Utilities in the suburbs (Powhatan) (Richmond, Mechanicsville: HOA, co-ops, house)

[asroberts1]

We are planning to relocate and I am falling inlove with POwhatan. Is this considered an "expensive" place to live for the areas outside of Richmond? We are a middle class family and want land (3+ acres) and great schools. I am wondering what the general ballpark of utility costs are for these suburbs.

Cable?
Internet?
Water?
Sewer?
Heat?
Electric?

Any ballpark figures would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Pruzhany]

Originally Posted by asroberts1

We are planning to relocate and I am falling in love with Powhatan. Is this considered an "expensive" place to live for the areas outside of Richmond? We are a middle class family and want land (3+ acres) and great schools. I am wondering what the general ballpark of utility costs are for these suburbs.

Cable?
Internet?
Water?
Sewer?
Heat?
Electric?

Any ballpark figures would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

It depends on where you choose to live in Powhatan to figure out which Utilities you would have. The "sweet spot" of Powhatan is West of 288, East of 522, South of 711 and North of 60. Driving through Powhatan gives one a rural feel but it really isn't. It's a very conservative relaxed county. House wise, look for homes that are zoned A-1 and not in a HOA neighborhood (most have failed in Powhatan and has the highest turnover).
Property wise on average is around 2-5 acres per home. Taxes on home and cars on average is around $3000 per year. Cable/Internet are usually the same company and a majority of the county is on Comcast ( many news articles complain about them, yet it's rare to find any complaints in Powhatan). FIOS tried to get their foot in the door and put cable down, but its rare to find a home that has it (the failed neighborhoods have it) and some people have Satellite dishes. Cost wise depends on your bundle, so lets say $160. Water/Sewer is $45/year ($5000 is tacked onto your house value to cover its cost for the county so it's actually part of your property tax). Nearly everyone has a Well and a Septic Tank. Depending on how deep the Well is drilled you may require a filtration system. Heat/Electric depends on the home so it can be anywhere from $200-$500 on average.

Here's a map viewer, multiply the value at the bottom of each plat by .009 and that will give you the property tax.
Powhatan County, VA - Map Viewer

[snatale1]

Originally Posted by asroberts1

We are planning to relocate and I am falling inlove with POwhatan. Is this considered an "expensive" place to live for the areas outside of Richmond? We are a middle class family and want land (3+ acres) and great schools. I am wondering what the general ballpark of utility costs are for these suburbs.

Cable?
Internet?
Water?
Sewer?
Heat?
Electric?

Any ballpark figures would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Powhatan isn't the burbs it's the country. I used to install for Comcast and we didn't service most of Powhatan, there is some coverage out there but pretty much only main streets and near the Chesterfield border. Unless you in one of those areas your out of "real" high speed internet, too far for Phone company DSL so most likely satellite for Internet which is terrible at best. Much of Powhatan is on wells and septic so no water provider or sewer. I believe most if not all power is through Southeast Electric and not Dominion. That may be good or bad, co-ops can go either way. Heat source is house specific between what type of system, how old the house is, windows, insulation, no real way to ballpark that one. There's a lot of cool things about living in the country, but I don't think it outweighs that bad if your plugged in to our current way of life.

[asroberts1]

LOL Thank you so much for the helpful answers. We are visiting in June so I guess we will get a better idea of what we are talking about once we see everything. We want to feel like we are in the country but if we choose Powhatan sounds like we'll stay real close to the Chesterfield border

[Pruzhany]

It'll be pretty easy to tell when one leaves Chesterfield and enters Powhatan; All the postage stamp sized lots stop and the forest starts.

Originally Posted by snatale1

Powhatan isn't the burbs it's the country. I used to install for Comcast and we didn't service most of Powhatan, there is some coverage out there but pretty much only main streets and near the Chesterfield border. Unless you in one of those areas your out of "real" high speed internet, too far for Phone company DSL so most likely satellite for Internet which is terrible at best. Much of Powhatan is on wells and septic so no water provider or sewer. I believe most if not all power is through Southeast Electric and not Dominion. That may be good or bad, co-ops can go either way. Heat source is house specific between what type of system, how old the house is, windows, insulation, no real way to ballpark that one. There's a lot of cool things about living in the country, but I don't think it outweighs that bad if your plugged in to our current way of life.

FWIW I have two lots within 20 miles of the Chesterfield border. On both I have Comcast running at an average of 100/10 and I'm on Dominion. Its country because it wants to look that way and not resemble Chesterfield in any way. Goochland, Louisa, Ashland and Mechanicsville do the same thing as not to look like Henrico & Richmond.

[sls76]

Originally Posted by Pruzhany

It'll be pretty easy to tell when one leaves Chesterfield and enters Powhatan; All the postage stamp sized lots stop and the forest starts.




FWIW I have two lots within 20 miles of the Chesterfield border. On both I have Comcast running at an average of 100/10 and I'm on Dominion. Its country because it wants to look that way and not resemble Chesterfield in any way. Goochland, Louisa, Ashland and Mechanicsville do the same thing as not to look like Henrico & Richmond.

I don't think you've been to Mechanicsville lately. It's mainly subdivisions and big box stores.

I had a coworker in Powhatan. His Verizon cell service was spotty, his internet connection was terrible, and he couldn't get into the office when it snowed when the rest of us had no issues. Glad it's your cup of tea though.

[Pruzhany]

Originally Posted by sls76

I don't think you've been to Mechanicsville lately. It's mainly subdivisions and big box stores.

I had a coworker in Powhatan. His Verizon cell service was spotty, his internet connection was terrible, and he couldn't get into the office when it snowed when the rest of us had no issues. Glad it's your cup of tea though.

I took a look at Mechanicsville and it has changed, so you are correct. It's turned into an extension of Glen Allen (its snapshot looks like Chesterfield).

As to Verizon, the service is spotty in the Western part of the county because towers are a nimby item inside of the sweet spot of the county. So basically towers are going up only in dead subdivisions where they can't be seen. It seems that T-Mobile has better coverage in those area.

As to Internet service, there are many variables to test to figure out why your friend has problems. Not every home is going to have the same variables. So you can't blame the service company until all the variables have been tested. If you want, you can either look in the Internet forum for clues or he can open a thread in this subforum and there should enough of us here to walk him through all the testing to do.

[Charlesaf3]

I like goochland, but everyone I know there has horrible Internet. And I'd call it country. Powhatan is, by accounts and it makes sense, more country than goochland. Not that that's per se a bad thing, it's just a thing