Charles Town, Wv - Advice on neighborhoods or any info! (Martinsburg: for sale, houses)

[Mike A.]

My wife and I are looking to move to Charles Town next year. We are going to put our house on the market around March in hopes to sell it in a few months. We would prefer a newer home no more then $450k. I'm wondering of all the different developments that I see when searching online which are the nicer ones. What we are looking for is a neighborhood that is good for families and around nice schools. I would like to have a decent size lot (.5 acres) but not be in a neighborhood without any trees. The ones that used to be farmers fields.... We are starting our family so I know we will have a kid/kids in elementary school while living in our next house (most likely). Also I work in Herndon, are there certain areas around Charles Town that have easier access for commuters? I have the option of coming to work pretty early (at the office by 5:30) so traffic shouldn't be too much of an issue. Right now I am commuting 52 miles and coming down 95s and around the dreaded beltway so anything will be an improvement.

Basically any info on Charles Town would be great!

[billscamaros]

well, i think that my neighborhood choices would be locus hill, cloverdale heights or quail run (summit point). all three are south of charles town, and offer easy access to rt 340.

i commute to herndon/tysons on a daily basis, and prefer driving rt 340 to rt 7 (mostly four lane) over coming in on rt 9 (two lane). i specifically looked at the southern part of charles town when i moved there for just this reason.

cloverdale is right off of rt 340 south of charles town, mostly 1+ acre lots in a former apple orchard. quail run is slightly west of rippon, a little further south of charles town, also consisting of 1+ acre lots. locust hill lots would be close to .5 acres, i would guess. a little more neighborhoody in my mind.

my commute time to herndon is about an hour, leaving home at roughly 4:45 am. tysons is about 15 mins further. it seems early, but you're certainly not on the road by yourself at this time!! there is traffic, but it's flowing pretty well. assuming that you'll utilize the greenway and/or toll road, the homeward commute isn't bad. traffic always backs up in leesburg at the intersection of rt 7 and the greenway westward.

charles town is a nice place to live. still lacking alot of the conveniences, but with alot of expansion happening now.

i've lived in both cloverdale and quail run. at this point, with kids in the school systems, i think that i would look at locust hill first.

good luck.

[Mike A.]

Thanks a lot! That's the kind of info that I am looking for. 4:45am isn't too early for me. I usually leave at 4:30am. How is the commute home time wise? Leaving Herndon about 2-2:30? Also, what is the name of the elementary school that kids in Locust Hill go to?

Thanks
-Mike

[billscamaros]

i would guess that you'll encounter very few traffic problems with leaving herndon that early. you might even consider using rt 7 once or twice to see if there are congestion problems that early ..... that way you could avoid the greenway tolls.

i travel the toll road/greenway between 4 and 5 pm, and generally make it to charles town within 75 mins.

i'm unsure of the elementary school that services the locust hill development. page jackson or wright denny ??

[memiller]

You're in good shape for your move. $450,000 can go a long way in Jefferson County. There are actually options, affordable options, for buying a lot and building your own home. You may end up spending 10% more, but you'd have everything you want. Commuting that early won't be bad. I've gone from Leesburg to Charles Town in the evening in 45 minutes. If you're traveling off peak hours, it may actually be a bit of a peaceful ride. The earlier comments are good and should be taken to heart. Most of the people moving to Charles Town are coming from NoVa, specifically Ashburn/Sterling area so you'll encounter folks similar to you with respects to families and commutes. Consult a realtor with knowledge of both areas so you can gain a good understanding of the commute and things of the such.

[bizzbot]

We used to live halfway between Charles Town and Inwood. Please see the response I posted about Harpers Ferry, WV on page 1, because I think it would apply here! Though of course in Charles Town itself you are closer to Winchester and Martinsburg than any of the other towns I mentioned for quick conveniences if you're not going to be commuting out to nova that day.
Man, if you have 450K to work with, you can get a nice house. Might I also recommend Shepherdstown, it also has some beautiful areas with lots of trees. I haven't lived in CT for about 1.5 years and I am sure that in that short time there is already tons more new construction, as when I left that's mainly what i saw there, but again, not sure if you'd be into it bc of the no tree factor. The harpers ferry area might have more to offer or like the other people said summit point or some of the houses off of leetown rd seemed pretty. For your price range for something really cute maybe you'd also like Berryville. I worked there and it is so pretty and quaint. Clarke county has some of the most highly rated schools, and the county has some kind of ordinances that control the growth, so it's very desireable.

The best thing I liked about CT, walking in the cute little downtown area and going to Jumpin Java, their coffee shop and also the diner. It was fairly close to other cities where there was more stuff going on. Commuting to DC for me was mainly done from Berryville where I worked, so not sure about that. KINGS PIZZA was the best family-style italian food I've had.

Lowlights....Charles Town can get kind of boring and you kind of crawl out of your skin to leave there sometimes, but you're commuting so that probably won't be a prob. Also...the racetrack. I'm not much of one for the slots or horse racing so I can pretty much say that the main attraction in Charles Town does not do it for me at all.

[MTN]

[quote=bizzbot;The harpers ferry area might have more to offer or like the other people said summit point or some of the houses off of leetown rd seemed pretty.
QUOTE]
I see some houses for sale and under construction about two miles from the racetrack (Summit Point). Does anyone have experience with noise from the track? How often do they have races? I know there is high speed pursuit training and that kind of thing at the track during the day, but I don't think that would cause noise 2 miles away. I've heard that you can hear the racing noise from the track all the way down to Route 7, but how noisy is it?

[Mike A.]

Thanks for all the info! I think Charles Town is the furthest that I am willing to commute. I love Harpers Ferry but that is way to far. My wife and I are going to come out soon and start checking Charles Town out.

[snorpus]

Summit Point is a sports car, road-racing course, so most of the engines will be small displacement, high RPMs, not the low-pitched rumbling of stock cars. At two miles, I would think it might sound like a chain saw at a distance.

Plus the track isn't lighted, so the racing would usually be over by 6pm or so. Summit Point probably schedules 6-8 weekends of SCCA racing a year. Checking their schedule (link), this year they have 3 SCCA Regionals and 1 Drivers School scheduled in the August-October time frame. They also have "marque" weekends (BMWs, Porsche, Ferrari, etc.), but those cars are usually muffled and aren't always pushed to the limit.

Snorpus

[billscamaros]

i've lived here for about 6 years now, and both of the houses that i've lived in have been only a few miles from summit point raceway.

when the cars are running, you'll notice a quiet drone sound at the distance. certainly nothing that i've ever considered obnoxious or overly loud.