Relocating to northern va (Leesburg, Jefferson: to rent, buying a house, buying)

[luv4disney]

Husband might be taking a job based out of Winchester, VA. Now the job will take him across the mountains so we're not sure at this time if he will continue to report to Winchester or if that will change as time goes on.
He is going by himself at first and I will fly out to visit him and check out the surrounding areas and find a place to rent before me and 4 kids will make the move.

Currently we live in a small town in Mo with a population of 13,000. No crime, no gangs, etc.
The schools are great and my child with a slight learning disability is given great advantages by the different programs the school offers so that she still learns and progresses the same as all the other children in her grade. We like to go into St. Louis to shop, but would not want to live there. So we need to be within driving distance of shopping and entertainment.
So with that information, can someone suggest a town or area that we might be interested in checking out?

Thanks,

[JfromReston]

Sounds like Winchester will be a good place for you. Winchester is a small town and reasonable driving distance (1-2 hours) from the shopping and entertainment in the DC area.

[tennisplyr]

Winchester is a great place. They have a mall, good restaurants, lots of programs, good schools. It is a nice area.

[clintsullivan]

When you say across the mountains, do you mean west into WV? If so, depending on the lifestyle and cost of living, you may want to consider Capon Bridge, Augusta, Romney, etc. It's about a 20-40 minute drive from towns along rt.50 in WV to the west side of Winchester. Winchester has about everything you could want in terms of medical, retail, employment, etc. It is a little less espensive, to live in WV though and less densly popluated. Even if you don't want to head that far west some of the better housing deals and nice areas are west of the 37 bypass in Frederick county VA.
If your husbands work requires North & South travel consider any areas in the I-81 corridor either in Frederick, or Shenandoah Counties in VA or Berkeley in WV. If your budget allows and you want to be closer to the VA & MD DC suburbs you could consider Clarke County VA or Jefferson County WV.
Let me know your budget & lifestyle & work expectations and I can be more specific about areas you might like.
Clint

[Nancy in Nokomis]

Winchester is kinda rural - no gang problem as far as I know.

[Bigfoot424]

They do have some gang issues in Winchester but it's not a large problem and it's more the wanna be type gangs.

[sushiqueen]

Winchester is a very nice small town in a rural area with an historic downtown area. As far as I know they don't have a major gang problem. They have a Waffle House which I appreciate. It's about 40 minutes from Leesburg which has most of the shopping.

[South Jersey Styx]

Winchester is a historic town with great architecture and modern restaurants, supermarkets, stores, etc. The people are very nice. The downtown area is getting alot of work down now as their is a Renaissance of the downtown historic district so the roads are pretty torn up now and there's lots of construction.

Winchester was once known as the place for "recovering addicts" but the place is getting cleaned up quickly. Many federal agencies are now in the area. Shenandoah University is in Winchester and it is fast becoming a university town. You'll still see some riff-raff and shady characters in certain parts of town but I believe that's changing.

I am buying a house in Winchester too, the downtown area, and will soon be moving my family there too. Best of luck in finding a home and Welcome to Virginia!