Retired with Teens (Charlotte, Cary, Wilmington: new home, established neighborhood, best school)

[eileen824]

Hi everyone - I am new to the triad boards, but have been on the Charlotte forum for a few YEARS as we planned our move south. I am essentially a SAHM, and my husband is retired/pension. We have 2 children 1 middle school/1 HS. We are suburban NY'ers, but not the "loud yankees" that many native NC's can't stand. We want to blend in, live our lives and hopefully make a positive contribution to our community and new home state.

Anyway, after multiple visits, we ruled out the Triangle and Wilmington - we loved Charlotte and decided on the Waxhaw/UC/Matthews area - DONE! - Or so we thought! In the past year since we zoned in on Union Cty, I can see the trend of the area turning into another Cary - nice, corporate $$ oriented,over priced new HOA's, TONS of northerners. We are afraid! We do not want to have to move too far out to have an affordable home. Our kids will already feel isolated and we don't want to make it worse by being in some new development in the middle of nowhere. We don't want a smaller home than we live in now (2000sf) in Meck. I haven't ruled it out, but I think we might be getting priced out of Charlotte based upon our personal criteria. I saw a post SunnyKayak made mentioning the Triad favorably, so I started to follow those boards and am excited to visit! We are coming down in 3 weeks.

It is scary to finally make this decision as our house is newly on the market! From what I see online, this is what we liked abt the Triad:

- smaller, more managable cities
-established neighborhoods closer to or within town
-less of a "mass exodus" of Ny'ers- we are SOLID middle class- and are not chasing after a "McMansion" lifestyle.
-accessability to all other cities in Peidmont

Here is what we are looking for:

- $200K or less home, NOT reclaimed farmland dev. with vinyl housing on less than .25 plot - older in a good area would be more than fine!
- High School Environment.- this is tricky- It does not have to be the "best school" based on AP/test scores, but it should be academically decent, welcoming, suburban,public. My kids (boy and girl) play basketball, volleyball, softball, ICE Hockey - they hope to play on school teams. They are averave/above average students. We want them to be well rounded and they are everything to us, so a good school environment where we will be welcomed is important.
-We are going to look at Clemmons and Kernersville, but are unsure of what areas to look at within WS or GSO. If we live within our means, we don't have to look for major jobs, but we will work and like to be closer to everything. (hockey rink, retail, etc.)

If anyone has a realtor suggestion that can show us around in either WS or GSO, please PM me with contact info. I already saved some listings, but need the "real deal" on neighborhood desirability.

Thanks for your opinions/advice.

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by eileen824

- smaller, more managable cities
-established neighborhoods closer to or within town
-accessability to all other cities in Peidmont
- $200K or less home
- High School Environment.

Start here LINK
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