Cotton Valley-STX

We have friends who call Cotton Valley the "Scottsdale of St croix". Yes, its an east side location that, from what I know, is very safe area.

Thanks so much for the information!

Shelly- are you living in Colony Cove? Which unit? We are in A203, I'd love to meet!

cotton valley in my opinion is one of the best if not the best part of the "east side" of the island. Cant go wrong with that area.

I'm in colony cove now. I'm in building C. If you want to email me,..feel free "travelwoman". 🙂
I'm home all day with my teenagers.
shelly@suncrafthomes.com

Thanks for the info about Cotton Valley!!! I'm feeling much better about the move, even though Hovensa screwed us.
We sold everything, moved here on thier word, now they are cutting housing and cutting his pay and most amenities he was getting.
Everyone else in his division was sent home today. He was the only one who was able to even stay.

Shelly
Cotton Valley is a wonderful almost rural area in the far east end of St Croix. If you have kids in school you will need good transportation. There is a public elementary school just east of Christiansted, but most private schools are 20 to 40 minutes away depending upon traffic. Cotton Valley, Solitude and the surrounding area is my first choice for living on St Croix. However remember there are very few stores, restaurants or businesses out this way. You need to go at least to Chriastenstad to shop or eat. There a few exceptions in the restaurant department. Duggins,Cultured Pelican, Chenay Bay, Galleon and Buccaneer are all top class, but expensive places to eat out.

If you are on the island take a ride out East End Rd. and enjoy the atmosphere.

I agree with stxer that Cotton Valleyis gorgeous, but gotta disagree with the opinion that it's "almost rural" -- it's definitely rural to folks who've lived most of their lives in an urban environment (like me)!

I think the word I've seen used most frequently is "pastoral" -- individual houses or little pockets of nice homes in the middle of large tracts of wide open spaces.

Solitude is a big selling point to some, but it's definitely a matter of personal taste. Personally (due to my medical issues and as a woman who is often at home alone), I'm not comfortable living in a pretty isolated area where your nearest neighbor can be 1/4 mile or more away down/up an unlit road that may also be steep and/or curvy.

An additional consideration is that this area of STX tends to be more dry/desert-like and is therefore more prone to brush and wild fires during the dry season. Obviously there's many things you can do to help protect yourself against a wild fire (like keeping vegetation near your home closely cut within at least 100 feet of the house), but it is a safety issue that bears mentioning.

Definitely take a drive out that way -- during the day and at night, so you get a feel for navigating the route to the house at night on the mostly unlit roads -- to get a feel for the neighborhood before you move, if it's at all possible.

If solitude is your thing. there isn't a more beautiful place in the world to enjoy it than Cotton Valley.

--HC

"good" means different things to different people when talking about a place to live... but it's very likely that you'd be pleased with living in Cotton Valley. No slum areas, no government housing projects, no traffic, etc. You drive a little farther, but the scenery along the way is beautiful. Find out the size of the cistern where you will be living and work on conserving, as that is one thing that can be a problem for some new residents at the east end.

Thank you so much for the info. I went out there and it is beautiful. It's not NEARLY as rural as I've lived in before. I am from Oklahoma and was raised on a farm so Cotton Valley wasn't nearly as rural as I was expecting. That doesn't bother me at all.
The only thing that bothers me is the arid environment. I have 2 teenage girls that have a hard time conserving water, so that may be a problem. Has anyone heard of Judith's Fancy? I was going to go look at a house there also.

Wow...so the only good place to live on St. Croix is East End....

Well, I live in the wonderful, pastoral, scenic, somewhat isolated, gorgeous community called Carambola...we have more wedding parties come out here to take pictures than anywhere else on island I can think of.

Do NOT allow people to make you write off 95% of St. Croix as unlivable. There are wonderful neighborhoods besides dry old East End, which is only appealing now that we've had some good rain. Check out Queen's Quarter, for example. Lots of very large homes sitting on manicured lawns in a beautiful, friendly community where your neighbors actually talk to you, unlike East End where it's all about who you know and how much money you have.

Do yourself a favor, check out Carambola, Judith's Fancy, Queen's Quarter...even Enfield Green has lovely houses for sale, and is closer to Hovensa and Good Hope school, Plaza West, Sunshine Mall, Sunset Jazz, etc.

I live on over an acre in a nice house in the wonderful golf course community of Carambola where the neighbors all know and look out for each other and don't really care who has the most money or what color they are, and for your information the housing projects are mostly occupied by hard-working people trying to make a living...there are bad apples like everywhere else, but the average housing project dweller would sooner bake you a johnny-cake than rob you.

