Live Close To Work - Virginia Beach Neighborhoods

Studies have shown that a person’s happiness has more to do with the length of his/her commute to work than with the size and quality of his/her home. I tend to agree. The happiest I have ever been with my home was when I lived on Atsugi base in Japan, a five minute walk to work. After moving to Larchmont, in Norfolk, my 40 minute commute to Virginia Beach nearly drove me insane.

Clearly not everyone will feel this way, but it is a very important thing to consider when choosing a place to live. If I have a client who wants to buy a home more than 30 minutes from where they work, I won’t stop them. But I will make it very clear that happiness is as much a short commute as anything else.

It’s funny, but I find that most people moving from out of town focus more on the curb appeal of a prospective new home than they do on the neighborhood, it’s surrounding, or it’s proximity to where they plan to work and play. I think this is a recent trend caused by an oversupply of big beautiful new homes and zillions of pictures on the web. It is very difficult to get a feel for a neighborhood online so the buyers turn to what they can understand, beautiful pictures!

Buying a home is always about compromise. A good place to start is by looking close to where you plan to work and play. Remember, happiness is a short commute.