I Am Thinking About Moving to North Carolina

[PDXnative]

Okay... so, I live in Portland Oregon which has access to mountains, snow, beaches, forest, and desert all within a couple of hours. BUT, it is grey as grey here and I am SERIOUSLY getting tired of it. Lived here for 36 years, and need a change. Looked at all of the states around the country and there is something appealing to NC. So, NC is a big ass state. The mountains near Ashville are appealing, but they are so far away from the coast. The coast is appealing, but it is so far from the mountains and gets hurricanes. We are into skiing, sailing, hiking, camping, and many other outdoor activities.

So... all you North Carolinians... where would a good place for us to move to be? What do you like, and what is bad?

[Wyody]

For nearly 40 years, North Carolina has been on my mind. I travelled there a little bit - always meant to move there - never did.
I caught crocs there, made the papers there, got tossed in the hoosgow there, swam there, fished there, barbecued there ... beautiful state!
A good friend of mine just passed away there a few months back - got me thinking about it again. I know you're after more current and specific information but let me try and give you some of "my take" on NC.
First, you have to adapt to "hicksville" ... it's part of what puts the "Hick" in Hickory, NC. The other part is hickory-nut trees, of course.
Second, you will get a quick education in how the "race card" has played out over the past couple of centuries. It is a downright-different world for a westerner - especially one from the more-progressive coastal states. And PD, it is not necessarily pretty one bit.
Geographically, it's a 3-part state. You have the area on "this" side of the Smokey Mountains. Beautiful, wooded, great ridge-line vistas very reminiscent of Cascade country. Water runs generally deeper and not blue and clear like here in the west. Yellow from sulphur some places; red from iron in others; slower moving ... but in the mountains, clear enough for trout.
Once you get over the mountains, it's vast hill and farm country - used to be covered with tobacco-farms ... can't say what they're growing now - probably the same. Little burgs all separated from each other by long stretches of country roads.
Then, you get to the coast. Always surprised me how little coast NC actually has. Oh, there are spots with piers and swimming - but they have all those outlying "islands" that take the shorline away from the mainland and while it's far enough south that you can swim it's also far enough north that it's a bit cold. Remember, next stop north is Virginia Beach and VB is really only warm enough for tourist-season.
Also see "The Chronicles of Snuffy & Loweezy Smith" for other insights.
I always thought that spots near Lumberton might be ideal - puts one about an hour away from the mountains and about an hour away from the ocean - and a fair distance from Fayetteville ... which is pretty nice for a city but pretty rough for a westerner.
Oh, also see "Hurricanes".
There are other towns - some similar to what I've explained - but others closer to and more similar to Virginia ... but as you move north, you start losing the simple charm that NC is known for.

[SP2SCV]

I moved from MA and now I live in central NC, in an area called the Triangle. The Triangle is an area that connects 3 colleges. Here we have Research Triangle Park. This is where all the highly educated people live near and work. This area is all new and has many upscale areas. It is an awesome place to live. Halfway between the mountains and the ocean, with big lakes around for boating. Try towns such as:

Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill.

[baron the great]

PDX, Montana is as far as I could get my hubby! Good luck on your search, I would echo the remarks about a little culture shock. I have sisters in Georgia, my original home state and I find it always alot slower than I remember each time I visit. But that part of the country is changing just like pdx metro. How shall I say it, the race relations in the south are so different than on the west coast. Think Alberta/NE on MLK day in combination with the south central LA riots, ok now multiply it by 100. So many problems in the south have lay dorment and this current election may be a spark in the powder keg. Lack of a common binding issue has kept things at bay. Who can say? If you do not have small children in school where you have to fight for a good education then that will free you up. Western Montana has some beautiful areas, we just wanted very low cost of living which is Eastern Montana. good luck and visit before ya move

[Wyody]

Originally Posted by SP2SCV

I moved from MA and now I live in central NC, in an area called the Triangle. The Triangle is an area that connects 3 colleges. Here we have Research Triangle Park. This is where all the highly educated people live near and work. This area is all new and has many upscale areas. It is an awesome place to live. Halfway between the mountains and the ocean, with big lakes around for boating. Try towns such as:

Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill.

Hi SP; you mention areas where I have only a passing knowledge.
Could you name those colleges - and tell us a little more about that area, the economy, the "mind-set"?
And do people live around those lakes as well or are they too isolated for that?
Thanks for your post. I have much family from NC ... a few hundred years ago, anyhow.

[PDXnative]

Thanks everyone for the info. I think we will just need to take a trip over there and check it out.

[T.S.]

Definitely makes a couple trips there to check it out. If you then decide to make the move I would recommend renting for about a year too. I was sure that I would like living in Charlotte after a few short visits, but that changed after actually living there for a few months. I then left as soon as my lease expired.

