What's it like to live in Roanoke? (Salem: renting, credit)

[leavingNHsoon]

My husband and I live in the Lakes Region of NH. My husband has been here his whole life. I've been here since 1984 but lived in Florida from 1972 to 1984. I loved Florida. We grew up in Tampa. We want out of NH. We love everything about NH except the winters. They are way too long and it gets dark at 4pm. I can't take it anymore. Also the traffic in the Lakes Region in the summer is ridiculous. The whole state of Massachusetts comes here for the summer!
We have a 2 year old daughter and want to move to a nice city with good schools and more to do. We were thinking of going back to Tampa until I started reading thier threads. It seems Florida has gone way downhill in the 25 years that I've been gone. My husband loves to play golf and the season is way to short for him in NH now. I would be happy to never see any snow again the rest of my life. I'm now checking out Va and I've heard that Roanoke is pretty nice. any info anyone can give us would be greatly appreciated. I am a hairstylist, but working towards my RN and my husband would just like to work at a golf course. We are looking for an area thats a bit more citylike than central NH and we are planning on renting for awhile because we are keeping our house in NH for the time being. Thanks so much. Sherri

[headnsouth]

There are a ton of threads just like yours, from people from NH and all over New England. Have you read them?

[OuttaFlorida]

You said you are working towards your RN, does that mean you are currently in school? If so, I'd strongly recommend completing your education and obtaining your RN license. Then apply with one of the hospital districts down here (cariliion, lewis-gale). Both are pretty much always hiring for RN (then again, just about every hospital in the country is in need of RNs). As far as golf courses, I know there is a nice course in Salem (not sure if its private or public).

But I'll agree with the previous poster, there are many many threads already on the topic of "whats life like in Roanoke"...check em out.

I've lived here for about a year and am making the venture up to DC. There's just not enough stuff for me in my current frame of mind. I will say that if I had a family and kids on the way I'd love to settle down and make roots in Salem. I love it there. But for right now I need a little more excitement and a faster pace of life.

Good luck! Moving is tough no matter where you go. But I've lived in New England (CT) and Florida (Ft Lauderdale) so if you have any other questions just send me a PM.

[j1n]

Originally Posted by leavingNHsoon

My husband and I live in the Lakes Region of NH. My husband has been here his whole life. I've been here since 1984 but lived in Florida from 1972 to 1984. I loved Florida. We grew up in Tampa. We want out of NH. We love everything about NH except the winters. They are way too long and it gets dark at 4pm. I can't take it anymore. Also the traffic in the Lakes Region in the summer is ridiculous. The whole state of Massachusetts comes here for the summer!
We have a 2 year old daughter and want to move to a nice city with good schools and more to do. We were thinking of going back to Tampa until I started reading thier threads. It seems Florida has gone way downhill in the 25 years that I've been gone. My husband loves to play golf and the season is way to short for him in NH now. I would be happy to never see any snow again the rest of my life. I'm now checking out Va and I've heard that Roanoke is pretty nice. any info anyone can give us would be greatly appreciated. I am a hairstylist, but working towards my RN and my husband would just like to work at a golf course. We are looking for an area thats a bit more citylike than central NH and we are planning on renting for awhile because we are keeping our house in NH for the time being. Thanks so much. Sherri

Hey LeavingNHSoon,
If you like the geography/topography of NH, you'll likely love Roanoke. Not sure where in the lakes region that you are, but one of my brothers has a home on the lake in Wolfeboro, so I'll use that for some comparisons. Roanoke is a city of roughly 93,000 people, has a great downtown, and manages to not get too "city-ish". Roanoke's altitude is roughly double that of Wolfeboro. We generally get less than 1/3 the amount of snow as W-boro. (Last year, we had very little snow...just enough to make the mountains look awesome!) Roanoke is more mountainous. Median home cost in R-noke is almost half of W-boro. I'm not much of a golf afficionado, but I think you could likely play almost year-round here. Health care is big here...likely the R-noke valley's largest employer.
Oh, and Tampa? It was horrible 10-12 years ago when we lived in Orlando. I'm sure it's worse now.

[JadedInk]

I've lived in the Roanoke Valley area all my life, having moved to 11 different states and always came back home. I say Valley area, because there is the Roanoke city/county and then you have Salem which is the County seat and you have a County that borders it called Botetourt.
What everyone has said is true, Roanoke has the city feel if you go downtown and within 10 minutes, you can be surrounded by cornfields and cows and be in Botetourt. There are at least 6 different golf courses that I can think of off the top of my head at the moment that are open to the public.
Raising children here is great. Every school (except 1) is nationally accredited. There are also private schools to chose from. We also seem to have a lot of homeschoolers in the valley.
If you have a family, Roanoke Valley seems to be a very good choice, if you were single, I would say move to Charlotte! Best of luck!

[mccamp]

First, let me admit something: We were one of those families from Massachusetts who invaded NH for the summer. Sorry about that.

There are many similarities between NH and Roanoke. The mountains. The beautiful seasons. Nice people. Fresh food. Artists. Culture. The list goes on and on.

The differences? Lower cost of living, shorter winters (way way way shorter), slower drivers, less crowded, less taxes, more moderate politically (a good mix of the left and the right).

We found good schools and wonderful housing in a great neighborhood. After living here for almost two years, we're not planning on moving back.