Considering Relocating to VA (Norfolk, Roanoke: 2009, to rent, crime rate)

[sweetmichelle28CT]

Hi everyone. My Fiance and I are considering relocating to VA in a year or so. We are coming from CT where the cost of living is very high and it is just way too over crowded. We are looking for a safe small town with good schools. I have a 6 year old son that is having difficulty with reading, so a school with excellent reading programs and or turtoring would be great. My Fiance have his Class A CDL, so he can drive just about anything. Right now he is driving a car carrier and hauls cars to autions and dealerships. He makes $800 a week. Are there any good trucking jobs in VA? I work as a dietary aide right now, don't make nearly as much as him. But when we relocate he will be the only one working until I am able to find a job within my son's school hours. I don't want to live close to DC and I don't want to live anywhere that has a lot of natural disaters, like tornados! I was looking into the SW part of Virginia. Also I would love to live in a town that offers lots of activities for kids and and is family orientated, seeing how my son is an only child. We would be renting. We would prefer to rent a house. 2-3 bedroom, no more than 1200, less would be great. We have a siberian husky pup so a pet friendly place would be great too. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

[sweetmichelle28CT]

Also, I wanted to add that my son has asthma and allergies, so if anyone can recommand some good pediatricians that would be great too.

[seanpecor]

I'd certainly look into the town of Rocky Mount in Franklin County, Virginia. It's a small town, population 4,500 or so, but since it is the county seat it serves a population of about 51,000 so there are larger town resources for families (a massive YMCA with two buildings on 40 acres w/ one building dedicated to just kids 12 and under, Super Walmart, Lowes, chain stores, boutiques). Franklin County schools are quite good, and have been improving steadily over the past 10 years as the county tax base and population grows. Franklin County has about half of the the 500 miles of Smith Mountain Lake shoreline so the incoming retirees and vacation home crowd have significantly boosted the funding available for schools.

I imagine there are alot of trucking jobs in our area. We're on the Route 220 corridor which connects the Triad and Greensboro NC areas to I-81, and close to Norfolk Southern's Roanoke Shops, and close to the impending construction of NS's intermodal rail facility in Elliston. There may even be job openings in the area for dietery aides. Not sure about that though.

A friend of mine moved from Michigan and just landed a job as a computer assisted reading tutor in Franklin County for the Gereau Center (The Gereau Center for Applied Technology and Career Exploration).

Rocky Mount has Franklin Memorial Hospital - part of the Carilion family (www.carilion.com) - and there are many Carilion medical clinics in the county. With Carilion and the independent clinics you have a significant medical community at hand. Carilion is based in Roanoke (35 minutes north of the town of Rocky Mount) where there are a vast number of specialists including allergists.

Sean

[sweetmichelle28CT]

Thanks Sean for all the info. That really helped a lot. Would you mind if I contacted you if I have anymore questions? I've read a lot of your posts and you seem to know a lot about the area. Edith- I would have to talk to my Fiance, but I believe we won't be making the move till summer of 2009, but thanks for the offer.

[Marley2984]

Consider Crozt VA. It's just outside Charlottesville and at the base of the Blue Ridge mountains. Have the bennies of Charlottesville but the beauty of the mountains. I just got transferred unfortunatly to the DC area so I have to rent my townhouse. I just posted another thread on it, but do a search on Old Trail and the townhouse is in there.

[sweetmichelle28CT]

Originally Posted by Marley2984

Consider Crozt VA. It's just outside Charlottesville and at the base of the Blue Ridge mountains. Have the bennies of Charlottesville but the beauty of the mountains. I just got transferred unfortunatly to the DC area so I have to rent my townhouse. I just posted another thread on it, but do a search on Old Trail and the townhouse is in there.

Thanks Marley. I will check into Crozt VA too. We prob won't be making the move till the summer of 2009, so I'm sure your town house will prob be rented way before then, but thanks anyways. Everyone has been so nice and helpful.

[seanpecor]

I missed your followup question until now, oops! Yes, feel free to contact me with any questions. You can reach me here via PM or you can email me through the forum.

Cheers,

Sean

[PA girl in VA]

My advice is to stay away from the city of Danville and South central Virginia in general unless you can secure jobs before moving. I've found that much of the area is economically depressed and Danville does not have a lot of cultural events. The schools have caring teachers who really try (at least in Pittsylvania County), but funding is lower and so are resources. I've heard some nice things about Lynchburg. I've also heard nice things about the town of Culpeper and the outlying areas of Charlottesville and Roanoke (although from what I heard, you probably don't want to live in the city because of crime). If you look into these areas though, be prepared for a higher cost of living. Harrisonburg and Rockingham County area is very nice. Harrisonburg is the home of James Madison University. The cultural influence of the college really filters into the outlying areas.

[seanpecor]

Roanoke City has plenty of good neighborhoods with little to no crime. There are certain neighborhoods that experience higher crime, that's to be sure, but it is not a pervasive problem. In fact were I city person I would most certainly choose to live in the Roanoke City limits rather than Roanoke County or surrounding urban neighborhoods.

The cost of living in the Roanoke area is not appreciably higher than the costs in South Central Virginia, and in Roanoke folks tend to have many more economic opportunities. And as for the most recent inquiry in this thread, the cost of living in Connecticut is possibly higher than it is in Northern Virginia

Sean

[sweetmichelle28CT]

Originally Posted by seanpecor

Roanoke City has plenty of good neighborhoods with little to no crime. There are certain neighborhoods that experience higher crime, that's to be sure, but it is not a pervasive problem. In fact were I city person I would most certainly choose to live in the Roanoke City limits rather than Roanoke County or surrounding urban neighborhoods.

The cost of living in the Roanoke area is not appreciably higher than the costs in South Central Virginia, and in Roanoke folks tend to have many more economic opportunities. And as for the most recent inquiry in this thread, the cost of living in Connecticut is possibly higher than it is in Northern Virginia

Sean

I'm sure Sean is right. The cost of living any where in VA is probably lower than CT, and I'm sure the crime rate would significally be lower too.