Virginia real estate, VA - America Real Estate Directory

Virginia Real Estate

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Virginia is located in the eastern United States and is one of the original 13 colonies. Named for the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I of England, Virginia was England’s first successful overseas colony and the site of the first permanent English settlement in America. At one time it held territory from which several other states were later formed. West Virginia was part of Virginia until 1863. Virginia’s rich political heritage helped shape the democratic principles on which the United States was founded. Virginia played an important role in the American Revolution (1775-1783), and it entered the Union as the tenth of the original 13 states on June 25, 1788. During the American Civil War (1861-1865) the state’s capital, Richmond, was also capital of the Confederacy.

Virginia's service sector provides one-third of all jobs in Virginia, generating as much income as the manufacturing and retail industries combined. Virginia has a large number of manufacturing industries, including transportation equipment, food processing, electronic and other electrical equipment, chemicals, textiles and apparel, lumber and wood products, and furniture. Agriculture and tourism also play an important role in the Virginia economy. A 2006 real estate survey has estimated the population of Virginia at 7,712,091.

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Alexandria

Polly Shaw

E-mail: polly@pollyshaw.com

Web Site

Arlington

Wanda Pore

Arlington Real Estate

Bob Paget

Arlington Real Estate

Burke

Arleane C. Sweetney

E-mail: asweetney@aol.com

Chesapeake click here

Chesapeake is located in southeastern Virginia, on the Elizabeth River. Chesapeake is a suburban center for manufacturing, distribution, and customer service operations. Major employers include technical support centers and industries producing chemicals, industrial gears, and electronics.

Christiansburg

Rhonda Brewer

Christiansburg Real Estate

Fairfax click here

Fairfax is located in northeastern Virginia. Fairfax is primarily a residential suburb of Washington, D.C.; it serves as the seat of Fairfax County but is administratively independent of the county.

Farmville

Rachel Runion

Loudoun County

Marilee Murphy

Loudoun County Real Estate

Middle Peninsula

Donna Grigelis

E-mail: donna@villagepop.com

Newport News

Natalie Clevinger

Newport News Real Estate

Norfolk click here

Norfolk is located in southeastern Virginia, at the mouth of the James, Elizabeth, and Nansemond rivers. Situated on the natural waterway called Hampton Roads, the city is near the outlet of Chesapeake Bay on the Atlantic Ocean. Mile Zero of the Atlantic portion of the scenic Intracoastal Waterway is located on Norfolk’s harbor.

Northern Neck

Jane B. Ludwig

E-mail: jane@baymeadowsrealestate.com

Richmond click here

Richmond is a seaport at the head of navigation on the James River, it was the capital of the Confederacy during almost all of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Richmond is one of the largest cities in Virginia and serves as the manufacturing, distribution, commercial, financial, and cultural center for the surrounding region.

Springfield

Debbie Ingram

Springfield Real Estate

Virginia Beach click here

Located on the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Beach is near the border with North Carolina and ranks as the largest city in Virginia. With its 38 mi of shoreline and many fine hotels, it is one of the most popular resorts on the East Coast.

Warrenton

Lisa Lisjak

Warrenton Real Estate

Washington DC click here

District of Columbia, federal district of the United States, coextensive with the city of Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is situated on the Potomac and Anacostia rivers and has an area of 68 sq mi.

Livestock and livestock products are Virginia’s leading sources of farm income, providing 69 percent of agricultural revenue in 1999. The raising of poultry is farming’s chief economic activity, representing about one-third of agricultural income. Poultry farming, especially turkeys, is a major activity in the Shenandoah Valley, as are chickens on the Eastern Shore. The raising of beef cattle is especially important in the northern Piedmont. Dairy farms are found throughout the state. Virginia’s farms also raise a significant number of hogs. Smithfield ham, originally made from hogs fed a special diet of peanuts, is produced here.

Tobacco declined in importance as a crop in the early 1800s and after the Civil War. However, the process was developed of curing bright-leaf tobacco by heat conducted through flues. The Virginia tobacco it produced became one of the most popular cigarette tobaccos. Thus tobacco farming survived. Excluding livestock, tobacco brought more money to Virginia farmers in the late 1990s than any other agricultural product. It is grown principally in the southern and central Piedmont. Virginia produces two main types of cigarette tobacco, each grown in different regions of the state. Burley tobacco is grown primarily in southwest Virginia, and flue-cured is grown mainly in the central and southern Piedmont. Also grown mainly in the Piedmont is a small amount of specialty tobacco, such as fire-cured and sun-cured, used for chewing tobacco and snuff. The other major crops are nursery and greenhouse products, hay, soybeans, peanuts (grown in the Coastal Plain south of the James River), and corn, which is widely raised throughout the state.

