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Major stress- renting!
DH is transferring to VA in a few weeks. We are upside down in our house here by $30,000. We are going to have to rent it out. Houses in VA are much more expensive than here. We hope we can get $1200 mo from our house here but I want our next house to be less expensive- around $800 month so we can save some money to pay down our current house. Unfortunately, there is not much we can get for that price. We currently have a fairly new construction fenced .25 acre, 2 car garage, 3bd, 2bathrooms. The best we can get in VA is 3 bd, 1 bath, no garage, from the 1960s, small yard or no yard. 
Also, I may not be able to work right away. Education jobs, especially school counselor jobs, are slim pickin's there. I'm FREAKING out about how we are going to do this.
I'm terrified to leave my good paying job for a poor job market. I'm terrified about renting a "dump" when we have a nice house here. We are doing it because of the crime rate here and we don't want DS to grow up here. BUT this is SO hard.
Please tell me how I can make this work. Oh, yeah, we also have to give up one of our dogs to make this work
I can't handle all these changes and it doesn't seem like it's for the better at this point.
Re: Major stress- renting!
We were in a similar situation couple months back. We rented out our home due to the market and moved to an area that was more expensive. My job was suppose to start right away, but paperwork dragged it out for 1-2 months! And yes I was not happy about moving from a really nice house into a more expensive rental condo. But we made it work and I am finally working. The housing situation is not ideal and I do not like being landlords, but I figure it cannot last forever!
I agree with what all the other PPs said. If you think the job market is that bad where you're moving, maybe you can stay where you are temporarily. It's not ideal, but at least you have 2 incomes. And like the other PP said, where in VA are you moving to? If it's NoVA, $800 a month will give you a crappy house in a bad neighborhood. If it's central VA, yes there are houses built in the 1960s, but I personally prefer older houses as long as they were kept up. We had a house that was built in the 1950s. Lots of character and charm and the structure of the house is more sound than any houses built nowadays.
Concentrate on the positives ... you are moving to an area with less crime that is a better place for your child to grow up. That's worth something. You might get one less bathroom or have to give up a garage, but it must be worth it if you're making this move. There are some homes from the '60s that have been well maintained and aren't going to be dumps.
Why do you have to give up a dog? I don't get how that fits in. Are there breed restrictions in the area you're moving to? If you have multiple dogs and can keep at least one, why not keep all the dogs?
Mr. Sammy Dog
It's the Roanoke area. There are a few in the price range of 8-950 that we will look at on Friday. But only a few will let us have dogs. None of the apartments we are looking into will allow two dogs in their weigh- one is 70 lbs, one is 45 lbs. The smaller one is a terrier mix but really she's part pit bull. Most places have breed restrictions on top of the weigh limit so we are going to give her to my in-laws.
I've thought about staying here and it wouldn't be an issue except we have an 18 month old and I don't know how I can do it alone here. We don't have any family to help. We have only a few friends and our closest, most trusted friend is about to have another baby so she can't help as much with DS. I would have to have DS at daycare at 6:30 in the morning for me to get to work on time, work all day and deal with him on my own day in, day out.
I'm going to do it temporarily but I don't know that I can do it until May. I'm not even sure I can do it until December.
Please cross your fingers for us to find a place on Friday.