Possible move from Northern VA to Madison

[Ragnar]

I'm not sure that the OP's relocation specialist has the correct numbers. S/he must be adding the cost of home insurance and utilities to the property tax rate. Even so, it still may not get to $1500 per month, unless you live in a million-dollar+ home on one of the lakes. A $500,000 home in Madison will not put you on a lake, but you can still get into just about any premier neighborhood in the Madison area for that, including Shorewood Hills (smaller home), Vilas (smaller home) and Middleton Hills. The property taxes on a $500,000 home should be around $800 per month. A $300,000 home will still put you in a very nice Madison area neighborhood and your property taxes should be around $500 per month.

[Johne37179]

I lived in Madison for over 20 years and moved to Haymarket VA last year. Except for this last winter, Wisconsin winters are more severe. However, they do a much better job of handling winter conditions in Wisconsin (Madison, too). I found the impact of winter in VA (2009-10) to be much greater than any winter I experienced in Wisconsin. Madison is a great town -- maybe one of the best in the country. It is lovely, retains some small town charm with big city sophistication. A long commute in Madison is not as long as the commute from Fairfax to Tysons Corner. Compared to DC there is no traffic in Madison.

As someone who still owns a home in Madison, I can tell you that comparable housing in Madison is less than half of what it would be in DC proper or the closer VA suburbs. Housing costs are more in line with what you would find in Gainesville or Leesburg.

[r_k]

I'm late to this thread, some generally good reading. I just want to correct something that was posted during the discussion. The average snowfall in Madison is not 30 or 35 inches, it is 50 inches per winter (NWS data). When you factor in the cold weather that makes it stick around much longer, it is roughly the equivalent of 100+ inches every year in the DC area, or so it will feel. There is a lot of variability, however, and during almost 40 winters I've seen as little as 20 inches and as much as 101 inches. The cold is definitely more of a problem than snow.

[Drover]

For me the issue isn't the snow or even the cold but just the sheer length of winter. By the time March rolls around I'm good and ready for spring, but many years the beginning of March merely means another 4 weeks of winter.