Oh Shenandoah: County of Plenty?
Growing up in the D.C. area, I used to go camping a hundred miles west of the city. I never imagined I would one day spend half my life there. Yet here I am, settled in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, where I fell in love with the landscape, the simplicity, and the sense of community that holds this place together. When I first arrived, people were scraping by. Many were eating beans and rice, earning less than five dollars an hour, and struggling just to break even. Life was modest, but neighbors looked out for one another. Thirty‑four years ago, I bought my land for $8,000 -- 4.3 acres, a quarter‑acre of it a dry run, the rest rocks and shale. Today, the county says that the same land is worth $90,000, and they’ve assessed my house at roughly $70,000, well above what major real‑estate sites estimate. Meanwhile, my electric bill has climbed steadily, rising about twelve percent on average, mirroring increases in gas and other household costs. Stagflation feels closer t...