Good place to raise a family around UVA? Lake Monticello? Waynesboro? Hollymead/Forest Lakes? (Richmond: rental)

[newengland2ca]

Hi all, I'm a longtime lurker/googler of the CityData forums and just created an account for the first time because I'm considering a move for graduate school.

I'm an older (early 30s) graduate student considering UVA among a couple of other universities. My girlfriend and her nearly 5-year-old daughter will be moving with me in Fall 2018. My program will be 4 years, but because of the little girl, we want to settle in or near the town where my grad program is so as not to move her once she starts first grade. Our other two options are the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) and the University of Maryland (UMD). I've searched the forums and googled a lot to find information and would really appreciate some personalized responses. Below are some of the considerations I've been thinking about:

My girlfriend is from the Bay Area, and I have lived there for many years, so we'd like someplace kind of contemporary, if not less crowded and a bit more rural. We are not hipsters but do enjoy craft beer, like outdoor activities, sometimes do yoga, shop small businesses, are politically moderate/liberal (but not too involved), are spiritually "new-age", and appreciate improv comedy clubs, karaoke, live music venues, and sports, especially football and hockey. Not huge party people, don't go to dance clubs or get wasted on the weekends.

Having grown up in New England and having lived close enough to Lake Tahoe for weekend trips, I appreciate the fact that there is some skiing nearby, even if it is small. Same with hiking.

We like the prospect of having 4 seasons but having winters that aren't as cold as in New England.

Being 2+ hours from the beach might be hard to swallow.

Can you get decent flights out of CHO, or do people travel to RIC or IAD to fly? We'd be flying at least a couple times per year to visit her family in California and mine in Massachusetts. (Or alternatively driving 8 hours up to MA.) By the time the little one graduates from high school, my parents will be in their 80s, which is a little hard for me to swallow potentially living so far away. (UMass would be much closer to them, but UVA may give me better funding opportunities for my program.)

We appreciated the diverse food in the Bay Area, especially Indian and Mexican food and hope to find someplace with decent, if not great, ethnic cuisine.

Home prices in Charlottesville look cheaper than in the DC area (UMD) but not quite as cheap as in Western Massachusetts (UMass). We'd be considering saving a few years for a down payment, buying a duplex and renting out the other side, with the intention of eventually upgrading our home and keeping the duplex for a dual rental income.

Schools are important, obviously, as is finding a community with other similarly-aged parents or parents with kids similarly-aged. We'd like to make friends and be involved with our community.

My girlfriend is an experienced college administrator who has worked with managing post-doc appointments and also some financial/business aspects of a major university medical school but does not manage people, nor does she want to. She hopes to find a similar position wherever we decide to move. Her salary in the Bay Area is in the range of $75-85k, and we're ok with taking a salary cut for a lower cost of living and quality-of-life improvements.

After my graduate program, I will practice school psychology with a PhD and will be looking for a job with a school district, although would be open to post-secondary teaching opportunities and practicing privately, as well. I know that school psychologists are in demand in Western Massachusetts but am not sure about the job opportunities in VA.

Any suggestions for us based on the above information? Do you think we'd find what we're looking for in Charlottesville compared with Maryland or Massachusetts? Should we look at Lake Monticello? Waynesboro? Hollymead/Forest Lakes? Gordonsville? Palmyra? Richmond suburbs? Others? General info/advice is also encouraged and appreciated. Thanks in advance for your replies, and I'll post more information as needed.

[MinnBen]

I don't know how you feel about commuting, but we discovered that going out evben about 30 minutes from Charlottesville makes things quite a bit cheaper. We are also considering moving to Virginia (but a bit further west than you) and were looking at some properties in Greene county and found some very reasonable homes. I forget exactly where we were, but were told that its a not a bad commute into Charlottesville. Just something to consider. In general, Virginia will be cheaper than MA, but Western Mass seems cheaper because it is more rural. I also went to grad school in Psych (eons ago), so best of luck to you.