Atlanta or Raleigh, NC (transplants, real estate, rental)
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We used to live in Raleigh, NC area for 10 yrs before moving to Orlando, Fl area the last 5yrs, which is 5yrs too many. We want to relocate either back to Raleigh area or also considering Atlanta. I’ve visited Atlanta 20+ yrs ago but have not been back. We’re retired and children are adults so school system is not of concern. Florida is just not for us.
What does an average home rental or purchase for 3 bed 2 bath single family home on .25+ acres run for in the outskirts of Atlanta and what are the nice less crime neighborhoods go for.
If you’ve lived in both Raleigh, NC and Atlanta I’d be curious to learn what your opinion and experience is comparing the two cities.
In my opinion, Raleigh is a more plausible option than Atlanta for you and your partner. First of all, you and your family previously lived in Raleigh in the not-so-distant past, so I presume you have an existing support system in the Raleigh area, which would likely make the transition smoother.
Also, the Raleigh area has a significantly smaller population than the Atlanta area, which implies that "activities of daily living" will be more manageable in the Raleigh area, regardless of whether you are living in Downtown Raleigh or on the outskirts of town. If I was older, I would prefer to live in a less populous area to keep my stress level as low as as possible.
From a geographic standpoint, Raleigh is more centrally located on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. As a result, Raleigh is within reasonable driving distance to the nation's capitol (Washington, DC) and the first permanent English settlement in the present-day United States (Jamestown, VA). Also, Raleigh is closer to coast than Atlanta, which is an important consideration if you and your family are beachgoers or enjoy being on/near the ocean. Personally, I feel as if North Carolina is a safer, more prosperous state that Georgia.
Like I always say, "better the devil you know than the devil you don't." If I was older and coming off of a poor five-year living experience in Florida, then I would be less inclined to relocate to a completely new place, such as Atlanta, for example. Remember, Atlanta is located in a state that neighbors Florida and, as a result, attracts a high number of transplants from Florida. By returning to Raleigh, it may feel as if you are returning home instead of starting over.
I would consider that Atlanta is much larger and more traffic congested than the Raleigh area, so would factor that in your consideration as retirees. While the inner ring northern suburbs of Sandy Spring, Johns Creek and Marietta are nice they are congested and development is continuing at a rapid clip. You might check out suburbs a little further out like Gainesville or Flowery branch on the NE side, Stockbridge and McDonough on the SE side or even Peachtree City on the SW side which is very popular with retirees as a planned community with golf cart-only thruways around town. Nicer 3/2 homes rent for $1500-$1700 in those areas and about 250K-275K to purchase.
We lived in Atlanta area until 15 years ago, but left due to the company downsizing and we wanted to get to a less expensive place getting ready to retire.
Atlanta is as good as it gets for a mega city. But the traffic is simply debilitating, and it's too busy for me. We do keep a RV in the Northeast Georgia Mountains, and love it up there in a more simple world.
If you have a choice where to live, there are many other great cities in the south that are not as busy as Raleigh or Atlanta suburbs. There are also places that are cheaper to live.
We have settled outside of Huntsville, one of the smartest cities in the world. The economy here is tops--anywhere. But we absolutely love the Tennessee River and our lake house at Muscle Shoals. Guntersville, AL is another absolutely beautiful city with the lake in the middle of town.
We love Young Harris and Hiawassee, Georgia in the northeast corner of the state. Breathtaking mountain vistas.
Morristown, Greeneville, Jonesborough and Johnson City, Tennessee are other very livable and beautiful places with cheap taxes and really nice homes. The region has it all.
Banner/Elk and Boone, NC are incredibly beautiful places and great retirement communities.
NW South Carolina is absolutely beautiful and Greenville and surrounding cities have mountains and wonderful lakes. It's a very nice society too.
There are just so many places to consider living outside of big, hot congested cities.
If you haven't been to Atlanta in 20 years you definitely won't recognize it. Atlanta metro is huge and of course that means more amenities and everything a big city has to offer. However, that also means more traffic and generally a more fast paced lifestyle. It really comes down to if you want a really large city or a not so large city. Raleigh area is really nice and has everything you need. The only thing Raleigh doesn't have is the NBA and NFL but you can always drive to Charlotte to catch a game if you're into pro sports. I feel like you would enjoy Raleigh more at your stage in life and you're already familiar with it so it will be a easier transition to just go back to North Carolina. You should explore Atlanta though and some of the areas on the outskirts of the metro that are more quiet and peaceful like Gainesville, Canton, Peachtree City, Newnan, Dallas, GA. Basically you don't want to live in one of the core counties because you will have to deal with traffic and more people so stay away from Fulton, Cobb, Dekalb, Gwinnett, and Clayton county.
