I dream of VA (particularly Winchester) (Richmond, Arlington: appointed, for sale, how much)

[IllinoisNewfie]

Hello, new to the forum! I'll follow the Sticky instructions to a T and then deviate from them a bit:

-Where you are working
My husband works in Finance/Accounting. God willing, I'll be a SAHM by the time we move to VA!

-How much you are willing to spend on housing
Well, here's the thing...we'd actually like to buy some acreage (anywhere from 5 acres and up) and build a house (on a slab, which is a question I'll ask later) with a small barn so we can have a couple of draft horses and so my hubby can continue his gardening hobby. Depending on how we go about it...we're hoping to keep everything below $500k.

-How long of a commute you're willing to tolerate
He can tolerate up to an hour and we're both used to hour-long commutes out here. Anything more than that will pretty much kill him.

-If you have kids: Private school or public school?
Have kids, but not in school yet, but when we get there...a mixture of home school and public school.

-What type of neighborhood environment you are looking for: small town feeling? small city excitement? suburbia delight?
Small town/semi-rural but within an hour or so of more civilisation. We're used to having to drive half an hour or more for shopping and what-not.

-Community amenities important to you
Meh. We grew up in the country, but moved to the western suburbs of Chicago for our jobs...looking forward to privacy and peace more than anything now I guess a local coffee/tea shop would be nice. And a relatively close grocery store. We like Farmer's Markets and the outdoors too, so maybe some walking/hiking trails within a reasonable distance would be nice. But generally speaking, we're not too terribly picky.

-Pie or cake?
Pie. All the way. Blueberry to be specific.


In short, what we want is to be within an hour of a finance/accounting job for the hubby, a half hour or less from shopping/amenities, affordable land (5 acres or more), semi-rural/small town, good public schools, nice scenery and not heart attack-inducing property tax rates.

I've been honing in on Winchester because it seems to fit my criteria, superficially at least. But I do have some questions about that place in particular:

Would there be any good job prosects out there for someone working in the financial/accounting industry that plans on being the sole breadwinner of a family? Or would we need to focus our search closer to DC?

There seems to be many plots of land in the 5+ acre category for sale at any given time that are priced at a range that we feel comfortable with...but is there any reason why property values out there aren't particularly sky-high? (not that they're dirt cheap, but they seem pretty great from where I'm standing in uber expensive Chicagoland/Western Suburbs.) Is it because there's no work?

We'd like to build on a slab because we hate basements and because the the house we'll be building has a large third floor that we plan on using as attic space, not as living space. Also, we know with the less extreme weather of VA, if you go with the right method and with the right professional, you CAN do slabs. (Slabs are a bear out here with our harsh winters.) But what is the soil like in VA, specifically near Winchester? Rocky, clay, etc.

How do any of you feel about property taxes on ag properties?

Anything anyone can tell me would be much appreciated! Thank you for listening! Er, reading

[IllinoisNewfie]

I suppose I should clarify that we're not dead-set on Winchester. If anyone reading this thinks there's an area in VA that better suits our needs/wants (within an hour good employment opportunities, a half hour or less from shopping/amenities, affordable land (5 acres or more), semi-rural/small town, good public schools, nice scenery and not heart attack-inducing property tax rates)...I'm all ears!

[Bigfoot424]

I'd be careful in regards to that type of job and an hour commute. I'm sure he could find a job in his field within an hour drive but the chances at a job will increase as you get closer to the DC metro area. I love the Winchester area and would move there in a heartbeat if I could.

You might see more responses if you move this to the NOVA section.

[LynchburgLover]

I would suggest you focus on the smaller cities further south -- Roanoke, Blacksburg, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg, or over toward Richmond, Williamsburg. All of those would have accounting positions. You mention land for horses -- anything in the NoVa area is going to be quite pricey so he'd have to go way into McLean/Arlington/DC to get the salary to sustain that lifestyle. To find that much affordable land with lower taxes, his commute would be well over an hour.

Concentrate on finding the job first and then start looking at land around that area. All of those smaller cities have significantly cheaper farms within easy commutes

And, regarding the pie . . . if you're really interested in Winchester, you better LOVE apple pie . . . everything in Winchester revolves around apples!

Good luck.

[South Jersey Styx]

I would agree that you should look for employment opportunities first.

I live in Winchester (formerly fr the suburbs of Loudoun Co) and we love it. However, we are in the city and not the rural areas (with acreage). If you end up here, you won't be disappointed! Search the forum for other Winchester topics as there has been alot already mentioned, including a Photo Tour (I think it is on the Northern VA Forum). There are smaller towns (if you seek acreage) south of Winchester between Front Royal and the Front Royal area that you might also like.

[Rhett_Butler]

Actually, I'd recommend looking at Clarke County (Berryville area) as it sounds like what you're looking for. Its about 10-15 minutes from Winchester on the D.C. side. The county is largely being skipped over development-wise because (and someone else can probably explain this better) of people like yourself who want acreage in lieu of cookie-cutter housing. Something about how land is zoned in Clarke County keeps it from being over-developed and steers housing toward the type of situation you're looking for.

From what I understand the property taxes are a little higher, but it might be worth your time to take a look..

[IllinoisNewfie]

Thank you for the responses! I will definitely look into some of these suggestions! We're kind of hoping this will be our "End All, Be All" move. To build our dream home, set some firm roots and stay put, god willing, for the rest of our lives.

As far as property taxes go, I live an hour outside of Chicago and what I pay would probably knock the lot of you off of your chairs. We live in a house that's less than 1800 square feet on less than 1/3rd of an acre and we pay over $500 a month. And our house (since it's new construction) hasn't been fully assessed yet. I half expect to have a stroke when we get next year's (fully assessed) tax bill. Yowza.