202 Chelmsford Way is a five-bedroom, four-bath single-family home in Meredith Woods — a well-established Newport News subdivision where the square footage tends to run generous and the lots have had three decades to grow into themselves. At 3,300 square feet on a 0.21-acre lot, this 1989-built property sits comfortably in the category of homes that can actually fit a real family without anyone sharing a bathroom they didn't agree to share.
Meredith Woods occupies a quiet corner of central Newport News that most people drive past without realizing how much house is tucked behind the tree lines. The subdivision developed primarily in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which means the homes here have architectural bones that newer construction often skips — varied rooflines, traditional layouts with defined rooms, and mature landscaping that took decades to look this good. Streets in Meredith Woods tend to be calm and residential in character, the kind where neighbors actually know each other's names, and the overall density is low enough that the neighborhood doesn't feel like a grid.
There is no HOA here, which is either a relief or a mild concern depending on your philosophy about lawn upkeep. In practice, Meredith Woods homeowners have generally maintained their properties well without a committee telling them to. The subdivision sits close enough to Warwick Boulevard and Jefferson Avenue to make errands genuinely convenient, but far enough removed from the commercial corridors that the residential feel is intact. For buyers interested in MEREDITH WOODS homes, the combination of square footage, lot size, and no HOA overhead is a relatively rare package in this part of the city.
Living in Newport News, VA
Newport News is a city that rewards buyers who do their homework. It stretches roughly 25 miles from the James River waterfront up through the Denbigh corridor, and the character shifts meaningfully as you move through it. The central and north-end neighborhoods — where Meredith Woods sits — offer some of the best value-per-square-foot ratios among homes for sale in Newport News VA, particularly for buyers who want established neighborhoods with mature trees and room to spread out.
The city's economic foundation is unusually stable by regional standards. Newport News Shipbuilding, one of the largest private employers in Virginia, anchors the south end and supports a consistent workforce housing market across multiple price points. Add Fort Eustis to the north and you have two major demand drivers that tend to keep the local market from the dramatic swings that affect more speculative markets. The result is a city where buying a home feels less like a gamble and more like a reasonable long-term decision. Newport News also has a genuine arts and culture presence — the Mariners' Museum and Park, the Virginia Living Museum, and the Ferguson Center for the Arts at Christopher Newport University all sit within the city, giving it more cultural infrastructure than its price point might suggest.
What's Nearby
The immediate surroundings of 202 Chelmsford Way are notably practical. A Food Lion sits roughly half a mile away, which is close enough to make a quick grocery run without much planning. For a different kind of errand, a Starbucks is about six-tenths of a mile up the road — not quite walkable on a cold morning, but a short drive that barely requires leaving the neighborhood mentally.
Dinner options within the same half-mile radius are genuinely varied for a suburban stretch. Okinii Hibachi and Sushi handles the Japanese end of things, Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant covers the other side of the Pacific, and Dairy Queen is there for when the decision-making process breaks down entirely. That's a reasonable Tuesday night rotation without touching a highway on-ramp.
Planet Fitness is about seven-tenths of a mile away, which is close enough that the "I'll go later" excuse requires some creativity. Peninsula Memorial Park sits at roughly the same distance and offers green space that doesn't require a car to reach — useful for a household with five bedrooms' worth of people who occasionally need to be outdoors. The broader Warwick Boulevard corridor adds additional retail, dining, and service options within a short drive, and Christopher Newport University's campus is close enough to give the area a mild collegiate energy without the parking chaos of a major university town.
Commuting to Joint Base Langley-Eustis (Fort Eustis)
At approximately 11 minutes and 5.7 miles, 202 Chelmsford Way sits in a genuinely convenient position relative to Fort Eustis — the Army installation that anchors the northwest edge of the Hampton Roads military footprint. That drive time holds up well even during moderate traffic, which is a meaningful distinction in a region where "close to base" can sometimes mean "close to base in theory, before everyone else leaves at the same time."
Fort Eustis is home to the 7th Transportation Brigade and several Army aviation units, and it draws a mix of junior enlisted families, mid-grade NCOs, and officers at various career stages. The PCS cycle here tends to bring families who need real square footage — not a two-bedroom apartment — and who are often weighing the rent-versus-buy calculation carefully given typical tour lengths. A five-bedroom, four-bath home at this distance from the gate is exactly the kind of property that shows up on a lot of military family wish lists, particularly for households with multiple kids or a need for a dedicated home office or guest room.
