Staunton or Front Royal (Charlottesville: live in, price, bars)

[bmacdo]

Ummm, so anyway, back to Front Royal. I can report that my wife recently had a job offer in Luray which is near Front Royal. We have horses and were looking for a modest home on 10 or more acres. We contacted a realtor and opened things up to a 30 miles radius. She was able to come up with only one listing that was under $400,000, a nasty fixer upper on 13 acres for $395,950 firm. We bailed on the whole idea. It's nice but it's not that freaking nice. Someone mentioned that the prices are beginning to self-correct but not soon enough for us, I guess. Your housing money will go further in Staunton, especially if you want some acreage.

[bluewaterpro]

If you want more liberal go to charlottesville

[Thruway]

Is Front Royal still rural or being sprawled?
I'd think it's be safe.

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by tberg224

Is Front Royal still rural or being sprawled?
I'd think it's be safe.

Eh, from what I can tell the terain doesn't really lend itself to sprawl in Warren County. They may very well try if real estate ever gets going again. They managed to over-build big time just west in Strasburg (IMO) as there are hundreds of houses and mostly townhomes all over the hillsides there.... Just waiting for those prices to plummett....

[Thruway]

Originally Posted by VAFury

Eh, from what I can tell the terain doesn't really lend itself to sprawl in Warren County. They may very well try if real estate ever gets going again. They managed to over-build big time just west in Strasburg (IMO) as there are hundreds of houses and mostly townhomes all over the hillsides there.... Just waiting for those prices to plummett....

Maybe they can never sell and get knocked down, returned to the forest.
Horrible if true they are building Strausburg, is that area still rural with just a few developments?
I thought 66 west of Rt 15 was still way rural and empty of traffic.

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by tberg224

Maybe they can never sell and get knocked down, returned to the forest.
Horrible if true they are building Strausburg, is that area still rural with just a few developments?
I thought 66 west of Rt 15 was still way rural and empty of traffic.

I'd say Strasburg has suffered from more sprawl than Front Royal from what I've seen..... Again, LOT'S of new townhomes around on the hillsides. It's still a cute little town, but......

[loreleibeach]

echomountain~I see you are a VB native. We too are from VB. Have you made it to Staunton? What do you think? We are thirtysomethings with a kindergartner and a college aged child. We have been offered a position there. I'm trying to get excited. Can you help?

[seanpecor]

We spent the night at a great little B&B (Raphine Bed & Bagel) last weekend and spent an evening in Staunton. Staunton has a great historic downtown. Great restaurants. I highly recommend the Pullman Restaurant. Set inside the wonderful historic train station, we enjoyed dinner there and our girls (ages 5 and 7) were mesmerized when a N/S train rolled by, a few feet from the massive stage windows.

My impression of the Staunton area was that it's glory days came and went about 50 years ago. It seems to be holding on thanks to it's tourism draw and the small academic institutions that make their home in the small metro. We drove from one end of the area to the other and possibly the most odd observation I made about the entire Staunton to Waynesboro area was that everyone was largely lower middle class. It was unusual in that way. Most times you drive across a region and you see the rich, the poor, and the in-between. From Staunton to Waynesboro, I saw nothing but blue collar folks. Which is fine, but in my opinion, you need a bit more diversity to sustain economic growth. And since the Staunton metro area is shrinking, my guess is that there are issues yet to resolve.

Sean

[Rhett_Butler]

I think Staunton will be okay because those that seek a more affordable rural-based life can live there and commute to Charlottesville or Harrisonburg.

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by VAFury

I'd say Strasburg has suffered from more sprawl than Front Royal from what I've seen..... Again, LOT'S of new townhomes around on the hillsides. It's still a cute little town, but......

To update.... Front Royal proper is seeing some sprawl, but not in the main area of town. Across the bridges on 340 near I-66 they are building up a lot of businesses and some residential areas...

There's a lot of complaining by some locals, but I think it's neat in a way that they have a natural dividing line (the two forks of the river) between the more historic area of town and the new development.