Bluefield leads nation in mortgage-free homes

[AliceT]

Originally Posted by harborlady

Heard the bear population is getting out of hand.

I'll second the bear population. And they are bold! And they answer the pang of hunger no matter where food is. I'm in the city - not rural. The bears know no boundaries. People who keep wild bird seed in their sheds for filling their bird feeders have a new peril - bears will follow the scent of birdseed and break into sheds right here in the city to get it.

[harborlady]

Alice we're slipping in the polls

Corporate Crime Reporter: Most Corrupt States in the Nation

We didn't even get honorable mention!

[AliceT]

Never fear, they didn't even bother with states with a population less than 2 million. We are 37th when it comes to most populated. Looks like they picked on the most populated for the most corrupt states. Like everything else, it was slanted to agree with what someone suspected to be true. As always, they kept narrowing it down until the results agreed with someone's opinion.

Maybe I should conduct a similar survey of states with a population of fewer than 2 million but more than one and a half million with a mean income of less than forty thousand but more than thirty-five thousand with no one city in the state a population exceeding one million and which has more than 5 electoral votes but fewer than 7 and south of Lake Erie but east of the Mississippi River.

Let's be real, that's how "surveys" are really conducted.

[AliceT]

If ever there were a real and unbiased survey, there would be no perimeters at all. WV would be near the top of the list.

[Ronee]

I have been reading the posts on this site and (sorry) I still want to move to the Bluefied/Princeton area. I visit for a week in Oct. 06 and Jan. 08. Originally I looked in Bramwell, but jeez who can afford that place? I'm semi-retired (semi because my SS doesn't go too far in upstate NY) so had to go back to working part time to pay for taxes etc. Although i was born and raised in New York City I lived in New Orleans for 12 years and I love the south. I now live in rural upstate New York in the Catskills. Not very different from the Bluefield area. I know that some of you are hoping that WV is never discovered, but you know that won't happen. You can only hope that those of us who move down contribute to the area - and I don't mean just with money - and treat everyone they meet as they would like to be treated. Now the bear and black mold and floods aside - if you had to choose between Bluefield and Princeton which town would you move to and why? I'm not looking for a fixer upper. I know that I will probably have to do a little work - and as I totally renovated the house I'm in now, so I'm kind of used to fixing some things as I have the money. Thanks. By the way, you can discourage people all you want, but the people and the mountains and way of life will overrule your comments every time.

[harborlady]

Ronee if you're serious about living here you need to get the wax to blacken your teeth and repel the hoards of yuppies. It's a very serious responsibility, lest you have them follow you here with plans of paving over and creating timeshare communities like florida. Blech. Ptewwey.

Foreclosure rates are offering fire sale bargain prices all over the country (except in WV, which remained reasonable all along). Come visit and see what works for you. It's a whole other lifestyle.

[Ronee]

Harborlady, I already had to blacken my teeth when I moved to upstate New York. I have two great realtors (from my visits) who constantly send me listings in my price range and with my criteria, so looking for a place won't be a huge problem (at least I'm hoping not) I plan to rent for as long as it takes to find the right fit for me. I looked in the Oakhurst area. Of course I loved the big houses, but cannot afford them. But they also had reasonably priced homes. I do know I want an old house. I love them and their quirks. There seem to be a lot of houses for sale in the Oakhurst area and my agent said she thought the folks there did not like the school system. I don't have kids, so that would not be a big concern, and honestly I plan for this to be my last move, so I'm not so focused on resale. I would also prefer to live in a "neighborhood" with single folks, families etc. and not a development. Any advice from any of the posters would be appreciated.

[harborlady]

I think you've got the right idea about renting first. Even if you buy a house you plan on doing some remodeling on at least you won't have to live in it 24/7 while it's going on. Plaster dust is miserable and ruins electronics. Trying to time out the plumbing for least inconvenience was a royal pain in my butt for instance.
One thing that helped me make my decision to chose a property was walking the streets at night on a weekend. If there's trouble that's when it will show up. I can answer about charleston-- my block has 3 elderly, 4 families, and 4 single people of various ages. The strange thing about charleston is turn a corner and it's a completely different neighborhood, which is also the strange thing about WV itself. I like it, but it takes some getting used to.

Personal preferences- I liked princeton better than bluefield because it was less strip mall commerical stuff, it was a hop skip to the interstate (I tend to travel a lot), and many developments kept their rural feel. I saw some charming log homes there but they were leaning towards HOA mentalities so I moved along. Acreage was also higher priced. My impressions of bluefield might be superficial because I didn't spend lots of time there and high traffic volume was what stuck in my mind more than anything. 4 yrs ago when I was scouting the virginia proper bluefield of tazewell county (directly across the state line from bluefield wv) had crime going on (drug running on back roads). I believe another blogger- millersangel- lives/ works in bluefield WV and if you go find her historical posts you can get lots of info that way. Good luck!