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Old 12-26-2007, 12:30 PM
 
22 posts, read 58,465 times
Reputation: 12

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I'm turning 30 soon & starting a new career (in Accounting/auditing); I've never lived outside of Michigan. I am looking to make a move. I need some feedback on Virgina. I have not narrowed down an area, so your opinion/feedback is appreciated. Please consider the following questions in your reply:
What's the cost of living like? I live in metro Detoit & I pay a nice chunck of money to own a home in a not so decent neighborhood. Could I realistically own a condo (detached) for $150,000 in a nice neightborhood?
Cost of food?
Best areas to live for a nice single lady looking to meet a nice SINGLE guy?
Which areas to stay away from?
What are winters like?
I own a dog - is there a petfriendlier area or are they all pretty equal?
Sales tax? Is there tax on food?
What's the job market like? Michigan's suck (although I do have a job lined up f I don't move).
Starting pay for new career at new job is $50,000 - what kind of life would I have in Virgina with $50,000/yr? Will I be living in a box or bad neighborhood?
What are the bugs like? I was interested in going to Raleigh NC until I did some very extensive research & discovered that the bugs there will be too much for me. I am terrified of bugs such as huge spiders, roaches.

Thanks in advance for the help....
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Old 12-26-2007, 12:50 PM
 
22 posts, read 58,465 times
Reputation: 12
Default I forgot to add

I forgot to add - no kids, so the school system is not all that important to me right now.
I would prefer a short commute to work (less than 20 miles).
Access to big city life is good, but I prefer to live in suburb, & travel a small distance for the fun.
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Old 12-26-2007, 01:24 PM
j1n
 
Location: Southeast of the Northwest Territories
1,245 posts, read 4,669,865 times
Reputation: 469
Quote:
Originally Posted by ivyinmichigan View Post
I'm turning 30 soon & starting a new career (in Accounting/auditing); I've never lived outside of Michigan. I am looking to make a move. I need some feedback on Virgina. I have not narrowed down an area, so your opinion/feedback is appreciated. Please consider the following questions in your reply:
What's the cost of living like? I live in metro Detoit & I pay a nice chunck of money to own a home in a not so decent neighborhood. Could I realistically own a condo (detached) for $150,000 in a nice neightborhood?
VA has quite a bit of variety...ocean in the east to mountains in the west, and lots in-between. What do you like? Cost of living is generally reasonable, and more so as you head west and south. Yes, you could realistically own a condo for 150k in a good neighborhood. I think that for that price range you're going to want to look west in VA...try places along the Shenandoah corridor from Harrisonburg all the way down through Roanoke.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ivyinmichigan View Post
Cost of food?
Best areas to live for a nice single lady looking to meet a nice SINGLE guy?
Which areas to stay away from?
What are winters like?
I own a dog - is there a petfriendlier area or are they all pretty equal?
Sales tax? Is there tax on food?
We moved to Franklin County from the suburban NYC area, and I think it's probably a little better here, cost-wise. I can't find spinach pasta, though!
Can't help ya on the single guy thing. I guess it would depend...whatcha looking for? A farmer? Or a lawyer? VA is pretty varied and diverse!
Winters are generally fairly mild. But again...it really depends on the area of the state. The pet-friendly thing seems to be pretty varied as well. For instance, Roanoke...maybe 1 out of 4 ads is "pets negotiable". Just have to narrow down an area and start researching. Where we are, people have dogs, cats, horses, donkeys, llamas, goats, pigs. We even ran across a zebra in someone's yard!

Quote:
Originally Posted by ivyinmichigan View Post
What's the job market like? Michigan's suck (although I do have a job lined up f I don't move).
Starting pay for new career at new job is $50,000 - what kind of life would I have in Virgina with $50,000/yr? Will I be living in a box or bad neighborhood?
What are the bugs like? I was interested in going to Raleigh NC until I did some very extensive research & discovered that the bugs there will be too much for me. I am terrified of bugs such as huge spiders, roaches.

