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Hi all, another relocation question. I'm looking at rentals within a 20-minute commute from Roanoke College. There are a bunch of apartment complexes clustered in an area that comes up on Google maps as both Roanoke or Cave Spring (zip 24018). Is Cave Spring a part of the city of Roanoke? Is it considered Old Southwest? I read on another thread that Old Southwest is a slightly "rough" area - just how rough? I lived in Manhattan for 10 years, so I'm not fazed by too much, but I do want a neighborhood safe enough that my car insurance won't double...
I've also looked at some apartments that seem to be in the northern part of the city, either near the airport or Hollins. What are those neighborhoods like?
I'd appreciate any advice and/or information. Thanks!
Cave Spring is an unincorporated area in Roanoke County, but it is not in the City of Roanoke. It is also not part of what is described as “Old Southwest”. This link will take you to a map of neighborhoods or areas in the City of Roanoke:
Compared to New York, you will be surprised at how much ground one can cover in a 20 minute drive here in SW Virginia. In addition, in comparison to car insurance rates in New York, you could probably move to the “worst” section of Roanoke and find that your premium rate would still decrease.
My favorite apartment complex is West Wind Apartments. The location is in the northern part of Roanoke, across from Valley View Mall, the airport and almost adjacent to I-581, which allows easy access to almost everything in Roanoke. Downtown is less than a 10 minute drive. Old Southwest is the more "trendy" part of town, it is a walkers paradise. It is an easy walk to downtown, it has plenty of professional singles and diversity you would find in a much bigger city. More people are moving to the newer properties in downtown including The Cotton Mill || Downtown Roanoke Living
Cave Spring apartment complexes are nice but I believe coming from NY you may like other choices.
Good Luck & welcome to Roanoke!
I really appreciate your insights and your explanations. They clear up a lot of confusion. Blue Moon Athena, that really helps me out. Google maps are great, but they don't give me any sense of where the city limits are. Roanoker 4, I actually have an appointment to see West Wind. I'm only coming down for 2 days so I need to be choosy about the number of places I see. I'm going to be teaching at Roanoke College, and I don't want a commute that's more than 20 minutes max. The Cotton Mill is gorgeous, but I don't think the loft thing is for me. I should clarify that while I lived in Manhattan for a long time, for the past 12 years, I've been living in upstate New York, in a city that seems pretty much identical to Salem in terms of population/demographics. A more diverse neighborhood like Old Southwest appeals to me, since I am Asian-American, but I'm pretty used to being in a very small minority. Thanks so much to both of you!
I moved here recently and had a difficult time getting a feel for the various neighborhoods. Since moving and meeting people, I'll make some broad generalizations based on my experience. You can figure out where you will fit best.
Cave Spring. . . very homogeneous, white, must drive from large parking lot to large parking lot to get things done. Lots of driving to do anything. Nice housing stock but no sidewalks in most areas. Very car oriented. Lots of Roanoke valley natives with family nearby.
Old Southwest . . . more diverse. Includes urban pioneer types, young educated folks from other places, young families, retired people who enjoy the sidewalk neighborhood and proximity to good health care, and gays who keep older homes immaculate, and people of various races. You often see neighbors walking to each other's houses, walking to the park, meeting at the dogpark, etc. This is a very active neighborhood group who value the diversity of their neighborhood and the proximity to downtown.
South Roanoke . . . quite upscale country club type community with lots of the beautiful people who don't go out unless perfectly groomed. Many Roanoke natives. Very white and very kid-oriented. Often clears out on the weekend with everyone going to their lake houses. Beautifully maintained and professionally landscaped homes. Very walkable. Nice commercial district and walkable to the hospitals. Most apartments are near Broadway and a few duplexes scattered throughout. Everyone is very polite and gracious here and most probably have custom engraved stationary.
Raleigh Court . . . mix of people looking for a little bit suburban and a little urban. Grandin Village is a great commercial area with lots of foot traffic with people walking from their homes to dinner/movie on the weekends. Roanoke Natural Foods co-op is the perfect sized store to do a full shop or a quick drop in without ever having to wait in line too long. You'll see lots of outdoor oriented people wearing Columbia sportswear, edgy looking teenagers meeting in the village, families with their young kids in tow going to the ice cream shop, and older couples strolling down for a glass of wine or two with dinner before catching the independent film at the Grandin Theater.
Hope this helps. Roanoke is great no matter which area you choose. I've lived in many great places and find the quality of life here exceptional. I hope it will be my forever place.
I have to disagree on the above statement about Cave Spring. Just in my little neighborhood, we have nice diversity. While Cave Spring is primarily Caucasian, it is not strictly white southerners. We have neighbors from Mexico, China, India, Samoa, England and so on. Very friendly area with all ages. Excellent schools and super safe. Just my 2 cents.
Thanks for your overviews - they're really helpful. I'm getting fairly similar reports on most of the areas. I was there last Tuesday and Wednesday (apparently two of the hottest days you've had this summer) and saw several places, but nothing panned out. I looked at addresses sort of around the Tower shopping plaza. One was on Longview. What neighborhood is that?