Judith's Fancy is a gated community - very nice, although I didn't think the security guard was "securing" much of anything. If you're going to see the house advertised in the Avis, let me know...I can tell you a bit about it. Judith's Fancy overall is very desirable property. I do agree with Native Son - you are missing some lovely areas if you relegate yourself to the east end. Every area of the island has it's own charm - the trick is to find your niche (and be able to afford it!) I think I belong some places my banker might frown on....

Hello Native son

I don't think anyone said that the "east end" was the best place to live. Alexandra did say it was farther away from government intrusion and i said it was "my" first choice.

I think there are many wonderful areas to live on St Croix. I don't know where you get the idea that peole aren't neighborly and are all about money on the east end. That isn't how I see it. I expect your opinion was formed by isolated comments from friends or news sources. It just isn't so. There are people who are unlikable all over the world, but that doesn't mean everyone is bad.

I love Carambola and would like to live there if I could afford to. I am a golfer and the course there is one of the finest in the Caribbean.

Hope this helps...

I apologize for the comment...

There is a really nice house for sale in Carambola (774K.) It has a swimming pool, 2-car garage, very nice view, and is featured as the house of the month in Amy Land de-Wilde's newsletter.

Carambola has fairly high Home Owners' Association dues ( $650.00 per QUARTER), so yes, it is expensive to live there.

shelley,

The Hip Hubby and I had the opportunity to rent a house in Judith's Fancy when our house was being remodeled. (The name of the home was Villa Soleil -- a lovely house with a pool and a gorgeous view overlooking the Salt River area for those looking for short term lodging that is very wheelchair friendly, btw.)

Our overall impression is that this gated community is a quiet neighborhood with large, upscale homes on large lots. We didn't really see any other signs of human habitation during our two weeks there except for passing the occasional car on our way in and out. The paved roads were in good cnodition and there are bumps throughout to keep motorist speeds down, and all of the yards looked to be nicely maintained. Even though it feels as though it's tucked away, Judith's Fancy is actually only a short drive to C'sted, and the Food Town grocery store and the Pueblo at Golden Rock. It's very conveniently located.

One thing that took some getting used to at the house we rented was how steep the driveway was. The road from which you accessed the house was higher up on the hillside than the home, so it was one of those drivways that you have a hard time seeing the pavement until you're on your way down it -- it felt a bit like our own personal roller coaster the first few times we came home. *lol*

Judith's Fancy was nice to visit, but we're much happier to live in our Sion Farm home, where the lots are large but the homes are still close enough so you can call out hello to your neighbors from your back yard, where we feel safe because the neighbors watch over each other and each other's homes, and where, as the only white folks in our little niche, we get a much better feel for the diverse cultures of the island has to offer. The fact that we don't have to drive 30 minutes to go grocery shopping or pick up a prescription is just a bonus. 🙂

--HC

We are selling a 2400 sq foot AC 3 bed 3 bath on over an acre of landscaped grounds with a huge swimming pool and a walled private driveway and carport. We have complete privacy, but not isolation. If this was on the East End it would be unbelievably expensive, but because it is 'mid isle' it is affordable. One of our neighbors is a director of Innovative, so it is hardly a blue collar area.
be prepared to look elsewhere, rather than following the herd out East.

Great post, HipCrip...Sion Farm is one of the areas that "white" people are constantly steered away from by realtors, when in reality it is full of hard-working people. There are always a few bad apples giving everyone a bad name. I saw a "white" family last Sunday sitting happily on the porch of their very nice house in Barren Spot with a yard full of mango trees, citrus, etc. which you would have a difficult time growing on east end.

My advice to any potential movers is to not get pigeon-holed into any one area of the island by realtors. Investigate all neighborhoods, we are generally nice, friendly people. Just look at how we go out of our way to let you into traffic...seen that in New Jersey lately? Do not be dissuaded by dire stories about "crime." You are not likely to be murdered unless you are involved in the drug traffic or the pit-bull fighting subculture, and burglaries happen anywhere where people do not secure their homes properly. I have a live-in German Shepherd who would die before he let anyone strange into his house!

HI Jane,

If you don't mind my asking... how much are you asking for your place? BTW... what does AC stand for?

We are coming down soon and looking for property...

Not the original poster, but AC stands for Air Conditioned, in case they don't get back to you today...good luck, and you can also view the current listings at http://www.buystcroix.com

You can do searches based on price range, location, number of rooms, etc and there is also a map of St. Croix on the web site.

