Why not SWVA?? (Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke: for sale, crime, appliances)

[Thesmokies]

In terms of SW Virginia, what about Abington? Any input as to whether that would be a good retirement town?

[seanpecor]

The cost of living is about 20% lower down here, overall. I know that through first hand experience. Also, the tax impact of Virginia is so much lower than in Vermont, I'm wondering where you retrieved your figures. The personal property tax is basically for your cars and boats, and isn't terribly substantial. Making a Virginia vs Vermont more of a no brainer is that salaries are notably higher down here, so the 20% cost of living decrease is enhanced by a 10-20% increase in pay.

Vermont sales related taxes are all higher, except for food where Vermont has no tax and Virginia has a 2% tax which will drop to 1.5% in July. While Vermont has no personal property tax, the modest personal property tax in Virginia in no way approaches the sales related tax impact of Vermont. This is compounded by the fact that everything in Vermont is more expensive. Food is +/- 20% more expensive in Vermont, due in part to the $0.20 additional diesel tax per gallon but also to a variety of other factors including MUCH higher corporate taxes (that groceries, and merchants have to pay, thus pressuring up product prices to help compensate).

Now, for state income tax, are you ready? Vermont's income tax ranges from 3.6% to 9.5%. Virginia ranges from 2.0% to 5.75%. So your state personal income tax is almost certainly going to be at least 25% lower. It gets better. Vermont has no standard deductions while Virginia has $3,000 for those filing singly, and $5,000 for those filing jointly. AND, Virginians 65 and older are eligible for a $12,000 deduction contingent on a small number of income related factors while Vermont has virtually no retirement income deductions.

Property tax is a killer in Vermont. If you have a house worth $200,000 you're paying $300 a month in Vermont (based on a $1.80 rate). Down here in Franklin County with our $0.52 rate, you're paying $87 a month. That's $3,600 a year versus $1,040. You could own that $200,000 house down here and the personal property tax wouldn't erase the impact of our smaller real estate tax until you parked a $150,000 Lamborghini in the garage!

I'm not giving you any personal information you can't already find online, so I'll use my own personal comparison. Down here, I'll pay $7,800 in reall estate property taxes in 2008. If I still lived in Orwell, I'd be paying $27,000!

[virginia farm girl]

Hi All,

This is my first post!

I moved here, (Willis, VA), a year ago next month from Maine.

Wonderful people, great towns nearby (Roanoke, Floyd, Radford (university town), Blacksburg (university town).

Purchased an older farm house on over 5 acres with l-o-w real estate taxes.

I have wonderful, kind neighbors & my son and I have been welcomed with open arms, even though we are from the north.

I have lived in New York (originally from Long Island), North Carolina, Mississippi, North Dakota, Nevada, California, Arizona, Maine, Pennsylvania, Texas & Nevada.

Although all those state have something to offer, I have found my heaven here!

[seanpecor]

Hey farm girl, you're pretty close to The MacBean Gene (http://themacbeangene.blogspot.com/) (broken link). He and his wife go to church in Willis if memory serves.

[kjuhl]

I've cut and pasted a answer I made to a similar question about healthcare in Southwest Virginia. Hope this helps:

I moved to Claypool Hill 6 years ago. It is different here, but no different than any other place that's new to you and miles from where you came from. As for "shabby" healthcare, I beg to differ. Clinch Valley Medical Center in Richlands is a 200-bed hospital with remarkable offerings for a community this size. Examples? Image-guided IMRT: CVMC was just the fifth hospital in the WORLD to acquire this technology, which is radiation therapy combined with a CT scanner that enables extremely precise positioning to kill cancer while protecting surrounding tissue. A PET/CT fusion scanner, that until recently was only available in large teaching and research hospitals. MRI, nuclear medicine, a medical laboratory with the highest accreditation level. General and specialty surgery including vascular, thoracic, orthopedic microsurgery and urologic laser surgery.

Physician specialties include cardiology, orthopedic surgery, vascular surgery, radiation oncology, pulmonology (w.sleep studies subspecialty), ophthalmology, ENT, neurology -- and on and on. Just about the only services not available are neurosurgery, open heart surgery and transplants.

It's a beautiful area. The people are friendly and for the most part accepting. The cost of living is unbelievable. (The cost of our house here was at least $100,000 less than our similar house in Michigan.) I say: Come here with an open mind and enjoy your stay. There's no traffic congestion, the air is pure, the nights are black and quiet. Jobs are not plentiful, at least not high-paying jobs. But good jobs with benefits are always available because too many people are just not interested in working. (And they're doubly put to shame by the rest of the people who have an amazing work ethic.)

[twogrand]

I would suggest Lee County for a beautiful, mountainous area. There is some mining still , but it is in a remote part of the county. The rest of the county has lovely mountains and valleys. Part of the county has very wide open valleys between the mountains. You can still buy property out in the country there and expect it to remain out in the country for quite a long time. The people are friendly. You can totally forget the 5 last name joke. That is just a cruel joke perpetrated by who knows what kind of people. I know of no incest in Lee County.
Wise County is more mountanous but has a college and more shopping. You will see more mining there. There are also more than 5 last names.
Scott County still has a lot of farm land and is close to Kingsport, TN for specialty doctors, etc. I would recommend any of these three counties. A lot of fine people there.

[milonrex]

We retired to Giles County (30 minutes from Virginia Tech) 2 years ago. We purchased our property 4 years ago. We relocated from southeast VA and we have ties to the University so it was perfect for us.
The mountains are breathtaking and you haven't seen anything as beautiful as the New River Valley in the springtime.
I've lived in Hawaii, Scotland, the western US and Florida and nothing compares to this place - what a jewel.

[dreamofmonterey]

Originally Posted by attica

Eastern TN seems to be booming! Everyone loves the mountains of NC!
But the only people who seem to love SWVA are people looking at maps or computers from far away! It's been described as poor, desperate, polluted, a place people leave, not one they go to. How true is all this? And if it is true(or partly true), why is it that way? How is it that TN and NC seem to be doing so well and SWVA seems to have been left behind?

SW Virginia is beautiful country.

Not sure if there are any jobs there. Drove through Gate City. Abingdon has nice historical neighborhoods. Everything is "nice" until you start looking for jobs.


sunny

[bargainmom]

I'm considering East Tennessee (Knoxville), West NC (Asheville), Raleigh area, and SW Virginia (does Blacksburg count?). I want to live in a place with SOME diversity (husband is Asian, I am white, don't want to be the town freaks) but not the "Diversity" Sean referred to--illegal immigrants overrunning the town taking up all affordable housing and flooding the ER with routine (and free--to them anyway) care. What do you guys think? Much obliged!

[seanpecor]

It would be hard to find another town of 40,000 or less that's as flush with I.T. jobs and ethnic diversity as Blacksburg is. The Indian and Asian population in Blacksburg is appreciable, and there are plenty of interracial couples. Anecdotally speaking, we bought our Blacksburg house from an indian family and when it was put on the market 9 months later, we ended up selling it to an indian family relocating from NJ. The husband had moved to Blacksburg to take an I.T. job with a software development company specializing in the oil industry. Blacksburg is a college town with some of the top engineering minds from India and Asia living there while they earn their B.A. or Masters in I.T./Engineering. Not surprisingly, some stay in Blacksburg to raise a family.

The only shortcoming with Blacksburg that bugged me a little was the lack of cultural events (plays, musicals, concerts, etc). You'll have to drive to Roanoke for most of that. Which if you're living on the south side of Blacksburg isn't much more than a 45 minute drive.

Sean