Thinking of VA, have questions (Richmond, Alexandria: house, purchase, middle school)

[Dachia]

Hi, I have been living in SC for about 2.5 years, and have horses. What i like about SC are easy winters, and lots of horse people.

What I would like to improve- cooler summers with less humidity. More green, better dirt, more hills. (The area i live, just outside Aiken, is very sandy and flat). The horses I have would do better with cooler climate. They would be happier much cooler, but we need to find a compromise. i have been all over the US, moved to SC from WI. I lived in VA when i was a child, in Manassas area. I dont remember much about it, except that i don't recall being unbearably hot during the summer.

i am self-employed from my home, and can live anywhere. The closer i am to a college area, however, the better. i enjoy that culture, plus it tends to be a better financial area for me. More health minded, generally, more gyms, yoga, etc.

Would love to stay under $100,000, but can go higher for the right place, with at least 5 acres of land (horses). Near a large body of water, either the ocean, or large lake, or wide river would be great. I love hills and mountains. Would like to be within 1/2 hour of large town with colleges and markets etc. no kids.

The land and its potential is more important than the home. If the house needs work or doesn't have one (but does have well and elec) that is workable. I hope that gives you a good starting point.

I have been reading, and it seems VA has less humidity on the west side... so, being away from the ocean, might be unavoidable, plus it would seem that it would just be that much more money for land over there close to the coast.

While I know that VA has humidity, i just need less than here, noticeably.
Thanks!
Dachia

[TN Lily]

$100,000 for land --- cleared land -- is not a lot even for five acres in many parts of Virginia. I have not looked at raw land prices of late, but suspect that in Louisa County (home of Lake Anna), you can probably purchase wooded acreage at this price. We bought in 2006 and had a hard time finding cleared land for our horses that was within our budget.

Hopefully others will chime in. I would suspect that far southwest Virginia or the areas just above the N.C. line (Danville, Farmville, South Boston, etc.) may have lower priced land.

I think of Virginia as humid. Have you been comparing daily weather reports to see if Va. humidity is less than where you are in N.C.?

[Dachia]

I tried to compare weather to SC, but it is so different across the state (VA). I did a quick search on unitedcountry and found a place with a house (might have needed a lot of work), and 13 acres, looked good. I am not ready to move till next year, or maybe the year after, so i am not going to go look at places, but have time to narrow down my area of interest. I don't remember the town/city. i saved the link, but now it just goes back to the main page, not that place. Anyway, it was $88,000. There were many places under the $100,000 across the state... but i just didn;t know what area I really wanted.

[ShadowBat]

I would start a look around Lexington. It's a small town, but has VMI and W & L. There's also the VA Horse center there too. It's in the Shenandoah Valley, so lots of hills/mountains.

[Dachia]

Thanks, I'll start checking out Lexington.

[Nikki75]

Louisa could work as far as land and cost are concerned. We drove to the Shenandoah Valley last month and went Caroline County (Jericho Rd) through Louisa County. Along the way we saw nothing but railroad tracks, farms, winding roads, teeny churches, and land for days. If Amtrak takes that route I would purposely fall asleep from Richmond to Alexandria just to escape. It looked like it was right out of the late 1800s early 1900s. The town hall area of Louisa looks like it's the best the area gets. I saw a Walgreens and Food Lion or Target but no college life.

[TN Lily]

The Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors has an MLS search engine that includes Louisa County. It is pretty easy to search Albemarle, Louisa, Fluvanna, Madison, Nelson and other areas on this website.

[Nikki75]

TN Lily, I hope you and your family are ok after the earthquake this week!

[TN Lily]

Nikki75, thank you for asking. We are fine, but there are many others who are not as fortunate.

Several of the schools are damaged. I was told that the middle school & high school are five miles from the epicenter. Students were at school when the earthquake happened. School won't start back up until Sept. 6th. At least that is the date being given now.

Aftershocks are still happening. I live near the intersection of rt. 15 & Interstate 64. We felt and heard the 4.5 magnitude that happened at around 1 a.m. today.