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This forum attracts many people who jump in just to make business contacts, so it can be a bit restrictive on newcomers until they have "seasoned" a bit.
If you don't need a large house, and don't mind moving into something from the 1950s-1970s about 1300 sq ft and in an ethnically mixed part of town, you can still buy here for under $190K. (It also helps a lot if you don't have children and not weighing the school districts.) Visit one of the Realtor sites and probe around. Realistically you'd probably rent for a year anyway until you have explored a bit and know the city, and can be sure where you want to be. Maybe you'll up your budget, anyway.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Im A Brat
Slightly off topic: I just tried to respond to a second direct message that I received and was given an error message stating I am only allowed to send one per day. REALLY?? Is this standard? I've never been on a forum that limited responses, and one seems ridiculously low.
There have been spam problems. The limit is temporary.
Your budget is pretty good actually for a lot of neighborhoods just outside of the most popular inner ring neighborhoods. Lots of these are 50s and 60s solidly built brick ranches. Check out Chantilly (not everything but some options), Oakhust, Merry Oaks, Country Club, or Plaza Extension in east Charlotte. I'm not as familiar with the neigborhoods on the east side of the road going out South Blvd but I would also check them out too. I would say there is a strong contingent of folks who live in the further out suburbs/exurbs who post on this site and don't have too much experience with these affordable neighborhoods - although lots of the younger (or youngish) hip folks I know live in these locations.
"MetLife must be paying her a lot more than they do in this region because there would be no way a single woman/man around here on a Met salary could afford a $200K mortgage. Umm unless they are reps not office staff. Sad really!! But again, this area has very low salaries in general. But thank you for the feedback! Much appreciated!!!"
None of the positions in Charlotte are "Office Staff", they're business operations. Except for the clerical entry level positions - many of the new positions are paying very, very well for the area, I would say on average about 50 - 60 K starting. Many of the positions require a certain skill set in terms of business analysis and development.
I just hired 3 new people for my team in Charlotte and they're making 5K more per year than the person doing their same job in NJ is doing.
There's a huge mis-conception about what the Charlotte MetLife jobs are.
But anyway, just wanted to clarify. Good luck in your house search. We're in the final process of picking out where we want to live and putting down an initial deposit.
Take a look in the Windsor Park area (Between Sudbury and Central Avenue). We own two rental units that we bought very inexpensively. The neighborhood is safe on the north side of Central Avenue. An 1,800 sq. ft home in good condition and a new roof will run $125-130,000. We bought ours at $110,000 and $115,000 three years ago, and despite the economy, the prices are rising in this area because it is a straight shot to downtown, CPCC, and UNCC (if you're not scared of being shot there) and Charlotte has become a mecca for those working in the banking industry. My husband is working to buy a third home to rent to foreign college students.
Take a look in the Windsor Park area (Between Sudbury and Central Avenue). We own two rental units that we bought very inexpensively. The neighborhood is safe on the north side of Central Avenue. An 1,800 sq. ft home in good condition and a new roof will run $125-130,000. We bought ours at $110,000 and $115,000 three years ago, and despite the economy, the prices are rising in this area because it is a straight shot to downtown, CPCC, and UNCC (if you're not scared of being shot there) and Charlotte has become a mecca for those working in the banking industry. My husband is working to buy a third home to rent to foreign college students.
Im A Brat ... I believe it is absolutely possible to fulfill your entire wish list because of the diversity of the Charlotte region (for us, we defined the "region" as from Lake Norman south to Rock Hill SC, and from Mint Hill west to Gastonia). It will just take a bit more time and effort to do the research, and perhaps a bit of compromising something to fulfill something else. Our househunt last year took five months - we had specific house and community needs within a doable commute to south Charlotte ("doable" for us was anything under 45 minutes), and we successfully checked off everything on our list when we settled in Gastonia (which, by the way, has a Starbucks :-)).
It came down to more bang for our housing buck in Gaston County. We bought in an older neighborhood that is socially active and very dog-friendly. The commute to south Charlotte is 30 minutes on a good day (45-55 on a not-so-good day).
What I'd recommend is that you visit the area and do a ton of driving around to get a feel for all the areas that I and other posters have mentioned (Mount Holly, Belmont, Gastonia, Lake Wylie, Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Pineville, Matthews, Mint Hill, Huntersville, as well as all the Charlotte-proper areas inside the "inner ring" (like Uptown) to just outside the "inner ring" ... and many more, too many to list.)
You mentioned meetup.com. There are many good single 40s clubs via meetup.com in charlotte, one of which is gosocial club, tons of activities daily and free to join, another website is charlotteonthecheap, always have weekly activities around town. Charlotte around the Davidson/near downtown/central area have tons of good small shops/restaurants. I think with your personality, you might exchange something to be near the life that you like. Good luck in your search. I live in the steele creek area closer to lake wylie, SC and love it here and many new developments around here as well.
If your feeling that charlotte is overpriced.. your right! Charlotte's sudden and unsustainable population boom is putting a strain on local housing availability but this will not last. The housing market here is higher for comparable housing vs the similiar sized Sacramento Metro area.. Homes in close proximity to center city are higher.. Hard to believe considering charlotte is located in the middle of nowhere.. closest big city being Atlanta, vs being an hour away from San Fransico and the Spectacular California coastline.. Charlotte is close to the "great" smokey mountains, but Sacramento is closer to Tahoe... no comparison there really, as grand father mountain is pretty but no awe inspiring. Charlotte metro area has almost no natural land value as its worthless for commercial agriculuture and isnt sitting on top of the largest shale oil field in north america, nor proximity to world class tourist destinations. Also, despite being inland quite a ways, it still has a deep water channel, waterfront and water access to the pacific ocean. I have zero confidence in the charlotte housing market long term and it just doesnt have the track record of value creation that you get by living in California.. especially at these prices. To top that off, for a state that doesnt have all the big fancy public works projects like california does, I would like to know just where the hell my tax dollars are going in this state, because the rate certaintly isnt a whole lot cheaper. Property Taxes are also less in California in general. The property taxes on my monterey home, 1.25% and my property value can only ever go up at the rate of the CPI.
Metro Population
Charlotte
2,442,564
Sacramento
2,461,780
Here are some Google times to give some perspective of how out in the middle of nowhwere charlotte really is.
Distance from Sacramento to SF 1:34
Distance from Sacramento to Tahoe 2:00
Distance from Sacramento to Pebble Beach 3:04
Distance from Sacramento to Napa 1:04
Distance from Sacramento to Los Angeles 6:00
Distance from Charlotte to Washington 6:00
Distance from Charlotte to Charleston 3:06
Distance from Charlotte to Atlanta 3:45
Distance from Charlotte to Asheville 2:06
Last edited by bleakzero; 10-04-2013 at 09:11 AM..
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