Virginia Beach, VA Homes For Sale and Real Estate

What to Expect in Virginia Beach, VA

A big city with very different corners

Virginia Beach is the largest city in Virginia by population, and it covers close to 250 square miles of land, so no two parts of it feel the same. The oceanfront and the North End run along the Atlantic, Shore Drive and Chic’s Beach sit on the Chesapeake Bay, and the Lynnhaven River reaches inland through Great Neck, Little Neck and Thoroughgood. South of the Green Line, around Pungo and Sandbridge, the city turns rural. In between are the established neighborhoods where most residents actually live, places like Kempsville, Salem, Green Run and Aragona Village, with 1950s to 1980s single family homes on good sized lots. Prices follow the water. The waterfront neighborhoods regularly see sales over $1,000,000, while the inland neighborhoods are where you find homes in the $300,000s and $400,000s.

Virginia Beach Neighborhoods

Where to start looking

Most buyers narrow the search down to a part of the city first. On the ocean side, look at the North End, Croatan Beach, Sandbridge and the Oceanfront, and on the bay side, Chic’s Beach, Ocean Park and Shore Drive. The river neighborhoods of Great Neck, Little Neck, Alanton, Bay Colony and Thoroughgood have the deep water lots and the mature trees. For a walkable setting with high rise condos, Town Center is the only real option in the city. If you want more house for the money, the established neighborhoods of Kempsville, Salem, Timberlake, Green Run, Aragona Village and Bayside are where most of the homes under $400,000 are found. Further south, Red Mill, Princess Anne, Landstown and Ocean Lakes have the newer construction and the shortest drives to Oceana and Dam Neck. Each neighborhood page has its own listings, school zones, flood information and drive times.

Getting Around Virginia Beach

Two interstates and a lot of boulevards

Virginia Beach links to both I-64 and I-264, which runs from the oceanfront west into Norfolk. The main surface roads are Virginia Beach Boulevard, also known as US Route 58, Shore Drive, or US Route 60, Independence Boulevard, General Booth Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue along the oceanfront itself. To reach the Eastern Shore, residents use the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, one of the longest bridge tunnel crossings in the world and the most notable piece of infrastructure in the region. Norfolk International Airport is about 20 to 30 minutes from most of the city. Hampton Roads Transit runs bus service and the oceanfront has a seasonal trolley, but this is a city where you will want a car. Traffic to and from the oceanfront builds on summer weekends, and the I-264 commute into Norfolk is the one most residents plan their day around.

Military Bases and Commute Times from Virginia Beach

Most searches start with a drive time

With NAS Oceana, Dam Neck Annex, Little Creek, Fort Story and Naval Station Norfolk all in or next to the city, drive time to a gate is one of the most common questions we get. NAS Oceana sits in the middle of the city off Oceana Boulevard, and most neighborhoods are within 15 to 25 minutes of it. Dam Neck Annex is on the coast south of the oceanfront, about 10 to 15 minutes from Red Mill, Croatan and Shadowlawn. Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek and Fort Story are on the north side along Shore Drive, which puts Ocean Park, Chic’s Beach and Bayside within about 10 minutes of Little Creek. Naval Station Norfolk is the long one, 25 to 40 minutes from most of Virginia Beach depending on the tunnel and the time of day. Every neighborhood page on this site lists the drive time to each of these bases, rounded to the nearest five minutes, so you can compare areas before you tour. If you are using a VA loan on a condo, approval varies by building, so ask before you fall for a unit.

Flood Zones, Aircraft Noise and Insurance in Virginia Beach

Three things to check before you make an offer

Virginia Beach is a coastal city. A meaningful share of the homes near the ocean, the bay and the Lynnhaven River sit in a FEMA special flood hazard area, while most of the inland neighborhoods have none at all. Lenders require flood insurance in those zones, so pull the address on the FEMA map or the city’s flood zone viewer before you get attached. Each neighborhood page here gives the share of recent sales that fell inside a zone. Second, the land around NAS Oceana is divided into aircraft noise zones under the city’s AICUZ program, and sellers in the higher zones must disclose it, so ask for the noise zone on any address near the base. Third, homeowners associations are common in the subdivisions built after about 1980 and nearly universal in condo and townhome communities, so get the fees, the rules and the reserve study in hand early. For reported incidents near an address, the Virginia Beach Police Department publishes an interactive crime map you can search yourself.

