Relocating: recently visited and need input. (Charlotte, Concord: apartments, crime, buying a home)

[WSSDuncan]

I just came across this forum and know that it's used for a lot of relocating questions. We were just there looking at apartments 1 week ago and driving through neighborhoods. I have utilized tools such as the geoportal on CMS and the CMS crime reporter.

My wife and I are graduating from The University of Cincinnati, me a teacher and her a nurse. We have 2 kids, 6 and 2.

We traveled through the North side, I-85 Mallard Creek area (liked it, but schools might be an issue), Southeast, Indian Trails and beyond (maybe too rural with random modern development), and Southpark, Rea Rd, and the outterbelt (certain parts expensive, some parts might be realistic). Not interested in Westside, Eastside, or Concord (too rural, except the line touching Meck). Unsure of Weddington, Matthews, and Huntersville as we didn't get to travel through there.

Overarching questions and objectives: What sides of town are family oriented, have good stable schools, some diversity, and where a nice house can be had for around the $250,000-$300,000 price range?

Looking for schools that are "Excellent" or "Distinction", or higher "Progress". Elementary schools that we thought sounded fine were:
Elon Park; Polo Ridge; McAlpine; Mallard Creek (question later); Olde Providence; Beverly Woods; Endhaven, and others.

We liked the north side, but Mallard Creek Elementary had 20+ portables. We heard that CMS has closed some schools, so what's the issue with CMS?

When it comes to buying a home we don't anticipate on going beyond $300,000.

This was definitely a long post, but we are trying to get as much information as possible. Any help is appreciated, and if you can recall other threads that rival the same questions, then you can direct me to those.

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by WSSDuncan

I just came across this forum and know that it's used for a lot of relocating questions. We were just there looking at apartments 1 week ago and driving through neighborhoods. I have utilized tools such as the geoportal on CMS and the CMS crime reporter.

My wife and I are graduating from The University of Cincinnati, me a teacher and her a nurse. We have 2 kids, 6 and 2.

We traveled through the North side, I-85 Mallard Creek area (liked it, but schools might be an issue), Southeast, Indian Trails and beyond (maybe too rural with random modern development), and Southpark, Rea Rd, and the outterbelt (certain parts expensive, some parts might be realistic). Not interested in Westside, Eastside, or Concord (too rural, except the line touching Meck). Unsure of Weddington, Matthews, and Huntersville as we didn't get to travel through there.

Overarching questions and objectives: What sides of town are family oriented, have good stable schools, some diversity, and where a nice house can be had for around the $250,000-$300,000 price range?

Looking for schools that are "Excellent" or "Distinction", or higher "Progress". Elementary schools that we thought sounded fine were:
Elon Park; Polo Ridge; McAlpine; Mallard Creek (question later); Olde Providence; Beverly Woods; Endhaven, and others.

We liked the north side, but Mallard Creek Elementary had 20+ portables. We heard that CMS has closed some schools, so what's the issue with CMS?

When it comes to buying a home we don't anticipate on going beyond $300,000.

This was definitely a long post, but we are trying to get as much information as possible. Any help is appreciated, and if you can recall other threads that rival the same questions, then you can direct me to those.

Info in bullets to give you the gist:

Most of Charlotte is "family oriented" - that's just the kind of town Charlotte is.

If you thought Concord was too rural and out there then you'll want to scratch Weddington off your list too.

Most schools in Char/Meck have portable classrooms - don't nix a school just because of that!

$250,000, and certainly $300,000 will get you a very nice house in many parts of Charlotte.

If schools are your top #1 priority you will want to look at south Charlotte and Matthews. While there are good schools scattered all over the city, the majority of stable, best performing are there.

Schools that are being closed are mostly underperforming and under utilizied ones which are being consolidated with others to save money.

Hope this helps.

[kchenette]

I would also recommend looking at the Huntersville area.
You'll find much of what you've mentioned.

[Riley09swb]

Concord near the Meck line has some good schools.

[WSSDuncan]

I appreciate the info. From the bit of time that we were there last weekend, I got a pretty good feel of the city, but felt that there were many areas that we didn't get the chance to explore.

