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Hello. My wife and I are thinking about moving from CT to NC. I've been investigating Raleigh, Durham, and continued moving west. At first, I thought the research Park/Government factors in the Raleigh/Durham area would make sense for us to move to that area. But, for some reason, the further I moved west in my research, the more that I liked. The more I could see myself over there. But one thing has caused a red flag to be lifted, the sheer amount of houses that are for sale. The area's flooded with them. Is there a reason for that? I know the economy's not 100% anywhere you go, but a sign like this could mean a few things about the local conditions there. Could anyone from the area fill me in? Thanks.
Hi CT...
I wish I could offer you good news but as you may have heard amercian express announced they are closing the greensboro facility on monday.. That means another 1100 or more displaced workers who were making decent incomes are now also out of a job and many of them will be putting their homes on the market to relocate..
In todays economy and with businesses large and small closing at alarming rates, the housing market is flooded.
I wish you the very best of luck if you do choose to move here and you will find no kinder , more helpful or friendly people on earth , than in NC...
Bumping your own thread is technically against the C-D Terms of Service...
NC's unemployment is 9.7%, among the highest states. Yet, at the same time, somehow word has gotten around in the Northeast that "NC is the place to be for jobs, jobs, jobs!" This might have been reasonably true up to ~2007, but that obsolete info is perpetrating and causing lots of folks to move here without jobs lined up, expecting to snap up something within a week, and hitting the unfortunate reality. Search through the threads in this forum and find plenty of threads like "We moved here 2 years ago and haven't found a job yet..." etc. Yet somehow, people are continuing to flood the job market with applications from more expensive states (mostly in the NE). So we have a situation of vastly increasing supply (of workers) and shrinking demand. Not shrinking as fast as many places, true, but the frenzied abundance of supply probably evens that out.
But what this means is that in addition to the 9.7% of NC unemployed, new applicants are in competition with thousands of folks from other states trying to move here--HR managers report the highest numbers of applications ever, for almost every job, many of them from out-of-state.
You are to be commended for checking the job market before moving here; I would research your particular industry in detail (you haven't said what that is, and it makes a difference, of course. Some industries do better in certain locales than others) or search the forums for keywords like "employment" and terms from your industry (pay particular attention to the dates--ignore anything before 2008 in NC). Maybe you're in a good industry that isn't so much affected by the recession, and/or has less competition from trained workers from elsewhere. Good luck to you.
According to my appraiser many, many VA home loans went into default. The Amex closing announcement surprised everyone. I wouldn't recommend moving here thinking you are waltz right in a get a job. In your position you should secure the job then move.
Thank you Francois and WFW&P. I appreciate your contributions to my question. I will heed your advice. Not that I was going to go there without information and a plan, but the information that you gave me helps me plan with realistic info. And, Francios, to give you a little perspective from the northeast. It's not so much that I heard that there's a lot of jobs in North Carolina. I only heard that the government is friendly , fostering, and supportive of businesses. As opposed to the state I'm from, which is only friendly to and supportive of unions and welfare recipients. I'm not only thinking of today, I'm concerned about the future of this area. The future of my kids. As to the business that I'm in, I work for myself. I work as an onsite computer technician. Would I be better off trying to get a start in the Research Triangle Park area?
CT Computer Guy-I moved to NC last year from NJ for a job. (I was recruited from NJ, so I did not need to look for a job after I got here.) The Triad area (Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem) does appear to be a growing area (Fed Ex hub expansion, Caterpiller opening a new facility in WS in 2012 (I think) and AmEx is putting some type of data center in the area between Greensboro and Burlington. That said, there are a lot of new developments that are in various stages of completion with empty lots as well as unsold houses. It will be a long time before those developments are completed due to the economy (national and local.) Like many other places, there are also existing houses that are for sale, and are not selling. Not sure what part of CT you are from, but coming from NJ, I lived in an area where there was not much new development and if you wanted a house, you pretty much had to buy a resale. Here, there is so much undeveloped land, that you can't turn around without seeing a new housing development. That said, if you are in an existing house and trying to sell it, unless you live in an especially desirable neighborhood (however you define that) the competition with new home developments is really fierce. Potential home buyers continue to wait for the price to drop even lower, and sellers don't want to reduce their price, so you have deadlock.
The state is thought to be very business friendly, although there is competition from other southern states for businesses. Wages are a lot lower in NC than they are in the northeast, but I can't say that translates to an automatic better standard of living. My property taxes are much lower here than in NJ, but I now pay taxes on food and car and some of my utilities which I did not pay in NJ. States have to get revenue from some place, and in my opinion, states just do it in a variety of ways. In addition, some of the services that were included in my property taxes are not provided here in NC.
I know that you are just starting your research of the area, but there are certainly other things to consider when moving (what do you and/or your family like to do, and can you do in NC, etc.) to another state. There does not seem to the variety of industries in which to work as there are in the northeast, which is also something to consider. For example in NY/NJ/CT, there was financial services, pharma, real estate,higher ed, corporate services, arts, etc. Here in NC, there does not seem to be that level of diversity. Triangle seems to be concentrated on high tech, pharma and higher edu, Charlotte has financial services (and we know what problems they have had.) The Triad does have some higher edu, and not sure what else. Hope this helps.
Thank you Penny. It's nice to hear what someone from my neck of the woods would say. I appreciate your assessment of the housing market forces. That's interesting. And it's funny to hear what you said about the diversity of businesses. One of the first things that I wondered about was whether the local economy did have a diverse amount of various small businesses. That's what I'm used to around here. Are you at least enjoying yourself over there?
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