Most houses here are not built with central heat/air...we depend on the breezes for cooling and it doesn't get cold enough for heaters...you might need the occassional blanket in January/February when the temp might drop to...oh the horror...72 degrees or so.

Native Son,

Thanks for the compliment.

As sad as it makes me to say this, you described our PMV perfectly with your observation that some realtors (and others) try to steer white folks away from neighborhoods like Sion Farm. More than a handful of long-time (10 years plus) white residents we encountered during that trip were less than subtle in trying to steer us to purchase an East End home or a place in a gated community. Every prospective property that we saw on the Internet MLS listings that wasn't in the East or a gated community, was quickly -- and firmly -- dismissed by these folks as being unsafe or not a good investment. We had to endure seeing a lot of East of C'sted homes -- some of which weren't even accessible -- and then push hard to get one real estate agent to finally take us to see the two homes in the Tan Tan Terrace area of Sion Farm that we thought were promising and that we knew were step-free.

While these may have been a few isolated opinions, their message was clear and consistent: the East End will be safer, and therefore be more likely to increase in value, because the residents are mostly upscale white folks. We're very pleased we ignored their urgings to go East or get gated, and now live in a very quiet (there's almost no traffic at all, and the loudest noises at night are the crickets, cicadas and an occasional free range rooster), very lush (flowering flora and fruit trees everywhere, and a plague of Tan Tan trees), very safe (not a single crime in our neck of the woods since we moved in), and very welcoming (we know and watch out for all of our neighbors, and they do the same for us) community of good people.

I'm hoping that this won't set off any us v. them (whoever us and them may be) debates -- I thought a lot before sharing it as the subject is clearly a sensitive one, but felt it important to let folks know that Native Son's observation was a reality for at least one family who moved to the island in recent years.

--HC

Thanks HipCrip!!

I'm glad you used your own good judgment and looked around. Take Humbug/Tamarind for example, on south shore...there is one white family living in Tamarind that I know of, surrounded by friendly, helpful, local ( read "black" ) neighbors.

Some people would have you believe that neighborhoods that are predominantly local (read "black" ) are dangerous. That is a slap in the face to the thousands of us locals who get up and go to work bright and early each morning, take care of our families, go to church on weekends, look out for each other, and stay out of trouble. A very small minority of the people on St. Croix repeatedly commit burglaries etc. and constantly give the rest of us a bad name.

It is a sensitive subject, but the reality is that this island is predominantly populated by black people, and if someone is moving here they should appreciate this fact and not try to sequester themselves in neighborhoods that are supposedly devoid of locals.

I admire your resolve, I wish you all the best, and good luck with the tan-tan LOL !!

around about the 400K mark

I lived in the Carambola valley my first year on STX and loved it. Now I live at the west end and love that, too. I love the views and breeze that Judith Fancy and St. John gets and could see living in that secter of the island, but don't personally feel compelled to live out east. As a realtor I prefer to show newcomers the entire island and let them decide what feels like home to them. For some people that is Cotton Valley, others like Queen's Quarter, some prefer Judith's Fancy or Cane Bay or Whim or Bugby Hole or Little Princess or St. Johns, etc.

Shelley asked if they would like CV and if it was a good neighborhood. The answers to those Q's are Probably and Yes.

Many newer residents are hesitant to live next door to the projects. Yes, the vast majority of the inhabitants are wonderful people living their lives. The few who cause problems give a black eye and bad rep to the rest. The entire island suffers from the "crime rate" statistics despite the fact that most residents are not crime victims.

Good post, Alexandra.

We all know that you don't have to live next door to the projects to be victimized by crime, though. Some people are moving here from areas where their children cannot walk the streets or even browse the Internet for fear of pedophiles snatching them. How many times over the past few months have we heard of some poor child's body being discovered months later, and the perpetrator ultimately turns out to be the nice guy living next door in the house with the manicured lawn.

I just want people to be sure that their aversion is to crime in general, and not to living close to people of a particular demographic. The thousands of locals that I see daily on the roads as early as 5:30 am are not rushing off to commit crimes, and they certainly shouldn't be perceived as being undesirable to live next door to.

Wow. So much information. We went with the Cotton Vally house (renting). Judith's Fancy was more than we could afford. The house in Cotton Vally isn't fully finished (roof still has rebar coming out of the top) so we got a good deal on it. The road to the house isn't maintained well either, but for the price...we can deal with it. It has a good view also.
I just don't like the fact that it's so dry in that area, but...as I don't have alot of time to look around and we got such a good price, I can't complain.
Thanks for your posts everyone.