Since we have a home in Roanoke and on the Crystal Coast, I will try to draw some comparisons
First off I think Roanoke's downtown and
Farmer's Market area are pretty unique among cities of its size.
There is certainly nothing like that along the Crystal Coast. Towns are smaller and seem to stretch out instead of being concentrated like Roanoke.
New Bern would be the closest and it has
a nice downtown and waterfront but I didn't see the same kinds of things that are in the Roanoke Market area that young professionals might like. I could have just missed them.
I also didn't get the feeling that New Bern was a young town, but again I have to qualify by saying maybe we were just in the wrong places.
Jacksonville on the other hand is a very young town, and a military town which has its positives and negatives.
We live close to Jacksonville and enjoy going there except I feel ancient in Target surrounded by all the very young military families.
I can say that the smaller towns along the Crystal Coast, Morehead City, Cedar Point, Emerald Isle, Swansboro and Cape Carteret all seem very safe but they are small towns.
In talking to young people in Morehead City that are your age, I get the feeling that the Crystal Coast might have fewer of people your age than Wilmington, but I also got the impression that the Lake Norman area of Charlotte might have the most of any area in NC, but I have no figures to back it up.
Our three "kids" who grew up in Roanoke, went to Oak Grove, Hidden Valley, and Cave Spring schools all left the Roanoke area for college and never came back. Our youngest daughter lives near Cornelius around Lake Norman not far from Charlotte. The place is crawling with young professionals. Our two older ones are in Northern Virginia which again is full of young professionals.
I also know of Roanoke area graduates who have headed to Charleston and love it. We also have another area graduate who spent his first year or so out of college working near Myrtle Beach. He's now headed to Virginia Beach.
While I think you could probably find a job in one of the three area hospitals, Morehead City, New Bern, or Jacksonville, I have a feeling you might be happier in an area with more excitement.
I have written a lot about our "coastal paradise" along the Southern Outer Banks. It is a place where people kick back and get their enjoyment from walking the beaches, fishing, and boating.
If you want coast I would look at Wilmington, Charleston, and Virginia Beach in that order. If just water and lots of young folks might be okay, I would check out Huntersville or Cornelius near Charlotte.
If you just want jobs and to be within a couple of hours of the beach, the Raleigh area is hard to beat. I don't know Raleigh like I do Charlotte so I can't tell you where the young professionals are concentrated, but you can find the answer to that on the Raleigh forum.
I actually think you will find North Carolina a little less confining than Roanoke.
It takes three hours to get anywhere from Roanoke and unfortunately you have to get on I81 usually. Interstate 40 from Raleigh to the coast is not a bad ride. Charlotte is plagued with bad local traffic as is the Raleigh-Durham area. However, once you get away from the cities, the traffic isn't too bad. Wilmington has traffic but its not like Northern Virginia. Nothing that I have seen in NC compares to the 300 miles of truck traffic on Virginia's Interstate 81.
Roanoke is pretty unique in that the traffic is worse leaving the area than staying in the area.
Even if you don't move to the Carolina coast, you can still come
visit the Crystal Coast when the city life wears you out.
We love living here, our kids enjoy visiting, but visiting a place and living there are two completely different things.
Try to think about that when you are making that decision about where to live.
While we have all the services we need where we live
near Cape Carteret, we are not young professionals, and I know my two daughters might object to a 25 minute drive to get to their local Target. My son could care less. As long as FedEx delivers packages, he's fine.
We moved to the coast, because I needed a change from Roanoke where we had lived and worked for eighteen years.
It's not that Roanoke is better or worse than Cape Carteret, it's just very different.
The small town part of the NC Coast is also a place where activities in the out of doors define most people's lives. Croatan National Forest, the Emerald Isle Beaches, and Bogue Sound provide most of the entertainment except for local festivals like the
Mullet Festival in Swansboro. Mullet equals fish not hair.
Good luck finding the right spot.
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We have our feet in Roanoke and the salt water
