Moving to Manassas area soon, looking for a relatively "safe" area to live, Apartments or Townhomes (Hampton: 2015, apartment complex)

[berry7215]

We are a family of 4 with 2 dogs. My husband accepted a job in the Manassas area. We're looking for a place to rent with our budget being a maximum of ~$2,000 / month for rent and utilities together.

We currently live in Union, SC, a small town where the COL is very low. I know the COL is like 3 or 4x higher in NoVA, so we are already prepared for that.

The difficulty is my husband does not want to be driving forever and a day to work like he was at his last job (35 miles and 50 minutes). But we understand that even in a city like Manassas, it may take 25 mins to go 10 miles. I was looking into apartments in Manassas, but upon further research, found that the ones we were originally interested in were in the "ghetto", reviews from others who have lived there. Woodburn / The Point at Bull Run / Rosemary Ridge were our original 3

The exact location on his new job is still undetermined, but we were given a vague area of Haymarket / Manassas. He would like to only drive maybe 30 minutes max. We're not concerned with distance to shopping.

I've recently been looking into Apartments in Haymarket and Chantilly. I have not looked as far south as Warrenton though. Any other areas that are decent, as well as any suggestions for good Apartment complexes or Townhouse communities would be helpful. We have 2 young children, we would like to raise them in a nice neighborhood. I think my husband may be willing to pay a little more a better place.

I personally don't want to move to the city, I like the quiet town where we are! But unfortunately the job hunt in this area has not been very successful. Though on the bright side, I have family in VA and I'm originally from VA myself.

Please let me know if I need to provide more details, I've probably forgotten a few!

[Bigfoot424]

Do not move to Warrenton if he wants an easy drive. Driving on Rt. 29 from Warrenton to Manassas can be very tough. Chantilly is some distance away but doable barring traffic crashes, weather issues and so on. There are some good apartment complexes in the Manassas area. Rather than try and name them all you list what you're looking at and I'll tell you if I'd let my family move there or not. (Retired LEO from the county)


Before a few others come on here spouting negative comments about Manassas I'll tell you I moved there in 73 and stayed until 2015. Just last year I moved to Shenandoah Co to escape the traffic and large numbers of people. I did not move due to the large groups of minorities at all. I lived in a SFH two miles from an apartment complex that changed over the years to mostly Hispanics and never once did I have an issue and I used to walk for exercise by this location all the time. There are bad areas in Manassas but there are certainly good areas as well.


What part of Manassas is his job? Is it possibly Lockheed or Micron?

[berry7215]

I think if the job were in Manassas, it would be in the Bull Run area. The other potential location was somewhere in Haymarket. We don't have an exact, physical address for his job yet, just hints towards these areas. I know that may sound weird, but for whatever reason the company hasn't disclosed which location he'll be at yet, and they supposedly have more than a dozen locations in the NoVA area.

Some other Apartments we considered are The Residences at City Center in Manassas Park, Somerset Pointe in Gainesville, and Reserve at Regency Park in Centreville.

[RickDotSalt]

Might I suggest that you cross off Manassas Park from your list. The water bills in Manassas Park will cause you to easily exceed your budget. The parking situation at City Center in Manassas Park is less than desirable as well. Good luck.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by berry7215

I think if the job were in Manassas, it would be in the Bull Run area. The other potential location was somewhere in Haymarket. We don't have an exact, physical address for his job yet, just hints towards these areas. I know that may sound weird, but for whatever reason the company hasn't disclosed which location he'll be at yet, and they supposedly have more than a dozen locations in the NoVA area.

Some other Apartments we considered are The Residences at City Center in Manassas Park, Somerset Pointe in Gainesville, and Reserve at Regency Park in Centreville.

Haymarket to Manassas can be a PITA as well in morning rush hour. I like the Haymarket area and I used to live out there but it can be an issue. You can avoid I 66 and go back roads but if there is a crash on 66 then everyone else is taking the back way as well.

[ChristineVA]

You say you are a family of 4. I assume there are two children in that mix. What are your concerns for schools? While various pockets of neighborhoods may be good and bad, schools can be an issue. But you didn't mention that as a factor so maybe you are homeschooling.

[berry7215]

Yes we are homeschooling, so public schools aren't really an issue.

We were just informed last night of his job location, on the map it appears to be almost in Wellington, right off of 234. We also talked more numbers and may be able to work with a budget of $2500 max for rent and utilities.

My husband looked up the electric rates for the Manassas area and compared it to where we are now, it seems to be the same really. We pay an average of $225 / month for everything now for ~1,000 sq ft house - electric, gas, water, sewer, trash. At most, close to $300 in the summer and maybe $150 in the winter. Does this sound similar to what some of you pay now? I've read that some people end up paying way more in older Apartment complexes because the windows and doors are just too old and the air leaks out, which I understand. We don't set our thermostat to really high or low temps, we set it to 77 in the summer and 68 in the winter.

It's starting to sound like we'll run into mass amounts of traffic no matter where we live lol. Now, we both are from the Hampton Roads area and we know what traffic is like there and how to deal with it. Is there anyone on here who's lived and worked in Hampton Roads who lives near Manassas now, and is the amount of traffic about the same? or worse? My husband will be on first shift the first 2 weeks, but after that he will have the option to go to 3rd shift and I imagine the traffic won't be as bad at those hours.

[NOVA_guy]

I have family in the VA Beach area, while traffic in Hampton Roads isn't ideal, it's honestly no comparison to the traffic here. The traffic here is on another level, it's never ending.

One positive is Welligton Rd is probably the ideal commuting location because that part of 234 isn't super congested or busy. It's mostly office parks that are spaced out. Depending on where you're coming you may hit some traffic but you should be OK.

[berry7215]

We've recently decided on 2 other Apartment Complexes, but one I'm unsure if it is a senior living community - The Marque at Heritage Hunt in Gainesville. There are older posts on this forum from 2010 were people talk about it being a +55 community, but it doesn't seem that way now. Can anyone confirm this? I even called to ask about their pet policy and I told her I had 2 young kids and she didn't seemed deterred by that comment, she didn't follow up with "well we're a senior living community..."

The other is Arcadia Run. They seem to have a lot of good reviews and both Apartment communities are less than 5 miles from my husbands new job

[Bigfoot424]

Heritage Hunt is no longer a 55+ community. The only consideration for Arcadia on Wellington is Jiffy Lube Live. You'd need to know the concert schedule and plan accordingly. Wellington can be bad at times with the bigger shows. Otherwise, good area. When I retired it was a very quiet area.