Winchester, Leesburg...similarities & contrasts? (Richmond, Charlottesville: fit in, apartment, rentals)

[bridgerider]

Thank you! All your replies are important - I appreciate you taking the time to respond. LynchburgLover, I'm so glad you explained about Mt. Weather as I couldn't find it on a search not knowing the name. Always good to be forewarned.

Winchester is definitely on the list for September. I would like to keep my visit to four or five towns in a ten day/2 week priod. I have Leesburg & Fredericksburg also....maybe Warrenton and???

[newnewsmama]

Originally Posted by bridgerider

Thank you! All your replies are important - I appreciate you taking the time to respond. LynchburgLover, I'm so glad you explained about Mt. Weather as I couldn't find it on a search not knowing the name. Always good to be forewarned.

Winchester is definitely on the list for September. I would like to keep my visit to four or five towns in a ten day/2 week priod. I have Leesburg & Fredericksburg also....maybe Warrenton and???

Warrenton is charming. But unlike Winchester, it does not have all the amenities of an independent city. You will have to venture out of the town much more often if you choose to live in Warrenton.

[novanwbie]

Originally Posted by newnewsmama

If you are talking about under two hrs to DC for daily commute, forget about Winchester. Winchester is much further away to DC than Leesburg. Leesburg is in Loudoun county, which is part of NOVA. Winchester is not considered to be in NOVA. Leesburg is also much more expensive than Winchester in terms of housing cost.

If you want convenient access to DC and/or Fairfax, Leesburg is a much better choice. If you are happy to live in an independent city without the need to venture out to NOVA or DC much, Winchester is a charming and much cheaper place to live.

Hi! I agree that Leesburg is much closer, Winchester is 25 miles or so west. However, my husband can leave downtown Falls Church at 4 pm and be out here in about an hour and 15 minutes. To get out to this area on 66 in less than two hours is impossible. Winchester is much cheaper than northern VA, but people are often still surprised at how much it costs to buy a home here. That being said, all your other costs are substantially less, especially if you're in Frederick County. Our taxes are much lower, but the services available are also less. If that doesn't bother you, you may enjoy Winchester. It is a beautiful little town, but can be insular. Depends on what you're looking for. Not very diverse, but Shenandoah University does offer good cultural opportunities, especially for a community this size. Nice medical community, too. A few great restaurants, but shopping leaves a lot to be desired.

Winchester is not really in the mountains, you have to go down to Front Royal to get to Skyline Drive. But don't live there, unless you really want a regressive little town with no amenities. Great place to visit and enjoy the outdoors, but a hard place to live if you come from anyplace bigger or with more diversity or amenities.

This is just personal opinion, but if I had it to do over, I'd pick Leesburg.

[novanwbie]

Originally Posted by Denton56

I love Leesburg, and I like it more than Winchester, but I've only been to Winchester a few times and I'm Leesburg several times a week. You will pay lower taxes, by a lot, if you are in any county in Virginia other than Loudoun.

I beleive our tax rate out here is less than half of Loudoun County's. Easy to verify on the county pages, though. What are you looking for in a community?

[novanwbie]

Originally Posted by LynchburgLover

You are correct about "The Mountain". That reference is to Mount Weather which is on Route 7 at the Clarke/Loudoun county line, just west of Round Hill. It is really just a very large foothill but it can be wicked in bad weather. The fog, ice and snow really mess up traffic because there is really no alternate route. If there is an accident, it will be MILES to go around.

Winchester is at the top of the Shenandoah Valley with emphasis on farming (primarily apples) and manufacturing. It is truly Mayberry with a quaint, rather large, well-preserved Historic District. There are a lot of long-time families that still maintain very active participation in all aspects of City life. The sense of community is very strong. Be sure to use the search function to read other threads about Winchester.

Best of luck.

Hello, fellow Lynchburg lover. I totally agree with your post. This is Mayberry. Great in some respects, and it just depends on what you're looking for. Laid back, yes, dynamic, no.

Rt. 7 is a mess in bad weather, but I certainly wouldn't let it dissuade me from Winchester. As several posters have noted, when 7 is shut down, Leesburg probably is, too. In fact, I've noted in the years I'e lived here that Loudoun County is in a different weather pattern and often gets worse weather than we do. When weather is bad, many people opt for more traveled roads over time and take 66 and 81. Again, that's maybe 2-4 days a year.

