New Development in Norfolk around 6th Bay St. (Virginia Beach, Portsmouth: oceanfront, rental market)

[spiceyrack]

Hello all. I am back again looking for input on areas to buy. We started out with it in our minds to buy in one neighborhood and now, three or four neighborhoods later, we are still researching. We live 20 hours away and are not visiting until the end of this month so your input has been helpful.

I see some nice homes around 6th Bay Street in Norfolk near the East Ocean View area, just a couple of blocks from the beach/ bay. They look really nice, good price, and the development looks great but I believe the neighboring area has a bad reputation. I can see on Trulia that there is crime in the surrounding areas and, naturally, this turns me off. We are moving there this summer and will be in the area from 3 to 5 years, after which we will sell the home, unless the rental market is hot.

Is that area improving?
How are the schools? (Tarrallton Elementary, Azalea Middle, Norview High)
Does it flood?
Would you recommend that area?

Thank you all. Your input has really helped in our research.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by spiceyrack

Hello all. I am back again looking for input on areas to buy. We started out with it in our minds to buy in one neighborhood and now, three or four neighborhoods later, we are still researching. We live 20 hours away and are not visiting until the end of this month so your input has been helpful.

I see some nice homes around 6th Bay Street in Norfolk near the East Ocean View area, just a couple of blocks from the beach/ bay. They look really nice, good price, and the development looks great but I believe the neighboring area has a bad reputation. I can see on Trulia that there is crime in the surrounding areas and, naturally, this turns me off. We are moving there this summer and will be in the area from 3 to 5 years, after which we will sell the home, unless the rental market is hot.

Is that area improving?
How are the schools? (Tarrallton Elementary, Azalea Middle, Norview High)
Does it flood?
Would you recommend that area?

Thank you all. Your input has really helped in our research.

15 years from now East Ocean View will be nothing but high earners making above the median income. The gentrification has been slow. Keep in mind that neighborhood was a straight up ghetto as recently as the early 2000s.

Yes it does flood. Get your insurance straight or forget about that area. If you can, build on an elevated platform. That will cost more but at least you get to keep your belongings. Your car may be affected but that can be easily replaced. Homes do flood there. Forget about a basement. If they can raise the income in that area high enough they'll probably build a flood wall anyway. You won't have as nice of a view of the bay but at least you won't have to worry about getting flooded out every time that it rains. Surprised they haven't tried levees, locks, canals, etc. They seem to be of the persuasion to hide all of that infrastructure out of sight in order to preserve the view. But we're probably too close to sea level to keep things pretty in that way.

15 years from now they'll build an actual boardwalk to replace what it had back in the fifties and the place will be like Myrtle Beach or Ocean City MD. It will be a miniature version of what the Oceanfront is in Virginia Beach. By then Virginia Beach will be unrecognizable from what it is now.

Based on what I've witnessed, having lived here throughout the 2010s Norfolk will never completely get rid of their bad areas but trouble will be dispersed throughout the city. It won't be bad neighborhoods so much as just a few homes here and there or a few blocks here and there. Concentrated poverty, which I describe as a minimum of 5 city blocks square, will be a thing of the past in Norfolk. You'll probably have to go to Portsmouth to find it, but I'm optimistic that even Portsmouth's troubles will be a thing of the past by then. Norfolk could be like a Bronx or Queens. It will never be Brooklyn or Manhattan. To hear people tell it the place was more like Newark back in the day. Its just a rough city and I don't see that changing no matter how much money people make around here.

[Spazkat9696]

The schools are horrible. If that is important to you keep looking.

[spiceyrack]

Yes, the schools are of concern. Also of concern is the number of children in that area. We have children and want them to have neighbors to play with but I do not know how many families live (or will settle) in that neighborhood.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by spiceyrack

Yes, the schools are of concern. Also of concern is the number of children in that area. We have children and want them to have neighbors to play with but I do not know how many families live (or will settle) in that neighborhood.

Plenty of children in that neighborhood but again the East Beach is typical melting pot Norfolk where you'll get all different types of people "good" and "bad" depending on your view. And crimes still happen there. Come back in 20 years and you have Venice Beach.

All of these beach communities in America go through similar waves. It's nice. Then some other neighborhood is built up, and it's not so nice. Then people with means want to live next to the water again, gentrification occurs, and it's nice again, like 50 years after the last time it was nice. East Beach is in the gentrification stages now.