New House Construction (Charleston, Huntington, Parkersburg: ski resorts, real estate, condo)

[threekidstoomany]

Can anyone tell me areas that are growing and having alot of new homes constructed? My husband draws house plans and we are wanting to move to WV. We are trying to decide the best places to concentrate our efforts of looking to relocate. We want a very rural place for ourselves, but willing to drive up to 1 hour for work related travel. We do want to stay away from the NE area of the state.
Thanks for any help you can give us!

[tbailey1138]

There's a lot of new house construction going on in Putnam County between Huntington and Charleston. This is one of the fastest growing areas in the state and also gives you the benefit of being in between the states 2 largest cities. Huntington and Charleston also have some areas of new home construction but not at the rate of Putnam County. There are also plenty of more rural towns on the outskirts in these areas that would likely fit your wants/needs. Hope this helps.
Tim

[wvandwvufan]

there are so many possibilities here. but, what I am familiar with I will share with you.

if you want to be close to the capital and largest city and all those benefits then I have some advice....

I don't know how rural you are desiring but I would give a good look at the Teays Valley, Hurricane, Scott Depot area as far as a quicker place to find open lots and areas being developed for housing left and right....(I-64)

perhaps also the Huntington area but I know little about that...

on the other side of things...going north on I-77 is extremely secluded and rural and there are lots with a lot more privacy than those down I-64. Goldtown, Kenna, Fairplain, Ripley, Ravenswood...for example...the interstate is less crowded and the population is far less than I-64

both of these locations range from 20-60 min of travel time to charleston if you think you would have to find work there....however..Parkersburg is farther up I-77 and people commute from Ripley to Parkersburg all of the time...

Morgantown has a lot of job opps and you can live 30 min or so outside of the city and find wonderful little towns and rural areas...Cheat Lake is an example...

There are handfuls of other great places but I'm just letting you know what I know..which just happen to be areas closer to the larger cities...

goodluck!!

-a.s.

[snorpus]

Just from observing what appear to be new developments in driving through various parts of WV:

Clarksburg to Morgantown- especially around Morgantown, looks pretty good.
Eastern Panhandle (Martinsburg, etc.) - Metro DC keeps moving west.
Summersville to Beckley - Some new developments along the Rt 19 corridor.

Haven't been in the Charleston, Huntington, or Parkersburg areas, so I won't comment.

Snorpus

[GottaHerdOn]

Well, Elkins/Randolph county is getting some new developments. But the ski areas around them are constantly having new homes/condo's being built. Timblerlind, Canaan, and Snowshoe ski resorts are all within in an hours drive of Elkins.

[tbailey1138]

I would recommend the Huntington/Charleston area since there is so much new construction in the area, both commercial and residential. I worked in Huntington as an interior designer at a kitchen and bath design firm. While most of our clients we remodels, we did have a quite a large number of new construction. After working in the design industry in Huntington, I can say from experience, that contrary to what many of people think about West Virginia, there are a lot of people here with a lot of money, and they are willing to spend it on quality goods and services. (On a side note, I did work for a higher end design firm, but we catered to all budgets.) So, because of the nature of my job, I have seen a large variety of new construciton homes in the area, pirmarily in Huntington/Barborursville/Milton area. (We had an office in Charleston that served Hurricane/Teays Valley/Charleston area.)
I think as an architect, you would be a good fit, and not have troulbe starting your own business. Hope you keep this area in mind!

[tbailey1138]

I also forgot to mention in my previous post, there are a lot of rural areas around Huntington and Charleston. Near Huntington, you might consider Wayne County, there is a lot of farmland/acreage here. I can't speak for Charleston, becuase I am not very familiar with the area-- I've only lived in Huntington for 3 years.

[threekidstoomany]

Thank you all for responding, you were all helpful. We are narrowing down our options.
Are there any real estate agents or contractors out there that could help us with the questions of areas of new construction and areas of growth.
I am finding some conflicting information, not necessarily from this thread, but others I am reading throughout the WV threads. Some people are saying certain areas are really growing, but when I look on epdunk (a web site that you can get demographic info. on each state and counties and towns), the information there shows a very slight or minor increase to even a decrease in population growth.
Maybe this is do to that just facts on paper don't always give you the full picture, but I would like to get some opinions from those whose livelihood is dependant on these very facts and figures.
Thanks again to those who make reading these posts interesting and keep me coming back for more! Keep up the good work!

[dunkhouse]

There really isn't a lot of growth around Huntington ( maybe some in Lawrence County Ohio) but as stated, Putnam County is busting out with residential growth as a bedroom community for both Huntington and Charleston. You said you weren't interested in the eastern panhandle, but that is where the most growth is ( DC sprawl). The north central part of the state seems to be growing steadily- Bridgeport, Buchannon, Clarksburg, Morgantown. Just south of these areas along I79 is probably the most rural and wide open sections of the state.

[GottaHerdOn]

Yea, like dunkhouse said. The north central area of WV is growing phenomonally fast as well as the eastern panhandle. Also, according to city limits the population of Elkins is roughly only 7,500 people. However Elkins is much larger than that with possibly over half the city not included in the city limits. If you click on the zip code link on many of the city pages it gives you a more accurate picture of how large the citys population actually is. Also you cannot really tell just how precise a citys rate growth is due to all of the growth happening outside the city limits. Where many neighborhoods and housing developments spring up along with businesses to escape paying B&O taxes and paying for city services.