Last edited by BuckeyeBoyDJ; 04-26-2020 at 11:37 AM..
From a geographic standpoint, Raleigh is more centrally located on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. As a result, Raleigh is within reasonable driving distance to the nation's capitol (Washington, DC) and the first permanent English settlement in the present-day United States (Jamestown, VA). Also, Raleigh is closer to coast than Atlanta, which is an important consideration if you and your family are beachgoers or enjoy being on/near the ocean. Personally, I feel as if North Carolina is a safer, more prosperous state that Georgia.
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As a 20 something urbanist/lover of history, my needs are quite different from these people, yet you articulate the strengths of Raleigh’s location in an effective manner. It has a unique ability among Southeast cities to get to a place like this within a few hours. You also have Richmond and Wilmington about 2 hrs away and Charlottesville 3. Just thinking about it in this way really strengthens RDU’s desirability, in my mind and perhaps explains partially why housing is more expensive there on avg. than ATL even.
As a 20 something urbanist/lover of history, my needs are quite different from these people, yet you articulate the strengths of Raleigh’s location in an effective manner. It has a unique ability among Southeast cities to get to a place like this within a few hours. You also have Richmond and Wilmington about 2 hrs away and Charlottesville 3. Just thinking about it in this way really strengthens RDU’s desirability, in my mind and perhaps explains partially why housing is more expensive there on avg. than ATL even.
We had some employees transfer from Atlanta area to Greensboro. They were amazed at how much more expensive real estate was in central North Carolina was--from Winston-Salem over to Raleigh Durham. I have no explanation other that it may be a demand driven housing market vs. a cost of building market. That means supply and demand dictating home prices.
We had some employees transfer from Atlanta area to Greensboro. They were amazed at how much more expensive real estate was in central North Carolina was--from Winston-Salem over to Raleigh Durham. I have no explanation other that it may be a demand driven housing market vs. a cost of building market. That means supply and demand dictating home prices.
That’s actually shocking to me particularly about Greensboro. Winston-Salem
at least makes more sense, given its proximity to Wake Forest (National Top 50 Universities on Average see a jump in expenses). I wouldn’t have assumed Greensboro would be expensive at all though. I know Raleigh is significantly more expensive than Charlotte too, so your hypothesis might hold well.
Another thing I’ll note for RDU is I had always penalized it in my mind for being further away from mountains than other Piedmont cities are. However, in considering the fact it’s 2.5 hrs from Boone, I don’t think it fares as well as Charlotte or Atlanta in that regard, but it actually doesn’t fare any worse than say, Nashville.
We had some employees transfer from Atlanta area to Greensboro. They were amazed at how much more expensive real estate was in central North Carolina was--from Winston-Salem over to Raleigh Durham. I have no explanation other that it may be a demand driven housing market vs. a cost of building market. That means supply and demand dictating home prices.
Winston-Salem and Greensboro are far cheaper than Atlanta. If you look at the average cost of housing by city, Atlanta is WAY more expensive, and if you just think about it rationally, living in the nicest part of Winston-Salem is just far cheaper than living in the nicest part Atlanta. There may be something to your point about Atlanta having a large supply of housing in the exurbs that central NC does not, but I don't think it's enough to suggest that real estate generally more expensive.
For the OP, I think it depends on what you are looking for. As others have mentioned, these are both markets that people move to for jobs and have the headaches of congestion etc. associated, if you are retired, that may or may not be appealing. I would say for Atlanta, it's just huge. There are suburbs and exurbs that are affordable and have nice housing, but you are pretty far removed from the city. Not everywhere feels like you live just down the road from downtown, whereas Raleigh is still a smaller city where you can be in a leafy, quiet spot and be a bit closer to downtown (although to @Bamaman1's point, not necessarily a lot cheaper if you are close). It's just that some suburbs in Atlanta could be an hour long ordeal to get in the car and go downtown for dinner, sports etc.
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