Relocation to Woodbridge, Va area and need advice please! (Richmond: to rent, townhouses)

[bradridge]

Need some advice and suggestions on affordable, safe areas to live and good schools in the Woodbridge, Va and/or surrounding areas (reasonable commute would be okay). Husband may be accepting a job; which would get us back closer to "home" near loved ones in MD and Richmond, Va areas.

However, very worried about price of homes. We have only one child, so could easily go back to townhome living. However, must have good schools. Our son is on an IEP, so very good Special Ed services are essential. Have no idea how long it would take me to find employment, so we are looking for a home around $150,000 and under. Yes, I know that is not much for this area. Again, location is more important than size of home.

Any advice would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you!

[oneasterisk]

Check out Lake Ridge and Montclair. For your budget, you're going to find older (30-40yr old) single family homes that will need updating or townhouses. Rather than buy initially, why not rent so you can try out a neighborhood before committing?

[ReblTeen84]

Montclair might get a little pricey. If you want a townhouse, Dale City instead of Woodbridge isn't bad (do your research into specific neighborhoods, there are bad ones), Rippon Landing in Woodbridge isn't bad either, we live there now. Mostly quiet except for the odd neighbor and within your price range. Schools aren't bad, again, it depends on the school though and by extension, the kids and parents willingness to learn. There are the bad apples for teachers as well.

[CaliTerp07]

Agreed that it might be a better idea to rent instead of buy so that you have more options of where to look for work. It will give you flexibility to adjust commutes accordingly when you are job hunting.

[bradridge]

Thank you all for your suggestions and advice. I do agree, that renting at first may be best. Just makes things more difficult when you have school age children;having to place them at a school and then up-root them yet again. Will take a look at those areas.....

[YankeeAloha]

Any school in which you enroll your child must honor their current IEP until they do their own assessment/draft a new IEP. There is a 60 day time limit on this process in VA. I think the overall quality of the school is important, and find greatschools.com to be a valuable source of information, in that regard. Good luck!

[HokieFan]

This thread is 9 months old....