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Hi there. My fiance and I are really interested in moving from DC to Charlotte - we've both outgrown the hustle of city life and are looking for a place the offers a good healthy work life balance. Would love to get advice from others, especially those who've moved from DC (or other major cities) to Charlotte? How is the transition? How is the job market in Charlotte for tech? We're both in our early 30s - we don't know anyone that lives in Charlotte so we're both a little nervous about making the move.
We would appreciate any advice anyone has to offer. Thanks in advance!
I'm going to more than likely move to Raleigh. I'm outta the DC area too. I'm late 30s and my wife is mid 30s. From what I've seen, someone will respond and offer you great advice. Though be prepared for them to also call you a "transplant" lol. Hope it works out for you
I agree with the post above that you should consider the Raleigh area in your search. The tech industry likely has more opportunities in the triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) than Charlotte. With that in mind, however, I can tell you that despite what you may hear, Charlotte is largely welcoming to new residents. I moved to Charlotte from the Northeast and found it really easy to build a network of friends and colleagues. Part of the reason is that so many of the people in Charlotte are also transplants (the surrounding towns are very different in that respect), so they are or have been in the same boat.
If you are looking for a more liveable, greener, and less hectic way of life, both Charlotte and the triangle will offer that. To me, these areas offer the resources of a city (restaurants, entertainment, people) without being overwhelming. Feel free to post any specific questions here - I'm sure folks (myself included) will be happy to provide some insight.
My husband and I made the move from the DC area down to Charlotte in 06. We were in our early 30's (no kids)when we made the move. We had a home built down here in Cabarrus County (right on the Meck line). We lived in Loudoun County in the DC area. We wanted to be able to get a SFH and not spend the 600K up there so we put a contract on new construction down here and listed our TH up there. I came down with my job (I worked for a tech company out of CA that had bought my company in Ashburn and then eventually another tech company bought us about 3 years ago)and started working from home, which I still do today. DH came down without a job and had one in two weeks. His field is an easy one to secure a job.
I would recommend at least one of you having a job before you make the move to make things easier. We love it here and while we did move back to LoCo in 2010 for 18 month we're back to stay. We love the area we are in and it's close to everything. It's not real spread out like the DC area is so if you want to do something fun and it's a ways a way it might only be 45 minutes and it will take you 45 minutes. They do need to expand all the roads to make room for all the growth and they are working on it though slowly.
When we moved we knew two people but weren't real close to them. They lived 45 minutes away so we would see them 1 or 2 every 6 months. They live over in the Denver area off of Lake Norman and it's a world away from where we live. Now we see them once a year in the summer and it's a nice break to go out and relax on the lake.
Now we have some family living here as my husband's parents retired here and his brother and his wife moved with their jobs. We don't see everyone all the time but it's nice they are all close by.
If you have any more specific questions feel free to ask. I will answer or help in anyway I can.
PROS-
1. cost of living
2. less traffic (but there is still quite a bit of traffic)
3. weather
4. neighbors who take an interest in each other
5. seems to be more time to be involved with your kids activities
6. well located for great daytrips
CONS-
1. not as many things to do as DC
2. 485 is looking more like 395 every day
3. little or no public transit (compared to DC)
4. neighbors who may take too much of an interest in each other (it's an adjustment)
Overall we are happy here and think it was the right move for us but it is a different pace that takes a little time to get used to.
I'm going to more than likely move to Raleigh. I'm outta the DC area too. I'm late 30s and my wife is mid 30s. From what I've seen, someone will respond and offer you great advice. Though be prepared for them to also call you a "transplant" lol. Hope it works out for you
Thanks for your feedback. The community here is very helpful, we really appreciate it!
I agree with the post above that you should consider the Raleigh area in your search. The tech industry likely has more opportunities in the triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) than Charlotte. With that in mind, however, I can tell you that despite what you may hear, Charlotte is largely welcoming to new residents. I moved to Charlotte from the Northeast and found it really easy to build a network of friends and colleagues. Part of the reason is that so many of the people in Charlotte are also transplants (the surrounding towns are very different in that respect), so they are or have been in the same boat.
