College Grads moving to NC (Charlotte, Wilmington: real estate, lawyer, houses)

[acsnyder]

Hi Guys-

My fiance and I are looking to relocate to NC from Maryland. My fiance's family is moving to Sunset Beach, NC (Just north of North Myrtle) so ideally we are looking for a town within an hour from Sunset Beach. We don't like Sunset beach because there isn't much of a town center, just individual newly built communities.

What I'm looking for: (which may very likely be too demanding, so let me know if I'm asking for too much)

-Charming, small, old town, but with a distinct town center, "small town" feel, main street

-We want to have acreage, 10+ acres but within 5 min to town.

-Not too expensive. We've been saving our money for land, and are looking for a property with either no house, or a small cottage that we could fix up or build on.

-Relatively close to the beach. Doesn't have to be right on the beach since property would be too expensive, but ideally within 30 min, or 1 hr at the most.

-Some kind of art community. I'm an artist, and my fiance will be a lawyer assuming he passes the bar when he graduates in a year, so the town can't be a ghost town. I'm thinking probably a population of 10k-30k.

-I don't expect a small, southern town to have too much of a night life, but I think the perfect place would be a town with some young people and young families. Or with in 30 min of a larger town with nightlife, perhaps Wilmington.

Okay, so as I wrote it all out I realized that its probably impossible to find a town to fit every requirement, but I would greatly appreciate to here any suggestions. And if there is any requirement the is most negotiable, it would probably be the location. We definitely want to be by the coast but it doesn't have to be so far south as Wilmington or Sunset beach.

Thanks!

[acsnyder]

to get the feel of the type of town that would be my dream town is "Star's Hollow" from the tv show "Gilmore Girls." I realize this is really idealistic, but is there anything close to like this in Coastal Carolina??

[macjr82]

what do you call too expensive? The wilmington area is the 2nd most expensive in NC (1st being Charlotte, 3rd being Carteret County, 4th Triangle area.) , but may not be compared to what you're used to.

[acsnyder]

From what I've been noticing through my research it seems that the Wilmington area is pretty equivalent to my home town. Of course beach front property is more expensive, but otherwise I'd say its pretty similar, if not even less expensive. We are looking to spend between 200-300k for land and construction, to build or remodel a small, but nice quality cottage type house (max 2000 sq. ft)...

I'm looking at Southport and the Boiling Springs Lake area. I think we'd be willing to live on less acreage if we were lake or creek front, and there seems to be a lot of waterfront/view properties in this area. But I can't find much about their downtown areas.. which could be a bad sign. So does anyone have any info about the towns?

I've read some bad things about Brunswick County, and the only place I've visited is Sunset Beach and Shallotte area. The individual developments are very nice (my fiance's parents are building a house in Ocean Ridge, and my uncle and aunt are building in River's Edge) but there isn't really any sense of a town outside the gated communites.

I found the neighborhood "Cottages at Price Creek" in Southport which seems adorable, exactly the type of houses I would want to build, but the lot sizes are very small, and I'm not sure that I would want to be in a development like that, more of just a town.

I hope I'm making sense... I feel like I'm kind of rambling...

[acsnyder]

I realize I'm being unrealistic... but bigbutt, I would really appreciate constructive suggestions...

[thefinalsay]

Originally Posted by acsnyder

Hi Guys-

My fiance and I are looking to relocate to NC from Maryland. My fiance's family is moving to Sunset Beach, NC (Just north of North Myrtle) so ideally we are looking for a town within an hour from Sunset Beach. We don't like Sunset beach because there isn't much of a town center, just individual newly built communities.

What I'm looking for: (which may very likely be too demanding, so let me know if I'm asking for too much)

-Charming, small, old town, but with a distinct town center, "small town" feel, main street

-We want to have acreage, 10+ acres but within 5 min to town.

-Not too expensive. We've been saving our money for land, and are looking for a property with either no house, or a small cottage that we could fix up or build on.

-Relatively close to the beach. Doesn't have to be right on the beach since property would be too expensive, but ideally within 30 min, or 1 hr at the most.

-Some kind of art community. I'm an artist, and my fiance will be a lawyer assuming he passes the bar when he graduates in a year, so the town can't be a ghost town. I'm thinking probably a population of 10k-30k.

-I don't expect a small, southern town to have too much of a night life, but I think the perfect place would be a town with some young people and young families. Or with in 30 min of a larger town with nightlife, perhaps Wilmington.