I heard that Huntersville was solid, but we just didn't a chance to go out that far. We were unsure of the housing prices, but we tried to use a few other websites as reference points and it appears that we should find something solid for the under $300K price range.

Thanks to everyone that added their input.

BTW it looks like this forum gets a lot of usage, definitely nice to see.

[WSSDuncan]

Originally Posted by lovesMountains

Most schools in Char/Meck have portable classrooms - don't nix a school just because of that!

If schools are your top #1 priority you will want to look at south Charlotte and Matthews. While there are good schools scattered all over the city, the majority of stable, best performing are there.

Schools that are being closed are mostly underperforming and under utilizied ones which are being consolidated with others to save money.

Hope this helps.

Would you say that the portables could be attributed to the larger increase in population over the years. It seems as if Charlotte had a drastic increase in population over the past few years.

Does it seem as if the population influx has decreased, increased, or stayed constant in the past year or 2?

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by WSSDuncan

Would you say that the portables could be attributed to the larger increase in population over the years. It seems as if Charlotte had a drastic increase in population over the past few years.

Does it seem as if the population influx has decreased, increased, or stayed constant in the past year or 2?

Put it this way, when we came to Charlotte 22 years ago the population was about 200,000, but it had been growing steadily for years before I got here. Today Charlotte's population is somewhere near 700,000. It's basically grown every year for decades. In particular, we were slammed with newcomers in the 5 years prior to the recession. Now, things may have slowed, but certainly not stopped

Portable classrooms were a way to deal with all the growth starting back in the 1970's. They are an affordable alternative to building expensive new schools or school additions. Of course, we HAVE new schools (next year will be the first time new schools won't be opening for the first time in decades.) - just not as many as would have needed to be built to accomodate all the growth.

[MikeyKid]

I had portables at my elementary in a great NY school district and I won't mention how long ago that was...

Wasting our money to build schools that a few years later sit partially empty due to lulls in attendance would send taxpayers into a frenzy. I understand concerns should they be utilized for too long, but in general I don't think portables are an immediate sign of issues. That said, I think CMS does have issues and I'd personally be inclined to use their schools south of Charlotte.

You have tons of options at your price point. You should really decide on an acceptable commute so you can narrow it down a bit.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by WSSDuncan

I just came across this forum and know that it's used for a lot of relocating questions. We were just there looking at apartments 1 week ago and driving through neighborhoods. I have utilized tools such as the geoportal on CMS and the CMS crime reporter.

My wife and I are graduating from The University of Cincinnati, me a teacher and her a nurse. We have 2 kids, 6 and 2.

We traveled through the North side, I-85 Mallard Creek area (liked it, but schools might be an issue), Southeast, Indian Trails and beyond (maybe too rural with random modern development), and Southpark, Rea Rd, and the outterbelt (certain parts expensive, some parts might be realistic). Not interested in Westside, Eastside, or Concord (too rural, except the line touching Meck). Unsure of Weddington, Matthews, and Huntersville as we didn't get to travel through there.

Overarching questions and objectives: What sides of town are family oriented, have good stable schools, some diversity, and where a nice house can be had for around the $250,000-$300,000 price range?

Looking for schools that are "Excellent" or "Distinction", or higher "Progress". Elementary schools that we thought sounded fine were:
Elon Park; Polo Ridge; McAlpine; Mallard Creek (question later); Olde Providence; Beverly Woods; Endhaven, and others.

We liked the north side, but Mallard Creek Elementary had 20+ portables. We heard that CMS has closed some schools, so what's the issue with CMS?

When it comes to buying a home we don't anticipate on going beyond $300,000.

This was definitely a long post, but we are trying to get as much information as possible. Any help is appreciated, and if you can recall other threads that rival the same questions, then you can direct me to those.

Just out of curiosity, since you're looking at north & south, where are the jobs?

[K'ale]

Fort Mill is renown for it's school system. According to my boss it's got one of the best school systems in the nation. I haven't researched it though.