SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE

Lake itself: Basically the lake is over 500 miles long, over 22,000 acres, can paddle with canoes, kayaks , rowing or have your cigar boat on it.
Only lake on the East Coast, outside of New Hampshire, that only fluctuates 5 feet if that. It is controlled by AEP for power and never drops below 5 feet..They pump water back up to SML, from Leesville, which can drop over 30 feet.  This is important, the lakes in the south ( am from NYC) and I bought originally on Lake Jocassee, and it drops over 30 feet, not a lake to me..this is how the lakes are in the south, in the summer you can hardly get out - with even a canoe..so I moved to Smith Mountain Lake after my first lake disaster down here...I really researched the lakes. Also this one is the cleanest according to the state .

Taxes: real estate:  Bedford Side= .50 cents on the thousand, so many lake front homes pay only around 3000 for the year
Franklin County side: .53 cents on the thousand, again very inexpensive in our counties, unlike Lake Anna, in VA and Northern VA Bedford County you can short term rent on, the Franklin County you cannot short term rent...so revenue is driven differently.

Location: The lake is 30-45 minutes to Roanoke and/or Lynchburg, Roanoke airport has direct flights to La Guardia, Atlanta, Charlotte, DC , Chicago, Fl- Tampa/Orlando, Detroit, and Philadelphia..I am sure I am missing some.  Lynchburg I rarely fly out of- less flights
Lynchburg has the bullet train to DC- the Crescent line that then connects to NYC..we take the bullet train to DC if there is a meeting only a 3 hour trip to downtown.

Other VA:  Southwest VA is leading VA with jobs, VA is second lowest in the country - we also have a surplus of 400,000 plus or minus, this is posted on the VA site, where the governor’s state of the union speech from January 2011..Norfolk, beaches area are losing alot of military jobs this year, but overall our area is steady. The lake has not had a lot of foreclosures, may be 10 total in the past 3 years - on all sides of the lake, which is around 10,000 homes..or more.we have 20 colleges surrounding our lake, Virginia Tech, Rollins, James Madison, University of VA and more, so that may help us as well.. The Franklin County side was the second largest growth in Virginia with 19%, and this country covers from the lake to Roanoke.

Health care: The area offers: Tertiary health care and teaching hospitals within 30-45 minutes, Roanoke- Carillion System, and Lynchburg- Centra, both leading national hospitals.. The lake itself has both hospitals represented from primary care to  several specialty groups, ie: cardiology, neurology, etc.  The next layer of Health care is the secondary system which is only 20 minutes away from either direction in Bedford, or Rocky Mount, these are the closest ER's and contain a full service hospital with  50-100 beds plus and are affiliated with these Centra and Cariilion.
Salem, VA- 1 hour away has a VA hospital and another system contender.