Need relief from Richmond! (crime, townhouse, find a job)

[Ms Goodman]

Hi. I am a single mom of an 11 year old and seriously considering relocating to Northern Virginia. However, the horror stories of commuting and traffic can be quite overwhelming to say the least. Any suggestions on family friendly, quaint, townhome communities? Open to all suggestions.

Many thanks!

[Yankeesfan]

Probably the best way to do that would be to find a job first and then evaluate your housing choices based on the most reasonable commute.

[claremarie]

Why are you fleeing Richmond? That will help folks to give you more specific suggestions.
My other question would be housing budget. There are lots of family-friendly and quaint communities -- townhouse and otherwise -- but since that's what many househunters are seeking, they tend to be pricey.
Housing budget will depend upon your employment, so you need to know where you'll be working.
Otherwise, your question is too general for anyone to give you useful information.

[saganista]

Well, one useful thing is that the traffic really is bad enough to make figuring out how to do the commute fall in right behind getting a place you can afford and that's of the type to suit you and your circumstances. Forget schools, crime, walkability, and all that. Those are icing on the cake, and for the most part, the variability from place to place on those is small enough not to make much difference anyway. But a horrible commute? That'll just suck the life right out of you...

[The Dissenter]

if you want any real relief from richmond, NoVA aint gonna give it to ya. going south to NC or north to PA would would be better. i headed up to NoVA to get away from the peninsula, i now realized how good i had it down there. outside of crime and schools any problem you have with richmond will be ten times worse in NoVA.