Virgina Beach - a "best" place to live AND save money?

[citychik]

Originally Posted by goofy328

The only reason Virginia Beach can make that list is because you have other options here outside of Virginia Beach that make it work.

I think perhaps they were looking at MSAs rather than the within city limits for some areas when they compiled the list.

Originally Posted by goofy328

You could work in Virginia Beach, not be able to afford to live there and commute from Suffolk.

That is how it is in NYC. Most people who work in Manhattan could never afford to live here, and so they are what we call the "Bridge and Tunnel" crowd, coming from the outer boroughs, NJ, CT, and even PA in some cases. It is also rare to meet anyone in the workplace who grew up in Manhattan, unless they were raised in extremely wealthy circumstances, though once in a great while I meet someone with a working class background whose parents are still in the same apartment. They can only afford staying here because of whatever rent regulation their apartment has.

Originally Posted by goofy328

It is not cheap to live in Virginia Beach, and it does not pay more in comparison to other cities on the East Coast.

I don't think making their list means cheap living nor higher salaries than anywhere else. It just means that based on the data they collected, they say the ratio in each locale makes stretching dollars more possible. I'm not agreeing nor disagreeing with them, but only looking into their assertions.

Originally Posted by goofy328

You are not going to find a city on either coast where you'll find what you're looking for. The only major metropolitan areas that are still affordable and salaries are high are Indianapolis and Columbus, OH, along with the major cities in states like Nebraska and a few in Texas. Cost of living is high everywhere and most working class people are either getting priced out of their metro area, living on the fringe/exurb of that area, or moving to smaller cities, where the metro is more like 250,000 people instead of millions of people.

If you're looking to move here, you'll do okay but you won't automatically save up a bunch of money because your rent will be high, and you won't make as much as you do back in New York doing the same type of work.

I'm gathering info but haven't formulated my goals yet. I'm not attached to living on one coast or the other, nor of earning a NYC salary anywhere else. I just want to find someplace where I'll be able to save some money, which I haven't been able to do in NYC. I don't know anything about Virginia Beach.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by citychik

I think perhaps they were looking at MSAs rather than the within city limits for some areas when they compiled the list.


That is how it is in NYC. Most people who work in Manhattan could never afford to live here, and so they are what we call the "Bridge and Tunnel" crowd, coming from the outer boroughs, NJ, CT, and even PA in some cases. It is also rare to meet anyone in the workplace who grew up in Manhattan, unless they were raised in extremely wealthy circumstances, though once in a great while I meet someone with a working class background whose parents are still in the same apartment. They can only afford staying here because of whatever rent regulation their apartment has.


I don't think making their list means cheap living nor higher salaries than anywhere else. It just means that based on the data they collected, they say the ratio in each locale makes stretching dollars more possible. I'm not agreeing nor disagreeing with them, but only looking into their assertions.


I'm gathering info but haven't formulated my goals yet. I'm not attached to living on one coast or the other, nor of earning a NYC salary anywhere else. I just want to find someplace where I'll be able to save some money, which I haven't been able to do in NYC. I don't know anything about Virginia Beach.

Most people here are in that tunnel and bridge crowd. This is the situation here. You have the military installations and you have the shipyards. And each city has office space and there are jobs everywhere. But what tends to happen is that people end up working somewhere other than where they live. Sometimes it is because they grew up somewhere and all of their roots are there. Sometimes it is because it is what they can afford.

I work in Norfolk. I am the only one in my department that actually lives in Norfolk. I am a transient, so I have no attachment to any of the seven cities. I chose to live in Norfolk because I was sick of commuting from Virginia Beach early in the morning. We have employees from Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Newport News and Richmond. Everyone has to drive. I could take the bus if I worked a different shift. When my automobile isn't working as it should I take a cab on the weekends and take a bus during the week, and then take the bus back home.

I also enjoy Norfolk for other reasons. You'll find that Hampton Roads is a hybrid between the best of the inner city, and urban, living and the best of suburban living. Sometimes, all at once. We have 1.7 million, or you may as well say, 2 million people living here in an area with 3 cities on one side of the bay, known as the peninsula, 3 cities on the other side, and one city that is included in the metro but technically, is primarily farmland. That one is basically a county that is bigger than all of the other cities, physically, but has a population that is only greater than one out of the seven. All of the cities are counties, and quite large. Very similar to NYC, just "Independent Cities" autonomous of the counties, instead of boroughs.

That coworker that commutes from Richmond; to you he may as well be commuting from Pennsylvania or Connecticut. And that coworker that commutes from Suffolk; to you he may as well be commuting from New Jersey. And that is perfectly normal here because our public transportation sucks and 99% of the people here drive. There is an Amtrak that goes to Richmond, and the Greyhound is also an option; but driving is more practical.

I'm not saying that you can't save money here. A lot of people do it and turn around and buy a house, and they get something better than what they could have had in NYC, where you have to be wealthy to purchase a home. What I am saying, is that if you do not have any money to put down, and you're making $20 an hour, and new construction starts at like $300,000 your options are to rent an old home where you're always putting money into maintenance and repairs or rent an apartment and pay $700 a month for something old and $1,100 a month for something new it isn't as easy as people make it out to be. Still a lot better than New York, where you'd pay $2,500 a month or more for the same thing but not quite what everyone assumes that it would be. On the other hand I've ran into a lot of people from New York here. A few from up and down the coast; Delaware, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida, etc.

[citychik]

Wherever I wind up, I would be renting an apartment.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by citychik

Wherever I wind up, I would be renting an apartment.

Wherever you decide to stay, shoot for $800 a month or more. Anything less is sketchy, and old.