For anyone PCSing to Joint Base Langley-Eustis (Fort Eustis), the Meredith Woods area offers a practical base of operations: close enough to the installation to make the daily commute genuinely easy, and positioned in a part of Newport News with solid access to shopping, dining, and the broader Peninsula road network. I-64 is accessible nearby, which opens up both Norfolk and Richmond as reasonable destinations when duty or curiosity calls.
A Walk Through the Property
Built in 1989, 202 Chelmsford Way reflects the architectural sensibility of that era in the best ways — traditional form, defined interior spaces, and construction that was built to last rather than built to photograph. At 3,300 square feet, the layout has enough room to support five genuine bedrooms without any of them feeling like an afterthought. Four full baths across a home this size means the morning routine doesn't require a scheduling app.
The 0.21-acre lot is a workable size — large enough for outdoor use without becoming a weekend landscaping project that consumes all available free time. The property type is single-family residential, with the structural independence that implies: no shared walls, no common areas, no neighbors whose renovation decisions affect your ceiling. The 1989 build date puts the home in a generation that typically features solid framing, real wood in places where newer construction uses composites, and room configurations that actual humans designed for actual human use rather than for staging photographs.
A Day in the Life at 202 Chelmsford Way
A weekday morning here starts with a short drive to Starbucks or, if the budget is feeling practical, a stop at the 7-Eleven that's about the same distance. The Food Lion proximity means grocery runs happen on the way home rather than requiring a separate expedition. An evening workout at Planet Fitness is genuinely achievable because it's close enough that the commute doesn't become the excuse not to go.
Weekends open up the broader Peninsula — the Mariners' Museum for something educational, the James River waterfront for something scenic, or the Newmarket North shopping area for something entirely commercial. The house itself, with five bedrooms and four baths, has enough room to host comfortably, which means the social calendar can include overnight guests without anyone sleeping on a sectional.
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**For military families considering this address.** The math here is straightforward: 11 minutes to Fort Eustis, five bedrooms, four baths, no HOA, and a neighborhood that has housed military families through multiple PCS cycles without losing its appeal. For a family weighing whether to buy or rent during a Peninsula assignment, a home this size at this distance from the gate tends to make the ownership case fairly clearly. The Meredith Woods location also puts you close to the I-64 corridor, which keeps Langley Air Force Base and Naval Station Norfolk within a reasonable drive for dual-military households or future reassignments.
**For Hampton Roads families upgrading from a starter home.** Moving from a three-bedroom to a five-bedroom is a different category of decision, and 202 Chelmsford Way makes the case for doing it in an established neighborhood rather than a new development. The square footage is there, the lot is manageable, and the absence of an HOA means the monthly overhead stays cleaner. Meredith Woods has the kind of neighborhood stability that comes from three decades of homeownership rather than three years of turnover.
**For first-time buyers exploring Newport News.** If your search for houses for sale in Newport News VA has been landing you mostly in the two- and three-bedroom range, a property like this one is worth understanding as a ceiling benchmark — it shows what the market can offer at the upper end of the established-neighborhood inventory. Newport News rewards buyers who look past the surface-level price comparisons and dig into square footage, lot size, and neighborhood trajectory. Meredith Woods is a good example of what value actually looks like in this city.
**For buyers comparing late-1980s homes in Newport News.** The 1989 vintage puts 202 Chelmsford Way in a generation of construction that tends to be underrated. These homes were built before the cost-cutting measures that crept into residential construction in the 1990s and 2000s, and they typically feature more generous room proportions than either older historic homes or newer production builds. Buyers comparing this era against new construction should weigh the trade-offs honestly: newer homes offer warranties and modern finishes; homes like this one offer established neighborhoods, mature trees, and layouts designed when square footage was actually used rather than staged.
Tom and Dariya Milan at LPT Realty know the Newport News market from the waterfront to the Denbigh corridor, and they're happy to talk through what 202 Chelmsford Way means for your specific situation — whether you're PCSing, upgrading, or buying for the first time. Reach out through vahome.com or give them a call to set up a walkthrough.
Summary generated by AI from public records and publicly available information.
