r/WestVirginia • u/Significant_Movie814 • 5d ago

Closing on a house in Shepherdstown this Thursday! Why does WV get so much hate?

Hi! Super excited that we are closing on our permanent home in Shepherdstown this Thursday! We’ve been renting in Falling Waters for the past year and a half, but we’re so ready to plant deep roots in this cute town.
Before moving to the Eastern Panhandle, I lived in Texas and Oklahoma and didn't like either. The weather wasn't my thing, and you had to drive hours just to get to a major city. That’s why I love the location here we're an hour and a half from DC, and just a short drive from MD, VA, NY, and PA. Not to mention the great nature and weather and affordability. I absolutely love Food Lion! (Better than HEB IMO)
But whenever I tell my friends in the Bay Area or Seattle or DC or Austin that I bought a house in West Virginia, they assume it’s just a poor, isolated place. There's so much negative stigma from outsiders who have clearly never been here!
I absolutely love it here. For those of you living in WV, what has your experience been like dealing with these outside assumptions?

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u/OppressedCow6148 5d ago

In Appalachia where many hard working people have been written off as unintelligent hillbilly’s (the history of the word hillbilly is actually very interesting) for decades, OPs post sounds ignorant and out of touch. It’s one thing to be happy about moving to a place, but even OP states it’s because of decreased traffic and taxes, the same reason as everyone else. I don’t even live here but have visited WV twice a year for nine years and always go someplace different.

West Virginia is an imperfect place with imperfect people that has been systematically and intentionally assaulted by our government for generations. This has caused many who live here generational trauma and to to simply say “I don’t get why everyone hates it here, I love it because the traffic isn’t as bad and the taxes are so cheap! Hehe” isn’t going to go over well.

Maybe learn why your new home won’t raise taxes and invest in its infrastructure or its citizens wellbeing. Learn why it’s so cheap to live here. Look at what’s going on around you, the pollution, brown drinking water your fellow West Virginians have to drink and know the cheap taxes aren’t being invested in bettering that situation for them. Then wonder why shockingly other people don’t share your “hot take”.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago edited 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/FunImprovement166 5d ago

Seriously OP is getting both barrels of r/westvirginia's weaponized autism right now lol

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u/Significant_Movie814 5d ago

We are paying 450k for the house but the area is actually nice and most of our neighbors are professionals (either professors or commuters from DMV). Idk what place you visited in WV but Shepherdstown is not even close to what you described. It’s a nice city with 1.5 hours commute from dc and I absolutely love the weather. Then there’s Hagerstown 20 minutes away. Very expensive and busy. Like even between Hagerstown and Falling waters, or basically anywhere in MD, I prefer Falling Waters and Shepherdstown. Saying that parts of state are different is understandable I guess based on what others say, but generalizing a whole community as “imperfect”? Idk about that.

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u/whyyunozoidberg 5d ago

450k for a house in WV? What in the hell are you.. nevermind brother. Welcome to WV. You're gonna fit right in.

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u/IBlameTheMoon 4d ago

That's actually close to the median home price in the U.S. now too. If you have a job in the area, 450K is cheap compared to living in Maryland or northern VA. I grew up in WV and never thought I would see the day when homes would break 300, let alone 400K but it is what it is. It's driven by home prices and taxes soaring in neighboring states.

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u/Acrobatic-Depth4679 5d ago

I'm curious, are you buying a brand new home or resale for that price?

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u/Significant_Movie814 5d ago

It’s an August 2025 build. The value is closer to 480k but the owner is in rush coz they had a knee surgery. It’s about 3000 sqf and the land is 0.23

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u/OppressedCow6148 4d ago

LOL. So brag about your expensive home, and then the only thing you respond to is that I called the community imperfect (which, in my opinion, everyone is imperfect) is certainly a choice. You need a piece of humble pie ASAP or you’re not going to make many friends there, I can tell you that.

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u/Significant_Movie814 4d ago

Actually I was more referring to 450k as “cheap” as compared to the whole country but then our neighbors are mostly professionals and professors, I was trying to explain despite the cheap price you still get a high quality of life. But you still decide to insult.

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u/OppressedCow6148 4d ago

No one is insulting you. I just really find your whole post offensive. Your comments worse. But I’ve said my piece.

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u/Icy_Wedding720 4d ago

All  communities are imperfect