I'm relocating from NV to WV or VA for work.  I've been out here around 6 weeks now and I'll be working in the Middletown area in VA.  Been looking at houses for a while with a realtor and she's awesome so far.  Thought we had a house lined up and had it under contract in Augusta, but the owners didn't want to play along to make it work.  House needed some work to finish and I offered to do it within reason, but they tried to keep the earnest money and everything.  That's all played out and over now and I got my money back so the search continues.

So I've been searching the Inwood, Berkeley Springs, Augusta, Capon Bridge.  Have one that may work out in Inwood, but I'm not in love with it or the taxes in that area at all.

Found a couple around Baker, but from the reviews my wife is finding the schools there suck.  Anyone have kids in the area or know of the school quality there?  Taxes seem to be much lower on houses I've looked at in Baker and the owners aren't putting sentimental value into the selling price as much.

Baker as in west of Wardensville?

Yes

Hardy is a very different (poorer) county compared to Berkeley & Jefferson.  I'd be prepared to either home school or supplement what is being taught, especially math, if you expect your kids to go to college.

I'm in Berkeley county.  My daughter was in AP calculus her senior year of high school and there were only five students in the class despite the high school student body having 2400 students.  Despite the small class size I still had to help her with a lot of it.

That's pretty well what my wife was reading on review sites.  I didn't go to a great school, but I still went to college and got an engineering degree.  It wasn't easy, but I made it through.

I'm just having a hard time seeing how comparable houses have such different taxes.  Two places within less than 5% difference in cost.  Inwood is almost 3k a year in property taxes, just short of 1k in Baker.

I'm in Inwood... but with the six new traffic circles it's now Inwooooood.

Most of the county budget goes to schools.  Page 7 has the rates.  Note that Martinsburg and Hedgesville have an additional property tax if you live in the city/town limits.
https://www.berkeleywv.org/DocumentCenter/View/9426/2022---2023-Fiscal-Year-Report-PDF

I see that on the tax rates.  

Moving from a place that also had traffic circles (they seemed to flow much more smoothly there, but they've been there for years vs newer in Inwood), that's not a big deal.  I watched a video on YT about Inwood and that was the first complaint

Putting another offer in on the house we like in Inwood this week.  Honestly I don't think I'll get it because the seller has built in sentimental value into the cost and their memories aren't worth a cent to me.  I had to let that shit go when I sold my house out West.

What municipal district is Inwood in?

A primary residence would be Rural I.  If you own a residence you don't occupy, e.g. second home or rental/investment property, that's Rural II.

I has been corrected.

That's useful.  Thank you

I spent 32 years in WV before moving to NV so I'm use to the system in general.  We actually had the sheriff's website for taxes pretty early when it first came out for my old house.