housing options

[mrs.ckr]

my husband and i are about to move to the Norfolk base and we received our packet yesterday on the different housing options. i was excited at first because the housing options seemed really cheap for the amount of bedrooms they offered ( about 1,200 and lower for 2-4 bedrms). im from California so that's really cheap to me. but now im hearing from people on this website that base housing is not cheaper than the city and that some of them are far from the base and that they take all of your BAH no matter how much your living expenses are. i really want to here from someone LIVING ON BASE IN NORFOLK who can give me some advice. should we pick a place on base and if so which are closer to the base as possible? please help me. thanks

[Lillian L. Porch]

THIS MAY OR MAY NOT HELP YOU.  BUT MY SON AND HIS WIFE (BOTH NAVY) GOT A 2 BEDROOM OFF BASE FOR $800 AND THAT IS A STEAL.  IT'S A CUTE PLACE AND ROOMY.  THEY ARE GETTING THEIR HOUSING ALLOWANCES AND ALL OTHER BENEFITS.  SO IT IS DEFINETLY WORTH CHECKING OUT.  ARE BOTH OF YOU MILITARY?  QUINTON'S MOM LILLIAN

[tasstables]

My daughter has lived both on Base and off base. but this was in Denver she was there for 3 years

Base better secury and all her BAH went to them ( she had to go to base housing  her X was stalking her)

off base she was able to save money on utlity bills and rent about $400 a mounth.

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she moved back to norfolk about 1 year ago. right now she is living off base Norfolk has 3 bedroom appt. and paying $800 and is 1 block from the beach and 20 min from base.

some areas of Norfolk are not the best.

 

[MeLaNiE]

My husband and i just moved to Virginia Beach and we love our apartment. We have a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apt and it has plenty of space. One thing i learned when we were looking for apartments was that the apartments that were less expensive were generally in not so great parts of town. I will say there is one apartment complex in particular that you need to watch out for reviews on "Bird Neck Village" they get on the site and write their own reviews. We live in Thalia Gardens. It is close to everything.I also have a friend who lives here with her husband and he is stationed at Norfolk. We pretty much live between NAS oceana and Norfolk. Oh and our rent with utilities is 1100$$$ a  month.

Good Luck on your search for housing..

[Chanda]

I live in Willoughby housing. Been living here for almost 3 yrs. And I tell everyone DO NOT MOVE HERE!! Other housing areas are nicer & safer.. We have had our cars broken into & vandilized 5x during our stay here and we have never kept anything in them, not even stereos. We have also had items stolen out of our yard that was inside the gate proped up beside the back door which is scarey to think that they at any moment could have decided to come in being they were already in our closed gate right in front of the back door! Traffic is always clogged up in the am/pm because we are directly between the base gate & interstate ramps. I have been here the longest out of all my surrounding neighbors and its always nosey drama filled "chatty cathys" here they love to gossip about people which is why I stopped talking to all my neighbors (and no I wasnt involved in the drama, just sick of hearing about it & witnessing how people were being unfairly treated) im just not down for that kinda nonsense.. I dont really understand how they do the assigning of space either cuz we have 2 kids [3 & 9] and they have to share a rm since we live in a 2bdrm but I have a neighbor with NO KIDS that has a 3bdrm? We are E5 they are E3? So that wasnt it and the 2 consecutive units directly beside us that were 3 were open when we came? 1551 for this 2bd/1bth is NOT worth it especially since I have maint. here every other wk for something falling apart. We even had a hole the size of our tub fall out of the lvrm ceiling because the pipes inside the wall was leaking & busted through!! Thank god it happened over night so it didnt hurt one of my kids! I am so thankful our enlistment here is ending soon so we can get the hell outta here! And never coming back! We would have moved by now but after you leave, housing still takes 1 full bah payment after you leave so you have to pay sec. deposits/1st month out of pocket where ever you go before your bah kicks back in for you and with us having 2kids in private school (cuz schools suck here too) plus everything else we couldnt afford to get out of here on just base pay alone.. Plus my hubby is at sea like 90% of the time & with no family to help I couldnt move us all by myself.. For those who said willoughby was great I would love to know where they came from to make this a great comparison!!?

End result: STAY AWAY FROM WILLOUGHBY!!