Morgantown (Charleston, Cheat Lake, Buffalo: for sale, house, find a job)

[karma_13612]

Hi all!

My husband and I are planning on moving in the future, around the time of his retirement. We are looking in the areas of the country that don't have harsh winters, or scorching hot summers.

I just checked relocateamerica.com and noticed that Morgantown is in the top 100 cities in america.

So, lets hear from those of you who are familiar with the area! We don't have rose colored glasses on. We want to know the pros and cons so, we welcome useful, informative comments.

Thanks in advance!

[David Kennedy]

Move to Morgantown and live in the 'Thistledown sub-division...as good as it gets...google their website.

[snorpus]

Keep in mind that Morgantown is the home of WVU. So some neighborhoods will be largely student housing.

Other than that, being a university city has a lot of advantages. A lively atmosphere, excellent health care, diverse cultural events. I think if I were to move to any "city" in WV, it would be Morgantown.

[WVUPharm2007]

Morgantown is a great place to live. Growing rapidly, an educated, affluent populace (for WV), close proximity to Pittsburgh - as far as towns go, not much beats it. I'd like to stay, but I can't find a job here. It may be the only town in the US where there isn't a pharmacist shortage....because everyone wants to be here. If I moved to Charleston or Pittsburgh, I'd have my choice of 30 offers. Morgantown? Nothing.

Negatives? Traffic is horrible. I mean HORRIBLE. The kids can get annoying sometimes, but living away from them solves that problem.

If you want to avoid the kids, look in Cheat Lake or Suncrest. If you want extra peace and quiet, look into Preston County - it's starting to take the overfill from Morgantown and is becoming a nice little area itself. The area around Goshen Road is quiet and is starting to build up a little bit, too.

Maybe if you give us a more detailed idea of what you are after, we'd be more able to oblige.

[Reno]

Anyone who has actually lived where traffic is a problem, like DC, Boston, Chicago, NYC, LA, etc. will see that there is no traffic problem in Morgantown. If you are from Dog Patch nowhere you may be mildly annoyed with the 1 or 2 areas that get congested in Morgantown.

[WVUPharm2007]

I lived in Philly one Summer a few years back actually. Honestly, between 4-5PM when the kids are in town it is just as bad as some of Philly. Not as bad as it gets in some places, say 309 North, but very bad nonetheless Right now there is no traffic because the kids are away. God I love Summer in MoTown. But I've sat in one place for over 10 minutes before to only move 50 yards....and stop again for 10 minutes. The roads leading away from the hospital....so ungodly annoying.

[appalachiangirl]

Morgantown is a nice area,but winters do get cold and it does snow (don't know what you'd consider a lot though--it's nowhere near the amount of,say,Buffalo,NY or Cleveland or the upper midwest.)Summers aren't too bad. It does get a bit humid at times but the fact that its surrounded by mountains offsets this. The employment situation in WV isn't the best in the country,but Morgantown is one of the better places in WV to find work I'd say. I don't think the traffic is that bad overall. I lived in Maryland and the traffic was worse (not DC either).

[vec101]

Traffic - At times there is a "standstill" on the main roads (especially on the days the students return to WVU). The good thing is that after a while you learn what back streets to take to avoid the mess. Not like in CrossLanes, WV - when the grade schools are in session, during rush hour it takes about 20 minutes to go 2 miles.

I really like MoTown:
Great location (close to Pittsburgh, not too far to skiing at Wisp or Canaan, I-79 and I-68 provide easy access to other areas)
Cheat Lake provides boating fun
Great paved walking trails along the river
College town so there's all the advantages and disadvantages associated with that
Always some kind of entertainment, concerts, etc going on
Summers with great weather but not the high humidity of Charleston area
Winters not horrible but MoTown can get some good snows and some roads can get pretty slick (son's buddy lived at the crest of a hill on VanVoorhis - on bad snowy days the crest got slick - the boys would entertain themselves by watching the cars trying to get up the hill. Of course they would laugh like fools at some people. Aw, you gotta love college boys. Wrecker would just sit there waiting to pull the next car out of the ditch).
Won't find many flat roads or side streets.
Lot of stores and restaurants.

Football Saturdays - Go WVU Mountaineers!!!! During home games, MoTown becomes the largest city in WV. There are tailgate parties everywhere!!! Love WV - you can go to any town or "holler" in WV and see signs of WVU pride. Go shopping and the guys are huddled around the TVs for sale watching the game or its blasting on the store's PA system.

This is no lie - most people I know look at the WVU football schedule before they plan a fall wedding or other fall event. If you plan an event during a home football game, many people will not attend because they are going to the game or watching it on TV.

[BJC]

VEC101 How true about the WVU games, I planed a party with out checking the schedule and WVU and Marshall were playing. My guests were upset, and I did not have cable at the time! So what do we do, bring the TV to the yard, as the neighbors if we can run a cable from there house to the TV in the yard. Thanks goodness I invited them to the party, they said yes, and we had the game on, great party every one was happy!

[NOVAmtneer82]

I absolutely loved Morgantown when I was in school but to be perfectly honest wouldn't really recommend living there. It is indeed a very large college town which is awesome...when you are in college. Morgantown is growing at a fairly steady pace, I certainly wouldn't consider it "booming" but sometimes that can be a bad thing.

What do you do for a living? It can be rather hard to find jobs in Morgantown unless you are an academic, researcher, or work in the medical field (aside from pharmacy I guess). Morgantown does have a decent amount of job growth when compared to everywhere else in West Virginia but not really when you stack it up against the nation as a whole. Decent but again not exactly a job surplus.

The best thing about Morgantown in my opinion is WVU FOOTBALL, I live in the DC area but try to make it to nearly every home game. I love the festive atmosphere, tailgating, visiting college haunts, etc.

The worst thing in my opinion is the weather. Morgantown is downright depressing in the winter, it seems like the sun NEVER shines. People act like I'm crazy for saying that but I can't count how many times I've left DC with clear blue skies and gotten up to Morgantown and its cloudy, cold, and dreary.

Traffic is not an issue in Morgantown as far as I'm concerned. There might be one or two bad spots when the students are in town but honestly I would LOVE LOVE LOVE some Motown traffic here in the gridlocked DC area. Seriously if you are from a small town I could see how it would seem bad, but let's get real, it doesn't even relate to any decent sized locale.

I just can't really recommend Morgantown as a retirement destination, the two just don't seem to fit. Based on your limited criteria I would look into perhaps the Eastern Panhandle of WV (Shepherdstown in particular), the Smith Mountain Lake/Roanoke VA area, or the Eastern Shore in MD.