Moving to rural North Carolina (Winston-Salem, Salisbury: condos, how much, home)

[MollysDAD]

Relocating to NC from small town New England in about 18 months for retirement. We liked the Mocksville area. What do we need to know about the area. Seems like lots of building is going on but not much buying. Interested in a condo or location that offers outside maintenance and landscaping. What is the weather REALLY like? Any other places like Mocksville?? Thanks for the help!!

[silverwing]

Originally Posted by MollysDAD

Relocating to NC from small town New England in about 18 months for retirement. We liked the Mocksville area. What do we need to know about the area. Seems like lots of building is going on but not much buying. Interested in a condo or location that offers outside maintenance and landscaping. What is the weather REALLY like? Any other places like Mocksville?? Thanks for the help!!

Mocksville is a tidy place, the seat of Davie county. Not much in the way of entertainment except a small performance theater. There’s a YMCA, a smallish library, no big chain restaurants except the fast food places, but some nice local eateries. It’s been growing commercially in the last few years with an upsized Walmart, and Lowe’s Home Improvement. How much more the area can grow is up in the air. Winston-Salem, with frou-frou eateries and shopping, is 30 minutes away at the most via I-40. That place is growing by leaps and bounds around the Hanes Mall area, so everyone goes there for weekend shopping.

What will probably happen (unless the area is affected by the current slow down in housing) is that Davie county will become a bedroom community to Winston-Salem, with developers touting lower taxes and “a slower way of life”. Even now there is a problem with school overcrowding. A new middle school is going up in Advance and a bond referendum is set for May to vote on whether or not a new high school will be funded ($37 million in bonds and a hike in property taxes is 99.9% assured. I’m voting NO ).

Condos? A few are being built. Check ‘realtor dot com’. Some are under construction, with prices ranging from $110K to $190K. They’re in a nice area; the ones on Wentworth are tucked behind a business park and look like good construction. If you have $600K to spend, an upscale condo development is to be built in town. I’d post the link, but anything commercial tends to get *poofed* by the mods, so google “Col. Austin Way+condo” and you’ll find what I’m talking about. They look nice except they’ll be at the confluence of a major intersection with heavy traffic. I’m not sure what kind of sound proofing will be installed, but anyone living at that intersection will be dealing with trucks and jake breaks.

Overall, Mocksville is a nice, pokey little town to settle with the amenities of shopping and entertainment not that far away. We’ve been in the area a decade and hope to stay for our own retirement, unless development gets too bad and the area becomes crowded with subdivisions. There are plenty of people who hope it will stay as rural as possible. Chief among them, the ol’ coot featured in the latest issue of the Davie County wipe http://www.enterprise-record.com/ Bert Bahnson is a …. colorful … character . He’s made his feelings about development known in some very emphatic ways. It was with a sigh of relief to many that some riverside property belonging to him and located between the major routes of I-40 and highway 158 was bought. The purchasers were able to take down the Confederate flag he kept hoisted there in full view of commuters and travelers on those two busy roads.

As far as weather - *shrug* moderate, overall. That's a question hard to answer because most seem to want to say its "xxxx" when really it's "xxxx compared to where I used to live". I don't think it's as hot and humid as some say, but that's because I'm from the Midwest, where it WAS hot and humid. Certainly the winters here are no big deal. in February 2004, we had 10" of snow that was gone in 3 days.

Another town you might want to check out that's between Mocksville and W-S as far as "bigger than one, smaller than the other" is Salisbury. If you do a search on the General forum, you'll find out a lot about that town.

[friendnc]

You might want to check out Mt. Airy, just NW of Winston Salem. It's a wonderful town that was the model for "Mayberry" on The Andy Griffith Show. It's his hometown. We love going up there to visit a couple of times a year. Very beautiful area, great weather. Only about 45 minutes from Winston Salem.

[NCis4me]

Clemmmons has some new condos I think. Check out the west and south west areas of Winston-Salem including Clemmons, Lewisville, etc.

Yes, our winters are on the whole easy to get through. Some Decembers we get 70 degree days, some we get 30 degree days for a week or so at a time. You will almost never see snow on the ground for more than a day or two, three at the most if there is ice involved. The summers are usually nice, with a few in the past 20 years that were muggy and miserable. Don't expect to be wearing your light jacket before late September or your overcoat past late February.

There have been some property tax hikes Moderator cut: off topic/personal