Possible retirement to Elkton, Staunton, Monterey, or Floyd areas. (Roanoke: real estate, house)

[hiltonbrit]

Hello. I've spent many hours poring over these forums, but now
need to get up close and personal for informed answers and suggestions please.

My husband is retiring in a couple of years, and we want to move to the mountains of western VA, NC, or even Georgia. We've been living in northern and eastern VA for 20 years and I can't tolerate the hot, humid summers here any longer.

My number 1 priority is moderate summer temps with highs of 75-80. Lower is better.
Priority number 2 is to be within a 4 ish hour drive of Washington Dulles. I'll be flying home to visit my family and friends in England, and I hate changing planes.

We'd like a small town with charming/historic downtown. Friendly, welcoming people. A few restaurants, and enough shops for basics. We would drive further to stock up on the rest,. Surrounded by beautiful wooded countryside, and mountain views.
My husband needs golf. I'll be happy with photography, maybe a vegetable garden, and some community events.

We'd be looking for a single level 3 bed sfh on at least 2 acres, or possibly buying a few acres to build on. Wooded with views.
We are currently considering the Elkton, Staunton, Floyd, and Monterey areas. I realise that the first two have lower elevations and are not as cool in the summer as I'd hoped for.
Oh, and we'd need decent Healthcare and (compassionate) dentists within easy reach.

Thanks in advance for any information, and suggestions for places we may not have thought of. :-)

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by hiltonbrit

Hello. I've spent many hours poring over these forums, but now
need to get up close and personal for informed answers and suggestions please.

My husband is retiring in a couple of years, and we want to move to the mountains of western VA, NC, or even Georgia. We've been living in northern and eastern VA for 20 years and I can't tolerate the hot, humid summers here any longer.

My number 1 priority is moderate summer temps with highs of 75-80. Lower is better.
Priority number 2 is to be within a 4 ish hour drive of Washington Dulles. I'll be flying home to visit my family and friends in England, and I hate changing planes.

We'd like a small town with charming/historic downtown. Friendly, welcoming people. A few restaurants, and enough shops for basics. We would drive further to stock up on the rest,. Surrounded by beautiful wooded countryside, and mountain views.
My husband needs golf. I'll be happy with photography, maybe a vegetable garden, and some community events.

We'd be looking for a single level 3 bed sfh on at least 2 acres, or possibly buying a few acres to build on. Wooded with views.
We are currently considering the Elkton, Staunton, Floyd, and Monterey areas. I realise that the first two have lower elevations and are not as cool in the summer as I'd hoped for.
Oh, and we'd need decent Healthcare and (compassionate) dentists within easy reach.

Thanks in advance for any information, and suggestions for places we may not have thought of. :-)

What I put in bold will be your undoing. This isn't possible around even the mountainous regions. I am in Edinburg with Elkton being the closest to me. While the wife and I live in a valley area and we see almost a non stop breeze we still suffer the same hot miserable humid weather that you are seeing in your area. The breeze can certainly make it more tolerable and when we loved in NOVA we did not see that kind of almost non stop breeze so this is nice. But for the temps you are looking for you may want to consider further north like New Hampshire. But even they have a short summer with the hot humid weather there as well. There are some higher elevation areas in the mountains of NC where temps can be lower on average and may be worth checking out. Avery, NC comes to mind. While I live in one of the most beautiful areas around (Shenandoah Valley) and our temps are lower than the DC area we do still have some heat and humidity.

[Watchful]

Hot Springs VA nearly always has the lowest summer temps when they highlight the weather stations on the news around here...

[hiltonbrit]

Bigfoot424 and Watchful, thanks for your replies. They were helpful. I'm rapidly going off the idea of Elkton and Staunton because of the heat factor. Floyd and Monterey have considerably higher elevations and are several degrees cooler according to a few sources. We'll be driving up to visit next weekend, so that'll give us more detail. I'm also checking out Hot Springs.
We may well look further south into NC, and already have a few locations picked out. Elevations are definitely higher but then I'd have to drive to, and fly out of, Atlanta. Not my first choice.

This site has a neat little tool, that I've just discovered, to tap in your criteria,
then up pops a list of the towns that match!

[TN Lily]

Maybe Monterey has changed, but I would not describe the folks there as friendly, welcoming people. I lived there for 6 years in the 90s. I loved the land and the weather. And there are many good people there. The "come-heres" will likely be more friendly and welcoming than the locals. You will have to drive an hour to shop in a large grocery store. You will have to drive two hours to Charlottesville for good medical and dental care. Real estate tends to be expensive because of wealthy folks buying summer homes in the county.



Check out Bent Mountain, VA. You would have to use the Roanoke airport and won't be able to fly non-stop to England, but you can fly to Dulles from Roanoke and get on a direct flight there. There is a restaurant (Bent Mountain Bistro) but no downtown. However, you are close enough to Roanoke to drive to downtown Roanoke in under half an hour. It is in Roanoke County. You would have access to the Carilion and Lewis & Gale hospitals and their associated providers. There does not seem to be a shortage of dentists here.



Good luck in your search.

[Bamaman1]

Have you been down to the Banner-Elk, Grandfather Mountain, Linville, NC area of Northwest North Carolina?

With elevations about 5,000 feet, the Summers are substantially cooler than in the rest of The South. The place is simply beautiful with Beech Mountain and Sugar Mountain ski areas. My sister has a house there.

It's also easy to get to get there by I-81 down to Bristol, VA/TN and Hwy 19E.

[hiltonbrit]

TN Lily, thank so much for your response. It's very helpful. I like getting different opinions to help guide my decisions.

[hiltonbrit]

Bamaman 1, thanks for your response. We have already begun looking at towns in the NC mountains as an alternative to VA. We've visited several times and love the locale. I appreciate you suggestions.

[NJBoy3]

VT, NH or ME. Seek out the retirement enclaves.

[Serious Conversation]

You'd be very hard-pressed to find temps that low consistently anywhere in the VA mountains. NC may have some higher elevation communities that could fit the bill.

If you're willing to do 2000'-3000' and compromise some on the temperature, VA has some communities that are good bargains.