake a close second. If you go with Chesapeake you'll want to live in the Grassfield district.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-23-2013, 07:47 AM
 
14 posts, read 23,056 times
Reputation: 10
That's what I'm reading. I'm not keen on VB due to what I've read about traffic and storm damage. Chesapeake seems like the next best thing. Thanks!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-23-2013, 07:53 AM
 
6,292 posts, read 10,601,733 times
Reputation: 7505
Traffic around here is all over, and not as bad at people make it out to be. Not sure what you mean about storm damage. If there is a big storm Chesapeake will get it just as bad as VA Beach for the most part other than those who live directly on the coast. Best advice is don't have a daily drive through any tunnel. Not sure where the base is in Portsmouth, but you may want to look into Suffolk. There are several nice areas, and the cost of living is a little lower there.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-23-2013, 09:32 PM
 
1,021 posts, read 2,304,209 times
Reputation: 1478
Quote:
Originally Posted by CG Family View Post
We are a Coast Guard family being relocated to Portsmouth in June/July. We have two boys, 13 & 19. Looking for a safe family oriented suburb with good middle & high school. Looking to rent a single family home for between $1900 & $2200. From what I'm reading, Chesapeake seems to be the town we should look at, but most of the forums are outdated. Anyone have any advise/suggestions on other towns we should look at?
Most of the schools in Portsmouth have fallen on pretty hard times. However, the Coast Guard base is about a mile away from Churchland High School, which is the best public high school the city has to offer. Churchland Middle School has pretty much always been sketchy and even looks like a prison, but once again better than any other middle schools in the city. The Churchland area is essentially the nicest part of Portsmouth and there are quite a few good neighborhoods in the area. Most of the homes are 60s and 70s-era ranches and Churchland was more or less completely built out by the 90s.

The next proximate area to the base is the Western Branch area of Chesapeake. Roughly the same age as Churchland but being part of the city of Chesapeake means the Western Branch cluster of schools (there are two feeder patterns into Western Branch High - Joliff and Western Branch Middle I believe) are of somewhat better than Churchland schools and overwhelmingly better than Portsmouth schools as a whole. Northern Suffolk is also close by and is the leading edge of suburbia. Many of the housing developments and much of the retail is new as well. From what I understand, the schools are generally newer than those of Churchland and Western Branch but I don't have much of an idea of their academic reputation. Up until about a decade ago, most of Suffolk was undeveloped and those parts that were developed were country and the schools not that good. The recent suburbanization may have changed that.

The default response on these forums is to go to Virginia Beach. Yes Virginia Beach has the nicest schools, just like Fairfax County has the best schools around DC, Westchester has the best schools around NYC, and Orange County has the best schools around LA. Wouldn't everybody want to live in these areas? First and foremost, I'm not sure what quality single-family home you require for the rent you are willing to pay but you are sure to get a lot less for your dollar in VA Beach. Also the commute is quite considerable from VA Beach which really only has one interstate and is always congested. Once you make it through Norfolk you will be going in the opposite direction of traffic but getting through Norfolk is the key.

Accordingly, the best public schools in the region are in Virginia Beach, if you can afford to live by them. Still, there are a few dicey areas of Virginia Beach where the even the lowest quality schools are better than the worst of Norfolk or Portsmouth but not better than Churchland schools. Chesapeake schools other than Western Branch that I mentioned before are a happy medium (a few are dicey as well) between Virginia Beach and Portsmouth but the better of the Chesapeake school clusters (such as Grassfield, Hickory, and Great Bridge) are quite a long, traffic-filled commute from the Coast Guard base as well. I hope this all helps!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-24-2013, 05:17 AM
 
14 posts, read 23,056 times
Reputation: 10
Thanks for the the great info Steelers10. I'm thinking Chesapeake is where we want to be, and the three schools you named are exactly the three on my list. We will be out soon to look around. Will check out the drive/traffic situation. We are originally from Southern CA. Traffic is our middle name, so not too worried.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-24-2013, 09:22 AM
 
49 posts, read 319,236 times
Reputation: 53
My sister and her family live in Portsmouth and they are CG. Their kids are under 5 but she's told me numerous times that Chesapeake is the place to be for families in the area.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-25-2013, 06:24 PM
 
1 posts, read 1,884 times
Reputation: 10
I have a house in portsmouth, (churchland area) for sale.. we are looking for someone to assume are va loan through nfcu... you would have to quilify through nfcu . they would do credit check and income check and you must be able to get va loan which since you are military you should be able too! the rate you would get is really awesome! it is 3.375 and the payment each month on house is only 1209. if you were approved through nfcu to assume are morgtage then it would only cost you 1345 out of pocket to get the house!!!! not much paper work to do either! if you arent looking to move in tell june i can pay you rent to live here tell the end of may... that way we can be out of house by the 1st of june

the neighborhood we live in is super nice! lots of lawyers and doctors in neighborhood! lots of houses in neighborhood in the 500s... land a couple houses away is selling for 210 (this is for land only) if you were to take over are mortgage then the amount still owed is only 199,127!!!!!!

it is a 3 bedroom (plus bonus room) 2 full baths and 1900sqfoot brick ranch style house.

are house is right down the street from the coast guard base! like 2 mins away!!!

you can email me if you are interested...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-27-2013, 12:04 PM
 
134 posts, read 545,030 times
Reputation: 44
I'd recommend the Western Branch area of Chesapeake, Northern Suffolk, or Isle of Wight County. You say traffic is your middle name but you really don't want to deal with a tunnel on a daily commute. The problem isn't that their is a LA volume of traffic, we just have some 1 and 2 lane choke points at all the tunnels and bridges...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-27-2013, 04:33 PM
 
14 posts, read 23,056 times
Reputation: 10
Ahhh, got it. Thanks mikeas. I'll check it out.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Virginia > Hampton Roads area
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top