If you live in a major city, then living in downtown Huntington would be like living in the suburbs. The city population is only around 50K.
Here is a website with some general info on the city. For the most part, I agree with thedarkwolf about Huntington being a crap hole. There are a lot of nice old houses that have been let go. There are some decent areas such as Ritter Park (used to be nice, but it was kind of pricey) and the 20th Street hill area (I don't remember what the area was called, but that was where my dad lived until he moved to Barboursville).
Huntington is right on the border with Kentucky and Ohio, so you don't necessarily have to live in West Virginia. Depending on how long or short you want your commute, there are a lot of good places within 50 miles of Huntington. As far as property values, I don't specifically know about the Huntington area, but around Charleston (50 miles away), $100K to $200K can get you a nice house (2000-3000 square foot) on a couple of acres.
My brother in law lives outside of Barboursville and it is a rural area that is starting to grow. The houses are still well spaced and they do get city water/sewer service. I have a friend that lives near Ashland, KY and there are some nice areas around where he lives. I had a friend that lived in Lavalette, which is in Wayne County a few miles away from Huntington. Her and her husband had a house on a couple of acres. The house was okay, but the land was realy nice. I haven't spent any significant time in Wayne, but that place looked okay. Small town, surrounded by rural areas.
Moving east along I-64 towards Charleston, Milton and Hurricane are decent places. Again, small towns with lots of rural areas around them. Winfield/Teays Valley is definitely suburbia, if that is what you like. Traffic really sucks there (relatively speaking), and the real estate is a little overpriced for what you get in my opinion. That's about 30 miles or so from Huntington.
I don't know much about the areas north of Huntington (towards Point Pleasant).
West Virginia is really not a bad place to live. The cost of living is pretty decent. Taxes aren't too bad compared to places like DC or Virginia. When I was looking to move to DC in '98, the cost living, taxes, etc. looked like they were significantly higher then WV. The income tax rate is 3% to 6.5%, but there are hardly any deductions allowed. Property taxes on our two cars and house combined were about $620 last year (house valued at $40K and we have a Tacoma and a Matrix). Fire and casulty insurance on the house was $180 and full coverage on the vehicles is $1,800/year. Health insurance runs me about $235/month for pretty good coverage. Gasoline is a little higher than most places. It is currently running $2.96/gallon for regular. Utilities are reasonable and the rates are still regulated. Sales tax on unprepared foods is going to drop to 4% in July. Prepared foods and all other goods are subject to a 6% sales tax. The city of Huntington has user fee that is charged to people that work in Huntington. I don't remember what it is, but thedarkwolf should know ($2/week or something like that).
If you want more info, just let me know.
Edit: I'm directionally challenged. H-town is west of Chas., not viceversa.