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I strongly suspect that my wife is about to get assigned to Langley AFB, VA this fall of 2009. If so, we’ll be moving to that area with our 4 very young children (all under the age of 7). We’ve always found the information in this forum to be some of the most useful available. That being said, we’d be remise not to solicit the help of this forum for this move.
Not having ever lived in that part of the country, we are in the dark on a lot of important key aspects of life there that need considering.
So, we are looking for any advise and/or opinions on the best neighborhoods close by Langley to buy a home in and raise our kids. Ideally, we’d like to stay as close as possible to Langley, but we are not afraid to commute if necessary within reason to find that ideal neighborhood.
From what we’ve already researched and/or read on this forum, we are aware of the traffic issues, the crime, and some of the less desirable and more desirable areas to live around that base. Analyzing it from our computer, we’ve been able to ascertain that we should focus our home search North of Langley up to and including Williamsburg as well as West out to Isle of Wight and Smithfield.
What we hope to find is a nice tight nit family community full of much the same as what we have in our young “just starting up in school” aged kids. Obviously, this means something very family friendly with lots of conveniences. A good neighborhood where our young ones could run with others in a safe and friendly atmosphere. Recreational facilities (such as community pools and the like) always help, and would be nice, but it is not necessarily a must if the neighborhood is really-really good.
Being close to a really good Elementary school will also be key!
Any information with regard to our search that you can provide will be greatly appreciated. With that, if you can recommend a good reputable realtor in that area that can help us find our next home…that would also be appreciated.
We’ve heard and read a lot of good things about that area, and are very excited about the possibility of relocating there this fall.
Spazkat9696, thanks for your reply! That is good to know. By my calculation it looks like about 20-30 minutes each way give or take. Is that about right? Or is it much worse due to traffic?
We are also moving to Langley and I just flew out there last week and fell in love with Williamsburg. My DH will be at Langley and will be making the commute and I will be teaching in Williamsburg. Our 3 kids are all under 12 years...youngest being 7. Schools seem to be great and everyone was so friendly!! I met a teacher who used to work in Newport News and cautioned me to stay clear. She said Williamsburg schools were the place to be...don't commute across the water for work it at all possible! I have gotten a similar vibe both on here and from talking to the locals when down there. I wish you the best of luck!! We are moving down there around the 21st of August. YIPPEE!
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Yorktown may be your best bet for what you're looking for. Many Langley military live in the neighborhoods in lower Yorktown close to Langley AFB (5 minute drive). Yorkshire Downs, Sherwood Forrest, Running Man, Woodlake, Meadowlake Farms, Coventry are some of the neighborhoods. All are on Magruder blvd/Hampton Highway. Yorkshire downs is nice with alot of families with young children. They have a community pool. Coventry is also full of younger children. They have a great elementry school. Community pool. Walking paths. Running Man and Woodlake (and several nearby smaller neighborhoods) have larger homes that are starting to see a turnover to families with young children again. VERY nice neighborhoods. All are in the desirable York County School District. A little further out (by just a few minutes) is the Kiln Creek neighborhood. Half of it is in York County the other half is in Newport News. The NN side tends to be less expensive due to not being in the York County School district. The NN side has its own elementary school, the other side goes to York County schools. Kiln Creek is one of those master planned type communities. They have a golf course, a few shops, gas station, a restaurant or two. But the community is right across the street from a big shopping center with a Super Kmart, Krogers, craft store, Farm Fresh supermarket, haircuttery, bagel place, and quite a few restaurants and fast food places. Walmart is just down the street a few blocks in two different directions. I-64 entrance/exit is just outside the community in two different directions also.
Hope this gives you something to work on. I live off of the Magruder/Hampton Highway myself and LOVE this area. If you can get into the Mt. Vernon Elementary school area you will ADORE that school and the administrators and faculty. We have an up and coming Senior (military brat who's been in MANY schools) and a 2nd and grader and can tell you that this is the best school we've ever been affiliated with.
