Martinsburg, WV (Morgantown, Washington, Jefferson: apartments, living, cost of living)

[Threerun]

Originally Posted by 7th Direction

As a side note: ALL malls have kids 'running wild'. It's not just Martinsburg Mall.

Ironically when I had to go to the mall (usually during lunch breaks) there were roaving bands of senior citizens power walking or excercising!

[zentropa]

Originally Posted by 7th Direction

As a side note: ALL malls have kids 'running wild'. It's not just Martinsburg Mall.

Last time I was at the Mall it was like a ghost town. Sad.

[NOVAmtneer82]

Originally Posted by vec101

I'm so confused. I know there has been a push to have Rt. 9 completed. Folks I know involved in the project and other people have told me a big part of the reason is to help relieve traffic from the DC area to the Charles Town and Martinsburg areas. Have also been told that a lot of people from the DC area/ working in the DC area are moving to the Charles Town and Martinsburg areas.

According to web map/directions,
Charles Town to DC is about 1 hour
Martinburg to DC is 1 and 1/2 hours
Are they wrong? Of course, that is not taking traffic congestion into consideration.

So are we talking apples and oranges or are we saying the same thing only in a different manner?

I'm not so sure that when people talk about DC they mean DC proper - they are talking about the greater DC area. Throughout the years I've known several people who lived in Fairfax but when you ask them where they live they said DC. It's about like people around here - they may not live in Charleston proper (may live in Dunbar, Cross Lanes, etc) but when traveling or whatever and asked where they live they say Charleston.

Is there (or was there) or is there not a big influx of people moving into WV from the greater DC area?

By saying "I'm not so sure that when people talk about DC they mean DC proper" - I am referring to the people who have told me about people moving/working. Not meaning people in general.

Sorry for the confusion, when I said DC I meant the city. Just saying "DC" itself usually implies downtown or somewhere within district lines. If someone says DC area they are referring to Northern VA, suburban MD and ironically to a lesser extent DC proper. All of those places I mentioned... Frederick, I-270 corridor, Tysons Corner, Dulles Tech Corridor, (plus many more) are considered the DC area.

There was and still is a large influx of DC area residents into WV, in fact Berkeley and Jefferson counties are technically considered part of the DC/Baltimore metropolitan area. I think the mass migration is starting to slow however, the victim of high gas prices and RIDICULOUS traffic that is making a long commute like that very difficult. I live 4 miles from DC and if I'm working downtown it can take me 30-45 minutes just to cross one of the Potomac Bridges and head a few blocks into the city, I can't imagine driving from the Panhandle. I know several people from WV who commute to my company's main office in Tysons Corner VA...it usually takes them about 2 hours each way.

[Threerun]

Actually I believe Jefferson County is in the DC Metropolitan Statistical Area and Berkeley falls in with Hagerstown/Winchester area for a new separate MSA. I believe it had to do with the growth in the 81 corridor. I'll double check that but it's something like that.

If you look at the population stats for the new MSA, the growth is pretty phenomenal. Berkeley gets a lot of folks from Winchester and Hagerstown / Frederick moving in, like a giant vacuum.

[vec101]

Thanks for the clarification for me.

[Threerun]

I was close. Winchester VA MSA includes Hampshire, Hagerstown MSA has Berkeley and Washington DC has Jefferson County.

Actually the migration trends are pretty close. Winchester folks are moving to Hampshire or Berkeley, Hagerstown folks to Berkeley (or in PA) and DC folks tend to relocate to Jefferson more than Berkeley. Interesting divide..

Bank lending practices require you to submit certain data to the feds for tracking purposes, inluding MSA and Census Tract number, size of loan, applicant info, etc.. We saw these trends in a micro-sorta way.

Anyway- here's the poopey:

25180 Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area Principal Cities: Hagerstown, MD; Martinsburg, WV Washington County, MD; Berkeley County, WV; Morgan County, WV

49020 Winchester, VA-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area Principal City: Winchester, VA Frederick County, VA; Winchester city, VA; Hampshire County, WV

47894 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division District of Columbia, DC; Calvert County, MD; Charles County, MD; Prince George's County, MD; Arlington County, VA; Clarke County, VA; Fairfax County, VA; Fauquier County, VA; Loudoun County, VA; Prince William County, VA; Spotsylvania County, VA; Stafford County, VA; Warren County, VA; Alexandria city, VA; Fairfax city, VA;Falls Church city, VA; Fredericksburg city, VA; Manassas city, VA; Manassas Park city, VA; Jefferson County, WV

[NOVAmtneer82]

Sorry for the wording error, I was referencing what is now commonly referred to as the Washington/Baltimore/Northern VA consolidated metropolitan statistical area. Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Berkeley and Jefferson Counties are both listed on there. As you well know, the commuter belt stretches quite far in this region...

[Threerun]

No apologies necessary!

The CSA designations were too broad to use, so a few years back they redefined the MSA groupings and threw Berkeley to Hagertown and Jefferson to DC. It is a more accurate representation of the demographic shift in the region. (It used to be both Jefferson and Berkeley in the DC MSA).

Some folks in Berkeley didn't like it for economic development reasons, but the census had to follow the demographic realities.

And yes- people commute pretty far indeed. When I was younger man working in College Park MD, there was a co-worker that drove everyday from Hagerstown MD. I thought he was flippin' nuts.

Edit- the more I think about, I could've swore that Berkeley and Hagerstown were peeled off from the Washington CSA.. I'm gonna check census. Wiki's info is based on the year 2000, and the change was after that..

[Threerun]

Good map as of 2007 showing all the CSA's and MSA's in the U.S. Shows Jefferson in the Wash-Balto CSA, Berkeley not.

Combined Statistical Areas of the United States and Puerto Rico December 2007

Combined Statistical Area Description

The United States Office of Management and Budget defines combined statistical areas. These areas are groupings of adjacent metropolitan and/or micropolitan statistical areas that have social and economic ties as measured by commuting to work, but at lower levels than are found among counties within individual metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. Combined statistical areas can be characterized as representing larger regions that reflect wider-ranging social and economic interactions, such as wholesaling, commodity distribution, and weekend recreation activities, as well as lower levels of daily commuting interaction. Under the Standards for Defining Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas, a combined statistical area is identified when two adjacent metropolitan or micropolitan statistical areas have an employment interchange measure (EIM) of at least 15. (The EIM is defined as the sum of the percentage of employed residents of the smaller area who work in the larger area and the percentage of employment in the smaller area that is accounted for by workers who reside in the larger area.) Combined statistical areas are automatically created for adjacent areas that have an EIM of 25 or more. Combinations for areas with EIMs of at least 15 but less than 25 are identified only if local opinion in both areas favors their combining. There are 126 combined statistical areas containing 353 metropolitan and/or micropolitan
]statistical areas in the United States and Puerto Rico, as of November 2007.

[vec101]

Whoa, that really surprises me to see the WV areas included in those MSA's.
Hope WV doesn't see another Civil War where the EP suceeds from WV. We need all the highly populated, etc. areas we can get.