Moving from California to West Virginia (Charleston, Huntington: mortgage, equity, relocation)

[Rhinemaiden]

Me and my family are looking to move to West Virginia.I am a housewife and mother and my husband is a bricklayer and cement finisher.Could anyone tell me where there might be work like that.Also I have two children in elementary school and we are looking for somewhere where rent is under 600.00.

[Silkdashocker]

Any specific region in WV you are looking to move to? I'm sure you can find a place to rent for under $600 and have more than 1 br, will just have to look.

As for jobs in masonry. I'm sure there are plenty of construction companies looking to hire a good hard working mason in the summertime.

If you can give us more details, i'm sure many of the posters on this forum would be glad to help.

[snorpus]

Off the top of my head, I'd say to look in the Morgantown-Fairmont-Bridgeport corridor along I-79, and the Charleston-Huntington area along I-64.

The EP (Eastern Panhandle) has a lot of construction, but housing prices are higher because of the closeness to the DC-MD-NoVA market.

[citybilly]

I second what snorp said. I don't have any specific info, but would think fairmont would be good. First of all, if a bricklayer wanted to work for himself, there are endless opportunities just repairing crumbling, and leaning block walls in driveways and frontages. I would be all over that, if I knew how to do the work. And wasn't too old. And lazy. There is a lot of home construction ,too. Not visible from the main roads, because they are hollowing out wooded areas and putting up mcmnsion villages. I guess that's why the older homes in town are sitting empty, and rent is pretty cheap. If you don't get a better lead, it's something to consider.

[tbailey1138]

I highly recommend the Huntington area. Huntington is the second largest city in the state and there are a lot of areas of new/renovated construction here including new housing and the downtown area. The area also provides a lot of things to do and has a lot of good programs for kids through various outlets like the local library, the museum of art, Marshall University and various kids activities through other businesses and the city. They are also in the process of doing a $300,000+ addition onto the playground at Ritter Park which is the nicest of the many city parks here. Housing here is also a great deal and Huntington was named by Forbes as having the best cost of living in the entire nation. If you want to see the area before visiting, go rent "We are Marshall" as most of the movie was filmed here. Here are some links that you might find helpful. Let me know if you need anything else.
Tim
City of Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington, WV Online
Huntington, West Virginia (WV) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news, sex offenders
#100 Huntington WV - Forbes.com
Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District
Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV
Pullman Square - Restaurants Shopping Entertainment
http://www.huntingtonmall.com/home/index.ch2
Marshall Movie Homepage
New Playground being built for Children of all Ages and Abilities
New Festival Coming to Downtown Huntington

[WVUPharm2007]

If you work in any sort of construction trade, Morgantown and the Eastern Panhandle shall be your West Virginian meccas for the foreseeable future. They are building crap everywhere. I'm not sure if you can find something for a family in town for $600 in Morgantown though. Everyone wants to move here, thus prices are exorbitant by WV standards. I think the Eastern Panhandle is a bit more reasonable. Other locales where you might find work would be your larger cities like Huntington, Charleston, Parkersburg, Wheeling, maybe Beckley and Clarksburg, too.

Tell us more about what you want. Do you want to be near a major city? A major airport? Lakes? Mountains? Urban or rural? Do you want to hear Southern accents every time you go out? Whatever floats your boats....tell us and we'll help you narrow down your options....

[David Kennedy]

Live in Fairmont and work in Morgantown...17 miles north...no end to the construction work..$0.60 /$1 per brick...$2.00/$2.50 per concrete block...shortages everywhere.

[Rhinemaiden]

Originally Posted by Rhinemaiden

Me and my family are looking to move to West Virginia.I am a housewife and mother and my husband is a bricklayer and cement finisher.Could anyone tell me where there might be work like that.Also I have two children in elementary school and we are looking for somewhere where rent is under 600.00.

My husband and I are looking for an old house to rent, two bedrooms or more.We would love to live in the mountains, and or rural area but still close enough to a large city where work is available. We are an "outdoors family" so rural is preferred. We live now in a mountainous valley with some good fishing, but the weather is becoming too HOT!!! as well as CA politics. We want better for our children. As for masonry/concrete, it sounds to be seasonal. Is this true??? What would a mason do during the off-season??? My husband thought of a warehouse job because it's year round. Not sure if we could survive on that kind of salary or not, but a job is a job and something to get on our feet.

[Silkdashocker]

If your husband is skilled in labor, there will always be something for him to do in WV. That seems to be one area where people in WV never have trouble finding work.

WV has an increasing senior citizen population, and alot of those folks are unable to do repair work on properties and businesses, you can always find work doing repair type of work.

During winter months, a 2nd part time job may be needed for a mason, i'm just not sure though. If your husband has a good work ethic, he will be just fine.

[harborlady]

Everything people have said above makes perfect sense to me, but below are some practical tips from a newcomer to WV.

Here are newspapers for martinsburg.
Journal News
Martinsburg News - Topix

Morgantown
htthttp://www.topix.net/city/morgantown-wv/
p://www.da.wvu.edu/

fairmont
The Times West Virginian - Local News

charleston
http://wvgazette.com/

huntington
News - Huntington, WV - The Herald-Dispatch

beckley
The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia - News

The classifieds are a wealth of information and you should be able to find your affordable rentals there. Most advertised places (google search apartments) offer apartment complexes that are more high end than the housing situation you're seeking. When I signed up for the smartie listings in charleston, for instance, I got a much more realistic feel for what real estate was available, and what the real prevailing market prices were. Invaluable tool to me, but not sure if other newspapers have that same service feature with their classified ads.

You're giving mixed messages as to your husbands proffession. Is he in the union or not? Here's the link for unions, you might call there and find out if they have work posted for union members there. Sitemap - International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craft Workers in WV Union,Labor Union, Union Members, Union Directory, Union Member Discounts If he's not a union member, I doubt highly it will exclude him from working elsewhere because as DK said, there is a shortage of craftsman in some areas.

By and large I found as a newbie to WV its very affordable to live here if you avoid new construction areas in your housing search. If you've got equity in the house where you're living now, it could translate to owning a house outright here in WV- no mortgage at all. Handyman specials can be picked up for as little as $30k. Yes, things get done differently in WV, and many of the services you may have gotten used to elsewhere don't exist, but that's why taxation is at a dull roar here. It's a trade off and the more you are aware of what you need vs what you want the closer to being happy you'll be.
The better you are able to articulate what you need in this forum, the more people will offer great advice & options, so don't be shy about specifics.