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XanaDUer2

(14,336 posts)
Thu Mar 4, 2021, 07:02 PM Mar 2021

Do you like living in WV?

hello! My SO and I are looking for nice places to live with a low cost of living. I am looking for residents' opinions, insights, warnings, anything. I know it's a red state, but lovely liberals live there, too! Is the winter bad? WV looks like a naturally beautiful state, too. We're thinking Morgantown.

6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Do you like living in WV? (Original Post) XanaDUer2 Mar 2021 OP
I live in Ohio just 8 miles from Wheeling. Since Morgantown is home of WVU the average income doc03 Mar 2021 #1
Living in WV WVGIRL Mar 2021 #2
Welcome to DU! TwilightZone Mar 2021 #3
True... WVGIRL Mar 2021 #4
I'm a proud hillbilly transplant born in dirt-poor rural WVA--one of the most beautiful places ever! live love laugh Mar 2021 #5
I was born and raised in Morgantown. Staph Mar 2021 #6

doc03

(36,812 posts)
1. I live in Ohio just 8 miles from Wheeling. Since Morgantown is home of WVU the average income
Thu Mar 4, 2021, 07:25 PM
Mar 2021

is higher and it is more liberal than Wheeling. I have no problem with Wheeling it has a lot to offer
they have an excellent bike trail if you are into biking and one of the nicest city parks in the country and
it is only a about an hour drive to downtown Pittsburgh. Same goes for Morgantown but the cost of living is
probably a little higher there. If I had the choice I would probably go for Morgantown since I love the mountains.

WVGIRL

(32 posts)
2. Living in WV
Thu Mar 4, 2021, 08:10 PM
Mar 2021

Hi! I live in Morgantown! Our county is definitely one of the most progressive in the state; however, the political climate down at the state house is distressingly ignorant and right-wing. We definitely need some progressives to move here to help point us in the right direction.
If you like doing outdoor things like we do, Morgantown is close to awesome all-season outdoor activities in the Monongahela National Forest, and the Laurel Highlands of PA, not to mention the Allegany (sp.) Mts. of Maryland. Affordable snow skiing, tons of rail trails for biking, canoeing and kayaking, hiking, and white water rafting can be done in a day— and still get home and mow your lawn or shovel the snow from your driveway!

TwilightZone

(28,834 posts)
3. Welcome to DU!
Thu Mar 4, 2021, 08:40 PM
Mar 2021

A couple of former coworkers of mine were transferred to WV for a while and loved it. Like many other places and states, the silly stereotypes do it a disservice.

WVGIRL

(32 posts)
4. True...
Thu Mar 4, 2021, 08:50 PM
Mar 2021

Yes, everyone who grows up here gets a “complex” about being a “hillbilly”, but we all love the state. I joke that it is like an exclusive club. If ANY of us WV’ians are traveling and see someone wearing a WV logo shirt or hat, we will flag the person down to ask where they are from and if they know a certain person.
Our schools are good in our county, but charter schools have reared their ugly head in the legislature and we may be about to get our first one. This will be the beginning of a downward slide for our public schools. It’s a damn shame.

Staph

(6,353 posts)
6. I was born and raised in Morgantown.
Thu Mar 4, 2021, 11:24 PM
Mar 2021

It's a great place to grow up! You have the advantages of a big-time university, with sports, concerts, theatre, art, and speakers. Morgantown is still a small town, so you can live out in the woods ten miles from downtown.

However, Morgantown has changed a bit since I was a kid. They have rush hours every hour, as classes change and students move from one campus to another to another. Housing is more expensive than anywhere else in the state. The Morgantown house I grew up in is now worth $275,000. The house I live in in Huntington is larger, 20 years younger, twice the lot size, but valued at $175,000. (I know, all y'all from out of state think both of those home prices are impossibly cheap. West Virginia has a great cost of living!)


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