Considering move to Winston-Salem / Greensboro (Charlotte, Raleigh: HOA, homes, landscaping)

[gipper]

Originally Posted by roadpony

Where are you going to be working? Why the need to be closer to Raleigh? Personally, I always advise against living and working in different communities... hard to put down roots and be a part of either... always in the car. As for crime rates, I don't think there's an appreciable difference between W-S and G'boro, particularly in the areas you'll be frequenting.

I don't have children, so I can't help on schools or pre-schools. If you vist the Children's Museum in W-S (highly recommended) you could always ask for suggestions from their staff.

Greensboro is a nice community, but if you are going to be working in W-S, there's no need to live in G'boro. I love W-S.

Thanks for the input -- I have another thread going on here as well --- we just got back from a weekend in WS. I will be working in WS, so we focused our search in the WS area and found it to be very nice and livable. Looking forward to sorting out the details and getting to the final decision of to go or not to go!!

[Newcomer 09]

When looking in Greensboro you need to check out the Guildford College area (zip code 27410), Brassfield Drive has gated communities in your price range with beautiful Guilford Military park down the street. There are close to 5 excellent preschools in the 3 mile radius, can't remember all their names but you will see one on Brassfield, and New Garden Road and Horse Pen Creek Road. As far as shopping goes...there is Friendly Shopping Center less than 10 min drive and it has restaurants, movie theatre, Brooks Brothers, Ann Taylor etc...upper scale stores. You will need to drive to Durham (45min away) to get to Nordstroms. I am a transplant from NY metro and love it here in GSO. Welcome to the Piedmont!

[lowtown]

There are some excellent neighborhoods in Winston-Salem for your price range, with nicer established homes close to descent shopping and good schools. Try Sherwood Forest (as mentioned), Buena Vista, or more generally, zip codes 27104 and 27106. BTW, do you really go to all those upscale stores every week anyway? If not, the occasional hour drive to Charlotte or Raleigh/Durham is not that big of a deal. I think you'll find Winston-Salem to be sufficient for almost all of your basic shopping needs.

[Ragdoll Kitty Lover]

We love living in the Winston-Salem area, but we are not big city lovers. We love having very little traffic, the slower pace, the very congenial Southern hospitality, and dislike hearing transplants say how this area needs to change to suit them. I will say that moving here will be a big life change for you, so be sure to consider all the ramifications first.

Our friends who are used to bigger city living - Phillie - had a VERY hard time adjusting, and after 2 years, they still are not that happy here.

My niece from near Boston just spent 2 years in Long Beach, CA, and she finally moved back East, settling in NH. She just could not adjust to the California lifestyle.

Many of the counties outside Forsyth and Guilford will not suit you at all, because they do not have the type of shopping you are describing in your post. We have Talbots, Ann Taylor, and Joseph H. Banks, with a very nice mall. Whole Foods and Fresh Market are very good, but no Trader Joe's. Life will be different. If you want to embrace the change, you will be fine. If you do not want to give up certain shopping habits, you will not be fine.

Good luck with your search

[JViello]

Originally Posted by Ragdoll Kitty Lover

We love living in the Winston-Salem area, but we are not big city lovers. We love having very little traffic, the slower pace, the very congenial Southern hospitality, and dislike hearing transplants say how this area needs to change to suit them. I will say that moving here will be a big life change for you, so be sure to consider all the ramifications first.

Our friends who are used to bigger city living - Phillie - had a VERY hard time adjusting, and after 2 years, they still are not that happy here.

My niece from near Boston just spent 2 years in Long Beach, CA, and she finally moved back East, settling in NH. She just could not adjust to the California lifestyle.

Many of the counties outside Forsyth and Guilford will not suit you at all, because they do not have the type of shopping you are describing in your post. We have Talbots, Ann Taylor, and Joseph H. Banks, with a very nice mall. Whole Foods and Fresh Market are very good, but no Trader Joe's. Life will be different. If you want to embrace the change, you will be fine. If you do not want to give up certain shopping habits, you will not be fine.

Good luck with your search

Very true and good post.

I missed that the OP called Nordstroms a "staple". I don't think I've been to one in 10 years. lol

Yea in that case perhaps Charlotte would be more their speed where they could just hit up Phillips Place, Southpark Mall or the like anytime they wish.

http://www.phillipsplace.info

http://www.simon.com/mall/mall_info.aspx?ID=788

[the 7 oh 4]

Originally Posted by headdr

Hi there,
My wife and I relocated from Sacramento to the Winston-Salem area in Sept and we really like it. I took a new job out here and hence the move. Trader Joes???? Boy do we miss it (smile). There is one in Charlotte, but thats far from us...even to go to Traders....There is a Whole Foods Market, but again...its not Traders...

So far we have found a pretty good variety of restuarants here in the area. Shopping? hmmmm...The mall has Macy's and a other large dept stores. Overall, the quality of life is very nice and relaxing...We found a great house in a great area. Let me know if you have other questions.

There are 3 Trader Joe's in Charlotte. If you can't find it (what you are looking for) in the Triad...it is probably more likely to be in Charlotte versus Raleigh...and Charlotte is only 1hr 30 minutes from Winston-Salem.

[yourhometriad]

Kernersville is your answer- you would be 20 mins tops from Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point. Then if you can't find what you need in Kville, you're only a little ride from fun stuff in each town. Plus you're 1.5 hours to Raleigh, 1.5 hours to Charlotte, 2 hours from the mountains and 3.5 hours to the beach. You can't beat it here.

It's a small town but like I say, you're close to everything and you can keep your options open. Fresh Market in Greensboro has a lot of cool stuff like TJ and so does Earth Fare. Plus there's an international supermarket in GReensboro on Market Street called Super G and it has everything international you could ever want!

[TTODD2]

This place is nothing like Southern California.
I lived in the San Diego area for about a year and moved back to the East Coast, but loved the area also. Coranado Beach, La Jolla, Balboa Park were some of my favorites. Winston-Salem is not going to come close to any expectations similar to these. The economy right now is the pits in this area, as are Charlotte and Greensboro, even Raleigh. I would suggest you move to the Outer Banks area, Wilmington, or even Myrtle Beach, SC.
But really the only thing I have seen that comes even close to SOCAL is around the Miami, South Beach area. Your 600K would transfer there in a more closely alignment.

[JoeD1667]

I am seriously considering the Winston-Salem area to move to and will be visiting there shortly to see if its as nice of an area as everyone says it it. I've noticed that the majority of the newer homes are in developements and wanted to know are these developements under home owners association rules? This is a big factor in my picking an area to live in having lived in Florida for 25 years and seeing the way the state allows them to operate worst than any government. They control things from what shade of paint your house has to be to not allowing little landscaping statues to having to get permission first to do any landscaping including planting flowers. I don't want to move into one of these developements that are run by the Gestapo or have to pay monthly maintenance fees and are at their mercy for any increases.

[Lynnmuhl]

I lived in Greensboro for the first 35 years of my life, and I would TOTALLY echo what everyone else is saying. WS has more vibrant arts community, parks, restaurants than GSO -- but that's is changing. And for 600k you should be able to get a fabulous home, can't speak to the schools though. Oh -- I live 2 miles from the Trader Joe's in Charlotte, but other than the inexpensive wine we haven't found much else that's as terrific as we had hoped. I would prefer that we had a closer Fresh Market or Whole Foods like they do in GSO and WS.