You can get a lot of house for your money in North Carolina compared to many areas.

In the Charlotte area, the man made lakes are nice since the state doesn't have a large amount of natural lakes. Charlotte has the NFL and NBA teams if you are into either of those. Charlotte is a U.S. Airways hub, if you need to fly often. You can live across the South Carolina border and save on taxes/gas/etc, while still being just 15-20 minutes from "Uptown"(downtown).

Charlotte also has/had many bad things in my opinion. I have never in my life been asked so many times where I go to church which could get annoying, especially if you are not very religious (maybe a NC or even southern thing, not just Charlotte). I was even asked randomly at work when I was working at the Bank of America headquarters. They have highways named after televangelists like Billy Graham. I have never had so many door to door solicitors; many are scammers trying to sell magazine subscriptions and other junk for random contests or trips that they make up. Crime was out of control, I was on one of the better sides of town and the grocery store still had an armed security guard at the door. The Charlotte school district was too big and fairly bad because of this, but they were planning to split it into 4 just before I left. Kids were caught with weapons in Charlotte schools VERY often. It seems they like to put ugly cheap looking air conditioned trailers outside the school and call them classrooms instead of building new and bigger schools. I had never seen that growing up in Minnesota, when a newer or bigger school is needed they permanently expand the current one or just build a new one, even in high/fast growth areas.

The mountain areas around Asheville have nice scenery. I liked to take random drives with no map through that area when I had nothing to do. I found a nice mountain river one day and stopped for a swim and took some pictures. I also found Lake Lure that day which is a lake in the mountains where HGTV gave away a "Dream Home" a couple years back. It was a nice location.

I have heard good things about Cary which is a suburb in the "Triangle" Raleigh area. It has a high police presence and some strict rules which some people complain about, but that also makes it one of the very few areas in North Carolina that has both a high population and low crime.

The "Triad" Greensboro area is another spot to check out about 1.5 hours northeast of Charlotte. I think growth has been slower there compared to Charlotte and Raleigh, so they might be keeping up with growth better. Honda is going to be building their new jets in the area.

[SP2SCV]

Originally Posted by Wyody

Hi SP; you mention areas where I have only a passing knowledge.
Could you name those colleges - and tell us a little more about that area, the economy, the "mind-set"?
And do people live around those lakes as well or are they too isolated for that?
Thanks for your post. I have much family from NC ... a few hundred years ago, anyhow.

The colleges that makes up the Triangle area are University of North Carolina, Duke University and North Carolina State University.

The economy in this part of North Carolina is doing extremely well. This has been noted as one of the best places in the country for business and jobs.

Some of the lakes you can live on and others you can swim, boat and fish. None of the lakes are isolated. Outdoor activities are a big thing here.

Cary, NC is always rated as one of the best places to live in the US. All you have to do is drive 30 miles away and you feel like you entered a different world.......BUBBA WORLD.

[mothermayi]

Originally Posted by PDXnative

Okay... so, I live in Portland Oregon which has access to mountains, snow, beaches, forest, and desert all within a couple of hours. BUT, it is grey as grey here and I am SERIOUSLY getting tired of it. Lived here for 36 years, and need a change. Looked at all of the states around the country and there is something appealing to NC. So, NC is a big ass state. The mountains near Ashville are appealing, but they are so far away from the coast. The coast is appealing, but it is so far from the mountains and gets hurricanes. We are into skiing, sailing, hiking, camping, and many other outdoor activities.

So... all you North Carolinians... where would a good place for us to move to be? What do you like, and what is bad?

So did you ever check out North Carolina?

[PDXnative]

Originally Posted by mothermayi

So did you ever check out North Carolina?

Not yet. Still on the list. Everytime we get a good chunk of vacation time, we head to Hawai'i, Mexico, or the Caribbean. We need to take a mainland vacation and check out the east coast to see if anywhere over there is liveable.

[mothermayi]

Originally Posted by PDXnative

Not yet. Still on the list. Everytime we get a good chunk of vacation time, we head to Hawai'i, Mexico, or the Caribbean. We need to take a mainland vacation and check out the east coast to see if anywhere over there is liveable.

Well, when you come make sure you hit the Blue Ridge Pkwy.

Now I saw that you had mentioned Asheville, NC (not really my cup of tea but about as close as you're ever going to get to an area in the Carolinas that looks like a cross between a smaller version of San Fran in the 70's and Portland in the 90's ) just an FYI - not much in the job market up that way (more tourist driven than anything, artists, entrepreneurs aplenty).

You might (while not in NC) also check into Greenville, SC. Great area, we visit regularly.