Thinking about moving from Lynchburg VA to Centreville (Manassas, Gainesville: apartments, to rent)

[beccaleelee]

Hey all,

I'm getting far enough in the interview process for a job in Centreville that I'm trying to figure out how much I'd need to get paid to be able to afford moving there - but not far enough in the process that they'll tell me the salary - so I'm trying to come up with a hypothetical budget for myself so that any potential offer will be put in context.

I'm from Lynchburg which, if you don't know, is pretty cheap to live in. My 1br apartment is only $672 (including pet rent) a month and is actually a pretty nice place. Centreville is in nova, which is...not cheap.

I've been checking out apartments near the job to get a feel for prices for 1br apartments and they're much more expensive as expected - the cheapest I found is $1300 + pet rent.

My questions is, is there an area within a decent commute (ideally less than an hour?) that's cheaper to rent in? Or is everything around there going to be at least that expensive? Google is not being helpful with this.

(I know the advice I get will be to get a roommate if I want cheaper rent, but the only job that would make me be willing to do that again would be The Supreme Puppy Petter who is in charge of petting all puppies and rating them as to their fluffiness, which is not the job I'm going for)

Any insight into cheaper areas to rent in? Thanks in advance!

[Bigfoot424]

For cheaper you'll need to go west towards Manassas and so on but then the additional cost for commuting may just eat up that savings so make sure you really want the commute.

[LynchburgLover]

My kids went to school in Lynchburg (VES). You’re going to find it is a very different world in so many ways.

Best of luck but I wouldn’t trade Lynchburg for Centreville for all the money in the world.

[ssa78]

Gainesville is about 10 miles west and a bit cheaper - not by much. I certainly wouldn’t make that trade for money since the commute on 66E would not be fun even for those 10 miles. You’d have to get out pretty early to avoid the rush.

South on 28 to manassas would be cheaper. Depends on what you want in terms of location and convenience.

I lived in Centreville for 3 years and rather enjoyed it.

[HokieFan]

Originally Posted by beccaleelee

Hey all,

I'm getting far enough in the interview process for a job in Centreville that I'm trying to figure out how much I'd need to get paid to be able to afford moving there - but not far enough in the process that they'll tell me the salary - so I'm trying to come up with a hypothetical budget for myself so that any potential offer will be put in context.

I'm from Lynchburg which, if you don't know, is pretty cheap to live in. My 1br apartment is only $672 (including pet rent) a month and is actually a pretty nice place. Centreville is in nova, which is...not cheap.

I've been checking out apartments near the job to get a feel for prices for 1br apartments and they're much more expensive as expected - the cheapest I found is $1300 + pet rent.

My questions is, is there an area within a decent commute (ideally less than an hour?) that's cheaper to rent in? Or is everything around there going to be at least that expensive? Google is not being helpful with this.

(I know the advice I get will be to get a roommate if I want cheaper rent, but the only job that would make me be willing to do that again would be The Supreme Puppy Petter who is in charge of petting all puppies and rating them as to their fluffiness, which is not the job I'm going for)

Any insight into cheaper areas to rent in? Thanks in advance!

Here's a thought to consider: If your pet is a dog, and you moved farther out for cheaper apartments, increasing the amount of time you're out of the house, would you need to pay someone to let your dog out? If so, that negates any savings you might net by moving farther out.

We're dog owners with oneish hour commutes (we're out of the house 10 hours on workdays) and we pay roughly $300 a month for weekday dog walks/visits. I only bring this up because some might not consider that when calculating a budget.

When it comes to budgeting for housing (and as I'm someone who allows for overages in my budget), I would budget 3x what you're paying now. If I were in your shoes, I would need a salary offer of at least $25k more than your current salary (covering the increased housing cost) or at the very least, opportunities for growth (position & wage increases) in a timely manner.