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I have never lived in west virginia but my visits have been a bit too hilly for me. You ought to try some of the middle sections of Ohio. or the southeast corner of ohio. Less terrain , friendly folks, quiet towns. Amish country in some parts. In the mid northern part of OH is Navarre or Sugarcreek, Nice small country communities that are close enough to some suburbia to not make getting groceries too much of an ordeal. And much cheaper living than you are used to I am sure.
I have heard good and bad things about wv. I cant rent a house for under 1500.00 a month and with two kids in a two bdrm apt. things are kind of tight. Anyone you has been there a while can you please tell me good and bad neiborhoods. I am looking at charleston because its seems to have a variety of jobs. Thank you
$1500 a month? wow! In WV there is no point renting(even if you wanted to) because you can buy a house for $50,000 easily. I sure hope you can afford that. There are even cheaper houses, ive seen them go as low as $10,000 but youd be talking about a tiny 1 bedroom shack 100 years old in need of some repair. The decent houses generally will set you back $30,000 at least. Very cheap if you say
The crime is high in most, if not all metro cities. We have tons of crime here in Palm Beach County as well as in all metro cities. The smaller cities have less crime and the towns pratically no crime. You are going to love WV. May want to live in a town or small city as the crime is little to none.
Charleston is the capital and has 52k pop but lots of crime.
I was thinking of living in Charleston but the high crime has made me reluctant and id feel much safer in a town or small city.
edit: my god! Winfield is extremely expensive! It must be a town for the wealthy as houses there cost from mid $100s to over half million! Cost is about $100 a square foot there!
i have kind of narrowed it down to the princeton area. After visiting in augest. i really like princeton. It seems to be a up and coming town alot of new buisness and friendly people. My main concerns are jobs and crime i am trying to get away from the gangs, good luck on your search also.
I hope you are joking. High crime rate? There were 2 murders in Charleston last year. I live in Washington DC, we had 181 for 2007. There is no such thing as a "rough" area of west Virginia unless its more so in the poverty stricken area's like Cairo.(people without jobs, living in decrepit trailers) Ill pick any city in West Virginia, over most major cities in Virginia(Richmond, Petersburg, Norfolk, Newport news) or Maryland or Delaware or anywhere. Don’t be afraid of crime in West Virginia that’s just ridiculous.
The entire state only had 50 some homicides in 2008. THE ENTIRE STATE
You will find that people aren't that friendly here. I have a place in Fayette county and they are real stand offish types. I went to visit someone in a nursing home and one of they patients stole my car keys. Do you think anyone would help me? I was 10 miles from my house. The locals all split and left me stranded. Some lady from Denmark who married a local drove me home to get a spare set of keys. In Charleston you are on your own. I have been here 30 years and have many aquaintances but no real friends.
I hope you are joking. High crime rate? There were 2 murders in Charleston last year. I live in Washington DC, we had 181 for 2007. There is no such thing as a "rough" area of west Virginia unless its more so in the poverty stricken area's like Cairo.(people without jobs, living in decrepit trailers) Ill pick any city in West Virginia, over most major cities in Virginia(Richmond, Petersburg, Norfolk, Newport news) or Maryland or Delaware or anywhere. Don’t be afraid of crime in West Virginia that’s just ridiculous.
The entire state only had 50 some homicides in 2008. THE ENTIRE STATE
But people kill me talking about your biggest worry is jobs. Of course! That's why loads of people FROM WV have to move out every year to find employment.
A friend of mine told me just last year in Charleston, some guy chased his wife or girlfriend into Taco Bell and they both jumped over the counter and ran to the back. The girl ran to the back trying to get away from him, and he shot her to death in the Taco Bell kitchen. This friend also said, a girl took her new boyfriend with her to get her stuff from an ex boyfriends house. Apparently the ex boyfriend threw gasoline on her and set her on fire! This is stuff from the news, not the friends own personal experience.
If this information is not true, please someone correct it.
In addition to this, this friend says drug problems are going up fast. Many local teachers are getting arrested for robbing banks! I couldn't believe all I was hearing. Where I live now, the suburb of a large city, we don't have things like that happen. There were actually no murders here last year.
Last edited by Country4life; 01-12-2009 at 07:19 AM..
There are some jobs here. State roads need people at 9 bucks an hour. They always need school bus drivers. The prison system and jails always need people (at a miserable wage).
There is a federal income tax and a state income tax. I don't know off hand what the state income tax % is in WV, but I do know that I paid out less in WV income tax than I do now in MD income tax.
On the otherhand, WV charges 6% sales tax on everything and MD only charges 5% sales tax, but does not tax food. The tax thing is a give and take in most places, more tax on one thing and less on another.
Food tax is 3%:
Quote:
Effective July 1, 2008 the Sales and Use Tax on the sale, purchase and use of food and food ingredients intended for human consumption will decrease from 4% to 3%.
It is important to note the reduced rate does not apply to all food sales. Prepared food, soft drinks, food sold through vending machines, food sold in a heated state, or food sold with eating utensils provided by the seller will continue to be taxed at a rate of 6%. WV State Tax - Food Tax (http://www.state.wv.us/taxrev/foodtax.htm - broken link)
I live in Charleston, love it here, love the people. Not quite sure why but people seem to have varied experiences - although, I guess that would be true anywhere in the world.
Chas has a recorded higher crime rate than the other towns in WV but I don't know many people who worry about crime here. Use common sense, stay out of higher-crime areas, etc.
Here is the 2007 State Police report, scroll through to see crime in different regions
http://www.wvstatepolice.com/annreport/2007annualreport.pdf (broken link)
Also see crime info at //www.city-data.com/city/Charle...-Virginia.html (or select another city)
Friend has had her purse stolen out of her vehicle twice over the years but... both times she was downtown and had left her car unlocked. A couple times last year there were a couple areas where things were stolen from cars overnight from people's driveway or parked in the road -- all cars with missing things had left the doors unlocked, no locked cars were bothered. Here's what boggled my mind - People evidently did not worry about crime much or they wouldn't leave their cars unlocked. I grew up in NE Ohio and if "it" wasn't locked up, it was gone.
There were 4 murders in Charleston in 2008. You can read the details at this link:
With projections for the state's prison population to grow by 2,500 inmates over the next three years,..........As of Sunday, the Division of Corrections had 6,279 inmates, he said. ......Since 2000, the number of inmates sentenced on drug charges has jumped 9.7 percent, while those convicted of property crimes has increased 5.7 percent. ..........Five years ago, he said, 62 percent of inmates in state prisons were violent offenders. Now, a majority of inmates are serving time for non-violent offenses. The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports - News - Time to consider building new prison, W.Va. lawmakers told*
A large part of the Chas area pop lives in Putnam County. You can check the links above for crime stats.
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