I haven’t posted on here in a long time, but saw Weberlin’s questions about Virginia and thought I’d chime in. I’m currently in Virginia Beach – the southeast corner of Virginia. In terms of buying, the market is still coming down…this area is a little behind the West Coast in price declines – so you may want to be a bit more cautious about buying right away. Plus there are a lot of great areas and not so great areas – you might want to give yourself time to find the best fit for you.
Portsmouth/ Newport News is in my area (Hampton Roads- Tidewater) – still about 3 hours away – so not an option. And honestly I wouldn’t live there anyway – pretty seedy areas with awful schools.
Quantico is a very pretty area – green, with rolling hills – in general that area of Virginia is quite nice with the Blue Ridge Mountains an hour away – including the Shenandoah National Park. The traffic is rough and the climate is much different from San Diego – especially the humidity in the summers. It’s about 4 hours to the Outer Banks of North Carolina – a great area to getaway and enjoy the beach.
My husband has an office in that area – if you’d like I can ask him what towns people prefer to live in.
