Considering Moving to VA (Richmond, Newport News: real estate, condos, sex offenders)

[Desdemona25]

Never in my life did I think that I'd want to relocate. But I think that time is coming close.

If I can get a transfer within my company, I'll be working in either downtown Richmond or in Glen Allen. My significant other will also be based out of Richmond. For him, it's going back home. He grew up in Newport News and lived in downtown Richmond for about a year and a half before he moved to Florida to be with me.

We're now over the high cost of living, rude people and fickle job market. He's been in Florida since last July--he's on his 3rd job since arriving and the first 2 were lost due to layoffs. And now his current place of employment is getting slow; starting today, he was bumped to a late night shift for work and we're both extremely unhappy about that.

He thought the area of James City County was a good place to look for housing. It seems pretty affordable. From what other threads I've read here, the schools are said to be good. We also have a 6 year old daughter that would be making the move (mine from my prior marriage, but her father is barely involved in her life so he's a non-issue). She's been deemed gifted through psychological testing. Do the schools have a specific gifted program? If not, is the education at least adequate?

Being a lifelong Floridian (yes, really a native), I'm also a bit apprehensive about the weather. How is it? I can drive in rain and in hurricanes. However, I've never even seen snow. Also, anything about life in general there would be helpful. My guy has his parents and several close friends there, but they're all in the Newport News area. So they weren't able to provide much information.

Any words of advice would be greatly appreciated!!! I know that I've seen some very informative posts on here.

[kmflan]

I grew up in Newport News, Hubby grew up in Hampton with Relatives in Wytheville, Pulaski and then in Nova in Manassas. My sister has lived in Richmond for 20 years and teaches in Henrico schools.

Northern Virginia is quite nice, but very expensive and very congested. the traffic is insane. A 2000sqft 4/2 house there will start around 500k and then go up depending on location.

Hampton/Newport News is also congested and too far for you to oive and commute anyway.

Richmond is awesome. It has it's problems like any other city but...
1. Housing is affordable.
2. Lots of ethnicity and funky/quirky neighborhoods, ethnic restaurants.
3. Beautiful parks like Maymont and Lewis Ginter Botanicle Gardens.
4. James River provides some nice scenery and several bridges cross over it
5. Some good school systems, again depending on location.
6. Richmond does tend to get one or two reasonable snow falls per winter, but they send the salt trucks out and you can get used to it.
7. Easy drive to Bush Gardens or King's Dominion.
8. 1.5 hours west and you are in the mountains around Charlotteville
9. 1.5 hours east and you are at the beach!
How can you beat that?

Anyway, good luck with it all

[richmondpics]

Also, regarding gifted education, several school systems offer advanced educations for "gifted" students. For High School, the Richmond area has 2 Governor's Schools, which are basically highly competitive specialty schools. Many schools have things like the IB program and others as well. Google it and I'm sure you can find more info.

Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover and others in the Richmond area offer great educations. Richmond... not so much unfortunately, but many urban districts underperform compared to their suburban counterparts...

[Desdemona25]

Thanks for the info that you provided. We're looking to be around the Toano area. It's commutable to Richmond and it's close enough to my guy's family/friends that are in the Newport News area.

I'm familiar with the IB program. Before my daughter was tested, I had applied for her to attend the IB elementary school for this area. Our application is still in the system. But because she was going to be attending as a second grader, our chances of her getting accepted were pretty slim. I was more interested in the IB school than I was the gifted program because I knew that the IB school would not be able to "teach to the test" like the other ones in this area since they have to follow a specific curriculum. I've even heard about it happening in the gifted programs, although not in my district. So, I have a pretty credible fear.

[Stonecoldharbours]

James City County and Williamsburg is most beautiful and has great schools! Housing is a bit expensive, from about 170 for a townhome and 250 for a home that are in decent shape...all of Williamsburg and JCC use the same school. People want in here but there is a lack of housing, cause its such a wonderful community, but you will pay for it! Depends on what you value most maybe.

Hurricanes happen here occassionally, I live through one, no one died, some houses lost their roofs, some had trees fall, but all in all, everyone pitched in and things are pretty much back to normal. And you close to NN and the beach, you have the college and a new hip trendy New Town Center opening, it really is cool!

Wherever you deceide be sure to check for sex offenders, but beware they are in every hood and the best way to protect yourself and your children is to never let them just roam the streets, that is asking for trouble! Goodluck to you and yours!

[Stonecoldharbours]

P.S.

I have also heard that the IB Program is awesome, it is in JCC in the James River district, and maybe some other school districts. They are trying to get it into all the school eventually here, but there is resistance to it, why I have no idea, would like to know myself here. Gotta run now, good luck!

[Desdemona25]

Originally Posted by PghPaNative

James City County and Williamsburg is most beautiful and has great schools! Housing is a bit expensive, from about 170 for a townhome and 250 for a home that are in decent shape...all of Williamsburg and JCC use the same school. People want in here but there is a lack of housing, cause its such a wonderful community, but you will pay for it! Depends on what you value most maybe.

Hurricanes happen here occassionally, I live through one, no one died, some houses lost their roofs, some had trees fall, but all in all, everyone pitched in and things are pretty much back to normal. And you close to NN and the beach, you have the college and a new hip trendy New Town Center opening, it really is cool!

Wherever you deceide be sure to check for sex offenders, but beware they are in every hood and the best way to protect yourself and your children is to never let them just roam the streets, that is asking for trouble! Goodluck to you and yours!

How about the Toano area? It seemed pretty reasonable to me (under $200K for some properties.) Where is the New Town Center located? I was in VA for Christmas and got around a little bit. My boyfriend's mom works in western Williamsburg, so she showed us the hospital she's at and we did some shopping in the area as well. We're hoping to make another trip this summer so that we can make it into Richmond.

And regarding the sex offender thing...I have one in my current neighborhood that moved in after me. Fortunately, I've never seen him around. What freaks me out though is that I had 2 different real estate agents that asked me for directions to it while I was out walking my dog. Besides, my daughter's 6 years old. There's no way I'd allow her to be out alone roaming around.

Being close to the beach doesn't matter to me. With traffic, I'm about 20-30 minutes away now, but I never go. I hate going to the beach here--too crowded, expensive parking, not much public beach left because it's all been sold off to the developers so they can build expensive condos. Although, last weekend I did find a beach in my county that was still quite nice. But it's around an hour away. I'd still make the trip though. My boyfriend says that the beaches down here are nothing like they are in VA. He says that I may even enjoy going. LOL

From 2004 until now, I've been through 4 hurricanes in this area. So not fun. The last one was the worst for us. My community was a sea of FEMA blue tarps. And it took over 6 months for the roofs to even start being replaced.

Any sites you could provide on the school system? I need hard core info to show my daughter's grandparents that the schools are infinitely better up there. They're not happy with us talking about moving. They feel that we're doing it for us (my boyfriend and I) and not taking my daughter into account.