[novanwbie]

Originally Posted by newnewsmama

Warrenton is charming. But unlike Winchester, it does not have all the amenities of an independent city. You will have to venture out of the town much more often if you choose to live in Warrenton.

Plus in Warrenton you have to deal with Rt. 29, which is always a mess, then 66. Not a drive I'd take on voluntarily. But Warrenton is beautiful.

[novanwbie]

Originally Posted by bridgerider

Thank you! All your replies are important - I appreciate you taking the time to respond. LynchburgLover, I'm so glad you explained about Mt. Weather as I couldn't find it on a search not knowing the name. Always good to be forewarned.

Winchester is definitely on the list for September. I would like to keep my visit to four or five towns in a ten day/2 week priod. I have Leesburg & Fredericksburg also....maybe Warrenton and???

I'd definitely do Winchester, Warrenton, Leesburg and Fredericksburg. Maybe Culpeper, but it's smaller and more removed than Warrenton. If you're not locked in to VA, I'd add Shepherdstown and Frederick. Maryland has an extensive train system we don't have here. If you have flexibility in how you commute, you might look at that. On the other side, if you want something totally different, you might look over in the Chesapeake Beach, MD area. We can get to Falls Church from the Chesapeake Bay in about an hour and 30 minutes in traffic. And it's really beautiful, but totally different from the mountains.

[bridgerider]

Originally Posted by novanwbie

I beleive our tax rate out here is less than half of Loudoun County's. Easy to verify on the county pages, though. What are you looking for in a community?

Thx for the feedback everyone! I would definitely like to keep my taxes down, but realize that must be tempered with the quality of life I think I can have in VA. Having lived in CO and NY, even the high taxes of Loudoun Cty. won't be a huge shock. I have been flirting with leaving NYS for the past four years & settling somewhere in the mid-Atlantic/south. I have visited VA, NC, & TN several times; planned on checking out northern Georgia (no more)...and finally have narrowed my search to NC (Carrboro, Apex, Holly Springs vicinities), and Virginia.

NC is starting to drop off the list as I fall more and more in love with VA. There is so much I love about Virginia's scenic beauty in all regions, that it took "some" reading and stat reviewing to whittle it down. The huge number of counties (and local laws to each) is a lot to chew; hopefully a few more visits will help me figure out what I want in a community.

But for starters, here is a few of the things I'm looking for:
1) A small home on 1 to 3 acres not too far from the center of town. I have seen a lot on the internet in the Winchester area between $100,000 - 200,000 ... OR....
2) A home in town on a smaller lot that doesn't have my neighbors right on top of me.
I know Leesburg will most likely get crossed off due to $$$, but I want to check it out anyway.
3) Although I want some privacy to my property, I really am a people person and enjoy the small town atmosphere. I read these threads on here and laugh at some of the gripes --- most are things I find pretty cool.

4) Although I could go higher than 200G on a home, I would prefer not to. I am self-employed and will explore freelance work as well as a retail storefront. For this reason I would also be open to live/work combo properties set in a "main street" vibe. Obviously that ups the cost considerably. That scenario would also require a thriving downtown and/or a bustling tourism climate.

[bridgerider]

novanwbie, I honestly did not consider MD. I thought if I kept my search west of D.C., I could take advantage of road trips into the Blue Ridge region yet still be close enough to the shore, DC, & NC to visit friends & entertain family. Hmmm. MD, huh? Thought it was out of my budget.... I will have to read up a bit.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by bridgerider

novanwbie, I honestly did not consider MD. I thought if I kept my search west of D.C., I could take advantage of road trips into the Blue Ridge region yet still be close enough to the shore, DC, & NC to visit friends & entertain family. Hmmm. MD, huh? Thought it was out of my budget.... I will have to read up a bit.

Maryland seems to be cheaper all the way around, except for parts of MoCo (Montgomery County), and Ellicott City in Howard County, which are the two expensive areas.

Frederick County (Maryland) is right next to Loudoun County (Virginia), but significantly less cost. Even moreso, the further westward you go - out towards Hagerstown and Cumberland, it gets much more affordable.

Plus, there is a train that goes from from Frederick into DC, as well as another train that touches upon many of the smaller Maryland towns (Point-of-Rocks, Brunswick, etc.) as it connects with West Virginian towns.

In short, not only is it lower priced that say Loudoun County, but you can take a train right into the city itself. Granted, the trains are more commuter trains. So, you'd have to come into the city coinciding with typical commuter times.

Loudoun County is a really pretty county though, but than again, Frederick County isn't bad either! Rolling hills in both.