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Some background, I'm a 28-year-old female, married no kiddos. My husband and I are DINKS (dual income, no kids). We're not DINKWADS (dual income, no kids, with a dog) yet, but hubs would really like that .
1) Pretty much. It's a beautiful place to live and I love it here (that's why we live here, though).
2) No. I know a lot of people who don't attend church. I didn't go to church for years myself. Now, I go to Circular Congregational Church downtown maybe 2x a month, which is UCC and pretty different from most mainstream, evangelical churches. There's also a UU church here. I'm sure some people look down on those who don't attend church, but that is an issue that those people have and need to deal with. It's not your issue. We do have a lot of religious diversity here; lots of Catholics and also a pretty big Jewish community. For the most part, I've found people to be tolerant...
3) I never knew that about Cary but it's interesting. There are a lot of people here who moved here from other places, but for the most part everyone's welcoming. I know many people who have lived in Charleston all their lives and they're pretty cool too. Since so many people here did move from other places, I've found people to be that much more welcoming because lots of us remember what it was like to be new in town too.
4) I would say try to have a job lined up before moving or at least have a good idea. Like everywhere else, networking is huge. I think you could move here without a job and find one fairly quickly, but you may have to be stuck in a less-than-stellar job for awhile before you find a really good one, too.
5) Humidity lasts all summer long and even in the non-Summer months, you can still have humid days.
6) There are little pockets of areas where you wouldn't want to live, but no specific city, town, area that is all bad. Like every city, you have good and bad spots- sometimes very close together, too!
7) My advice is to live close to your job if possible. Otherwise, West Ashley but only because that's where I live so I'm a little partial, haha. Main thing is to find the area that fits you best, come down for a few days and explore various areas and you'll know what's right for you.
Thank you everyone for the great responses! I wasn’t sure about asking the church question but when I read some people saying stuff like that about Charleston, I thought I should just make sure. I’m starting to get really excited about my move!
I'm from Coastal Maine and I think Charleston is where I feel most at home in the Carolinas. I lived near Charlotte, NC and I prefer the Charleston area but I'm a coastal girl and like port towns. There is a lot less resentment in this area than more rural areas of the Carolinas. It is kind of odd how often the North/South thing is brought up in the south. I think it has to do with more northerners moving south than southerners moving north (not that one region is more/less accepting). Northerners don't really talk much about Southerners so that is why I think it feels odd at first....I think northerners are more indifferent to where you are from and southerners sometimes feel invaded because of the growth caused by transplants. I have quite a few native friends so they are obviously welcoming and I've never been treated poorly because of where my roots are from. If someone comes from away and complains about what is so endearing about the southern traits....of course they might be not accepted with open arms. Charleston is also a military town so they are used to people coming and going. We don't attend church.
I've brought this up before (and others will disagree) but I wouldn't consider the Charleston area a low crime area. It may not be Detroit but it also isn't low crime. You do have to be cautious of where you live. It really is all relative on what you'd consider low-crime. I found the Charlotte, NC area to feel lower in crime. It felt like there was more of a buffer zone between safe areas vs high-crime gang/drug areas. This is very much my opinion but I was surprised to find so much crime in this area. It wasn't how I imagined it would be but with that being said....I LOVE living here so it isn't so bad that I would discourage someone from moving here. I'd actually just encourage someone to use caution where they settle down in the area.
We have always felt welcomed....always. I adore the Carolinas and especially adore the Charleston area/people. This area feels like home to me and feeds my soul.
I would just like to echo one if the previous poster's response that there are good and bad areas in all of the surrounding municipalities (Charleston, North Charleston, Mount Pleasant, West Ashely, James Island, Johns Island, Goose Creek, Summerville ... I think you get the idea ). I would not rule out anything until I saw for myself what it was like.
FWIW in our neighborhood people are from all over. There are a bunch of locals - some who grew up down the street from where they are now, us from WA and someone across the street from OR, some with kids or those like us who don't have any yet, some who bought their house when it was new 50 years ago, and all sorts in between.
FWIW in our neighborhood people are from all over. There are a bunch of locals - some who grew up down the street from where they are now, us from WA and someone across the street from OR, some with kids or those like us who don't have any yet, some who bought their house when it was new 50 years ago, and all sorts in between.
That is what I LOVE about my neighborhood. It was built in the 80s so many of our neighbors have grown children but then there are other young families as well. I like the variety. My previous subdivision was all young families, which was fine, but there is something about having people at different stages in their lives. Plus, at that time my house was built they didn't seem to clear cut all the trees and worked with the surroundings, not against. Now if they would have just refrained from using pop-corn ceiling (which I'm still working on removing...room by room).
If you didn't like NC you most certainly will not like SC. Charleston is completely overrated! Please take a look at the poverty and crime statistics of Charleston before you leave. Also, can they even serve alcohol in Charleston on Sunday? Everyone raved about Charleston to me. When we pulled into town off the exit the poverty was evident. Please reconsider!
If you didn't like NC you most certainly will not like SC. Charleston is completely overrated! Please take a look at the poverty and crime statistics of Charleston before you leave. Also, can they even serve alcohol in Charleston on Sunday? Everyone raved about Charleston to me. When we pulled into town off the exit the poverty was evident. Please reconsider!
Please ignore this post. This person obviously has no idea what they are taking about.
If you want, you can use Google Maps to find a bunch of addresses to post and we can comment about their costs and everything else.
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). I would not rule out anything until I saw for myself what it was like.