Great info from both of you, and it's much appreciated!
It's Cin gave us a lot to work with (which is great). We will start looking at all of the neighborhoods you mentioned (and the school you recommended). Thanks again!
froggin4colorado, have you heard what that commute is like from Williamsburg? It looks like about 45 minutes 1 way, but I would imagine with traffic it is maybe even worse at times (such as during rush hours). We've been advised to not live where we'd need to use 64 to commute on. That being said, it becomes a concern with regard to living in Williamsburg. However, you echoed a lot of what we are hearing about the area (which has been all good)...so, we most certainly will look at it and consider it.
Are there any specific Williamsburg neighborhoods that appealed to you the most while you were visiting? Sounds like you have a very similar family situation to ours, so your opinions would be of interest to us! I see a lot on Ford's Colony pop up on the searches I do. It looks nice, yet on the wrong side of Williamsburg in terms of the commute we would desire to and from Langley.
I was visiting with Jon from HR with the school district, guess he is retired military. He said DHs commute will be 35 minutes or so. DH currently commutes 40 minutes to get to work so we don't mind the same.
Yea, we saw Ford's Colony too. To be honest, it seemed everything was less than 10 minutes to the interstate. It seems like we drove around for hours last Wednesday looking at neighborhoods and were surprised that we didn't really go anywhere?!! For example, we stayed at the Greensprings Resort off of Monticello. When it was dusk, we found ourselves at Jamestown, the historic settlement and we thought we might head back to the resort- can't see a lot in the dark. Typed in our resort address and we were floored it told us we were only 2.3 miles away from the resort. We thought 20 minutes at least! All day we felt like we were driving in circles, constantly running into the same things, so everything is close to everything (at least in our opinion). I came across one neighborhood off of Strawberry Hill that gave me the impression that it wasn't one of Williamsburg's bragged about neighborhoods. Even with that being said, it still would have been doable in a tight financial situation. I didn't see any real neighborhoods that were bad. Since I am working at Warhill HS, I am looking at homes off of Centerville Rd and Monticello. I would like my kids to attend Berkeley Middle and either DJ Montague (closest elem to Warhill for me) or maybe Maotoka Elem. This is really only because I met the new PE teacher for Berkeley and our kids are the same age. We are going to try their church and get the kids together....so at least my daughter would have someone to go to school with. But even that isnt a have to. It seems like the school district itself is a great school district.
The town presents itself like a resort community with the well kept landscaping everywhere, heck even the gas stations have a certain upscale look/feel to them.
We also have a 35 foot camper that we would rather not store but keep on our property. We are renting first...gotta work on our ratios to buy. I don't mind renting real cheap the first year as we put ourselves in a better financial situation. I checked into Steeplechase Apartments while there and they are nice. Unfortunately, cheap out there doesn't compare to my mortgage that I am leaving for our 5 bedroom 2 bathroom home...oh well.
Also, stay clear of craigslist for homes for rent. I am at my whits end with that search engine. There is somone or maybe a group of African's who are scamming people big time. Almost every other home on there you inquire about is related so someone who is in Africa. Often you will read someone from Williamsburg who will post that their home is not for sale or rent and to please stop coming by and asking.
Militarybyowner is a good site, also long and foster has a good selection. Good luck! We are very excited- it is very green!
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One thing to keep in mind about the commute from Langley to Williamsburg would be the time you get off of work. I don't mind a long commute drive as long as you're able to drive. The stop and go, stop and go gets old quick. During the evening commute, traffic congests on I-64 in a bottle neck at the Jefferson Blvd. (Newport News) exit where traffic lanes go from 4 lanes down to 2 lanes. That congestion will usually last for the next 5 miles (at least) to the Ft. Eustis blvd exit which is the next exit so if you're on I-64 you're pretty much stuck. If there is an accident (which you can pretty much count on) the back up can be much longer. Dealing with it occasionally isnt bad, but my daughter worked in Williamsburg and I drove her there and back every day. In the evening going to get her, I was always stuck in that horrid bottleneck traffic and I hated it.
