Charlottesville nice for retirement? (Richmond, Roanoke: homeowners insurance, buying a house, neighborhood)

[mr_blue12]

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the saying that the grass is always greener on the other side.

I keep running into all these magazine articles that put C-ville at the top or close to it in terms of "Best Pleces to Retire".

So do you local residents agree that your city is in fact one of the best places to retire, or would you want to go somewhere else after you're done with your working life?

Do you think the grass is greener somewhere else, or do you think its just fine where you are?

I've been looking for retirements spots and so far the central VA, I-64 corridor seems to be ahead of all others. I'm keeping the qualifications I have in mind that make a good retirement place, vague on purpose as to not influence your answers.

Thanks.

[TN Lily]

As long as you can afford the high housing costs, it's a nice place to live, including in retirement.

[badger74]

Yes, but expensive and bad traffic.

[gregir]

Originally Posted by badger74

Yes, but expensive and bad traffic.

Expensive relative to what? It is much less expensive than northern NJ, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle but much more expensive than De Moines, Lima OH, Dayton.
Also depending on the area being considered it can be even less.

Not sure C-ville hits any scale of BAD traffic. Most of the problems are very localized and can be avoided. Bad traffic, for me, means being stuck longer than it takes to drive normally. Around C-ville I drive around 20 to 30 minutes to get most places and rarely are there back ups that bad.
So what is bad traffic mean to you?

[Moving on up to C'ville]

The definition of "bad traffic" really is a variable. I've lived in SD and DC and know what bad traffic is. We just moved here from Charleston, SC and from where we lived (about 15 miles north (along the coast) of downtown Charleston) it took me 30 minutes, in the heart of rush hour to get to work downtown. This was almost exclusively due to stop lights.

If you choose to live up 29 N corridor, you'll have a similar experience (non-stop traffic lights). When we moved here, not having to deal with the 29 traffic was the driving force in choosing where we were going to live. We ended up buying a house in Mill Creek, which is just south of the City, but in the County (so we have lower taxes that the City people), but it literally, no exaggeration, takes me 5 minutes to get to the downtown pedestrian mall (at 8:30 am). And going northbound on Rio road to get up to Lowe's or some other place in the morning is a cake walk (southbound is a different story). So as an earlier poster said, it definitely matters where you choose to live.

In terms of other retirement matters, my husband and I are technically retired (though I'm looking for a part-time job 'cause the boredom...and my husband...drive me crazy). Housing can be pricy if you require a lot of space and amenities. We didn't require a lot of space (just two of us and our dog) so we bought a very small (1600 sq ft) home that was in dire need of updating. Got the house for $265k and have just sunk about $40k into it renovating the kitchen, one of the baths and all flooring. But we bought the house 'cause of the location of the neighborhood...so we were willing to do that.

Lots of good restaurants and things to do. Several theaters in town if you like live entertainment. We've gone to see a couple of speakers at UVA (free to the public), we hang out at Carters Orchard, spend time doing wine tastings, etc. I think the town of Charlottesville is big enough to find things to do and people to hang out with, but without the hassle of living in a big city. Though if you need a big city, DC is just about 2 1/2 hrs North and Richmond's only an hour away.

I must say, that utilities seem to be higher than I expected. But our homeowners insurance and car insurance went down drastically when we moved here (of course we were living in a hurricane zone).

Good luck with your search..

[badger74]

Originally Posted by gregir

Expensive relative to what? It is much less expensive than northern NJ, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle but much more expensive than De Moines, Lima OH, Dayton.
Also depending on the area being considered it can be even less.

Not sure C-ville hits any scale of BAD traffic. Most of the problems are very localized and can be avoided. Bad traffic, for me, means being stuck longer than it takes to drive normally. Around C-ville I drive around 20 to 30 minutes to get most places and rarely are there back ups that bad.
So what is bad traffic mean to you?

Much more expensive (nearly double with double taxes too) than other similar sized cities in Va such as Roanoke and Lynchburg to start. For a smallish city traffic is bad. I have lived in lots of big cities and no it's not that kind of bad. But for a retirement town it's pretty hectic getting around town. A nice place to visit but don't want to live there. We looked at it for retirement too from Seattle.

[Moving on up to C'ville]

I'm you're a die hard Christian and ultra conservative then Roanoke and Lynchburg would be better choices than Charlottesville. If those things make your gut churn, you'll be much happier in C'ville (not that there aren't Christians and conservatives here, because there are. They're just not as in your face about it like they are in Lynchburg).

Also, in terms of property taxes, in comparison to the rest of the country, they're quite reasonable. The City of Charlottesville's taxes are a steeper than the neighboring counties, but I've lived elsewhere in this country and they're not outrageous. The water and gas bills seem to be higher here than in other places I've lived.

[badger74]

When looking at retirement fixed costs that are of little direct benefit to you such as property taxes are a large monthly expense. On a typical $300K house in Cville you are looking at over $3000 or $250/mo. Same house in R or L costs about half with only $125/mo in taxes. Not tomention the differecne in house payments of around $800/m. I am neither Christian nor all that conservative and it does not bother me at all living in L. Most folks I know are retired doctors and other professionals with only one real conservative in the group. Nobody is all that religious. A couple are even liberals.

[gregir]

The taxes in Charlottesville may be that high but in the surrounding counties and towns they are much less. I live in Nelson county and the taxes are even less than you stated for Roanoke and L-burg. C-ville costs more than the surrounding area in mostr aspects and ona fixed income I would be wary of movign there even if I could afford it right now. You can live in one of the surrounding areas and be in better tax situation.

Lynchburg is generally more conservative but I find the people in genral are just as friendly and accepting. I live midway between C-ville and L-burg and visit both frequently.

[mr_blue12]

Thanks to all for keeping the info coming. As far as taxes being high in the city, do you mean city limits or the whole county of Albermarle?