Virginia is the country’s sixth leading apple producer. Peaches, another important fruit crop, and apples predominate in the northern Shenandoah Valley and adjacent Blue Ridge province. A variety of vegetables are grown in eastern Virginia, especially on the Eastern Shore.

Virginia ranked among the top ten commercial fishing states in the late 1990s. Major centers for fishing are Hampton-Norfolk, Chincoteague, and Cape Charles-Oyster, and the state has many other commercial-fishing communities, especially along the Tidewater shore in eastern Virginia. The most valuable part of the catch is shellfish, particularly sea scallops, hard- and soft-shelled blue crabs, and oysters. The leading finfishes by value are flounder, spot, common eel, anglerfish, sea bass, and croaker.

Forestry, which provides raw materials for the wood, paper, and pulp industries, is carried on in the central and southern Piedmont, where large acreages of former cropland have been replanted with trees. Trees most important to the state’s timber industry include yellow pine, white and red oak, yellow-poplar, Eastern white pine, sweetgum, and hickory.

The mining of bituminous coal from the Cumberland Plateau, in the southwestern part of the state, accounted for about three-fifths of Virginia’s income from minerals in the late 1990s. Extractions of crushed stone, sand and gravel, cement, and lime were also valuable. Virginia is the country’s only producer of kyanite, a mineral used in the production of bricks and high-temperature clays.

The manufacturing of chemicals and associated products is the largest industry in Virginia, according to the value of its production. Included in this sector are firms making plastic materials and synthetics, drugs, and chemicals used in other industrial processes.

The processing of agricultural goods from Virginia’s farms is another primary manufacturing sector. Leading employers include plants processing broilers and eggs for market, meat-packing plants, companies making prepared meat products, and bakeries. Harrisonburg is a center for poultry processing, Winchester for apple processing, and Smithfield for meat products.

The manufacturing of transportation equipment contributes more to personal income than any other industry in Virginia. Leading components of the transportation industry are shipbuilding and ship repairing, primarily conducted in the Newport News and Norfolk-Portsmouth areas, and the manufacture of motor vehicle parts. The assembly of motor vehicles themselves is also a leading industrial employer. Truck assembly plants are in Norfolk and Dublin, near Radford.

Ranked in terms of their production value, other leading industries are the printing of commercial materials and publishing of newspapers, books, and periodicals; manufacture of electronic and electrical equipment, such as radios and televisions, printed circuit boards, and industrial controls; and the manufacture of paper products. A large number of people also work in the tobacco industry, many either in the manufacture of cigarettes or in the processing of tobacco leaf.

Two manufacturers of semiconductors announced in the mid-1990s intentions to build large plants in Virginia, one in Goochland County near Richmond, the other in Northern Virginia in Manassas. Northern Virginia, where America Online has its headquarters, has become specialized in telecommunications and computer firms handling the flow of information in and out of Washington, D.C. The Northern Virginia area is part of a complex of high technology firms sometimes called the Netplex.

Nine of the ten largest cities in Virginia are situated on the Eastern Seaboard or on the Fall Line. Virginia Beach, which fronts both Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean in the southeast corner of the state, is one of the most popular resort destinations on the East Coast, as well as Virginia’s largest city. Its population in 2000 was 425,257. Norfolk, once the state’s largest city but now in second position, has 234,403 inhabitants; nearby Portsmouth has 100,565 residents. Norfolk and Portsmouth are important trading centers. Their economy is based on maritime activities, notably foreign commerce. The Naval Base at Norfolk and the Naval Shipyard at Portsmouth employ thousands of civilians and military personnel.

Richmond, with a population of 197,790, is situated on the Fall Line. It is the state capital and a center of cigarette manufacturing, banking and insurance, and of both retail and wholesale trade. There are also manufacturers of chemicals, paper, and clothing in the city. Alexandria, with 128,283 inhabitants, is part of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

Newport News, with a population of 180,150 in 2000, and neighboring Hampton, with 146,437 inhabitants, are on the northern shore of Hampton Roads. They also serve as the hub of a large metropolitan area based on maritime activities. In Newport News is a shipyard that builds naval ships, including aircraft carriers, and ocean liners. Hampton is important for its aviation activities such as Langley Air Force Base and a National Aeronautics and Space Administration facility.

Roanoke, with 94,911 inhabitants, is the only large city in western Virginia. Its economy rests on the manufacture and repair of rail equipment, the production of clothing, textiles, and furniture, and services such as health care and banking. Lynchburg, with a population of 65,269, is a former tobacco-marketing center for the central Piedmont, but it is now more important as the site of light industries, including food processing and electronics. Danville, the home of an enormous textile complex has 33,904 inhabitants. Some urbanized Virginia counties also have large populations, notably Fairfax (1998 estimate, 929,239), Prince William (259,827), Henrico (246,052), Chesterfield (245,915), and Arlington (177,275).

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Official Website for the State of Virginia