You know my dh and I have been dealing with that. We have hogwire around the three sides and are making a hedge of native shrubs.Out front we wated something a little nice. Same questions,we like the look of pickets but it will mean painting and repinting and fixing wood rot. Vinyl looks so,,,vinyl. It also stains with the rusty sprinkler water.
We even looked into those old fashion victorian wire fences. we will add shrubs and such.Ours is 300 ft.I did notice they are making some wood grain look vinyl fence but they would still stain.

Funny you should ask! We just spent the whole weekend putting in vinyl picket fence around our house. Our area was more like 120 * 50 (estimating), and it cost a little over $4500.00 from Menards. We did the labor ourselves. Lowes and Menards have the best prices I could find if you dont mind not having as many choices to pick from. We just rented a post hole digger, had a few friends over, and put it up. It's also cheaper for 3 ft fence. We had to get 4 ft to keep little ones from climbing over and into the pond! They also offer vinyl fence in different colors too. It really just depends on what purpose you want the fence to serve. Just google Fences, and Happy Fencing! :)

When we were building, we had to abide by our neighborhood covenants using either wrought iron or wood (pasture style 4 board). They let us substitute alumninum for wrought iron (less maintenance). I had to have a cottage fence because of the deer and they go under and over the 4 board style.

We got the Jerith aluminum (ours is bronze). It doesn't have the cottage charm of a picket fence, but it works well with our house style. Lifetime warranty and we're very happy with the way it turned out. No maintenance.

Our style is '401' and retails for $135 for a 6 foot section that is 4 ft high. I think the in-line posts run around $50 each, but we have stone corner posts that were built by a landscaper (and match the ones in our neighborhood). Our gate was around $400+.

Cameron