We will be taking the long way home from a trip to PA next week, coming down through WV before cutting east around 64.

Reason for the detour through our western neighbor is to scout a few towns to see if we should be including WV in our search for a new place to call home.

We've been up and down all of western VA looking for a place to raise a family, so we thought we'd extend the search over the border.

Our 'ideal' property would be some combination of:

- minimum of 30+ rural acres with a mix of woods & a few pasture
- mountain or at least rolling (natural range backstop )
- within an hour or so of decent shopping, half that for necessities
- two flavors of some type of broadband (DSL, cable, 3g, WIFI, etc) as we both telecommute
- solid community with decent schools

Any WV areas match up?

I would recommend the eastern Greenbrier County but the taxes are ridiculous. I'm just outside of Lewisburg (about 20 miles from Covington VA) and enjoy living in this area, originally from 16 miles east of Charleston from a little town called Diamond. But if I had my choice and wasn't looking for a job, I'd go to Pocahontas County in a heartbeat (borders Bath Co. Va) about 1-1/2 hours away from Staunton Va.

Appreciate the info.



That gives us a few more places to scout.



 

I would highly reccomend the Eastern Panhandle of WV  Berkeley, Jefferson or Morgan Counties as well as the west side of Fredrick County, VA.  Keep in mind though, that while all you seek is here, we also have the same cost of living that the NOVA area has.  We are on the DC scale for federal wages here to since we are that close.  Schools are more than adequate and just about anything that you want is in driving distance  I 81 runs through the middle of the area, and we are a 20-30 minutes from I 70 also a new east/west four lane is under construction through Berkeley and Jefferson County that will hook up with another 4 lane highway that runs N/S through Jefferson to VA and MD,

I would not recommend Pocahontas Co.. There is nothing herethere. No stores,schools,hospitals,electricity. Nothing at all any one needs to survive.No internet at all,no phone service.

The part about living here if your not needing a job is true. I work electrical construction, mostly in VA.I only get to enjoy my home 2-3 days a week.

Bump from Morgantown for any other last minute suggestions!

The Lewisburg area seems nice, I drive through there on my way home from college.  Pocahontas County is beautiful, but I wouldn't want to call it home if internet was a necessity.  I would certainly recommend checking out Bath County and Highland County.  Bath is where I call home, beautiful weather, awesome rivers, nice people, the Homestead keeps the area looking nice, the schools were decent when I was there about 5 years ago, etc, etc.

That's about all I've got...

Wow.

I had forgotten just how truly beautiful the mountains are in WV.

VA has some pretty sections remaining, but in WV the unspoiled areas go on for mile after mile.  

And despite stopping in some pretty hard-luck towns, everyone we talked to were as polite as could be hoped for... sort of how I remember most Virginian's used to be.

Your state put on a fine showing.

Thanks again for the info.