Okay, so as I wrote it all out I realized that its probably impossible to find a town to fit every requirement, but I would greatly appreciate to here any suggestions. And if there is any requirement the is most negotiable, it would probably be the location. We definitely want to be by the coast but it doesn't have to be so far south as Wilmington or Sunset beach.

Thanks!

after reading your requirements, I think I might have the town for you, although I have never been there. conway, SC. I live in wilmington, but I don't think you are going to find all those things here, and there really are no little towns like that near here. I worked with a guy who dated a girl who was from conway, and he said that it was a neat town. cool, but small, historic district with that main street feel. from what I can gather, there are about 12,000 people there. I looked on a real estate website and you can get land there cheap. it's also home to coastal carolina university, so you might find some of the art scene you are looking for at the college. it looks as if it is under an hour to sunset beach, and about 30 minutes to myrtle for that nightlife you might want. it's also about 1.5 hours or so from columbia, sc, which is a city. I have been to columbia, and it's a pretty cool city. I also know that it has direct train service to union station in DC, if you ever wanted to go back up that way. I considered moving to columbia at one time, as I am from northern VA. like I said, I don't know a whole lot about conway, but it seems close to a fit for what you are looking for. it's worth a visit.

[thefinalsay]

it's too bad you are so dead set on being near the coast. I have a town that would be perfect for you, but it's further west.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by thefinalsay

after reading your requirements, I think I might have the town for you, although I have never been there. conway, SC. I live in wilmington, but I don't think you are going to find all those things here, and there really are no little towns like that near here. I worked with a guy who dated a girl who was from conway, and he said that it was a neat town. cool, but small, historic district with that main street feel. from what I can gather, there are about 12,000 people there. I looked on a real estate website and you can get land there cheap. it's also home to coastal carolina university, so you might find some of the art scene you are looking for at the college. it looks as if it is under an hour to sunset beach, and about 30 minutes to myrtle for that nightlife you might want. it's also about 1.5 hours or so from columbia, sc, which is a city. I have been to columbia, and it's a pretty cool city. I also know that it has direct train service to union station in DC, if you ever wanted to go back up that way. I considered moving to columbia at one time, as I am from northern VA. like I said, I don't know a whole lot about conway, but it seems close to a fit for what you are looking for. it's worth a visit.

Very good suggestion.

[acsnyder]

thank you guys so much for suggestions! I am definitely going to look into Conway. I've been so focused on Wilmington and NC, I didn't think to look south.

And TheFinalSay, just curious, what city are you thinking of? The only reason we are looking to be close to the coast is because my fiance is somewhat of a surfer buff and would really like to be close to the water... me on the other hand do not think its as important.

[thefinalsay]

Originally Posted by acsnyder

thank you guys so much for suggestions! I am definitely going to look into Conway. I've been so focused on Wilmington and NC, I didn't think to look south.

And TheFinalSay, just curious, what city are you thinking of? The only reason we are looking to be close to the coast is because my fiance is somewhat of a surfer buff and would really like to be close to the water... me on the other hand do not think its as important.

I suggest you take a trip to greenville, SC. I went there to meet my dad about a year ago. I actually had never heard of greenville, so I was going to look at athens, GA, and the biltmore estate. I was shocked at how nice greenville was. it's a larger town than you were looking for, but with it, you get a ton more to do. it has by far, the nicest main street I have ever seen. main street there has won all sorts of awards. I think the town is like 50,000, but the metro area is pretty large, but you can go a few miles outside of town and be in the country. they have a convention center for concerts and stuff, and a really nice new minor league baseball stadium downtown that's a replica of fenway park. falls park on the reedy is one of the biggest attractions there. it's a river complete with waterfalls that cuts right through the middle of downtown. if you like college sports, the university of georgia and clemson are both close by. if you like pro sports, or want to go to a major city with a real airport, (which is lacking on the coast) you are about an hour from charlotte. jobs would be plentiful for your husband. as for you, from what I have read, greenville has a really good art scene. keep in mind that you are also less than an hour from asheville, NC, which is like the art capital of the south. the only drawback is being 3 hours from the coast, but since you are close to the nice NC mountains, perhaps the hubby can take up snowboarding? I swear, greenville should pay me for this promotion. here is the thread with a ton of pictures. you can tell a lot by the pictures and see how nice downtown is. seems like a much larger city than 50,000 due to good city planning. either way, it's worth a visit. oh, and there are photos on like every page of that thread, not just page 1.


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