Education in Virginia Beach

One division, dozens of zones

Virginia Beach City Public Schools is one of the largest school divisions in Virginia, with more than 60,000 students across more than 80 schools, including 11 high schools. Every address in the city is zoned for one elementary, one middle and one high school, and the zones do not follow neighborhood names, so two houses a street apart can feed different schools. The division publishes a school locator where you can check any address, and each neighborhood page on this site lists the schools most homes in that area are zoned for. The city also has academy programs that draw from across the division, along with private schools such as Cape Henry Collegiate and Catholic High School, with Norfolk Academy just over the line. For higher education, Regent University and Virginia Wesleyan University are both in the city, and Tidewater Community College has a Virginia Beach campus.

Lifestyle and Amenities in Virginia Beach

A resort town that is also a working city

While it is clear Virginia Beach has a significant amount of tourism, the city is much more than that. NAS Oceana is one of the largest employers in the region, and the hospitals, the shipyards across the water and a growing group of technology companies around Town Center round out the job market. The water is the main attraction for most residents, whether that means surfing at the oceanfront, fishing out of Rudee Inlet or paddling the Lynnhaven River. There are about a dozen public golf courses in the city along with several private clubs. The East Coast Surfing Championships run every August, and the Neptune Festival in September is perhaps the biggest weekend of the year at the oceanfront. For history and culture, the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art is one of the strongest in the region. The city also has 18 sites on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Adam Thoroughgood House, one of the oldest surviving colonial homes in the state.

Shopping and Dining in Virginia Beach

Town Center, the oceanfront and everything along the boulevard

Town Center and the Pembroke area next to it make up the biggest shopping and dining district in the city, about 11 miles west of the oceanfront. Town Center has the high rise condos, the Sandler Center and most of the sit down restaurants, while Pembroke has the big box stores. For a resort feel, Atlantic Avenue at the oceanfront has restaurants along the boardwalk, and Hilltop along Laskin Road has the grocery stores and local favorites that residents actually use week to week. Lynnhaven Mall is the main enclosed mall. Red Mill Commons serves the southern half of the city, and nearly every neighborhood has a strip center within a short drive. There is no shortage of restaurants in Virginia Beach, from waterfront seafood to breweries, and the neighborhood pages on this site point out a few local favorites in each area.

Parks and Recreation in Virginia Beach

Over 4,000 acres of parks and three different shorelines

With this much waterfront, it’s hard not to love Virginia Beach for its outdoor space. The city maintains more than 200 parks covering over 4,000 acres. Mount Trashmore Park, built on an old landfill, is one of the highest points in the city and one of the busiest. First Landing State Park on Shore Drive has miles of trails and a bay beach. Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge and False Cape State Park at the south end of Sandbridge are as wild as the coast gets in Virginia. Add in the oceanfront boardwalk, the bay beaches at Chic’s Beach and Ocean Park, and the kayak launches along the Lynnhaven, and most residents are within a short drive of some kind of water.

Condos, Townhomes and Homes by Price in Virginia Beach

Narrow the search

If you already know what type of home you want, start with the dedicated searches. Virginia Beach condos for sale covers everything from oceanfront towers to garden style units near Town Center, and Virginia Beach townhomes for sale is where most buyers under $350,000 end up looking. There are also searches for waterfront homes, new construction, luxury homes, homes with a pool and single story ranch homes. You can search by price, from homes under $200,000 up to homes under $500,000, by bedroom count, or by ZIP code, including 23451 at the oceanfront, 23454 in Great Neck and Hilltop, and 23464 in Kempsville. Whichever way you search, the listings come straight from the MLS, and you can register for a free account below to save searches and get new listings by email the day they hit the market. When you’re ready to see a few in person, contact our Virginia Beach Realtor and we will put a tour together.