Independence, Hillsville or Stuart? Where would you pick? (Charlottesville: renter, how much)

[ssmeest]

Hi Everyone,

If you wanted rural area, small town, friendly people, low cost of living, a place with a few acres for a garden, chickens, and goats, decent schools and NO planted pines. Which town, Independence, Hillsville, Stuart or area would you choose?

Thanks for your input.

Blessings,
Sandra

PS We've lived in Charlottesville for the past 2 years and hate it. We want a more rural self sufficient lifestyle.

[MrFarmer]

Originally Posted by ssmeest

Hi Everyone,

If you wanted rural area, small town, friendly people, low cost of living, a place with a few acres for a garden, chickens, and goats, decent schools and NO planted pines. Which town, Independence, Hillsville, Stuart or area would you choose?

Thanks for your input.

Blessings,
Sandra

PS We've lived in Charlottesville for the past 2 years and hate it. We want a more rural self sufficient lifestyle.

Well, I'll take a shot at answering your question since we own property between Hillsville and Stuart and have spent a considerable amount of time there over the years and have considered moving there at times. However, we actually live in NC. Any of the towns you mention will certainly provide rural, or even primitive living within a few miles so you should have no problem there. I'm not sure what to say about friendly people. To tell you the truth, I've worked all over the continental US and I can't think of any place I've been where I would say the people were not friendly. None of the areas you mention would have a significant number of pine plantations, however, Stuart would probably be more likely if you really looked since it is at a lower elevation. I personally have never seen any stands of pines around any of these towns in my travels. Actually, I will take that back since there are certainly stands of white pine in both Independence and Hillsville. However, I personally think white pines are beautiful and I suspect you are referring to the stands of shortleaf pine that are common to many plantations. I'm not certain what you disliked about Charlottesville, but we always considered it to be a beautiful town and have some wonderful friends from there. However, the cost of living is certainly much higher which may have conflicted with what you want. My best guess is that you would like Independence but that is largely because it is the most opposite of Charlottesville of the three. Hope this helps a little. Just remember that there is no perfect place to live. They all have there pros and cons.

[Autm88]

Independence has a lot of Christmas tree farms. Are you against pines or the chemicals used to treat pines? White pines aren't usually treated. At least our weren't. The land in Hillsville is less rocky so easier to grow food but both areas have farms. We prefer Carroll Co schools over Grayson Co. because our kids have done better there and are more involved for some reason. Plus we didn't like the idea of having 8th grade being part of the high school. Can't speak about Stuart since I've never lived there.

[jane_sm1th73]

IMHO, since you are close enough for a weekend trip, I'd strongly urge you to take three consecutive weekends and go visit all three places.

I will stake my most cherished possession on the value of first hand experience vs. surmising about a place by the numbers or on the basis of others' opinions.

I've spent brief amounts of time - a weekend's worth - in all three places. They are vastly different in vibe, look and feel. It doesn't matter what the stats or others' opinions are. If you drive into a place and it feels oppressive or gloomy despite reputation - that is something you will have to live with the whole time you're there.

Truth is, what's "oppressive" for you will likely be different from what's oppressive for me. We're all wired differently, we cannot escape our DNA, and trust me - you will not change your initial feeling about the town after living there awhile. You'll simply get used to feeling that way. You'll realize on vacations away, or when you leave, that you don't get the same vibe in the new place.

For example: C-ville.

Personally, I have happy associations about it because two of my nieces and nephews went to school there. I was pleased to see them grow in maturity and knowledge, and that halo effect extends to the town, to this day! There's a LOT of hype from commission-sales interests about how great C-Ville is as a place to retire, visit, vacation, work, etc. All signs could be go!!!

Digging a little deeper, one notices that C-ville is one of the worst places in the nation for income inequality. Unless you move there with your own job and your own money, you will be stuck on the bottom half of the bimodal distribution of household income, which reports that it requires two wage earners to bring in $70K - at age 40.

House prices have been hyped up by an unaccountable RE board, most of whom work part time and have husbands bringing in the $200K household income required to secure the average falling-down house. They price houses using the finger in the air rule, informed by how much they think they'll need for this year's cosmetic surgery refresh in Lausanne. Hence, if you don't bring your own job and your own cash, you will always be a renter in C-Ville You will trade down over time as CAAR continues to puff the numbers, thus emboldening the landed gentry to raise rents. Meanwhile, wages Nationally have remained stagnant since the mid-90s.

The point being - here are two entirely different "feelings" about a town, from two different points of view - both of them residing in the same person! Imagine how varied the "vibe" would be if we conducted interviews with a variety of people!

In sum, time is fleeting. Spending some of it to check out how you feel about a place by going there, and forming your own opinion, could produce one of the best ROTIs (returns on time invested) you've ever had. Best wishes to you!