My colleague thought I might like Old Southwest or Raleigh Court, until I told her that I didn't do old and "charming," unless charming meant completely updated kitchens and baths. They're neighborhoods that sound great, and I might want to buy a place there eventually that I could update, but it seems like it might be hard to find a rental with what I want.
I didn't have any problem with the Cave Spring area, which was clearly a more upscale area, but I didn't like any of the apartment complexes I saw (Cedar Point, Cedar Ridge, The Pines, Pebble Creek) which were much nicer on the outside than on the inside - the units themselves were updated, and dead bugs are never a turn-on to apartment-hunters. Actually Pebble Creek/Stonebrook seemed nice, but they would only show the model unit, as would WestWind, and that makes me suspicious. I liked a condo up by the airport, but the realtor messed up and it had already been taken (which they told me after taking my application and application fee). I'm now considering a place on Connie Drive, somewhere west of the airport, a place on Carolyn Circle, somewhere west of Lewis Gale, and a place on Langdon Road, which is...where? I see it on the map, but it means nothing to me in terms of neighborhoods.
Again, any knowledge that anyone has about these neighborhoods would be hugely appreciated. They don't need to be in swank or even hip areas, just safe ones.
I thought I'd hate being up around the airport, but the airport is so small that I don't think noise would be a big problem (and by the way, I absolutely love that airport - modern, open, and very easy to negotiate).
I managed to find and patronize both Panera's (one of my favorite food places), the Tanglewood mall, and the Valley View mall. I grew up in NJ, where living more than 10 minutes from a mall is impossible, so, sadly, this made me feel right at home.
We were very happy spending two months at Windy Hill Key Apartments - the management was great to work with - it is very close to Tanglewood - not as new as many of the other apartment complexes - but worked just fine.
It is up a hill - and the parking area is hilly - so you have to walk either up stairs or downstairs no matter what level you are on.
Major negative - it is very close to loud freight trains during the daytime.
But the location was very good - and if ever we had a maintenance issue, it was tended to very quickly. Good luck!
I moved here recently and had a difficult time getting a feel for the various neighborhoods. Since moving and meeting people, I'll make some broad generalizations based on my experience. You can figure out where you will fit best.
Cave Spring. . . very homogeneous, white, must drive from large parking lot to large parking lot to get things done. Lots of driving to do anything. Nice housing stock but no sidewalks in most areas. Very car oriented. Lots of Roanoke valley natives with family nearby.
Old Southwest . . . more diverse. Includes urban pioneer types, young educated folks from other places, young families, retired people who enjoy the sidewalk neighborhood and proximity to good health care, and gays who keep older homes immaculate, and people of various races. You often see neighbors walking to each other's houses, walking to the park, meeting at the dogpark, etc. This is a very active neighborhood group who value the diversity of their neighborhood and the proximity to downtown.
South Roanoke . . . quite upscale country club type community with lots of the beautiful people who don't go out unless perfectly groomed. Many Roanoke natives. Very white and very kid-oriented. Often clears out on the weekend with everyone going to their lake houses. Beautifully maintained and professionally landscaped homes. Very walkable. Nice commercial district and walkable to the hospitals. Most apartments are near Broadway and a few duplexes scattered throughout. Everyone is very polite and gracious here and most probably have custom engraved stationary.
Raleigh Court . . . mix of people looking for a little bit suburban and a little urban. Grandin Village is a great commercial area with lots of foot traffic with people walking from their homes to dinner/movie on the weekends. Roanoke Natural Foods co-op is the perfect sized store to do a full shop or a quick drop in without ever having to wait in line too long. You'll see lots of outdoor oriented people wearing Columbia sportswear, edgy looking teenagers meeting in the village, families with their young kids in tow going to the ice cream shop, and older couples strolling down for a glass of wine or two with dinner before catching the independent film at the Grandin Theater.
Hope this helps. Roanoke is great no matter which area you choose. I've lived in many great places and find the quality of life here exceptional. I hope it will be my forever place.
...except that Cave Spring does have some diversity. And it is very suburban. It's funny that you mention the sidwalks...I asked about the same thing. My realtor responded that there wasn't any need for sidewalks, since there wasn't very much traffic. I said, "But where do you walk?" and she said, "In the street." She was right...that's what we do. But it's still weird.
And there's no public transportation in SW County, except from downtown to Tanglewood Mall.
Cave Spring. . . very homogeneous, white, must drive from large parking lot to large parking lot to get things done. Lots of driving to do anything. Nice housing stock but no sidewalks in most areas. Very car oriented. Lots of Roanoke valley natives with family nearby.
We bought in Cave Spring for the reasons you specified, it felt like "home" (suburban Long Island). We are white upper middle class types, no sense in pretending to be what we're not.
Got what by our standards is a huge yard too, almost half an acre, which is very large coming from the metro NY area. Some houses I saw had 2 or 3 acres, that would have been cool, but alot of upkeep. The fact the house we bought in Cave Spring would have sold for about 850k here helps too.
We had looked all over the county, and the Hollins area was nice enough, but I don't want to live near an airport. Catawba was too country for us (and our non 4wd vehicle), and we didn't like Vinton for a few reasons.
Salem was a nice place but its schools weren't a fit for our oldest kid, who has special needs.
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