Living in Victoria Manor
Victoria Manor sits on East Chancery Lane off East Regency Drive in Smithville, Galloway Township — come off Smithville Boulevard onto Regency and Chancery is the turn. The buildings date to around 1990, and the homes are two-story townhouses running close to fifteen hundred square feet. First thing to get straight: this is not Lake Victoria. Two different communities, two different associations, two different corners of Smithville, and buyers mix them up constantly because of the name.
The reason to look here is the bedroom count. Victoria Manor homes are three bedrooms and two and a half baths, which makes this one of the few attached communities in the Smithville orbit that works for an actual family rather than a couple or a single. Most of what surrounds it — Mallards Landing, Surrey Station and the rest — tops out at two. The three bedrooms are all upstairs, the primary carries its own full bath, and the laundry is on the second floor with them instead of down on the main level. Closet space is generous by the standard of a 1990 townhouse.
Downstairs, the kitchens here are the other draw: eat-in layouts with a center island and a walk-in pantry, which is not something you find in most attached homes of this vintage. The living area is built around a wood-burning fireplace, and the back door opens onto a private patio. Gas heat with central air and ceiling fans, gas cooking, public water and sewer, two assigned parking spaces and no garages. A number of these have been through updated flooring and updated baths; a number have not, and at thirty-five years old the mechanicals are worth a hard look on any home you get serious about.
Now the part that matters most and shows up nowhere on a listing sheet. Victoria Manor sits inside the Towne of Historic Smithville master association, so there are two separate associations, two separate management companies, and two separate monthly bills — the Victoria Manor fee and a much smaller Smithville fee. The MLS gives an agent one field, so the number you see is usually the two added together, sometimes only one of them, and it is not comparable to the community next door. There are also capital contributions owed to both associations at settlement, plus an administration fee and several months of dues prepaid. Ask for all of it broken out, in writing, per association.
And there is a special assessment coming for re-siding the buildings. As of the most recent sales here the association had not yet obtained work bids and nothing was in writing — so the assessment is real, it is coming, and nobody can yet tell you what it costs or how it will be collected. That is not a reason to walk away from a home you like. It is a reason to ask, before you write anything, where the bidding stands, whether your building is in the first phase, and whether the seller is contributing. Buyers who ask that question early do fine here. Buyers who find out later do not enjoy it.
What you get for the Smithville side is the master amenity set — two community pools, a fitness center, a clubhouse, tennis and basketball, playgrounds and walking paths — plus the Historic Village itself minutes away with its shops, restaurants and year-round events. Stockton University, AtlantiCare, the Garden State Parkway, Atlantic City and the beaches are all a short drive. Pets are permitted. To compare Victoria Manor against everything else attached in the township at once, work through the Galloway Township condos page.
