Income to live comfortably around Fredericksburg/Woodbridge? (Lake Ridge, Quantico: renting, townhouse)

[Emrak]

Hey all,

Most likely taking a job at Quantico and began casting about for kid friendly areas with good schools. Fredericksburg and Woodbridge are considered excellent for those things. Both cities on this site show median Household incomes for those areas as rather low IMHO (around 60k and 42k).

Given the cost of housing, those incomes just can't be right, right?

From the locals: what total income should the average family be making in order to live comfortably in either of those cities, in your opinion?

Thanks

[Bigfoot424]

While Woodbridge would be an easier commute to Q town I believe Fredericksburg is a nicer area. As far as salary VS comfort this is all relative or subjective. What might be fine for one person might be inadequate for another. Also, some of the schools in Woodbridge are far from being what I consider a school I'd want my kids to attend.

[jacmadhel]

I live just minutes outside of Fredericksburg in Spotsylvania. There are more than enough places to shop and eat and many of my neighbors commute to Quantico and beyond. The houses in my neighborhood are about $300k- $450K. Whether that is affordable to you depends on your other expenses but we love it here and the schools are decent.

[Emrak]

Thanks for the input.

About how long is the commute from Fredericksburg to Quantico during rush hour?

Also, By "living comfortably" I mean, going out once or twice a week, yearly vaca, etc., while still putting aside several hundred a month into savings and 401k.

Edit: regarding housing...I would definitely be renting for the first couple years.

[tgbwc]

How big is the family?

[Emrak]

3 people, including myself.

[HokieFan]

Originally Posted by Emrak

Thanks for the input.

About how long is the commute from Fredericksburg to Quantico during rush hour?

Also, By "living comfortably" I mean, going out once or twice a week, yearly vaca, etc., while still putting aside several hundred a month into savings and 401k.

Edit: regarding housing...I would definitely be renting for the first couple years.

This is a really difficult question for us to answer because we have no idea of your debt. Only you can sit down and look at your monthly expenditures and what's coming in to decide what is a comfortable household income for your family.

Personally, what's comfortable for my husband and I is a household income of $120k+. However, it's just the two of us - no kids, no pets. If we had kids, I would have to raise that amount quite a bit to maintain the lifestyle we have now and to be able to afford the expenses kids incur.

P.S. We live in the Lake Ridge area of Woodbridge

[elias9193]

I would also recommend Stafford as well they have some nice neighborhoods and its a lot closer to Quantico than Fredericksburg. I have lived in Stafford for over 16 years now and I would recommend you taking a look at the very least before you make up your mind.

[jillybean720]

When my husband and I bought our townhouse in Woodbridge, I was earning about $60k and he was around $45K, and we did fine. We lived in Lake Ridge, and our neighborhood was nice. We were located within walking distance of Springwoods Elementary School, which I think has pretty good ratings. When we were looking in Woodbridge, I intentionally limited my search to the 22192 zip code since we wanted to stay more on the northern end for our work commutes. When we recently started looking to purchase a single family home, we quickly learned we did NOT want to venture into 22191 or 22193, as most of the neighborhoods did not seem as nice as the one we were in.

Instead, we have moved to Sterling, and we will be renting out our Lake Ridge townhouse if you're interested As a point of reference, we will be asking $1400/month (utilities not included) for our townhouse (3 bedrooms, 1 full bath, 2 half baths, finished basement).