This is another one of my "I'm looking to move" posts...as the time fast approaches, I really have to start getting serious.  

Bottom line is, I'd like to stay in VA, but it ain't gonna happen up here.  So, I'm looking at real estate listings, and there is actually some affordable ($150,000) housing in that area...but I don't know the first thing about that part of the state.  

If any of you folks are from down that way, what's it like.  I'd like to be in nice, quiet neighborhood surrounded by a jury of my peers hehe.  

Danville has its good and bad parts just like anywhere else, also Averett university is there, but ive never lived there just passed threw a few times.

My entire family goes back to the 1780's in Danville and Martinsville.  Land is still at a good price and the people are real nice.  You have to love tobacco, bbq and racing.  And let’s not forget hunting.  Its a good place to live I think.  

I think property prices may continue to drop.  Below is an article from the Virginia-Pilot concerning the probably closure of on it's main employers, "Dan River Inc", formerly "Dan River Fabrics will likely be a severe blow to the areas economy and see a down turn in land/property prices.

When I saw this article I thought about moving there from Norfolk as my final retirement location.

Danville loses its economic icon
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 30, 2005



Drip, drip, drip.

The lifeblood of Southside Virginia, textiles and tobacco, continues to drain away.

The latest wound is more than a surface cut. The acquisition of Dan River Inc. by an Indian chemical company, which will surely move many of the firm’s 1,600 Danville textile jobs overseas, punctures an artery.

A regional employer and civic force since 1882, the former Dan River Fabrics fed, clothed, and educated generations of families who counted on the mill to provide stability and a measure of prosperity.

The company’s giant nameplate hovered over the Danville skyline like a protective seal against unemployment and decay.

The crumbling of that safety shield almost certainly will increase the local unemployment rate, which at 7.2 percent already more than doubles that of Virginia as a whole. It will likely speed the exodus of young people from the region and leave older families scrambling to make do.

As the inevitability of economic globalization evolves, Virginians must remain vigilant to the disparities it creates within our borders. Locally, the port of Hampton Roads is booming, in substantial measure because of mounting imports from overseas manufacturing.

Yet, a few hundred miles to the west, our gain is their loss. The state must do all in its power to bolster those communities hardest hit by the change, even as local residents do all in their power to adapt. In fact, the state needs no coaching in its responsibility

One of the hallmarks of the Warner administration has been its attention to Southside’s economic plight. What is needed is not a change of direction so much as a sustained commitment to the current one.

When Gov. Mark Warner paid a recent visit to Martinsville, he was welcomed as a local hero, for good reason. Through aggressive industry recruitment and re-training efforts, the state has helped that gritty community cut its unemployment rate from 17.9 percent in mid-2002 to 8.3 percent today.

A proposal for a local four-year college is making its way through the State Council of Higher Education

and the General Assembly. Policymakers need to treat the idea with special deference, given the region’s desperate grasp for an economic lifeline.

The pending departure of hundreds of Dan River Inc. jobs only intensifies the imperative of a transfusion.

thanks for the help!  Bladerunner, that's a very informative article...it's too bad for the folks that will be impacted by the closure.