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Dad needs retirement ideas

V

Viss1

CEG'er
Joined
May 30, 2000
Messages
124
Location
Falls Church, VA
Dad's looking to retire at the end of the year. He basically wants to be in the MD/VA and maybe NC region. Not looking for a huge house, but will want at least 1/2 acre of property. Wants to be within commuting distance to at least a small city. The catch is he can't pay DC metro-area prices.

We've looked at a few areas out near the Shenandoahs, but it seems like everywhere is either run down or built in subdivisions with no land. He could do what every other New Yorker does when they retire and go to NC, but I'm thinking there must be something within a couple of hours of DC that fits the bill. Any ideas?
 
What is the price range he is looking at for a half acre lot with a nice house? That will help narrow down suggestions.
 
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They're all down here in Richmond, no lie. I've got a retired NYC/NJ firefighter living next door to me, and at the end of the street, there's a house full of transplants from Long Island. A co-worker of mine is married to a Jersey girl with a family full of goombahs ("uncle Butch" visited a few weeks ago).
 
I think he checked out a couple of areas near Richmond a while ago. I didn't have much to do with that, though, so there were probably quite a few stones left unturned. Any suggested areas/neighborhoods that fit the bill?

He'd be OK paying in the $3's for a house on at least 1/2 acre. But the neighborhood must be well-maintained.
 
I'm not sure about the 1/2 acre size, I think our lot is 1/3 or so (maybe a little less), but the southside of Richmond (Chesterfield, Midlothian) is the area where I live. You can head west a little out Rt. 360 toward Amelia and it gets a good bit more rural, without being TOO far out. Great area here for fishing, too.

As far as his price range goes, it's just right. We paid just a shade over $300K for 4/5 BR, 2-1/2BA, 2-car garage, formal dining room & living room, etc. in good condition with a nice yard in the Woodlake development. Have him look for listings in Chesterfield County and/or Amelia, VA for starters. If he wants to talk to a real estate professional, I can refer at least two. You can PM me for more details if you want.
 
Western MD might not be too bad to consider...the Frederick/Hagerstown area so not too far west. It's either hit or miss out here now though as there are a lot of DC transplants that buy nicer places for big $ and B-more transplants who buy the rat holes and make 'em worse. But the market out here is dying just like the rest of the Mid-Atlantic region so it's becoming a buyers market. For example: the house directly across the street here isn't bad at all and has been on the market for a few months now. Nearly 2,000sq/ft, nearly an acre of land (nice front and back yards), two car garage, pool (erm, well i think it still has one), about an hours drive to DC or B-more and 15-25min to Frederick or Hagerstown (if you know the area) both of which are decent sized small cities (both 30,000+ pop.), and selling for sub-$300k. Only problem around here, as mentioned before, are the DC'ers who moved up here and drove the housing prices sky-high and have yet to reconcile that the market is tanking so there are quite a few overpriced properties. However, this might make for good wheeling & dealing. Just my $.02...
 
Thanks, guys. Pops says Richmond area is too far from me & my bro. We looked at the Lake Holiday development (W. of Winchester) a couple of weekend ago... he thought that was OK. Anyone familiar with that area?

Frederick might be a possibility too, although that does seem to have suffered from the "I can live here and commute to DC" price inflation. Might find something though.
 
Yeah, I'd definitely say Frederick has suffered from it and subsequently Hagerstown has too, but it's not nearly as nice of a city as Frederick (IMO). In between the two is a town called Middletown which is very nice, but a bit on the pricey side too. Oh, and north of Frederick going toward PA is a town called Thurmont that isn't too bad yet. There are a lot of little towns which are reasonably close to the major highways around here: I-81, I-70, Rt 15, et cetera.
 
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