Whether or not they appreciate it, University students are living in what many magazines have voted one of the most pleasant communities in the nation, and that quality has led to an influx of jobs and people that is altering the area's small-town features.
Charlottesville is attracting high-tech businesses and young professionals to the area, helping to push its unemployment rate down to 1.4 percent -- the lowest in the Commonwealth.
And most of the newcomers are settling in Albemarle County, one of the wealthier counties in the state, forcing it to build schools and add public services at a rapid pace and prompting debates over growth.
The area is known for its temperate weather, picturesque scenery and low pollution levels. For these reasons, Charlottesville has racked up an assortment of awards including "Best Small City in the South" (1998, Money magazine), second-"Healthiest Place to Live" (1996, Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine) and second-"Best Climate on the East Coast" (1997, American Association of State Climatologists).
Cosmopolitan restaurants, noted golf courses and University sports also make the area attractive.
As a result, the area is witnessing an increasing number of jobs and high-income earners, with many taking up residence in the county suburbs and adding to the wealth already present.
"There is a lot of money here," City Assessor Glen Branham said.
In the city, however, the poverty rate reaches 20 percent, making it one of the higher poverty cities in the state, close to Richmond and Norfolk. The poverty rate in Washington, D.C., is not much higher, 22.7 percent in 1996.
Those low city incomes bring the city's mean household income down to $24,190. For the Commonwealth as a whole, the mean household income is $38,426, and the national mean household income is $35,492 (all 1996 numbers).
More telling of the area's wealth is Albemarle County. While it has the same number of poor as in the city, the poverty rate is only 7.8 percent, one of the lowest in the Commonwealth (1996). This is because the city attracts the poor with its public services and because of the number of higher-income households in the county, Vice Mayor Meredith Richards said.
The County's 1996 median family income was $50,442, making it one of the highest in the Commonwealth.
"There is much more wealth -- big estates in Albemarle County," Richards said.
One reason for the wealth in the county and in pockets in the city is the area's attraction of high-income earners. Some of those who come to the region do not earn those incomes from the local economy.
For instance, Charlottesville has seen an influx of lawyers for some time. The town is a favorite of attorneys, to the extent that "amazingly few" have local clients, commerce law Professor John Wheeler said.
"People come to Charlottesville, love it and stay," including many University Law School graduates, Wheeler said. "It's where lawyers like to live."
This effect also is seen with tourists, who are impressed by what they see while sightseeing.
"Tourists come, they see and they like it and stay," Richards said.
Another group not dependent on the local economy is retirees, often from Northern Virginia, who come here to settle, she said. "Gentlemen farmers" are another phenomenon of the county. They are the owners of farms, often horse or cattle farms, that derive some or most of their income from other sources, county executive Bob Tucker said.
But the area has been seeing another trend lately: young professionals and telecommuters, as well as employees in high-tech jobs, coming into the area.
"We're definitely seeing a rise in the number of younger folks coming to Charlottesville," director of communication Maurice Cox said.
Businesses coming to the region have contributed to the lowest unemployment rates in the state.
Charlottesville's unemployment rate is around 1.4 percent, the lowest in the state, compared to Virginia's 2.6 percent and 4 percent nationally. Job growth is estimated at 4.69 percent, compared to 1.3 percent nationwide.
Businesses find the area attractive, not only for the right-to-work laws that make laying off workers easier but because of features such as the University, the University hospital and fine restaurants. The area also is known as a good place to raise a family, partly because of good schools, Charlottesville Mayor Virginia Daugherty said.
These features and the jobs they attract lure people and are a factor of the high real estate values of the area.
Overall city real estate prices increased 6 and 7 percent, respectively, in the past two years. Over the past seven years, University housing rates have risen an average of 2.8 percent.
"The housing market here is so high -- there's a very high demand," Branham said. Houses put on the market are often sold in a day or two, he added.
The county also has higher values than comparable suburban counties tend to have, excluding Northern Virginia, Tucker said.
The city cannot expand but can make some room for more people by making greater use of land and housing, officials said.
However, the county is where most of the population growth is.
There is "growth from all angles," county assessor Bruce Woodzell said.
Albemarle saw 4 percent annual growth in the 1980s before easing to 2 percent average growth in the 1990s. Still, that growth is turning one of Virginia's largest counties more and more suburban and causing problems along the way.
New school construction barely can keep up with the increasing student population. Construction of Monticello high school was completed only two years ago, and already the school had to add new trailers to accommodate a swelling student body.
And, as more and more of the county transforms from rural to suburban, the pressure to raise taxes is rising.
Currently, county officials and residents are debating raising property taxes, comparatively low to the city, to provide for services such as fire departments and trash collecting. And some county residents want the growth to slow or stop, even as city officials are working to bring in more middle-class families to level the city's income disparity.
"We want to attract more middle income residents," Richards said. "The county wants to slow its growth; the city would like to absorb some of that growth."
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Statistics for Charlottesville and Albemarle County |
|||||
| Charlottesville | National Average | Charlottesville | Albemarle County | ||
| Unemployment Rate | 1.4% | 4.04% | Population | 38,223 (1998) | 80,700 (1998) |
| Job Growth (Since 1998) | 4.69% | 1.30% | Median Income | $24,190 (1996) | $50,442 (1996) |
| Forcast Job Growth to 2010 | 15.35% | 15.39% | Poverty Rate | 20% | 7.8% |
| Mean Household Income | $24,190 | $35,492 | Per capita Income | 12,928 (1990) | 17,448 (1990) |
| Housing | Murders | 4 (1999) | 0 (1996) | ||
| Median Price for a 3 bedroom home | $168,740 | $155,829 | Rapes | 25 (1999) | 12 (1996) |
| Change in Average Home Value since 1998 | 5.09% | 4.81% | Robberies | 87 (1999) | 18 (1996) |
|
Statistics courtesy Money.com |
Motor Vehicle Thefts | 117 (1999) | 97 (1996) | ||
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