Thanks in advance for the help...
Job market. Also depends on the area of VA. You shouldn't have a tough time lining something up prior to moving, though. Just be diligent about it. Apparently there is some favoritism shown, in certain areas, to "locals" as opposed to "transplants". There's a lot of info on that here in these forums.
A single income of $50k should set you up nicely in VA if you pick your area carefully, and play your cards right. Keep in mind that a 50k rate of pay in Detroit may not be the same rate of pay you encounter here if you find that the cost of living is significantly lower here than the Detroit area.
If you keep a clean home, you won't have roaches. But there are quite a bit more creepy-crawlies than we had up north. Lots of funky-looking (but harmless) spiders, etc. That's just a part of living in a warmer place.
Hope that helps!
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Old 12-26-2007, 01:48 PM
j1n
 
Location: Southeast of the Northwest Territories
1,245 posts, read 4,669,865 times
Reputation: 469
hey ivyinmichigan,
you may find this info interesting:



Salary in Detroit MI:
$50,000
Comparable salary in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria DC-VA:
$68,678.92

If you move from Detroit MI to Washington-Arlington-Alexandria DC-VA...

Groceries will cost: 8.523% more
Housing will cost: 97.201% more
Utilities will cost: 9.394% more
Transportation will cost: 12.59% more
Healthcare will cost: 13.181% more



Salary in Detroit MI:
$50,000
Comparable salary in Richmond VA:
$52,814.23

If you move from Detroit MI to Richmond VA...

Groceries will cost: 3.611% less
Housing will cost: 6.064% more
Utilities will cost: 3.694% less
Transportation will cost: 11.969% more
Healthcare will cost: 4.998% more



Salary in Detroit MI:
$50,000
Comparable salary in Charlottesville VA:
$52,483.72

If you move from Detroit MI to Charlottesville VA...

Groceries will cost: 11.187% more
Housing will cost: 0.296% more
Utilities will cost: 16.231% less
Transportation will cost: 1.988% less
Healthcare will cost: 10.773% more



Salary in Detroit MI:
$50,000
Comparable salary in Roanoke VA:
$44,517.35

If you move from Detroit MI to Roanoke VA...

Groceries will cost: 8.405% less
Housing will cost: 22.121% less
Utilities will cost: 25.186% less
Transportation will cost: 2.365% less
Healthcare will cost: 3.578% less
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Old 12-26-2007, 01:54 PM
 
22 posts, read 58,465 times
Reputation: 12
Thanks for all of the great info. I am defintely a city girl versus any country/farm. So to answer your question jin, I would have to pick the lawyer .
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Old 12-26-2007, 02:09 PM
 
22 posts, read 58,465 times
Reputation: 12
Couple of more questions - in general, why is it so difficult for outsiders to find work in VA?
Is there anyone from/familiar with MI that could compare the following cities with cities in MI? Richmond, Charlottesville, Roanoke, Hamptom.
Thanks
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Old 12-28-2007, 09:59 AM
 
Location: Richmond, VA
1,799 posts, read 6,330,666 times
Reputation: 673
The bugs in Virginia aren't that different than the ones in North Carolina.... It shouldn't be difficult for you to find a job in accounting/auditing in the Richmond area. I have plenty of friends that are in the field. Richmond has a good-sized financial services/banking/accounting sector and there is a large number of Fortune 500's/1000's headquartered in the area:
Dominion Resources
Circuit City
Genworth Financial
MeadWestvaco
CarMax
Performance Food Group
Owens and Minor
LandAmerica Financial
Universal Corp.
Brink's
Markel
Albemarle
Massey Energy
and soon Altria

Capital One, Wachovia, SunTrust, Bank of America, and BB&T are all banks with a large presence in the region as well.

Also, here's a list of the largest accounting firms in Virginia:
http://www.virginiabusiness.com/edit/magazine/yr2007/mar07/ll_account.shtml (broken link)
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