FIRST-TIME HOME Cara Gambill and Manuel Bawden don’t know each other but were both seeking the same things when they discovered Cornerstone.

Gladys Williams moved around for a decade before finally settling into her dream home in Monarch Walk in Chesapeake’s Western Branch. The disabled Army veteran was unable to find a handicapped-accessible home – or anyone willing to help her build one.

A vacant lot overlooking the Lafayette River at the foot of the Granby Street Bridge is now the site of Tanner's Landing at Riverview, a luxury waterfront condominium in Norfolk.
When developer Tony Collins shared his desire to build the condominum development near the Riverview historic district, he promised the community it would be somewhere he'd live himself. And he does.

  RICHARD SMALLWOOD and his wife, Beth, relish their home with a view of Bennett’s Creek in Suffolk. “It was just like it was advertised,” said Smallwood, 70, the second homeowner in Creekview. The neighborhood, tucked off Bennett’s Pasture Road, contains single-family homes on minimum one-third-acre acre lots. Six have deep water access with piers.

THE NEW  COMMUNITY of Lexington is like three neighborhoods in one.  When completed, it will boast more than 400 townhomes  in three  sections: Bluegrass Park, Nichols Park and Woodland Park.

IT DOESN'T MATTER whether you call it a rebirth or renaissance: The new community of New Port at Victory is fast becoming the sign of things to come in Portsmouth. Developed by Portsmouth Venture One and built by Chesapeake Homes, the planned community occupies the site where Academy Park once stood, just west of Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

An additional 71 houses are going up in northern Suffolk’s Harbour Breeze Estates  as the community enters its second phase. Beco Homes developed the property and built 67 homes during the first phase in 2005. Lifestyle Homes is building the additional single-family dwellings.

A SMALL NEIGHBORHOOD FLOURISHES in the heart of Chesapeake's Greenbrier, where a soybean field once stood. When complete, the new Mars Brothers LLC community of Westchester Estates will feature 33 single-family homes by Ashdon Builders and Graf Construction.

  IF ONLY THE WALLS of each house in Portsmouth's Olde Towne could talk. They'd tell fantastic stories of long-gone days. The quaint city, near the Elizabeth River, has survived wars, fires, plagues and occupations by foreign troops, but it remains a charming reminder of our country's roots.

WHETHER FRED HANDS IS registering new residents or relaxing in his apartment, he feels right at home at The Alexander at Ghent. Not only is the 52-year-old the property manager of the apartment homes , he’s also a resident.