Considering Move- Need Help (Charlottesville, Leesburg: fit in, HOA fees, houses)

[Michele from LI]

My husband and I are considering a move to VA- targeting NOVA and Charlottesville as areas to explore- We live in Long Island , NY now and are looking to get away from the very high taxes and crazy traffic- would like to live in a "suburb" -looking for at least 1/2 acre and no more than 20-25 min to downtown Charlottesville- price range would be 450-500k - I have noticed a lot of people mentioning Crozet which we will check out- What would be considered the next most desirable county to live in outisde of Albermale -where we could still be within a reasonable distance to Charlottesville but have as close of a feel as possible to Albermale-
Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated-

One more question- coming from NY - would it be easy to fit in - honestly?

Thanks for any and all responses

[VaNative]

If you're looking to get away from high taxes and crazy traffic, you can eliminate NOVA as an option. Crozet is nice and not far from Charlottesville. You might also consider Fluvanna or Orange Counties. Housing is more reasonable and the traffic isn't too bad.

[ShadowBat]

Also Greene county just north of Albemarle. Ruckersville is a strip with a new wal mart and Lowes, but not much else. It's experienced a high percentage of growth. Rville is 20 minutes north of Cville. Rt 29 traffic can be bad for Cville standards, but compared with LI, it won't be so bad. And also in Albemarle on Rt 29 around Hollymead is the Forest Lakes subdivision. It's nice but a typical subdivision. You have Target, Harris Teeter and a bunch of other things right there with Hollymead Town Center. Good luck!

[Michele from LI]

Originally Posted by VaNative

If you're looking to get away from high taxes and crazy traffic, you can eliminate NOVA as an option. Crozet is nice and not far from Charlottesville. You might also consider Fluvanna or Orange Counties. Housing is more reasonable and the traffic isn't too bad.

Thanks for the info- Any neighborhood in Fluvanna? We are coming down in a few weeks and just are not sure where to even start looking- We would like neighbors so not too rural but some space as well- maybe 1/2 acre-1 acre -

As far as NOVA we were targeting Leesburg area which we have been told is much less congested than the rest of NOVA but we'll see I guess

[VaNative]

Originally Posted by Michele from LI

Thanks for the info- Any neighborhood in Fluvanna? We are coming down in a few weeks and just are not sure where to even start looking- We would like neighbors so not too rural but some space as well- maybe 1/2 acre-1 acre -

As far as NOVA we were targeting Leesburg area which we have been told is much less congested than the rest of NOVA but we'll see I guess

You might like Lake Monticello. I don't know how large the lots are but it's a gated community and most houses are newer construction.

[SouthCarolinaMoving]

Fluvanna County taxes have been reassessed a number of times and now that the county is in the middle of a huge new high school project (having projected immense growth that didn't occur when the market went flat) they are short of funds and about to raise taxes again. BUT! To compare with Albemarle, it's still a lot less.

Lake Monticello (LM) lots are mostly about 1/3 acres but there are many much larger. There are 4000 homes so there's a lot to choose from and The Acres section are all one acre lots with one street being more grass and cedars and the other street being more deciduous woods. There's also a pond between the two streets, although it's had problems and has been pretty much a mud hole for the past year, but repairs are in progress.

LM is a gated community so you have annual HOA fees and a lot of politics that go along with gated communities. If you're into the amenities, it's probably worth it to you (golf, pools, tennis, clubhouse activities). There's plenty of shopping around since there are 6 shopping centers outside the gates. We live near the Turkeysag gate which has the most options for shopping and the route to Cville is on Hwy. 53, a winding two-lane road but traffic moves steadily along unless there's an accident. It's 25 minutes to downtown Cville, passing Thomas Jefferson's Monticello along the way and beautiful rural scenes. It's truly a lovely drive.

LM has lots of people from LI. The community was orig. "pitched" to LI / NYC residents so there's a lot of NYers here and with the clubhouse activities it is easy to meet folks. There's even a Newcomer's Club, although they've changed the name to Newcomers/Old Friends since the surge in newcomers slowed down a few years ago :-) The people have been very friendly. We came from the south, but it's been super easy to make friends here.

The only thing going on here that is negative is that some of the "city gardeners" expect to grow what they could in their fenced backyard on LI. This is a wooded community and we have lots of wonderful wildlife, although some don't consider it wonderful and have been fighting to get it killed off. That has been very disturbing to us since it splits the community on a very emotional issue. There are wildlife committees, contraceptive and culling (killing with bows and/or guns) and this battle has gone on for about 8 years now.

[Moving on up to C'ville]

We're moving to C'ville this summer from Charleston, SC. One of the areas we were giving some thought to is LM. There are a couple of things that I'm hoping someone can answer for me. 1) In rush hour (7-8:30 am), what is the commute to downtown C'ville? 2) Our Realtor mentioned LM was having some sort of water issue, but she didn't have any details. Can anyone elaborate? Thanks!!

[SouthCarolinaMoving]

Hey, Moving on up to C'ville. We're working on moving to Summerville. Isn't that funny!?

We work at home so don't know about the commute 7-8:30. We have come home in 5:00 traffic from Cville and there's ore traffic than other times of day, but it moves along fine and still feels like a country drive. #2 - water issues - probably about the cost of water. We've had high rates. We fought it for a year and they did lower them and give refunds for previous year. There's no issues as far as having water. If you mean water like in the Lake, they're working on dam repairs and some other lake health issues.

[Moving on up to C'ville]

Thanks South Carolina Moving... We're trying to sell our house in Mt. Pleasant. Can I interest you in it? It's a 5 bed/2 1/2 bath - 2652 sq. ft with an inground, salt water swimming pool. Plus its in the best school district in all of Charleston... ))

[SouthCarolinaMoving]

No luck there. We're sold on Summerville and neither of us have been in a pool for probably 30 yrs. :-)