Coming from Williamsburg to Newport News area the traffic can be equally as bad since it is just two lanes until you get just a little before the Jefferson Blvd. exits.
This area is bad for what is known as "Ghost accidents". You will have traffic backed up for miles and miles, stop and go, stop and go, only to pass a certain point and traffic speeds back up with no apparant reason for the delay. They say the cause of that can range from an earlier accident that had traffic backed up, even though its been cleared for a long time, to people rubbernecking at a disabled car on teh side of the road, to someone having braked hard in heavy traffic and it caused a dominoe effect that lasts for hours. With the Interstate 64 lanes being so close together and mostly in view of each other, a traffic accident, a Police car with flashing lights on the side of the road or even just heavy traffic on the opposite side of the interstate can cause people here to slow down to a crawl to 'check it out'.
THANKS AGAIN to froggin4colorado and It's Cin for your thoughts!
Dear froggin4colorado,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Williamsburg and answering my questions. You’ve been very helpful. If you discover anything else worth sharing, please do! The more we know the better!
Dear It’s Cin,
Thank you for chiming in again as well! We’ve heard the horror stories about commuting on 64 to and from Williamsburg and Langley. We suspected it to be as you just highlighted. So I was not surprised to see you write that. It’s good to know info, and a warning worth listening to for sure. On that note (to expand this subject some)…what do you know about the commute from Langley over to Isle of Wight?
We may not have much time to get out and look for ourselves unfortunately, so we are trying to narrow our home search down to as few of areas as possible ahead of time (making better use of our time when that time comes). I think we are leaning heavily on making our main focus the area that you have described just 5 around Langley. Basically, the same neighborhood(s) that you now reside in.
However, I must admit that some of the homes over in Isle of Wight have caught our eye. Places such as Eagle Harbor look rather appealing for the young family that we have. The commute across the bridge to Langley and the lack of conveniences is a concern. Any thoughts you can share on that subject would be appreciated.
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Eagle Harbor is nice, but getting to Isle of Wight from Langley could become a headache after a while since you would have to be taking either Mercury Blvd down to the James River Bridge (lots of lights on Mercury blvd), or Hampton Roads Center Parkway, cutting over to Mercury blvd then across the JRB. There are other smaller roads that cut through neighborhoods to get to Mercury Blvd but they aren't necessarily faster. Distance wise, Isle of Wight is not that far, but logistically it could be a pain in the rear. Definatly take a trial run at different times of the day to see if you (and your spouse) would like the commute. Other than grocery shopping your spouse would probably be coming over to NN to do the majority of shopping.
We wish there were something like the Eagle Harbor community around here but there just isnt the land space. If you're looking at that price range though, Running Man, Woodlake, any of the homes on or off of Autumns way (a small neighborhood off of Magruder/Hampton highway) or even Old Porte Cove (off of Victory blvd and Calthrop Neck road, it is in the Mt. Vernon E.S., Tabb middle and Tabb HS school district) would probably fit what you're looking for. There is a new YMCA (a few years old) and the Tabb library right here on Magruder/Hampton Highway. Most everyone around here has season passes to Busch Gardens and Water Country USA (military rate passes are available on the base at ITT).
Another option would be across 664, the Monitor Merrimac Bridge in the Suffolk area. My husband used to work over there at the JFCOM and commuted from here. It was about 25 min. drive I believe. Traffic could get heavy at times but it usually kept moving. There's a very nice neighborhood that I believe is also Eagle Harbor or something very similiar right off of 664. Shopping areas arent too far away. Theres a big Walmart shopping complex, a movie theater complex, a mall shopping area with lots of restaurants (Chesapeake Square Mall), not too far driving distance from Greenbriar Mall shopping area, etc.
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Thanks for that heads up!
