Moving to Harrisonburg Soon (Roanoke, Staunton: crime rate, houses, public schools)

[OutofFLsoon]

Hello All:

I had previously posted the below questions in the NOVA forum but it was suggested by several people that I repost in the Roanoke forum.

My wife, 10 month old daughter, and I will be moving to the Harrisonburg area in about 3 months due to a government job relocation. I've been doing a lot of research on the area but there I still have some questions that can only be answered by someone who lives there. First of all are the schools. Although it is still several years before my daughter goes to school, it never hurts to plan ahead. Looking at greatschools.net, it appears that most of the public schools are of a decent quality in Rockingham County. Is this true? I'd like some feedback about private vs. public in the area.

As for housing, it seems that you get a good amount of house for the dollar (At least as compared to South Florida). Two areas I've found several houses in are in the Massanutten development and Southeast Rockingham county (Battfield Estates and Lakewood Estates to name two). Any feedback, good or bad on those areas? How is traffic in the Massanutten area during the ski season?

How dog friendly is the area (Dog parks, nice boarding kennels, etc.)? Any good private gun clubs? Are there a lot of kid friendly activities and recreational places in the area?

Thanks in advance for all the great advice I know I'll get.

[Teebyrd86]

hey!best of luck to you in Harrisonburg! My girlfriend went to JMU up there and loved the area. I think you would honestly get more feedback in the general va forum instead of a subforum. Harrisonburg is a good distanst (100 or so miles) from Roanoke. Again best of luck to you!

[Diamond Dave]

I'm a JMU grad--Harrisonburg is def. another community altogether. It's in the Shenandoah Valley--Lexington, Staunton, Winchester, etc. It's about an hour and half from Roanoke.

Best I can tell, it's a great town and is growing rapidly--pop. +/- 40,000. It's a college town (JMU has about 18,000 students), so that means lots of culture and professors with small kids and family stuff. When I was there (coming on 20 years ago), it was safe and quiet and had a nice downtown.

[SV2012]

i dont live in harrisonburg or rockingham county but i know its a neighbor to augusta county (which is great!) so i think they are pretty similar. except i think the crime rate is larger in harrisonburg!