Salem (Roanoke: for sale, real estate, hotel)

[laurie2walker]

My husband is looking at a job in Salem, and I am wondering if it will be the right fit for our family. We love parks, green spaces, walking to shops and restaurants... We love urban living but are open to living on a lake or golf course. Please tell my the type of neighborhoods we can expect in Salem. We have 3 children - 7,5, and 3. We would love to send our kids to public schools - but only if it offers a top notch education - what is the best public school and what neighborhoods feed into the school. We are also open to private schools if the education and environment is better. Is it possible to live in an area where you can walk to school? We are also open to living in Roanoke if that will be a better fit.... We love to hike as a family - are there good areas for this and if so what are the names of the trails. We are a very active family and like to spend time outside. Any info is greatly appreciated....

[Watchful]

Originally Posted by laurie2walker

My husband is looking at a job in Salem, and I am wondering if it will be the right fit for our family. We love parks, green spaces, walking to shops and restaurants... We love urban living but are open to living on a lake or golf course. Please tell my the type of neighborhoods we can expect in Salem. We have 3 children - 7,5, and 3. We would love to send our kids to public schools - but only if it offers a top notch education - what is the best public school and what neighborhoods feed into the school. We are also open to private schools if the education and environment is better. Is it possible to live in an area where you can walk to school? We are also open to living in Roanoke if that will be a better fit.... We love to hike as a family - are there good areas for this and if so what are the names of the trails. We are a very active family and like to spend time outside. Any info is greatly appreciated....

All of the Salem public schools enjoy an excellent reputation...I'm sure there are some that are more desirable than others, and someone should be able to help you out with that! Hope someone will chime in!

We live in Roanoke, but honestly there's great hiking all directions - urban and in-town both in Roanoke and Salem. I'm not deeply familiar with Salem in terms of walkability but I feel sure anything close to downtown and Roanoke College would be more walkable than other parts of Salem. Likewise, the older parts of Roanoke City are eminently more walkable than the suburban parts of Roanoke County. I just looked on the real estate map and properties for sale close to Roanoke College range literally from $79K to $799K so that is quite a spread!

(Roanoke College is in the heart of Salem, by the way, and that can be considerably confusing!)

Walkable neighborhoods in Roanoke are "all over the place." Southeast Roanoke is very close to downtown but pretty blue collar, gritty, but great prices. Old Southwest is a nice walkable neighborhood with quite a range of prices and some great old restored houses.

Grandin Village/Raleigh Court would be my personal favorite and has a great price range and an awesome village center. A good choice if you lean a little liberal.

South Roanoke is by far the most elegant old city neighborhood and has a nice town center on Crystal Spring Ave. that is also walkable. A good choice if you lean a little conservative and have a bigger budget.

I think you will be way happy with Salem and probably Roanoke too! (Sometimes those annoyingly non-walkable neighborhoods in the more suburban sections have very desirable schools - that's the bind!)

[headnsouth]

KIVA (kids in the valley, adventuring)

[KemmerGem]

The City of Salem has about 25,000 people and is home to Roanoke University - a private school. Va Tech about 45 miles away is the closest public university. Take a tour of Salem on Google Maps. As someone mentioned living near the college is probably best for walking. As you move out of the downtown area walking is harder.


Here are some good links regarding Salem
Moderator cut: please wait with posting links until you have at least 10 posts


The people? Our personality may be a little more reserved than you are use to, but Roanoke-Salem is a great place to live.

[laurie2walker]

Thank you so much for your comments. We just returned from Roanoke and fell in love with the charming city. We love the idea of living in Old Southwest or South Roanoke and our children being able to walk to Crystal Springs Elementary. We would more than likely switch them to Northcross after that. We also lived Grandin Village. Although the county was nice I am more drawn to the urban areas....your post helped me know a little about the area before we arrived - thank you. The people in Toanoke were so friendly - we stayed downtown at the Roanoke Hotel and loved the area.

[Watchful]

Originally Posted by laurie2walker

Thank you so much for your comments. We just returned from Roanoke and fell in love with the charming city. We love the idea of living in Old Southwest or South Roanoke and our children being able to walk to Crystal Springs Elementary. We would more than likely switch them to Northcross after that. We also lived Grandin Village. Although the county was nice I am more drawn to the urban areas....your post helped me know a little about the area before we arrived - thank you. The people in Toanoke were so friendly - we stayed downtown at the Roanoke Hotel and loved the area.

If you loved it in December, just wait till spring, summer and fall!

Hope you got to experience some of the weekend Dickens stuff downtown!

[Lucky_Town]

Thanks for the feedback, and up dating your theard.

Glad you had a good time.

AT Is just north of Salem near Catawba.

Hope you visit again.