If you are looking for a more liveable, greener, and less hectic way of life, both Charlotte and the triangle will offer that. To me, these areas offer the resources of a city (restaurants, entertainment, people) without being overwhelming. Feel free to post any specific questions here - I'm sure folks (myself included) will be happy to provide some insight.
Thanks for your feedback, we'll check out Durham and Chapel Hill as well. It's reassuring to hear that you found it easy to build a network of friends/colleagues in Charlotte - that was one of the things we're a little nervous about as we don't know anyone that lives there. Thanks again for your feedback, much appreciated!
My husband and I made the move from the DC area down to Charlotte in 06. We were in our early 30's (no kids)when we made the move. We had a home built down here in Cabarrus County (right on the Meck line). We lived in Loudoun County in the DC area. We wanted to be able to get a SFH and not spend the 600K up there so we put a contract on new construction down here and listed our TH up there. I came down with my job (I worked for a tech company out of CA that had bought my company in Ashburn and then eventually another tech company bought us about 3 years ago)and started working from home, which I still do today. DH came down without a job and had one in two weeks. His field is an easy one to secure a job.
I would recommend at least one of you having a job before you make the move to make things easier. We love it here and while we did move back to LoCo in 2010 for 18 month we're back to stay. We love the area we are in and it's close to everything. It's not real spread out like the DC area is so if you want to do something fun and it's a ways a way it might only be 45 minutes and it will take you 45 minutes. They do need to expand all the roads to make room for all the growth and they are working on it though slowly.
When we moved we knew two people but weren't real close to them. They lived 45 minutes away so we would see them 1 or 2 every 6 months. They live over in the Denver area off of Lake Norman and it's a world away from where we live. Now we see them once a year in the summer and it's a nice break to go out and relax on the lake.
Now we have some family living here as my husband's parents retired here and his brother and his wife moved with their jobs. We don't see everyone all the time but it's nice they are all close by.
If you have any more specific questions feel free to ask. I will answer or help in anyway I can.
Thank you so much for all your insight, we really appreciate it! We're both aggressively looking for job opportunities in Charlotte - as you suggested, we'll hold off until one of us has a job before we make the move. We've heard both positive and negative feedback about the job market. Are there any specific areas you'd recommend? We'll probably rent the first year before looking into buying. Is the traffic pretty bad - would you recommend living in the city our first year? Thank you again for all your valuable feedback.
Thank you so much for all your insight, we really appreciate it! We're both aggressively looking for job opportunities in Charlotte - as you suggested, we'll hold off until one of us has a job before we make the move. We've heard both positive and negative feedback about the job market. Are there any specific areas you'd recommend? We'll probably rent the first year before looking into buying. Is the traffic pretty bad - would you recommend living in the city our first year? Thank you again for all your valuable feedback.
It depends on what you are looking for in an area. We are in Concord but it's right on the line of Meck County. We aren't far from the Huntersville area. We like living in Cabarrus (lower taxes and in my opinion better schools than Meck). I'm not sure if schools are important to you but you do need to keep in mind resell value when you are ready to buy. We are only about 20/25 minutes to uptown Charlotte. We went to one of the museum's this past weekend and it was easy getting in and out of the city.
My husband and I weren't real big DC people unless we're catching a Nats game or going to a museum. We stayed out in the burbs for entertainment for the most part. We would go to Reston Town Center for the bars and restaurants. When we were in our mid-20's it was Arlington and RTC and on occasions DC.
We are renting right now waiting for our renters to finish out the lease on our house. When we moved back I wanted to be in a specific area for the schools (we now have two kids 4.5 and 6).
We have quite a few neighbor's that work in some capacity for the big banks. Also the tech jobs are primarily in University area which Ian' t a bad drive from where we are. I know quite a few that work in the University area as well.
What's your budget for rent? What are your interests?
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