Anonymous wrote:Another vote for Richmond. The Near West End looks like Chevy Chase and is 1/3 the price. They are experiencing tremendous growth there.

lol this is just completely untrue.

-person that grew up in the west end.

richmond, williamsburg, orange

Anonymous wrote:I wuold rather go west than south. Dealing with 95 would suck.

We didn’t move to the western exurbs with avoiding 95 in mind, but it is a nice added benefit. We can use 29 or 81 to head south and completely avoid that hellscape.

Anonymous wrote:I wuold rather go west than south. Dealing with 95 would suck.

Going west gets super picturesque after you get past the sprawl, but the towns that you would want to live in aren't very affordable unless you're talking about going all the way West

Another vote for Richmond. The Near West End looks like Chevy Chase and is 1/3 the price. They are experiencing tremendous growth there.

I wuold rather go west than south. Dealing with 95 would suck.

Colonial Heights is still a sundown town. Hard NO!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Houses are very affordable in Chesterfield, outside of Richmond. You can get a 5BR new or almost new home for about $500K. Harpers Mill is a new subdivision, Brandermill is more established. Downside is it’s suburban sprawl and traffic along the one main drag is not great. Midlothian is a bit closer in to the city and very nice. I also like Colonial Heights.

Said no one ever who has any experience with the greater Richmond area. It’s called Colonial Whites, because the KKK literally is still active there.

Chesterfield has pretty good public schools, so does western Henrico. Also Richmond has a much larger variety of size, kind and price points of private schools than the DMV for much lower price. I wouldn’t go south of Midlothian and I would never consider Colonial Heights/Hopewell/Petersburg.

Thank you. Great info to have!

Anonymous wrote:If you are liberal and on a budweiser budget, why are you moving to Virginia?

LOL, I'm from VA. The appeal would be to get away from the traffic, have a more relaxed lifestyle, and save some money. We are not actually liberals, just truly independent/moderates. Actually, I'm still a registered R, but I think the MAGAs are batsh*t crazy. We don't actually hate MoCo, we just aren't sure it's worth staying.

Thanks for the Shepherdstown idea. Definitely worth considering. I would ideally like to get back to VA for eventual in-state college tuition, but I'm game to give it a look.

If you are liberal and on a budweiser budget, why are you moving to Virginia?

Anonymous wrote:Houses are very affordable in Chesterfield, outside of Richmond. You can get a 5BR new or almost new home for about $500K. Harpers Mill is a new subdivision, Brandermill is more established. Downside is it’s suburban sprawl and traffic along the one main drag is not great. Midlothian is a bit closer in to the city and very nice. I also like Colonial Heights.

Said no one ever who has any experience with the greater Richmond area. It’s called Colonial Whites, because the KKK literally is still active there.

Chesterfield has pretty good public schools, so does western Henrico. Also Richmond has a much larger variety of size, kind and price points of private schools than the DMV for much lower price. I wouldn’t go south of Midlothian and I would never consider Colonial Heights/Hopewell/Petersburg.

Does it have to be VA? One place that checks many of the boxes is Shepherdstown, WV. It's the oldest town in the state with a real pretty and quaint (and very small downtown), and is home to Shepherd University. It and its close neighbor Harper's Ferry are both very liberal, but surrounded by moderates and Trumpsters so there's a real mix. Schools are so-so but not terrible, and racial diversity is lacking. The drive to DC is about 90 minutes.

Shepherdstown is much smaller than the other places you're considering, but it has lots of charm and is at least worth taking a look at.

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thanks for these suggestions. I would love to live in a college town, but I don't think Harrisonburg is the vibe I'm looking for. I have definitely thought about Charlottesville. Not sure I can get my Hokie husband on board.

Budget-- we currently have a ~2200 sf SFH (not including finished basemement) worth about $600k (I think) in MoCo. Would definitely like 5 BR with 3000+ sf that's either updated or something that we can afford to update.

We would consider homeschooling or private school if we found the right community, so public schools are not a deal breaker.

I see no point in Vienna. The idea is to get way outside the Beltway but be able to come back for meetings as needed. We have family in southern VA that we would like to be able to see more often, but we would not fit in in southern VA.

Definitely check out Fauquier County, it checks a lot of your boxes and would not be a terrible slog into DC when you have to come in for meetings occasionally. For your Hokie husband it’s a quick shot down 81 to Blacksburg, and bonus if your family in southern VA is in the southwest part of the state.

The answer, believe it or not, is Old Town Manassas and the surrounding neighborhoods.

I don't see how Western Loudoun is that much more convenient for visiting relatives in southern VA than MoCo, or sufficiently more convenient to warrant a move.

I could see moving to Fredericksburg or perhaps Lexington. Lexington would be about 3 hours from DC. It's also small enough that you'd have a mix of liberals who are either retirees or associated with W&L or VMI to go along with the more conservative element, whereas Roanoke is larger and more dominated by conservatives.

Richmond does have some cool neighborhoods as PP posted out. You would almost certainly end up doing privates after ES, however. I have a very liberal relative who lives in Richmond and they couldn't accept the idea of their child in a middle or high school in the city. However, compared to the DC area, the privates there are more affordable.