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Don't drink the Kool-Aid.......Stay west but come a little further inland.....Try Arizona/Colorado/Texas.....but dont come South...South is not all what is cracked up to be....Yes..people move here and YES they do like it, because it's affordable...I will give the "South" that...but then some people have moved here and moved back to California....after a year or two....They missed the culture, diversity,things to do....Seriously, Think Long & Think Strong...
Thank you for the advice. Personally I can not stand Arizona. The heat and the lack of color in landscape would drive me nuts. I think it is a great place to visit but nothing more for me. I thought about Colorado but the winters are extremely harsh. My experiences with the South have been nothing short of incredible. When it come to culture and things to do....I am a Mom....my time is pretty full of things to do and I think that there is culture in every town. Plus....with all of the money we save on our Mortgage we can save up for weekend trips to New York not to mention we do quite a bit of traveling over seas with our kids. Lack of culture is not really a concern. Diversity is good in some areas....however, there are something that I don't want to expose my kids to at such a young age. The South is more in tune with good strong home values. Don't get me wrong...I love California and we will be back here all the time. Most of our Family is here. I was born in Newport Beach...I am neighbors with Tamra Barney and grew up next to Jeane Keough from the R.H.O.C........but I am fed up with the people here. My experiences with majority of the people is that everyone is fake. They are all putting on a role and I don't want to be around fake people. The children here......8 year olds brag about their designer clothes....their i phones....the new Tiffany's necklace their Daddy just bought. I understand rewarding our kids....and I don't think there is anything wrong with buying nice things but it's their attitude that bothers me. The bragging and comparing.....what happened to playing Barbies and playing outside? This is not the environment I want to raise my Family in.
Thank you for the advice. Personally I can not stand Arizona. The heat and the lack of color in landscape would drive me nuts. I think it is a great place to visit but nothing more for me. I thought about Colorado but the winters are extremely harsh. My experiences with the South have been nothing short of incredible. When it come to culture and things to do....I am a Mom....my time is pretty full of things to do and I think that there is culture in every town. Plus....with all of the money we save on our Mortgage we can save up for weekend trips to New York not to mention we do quite a bit of traveling over seas with our kids. Lack of culture is not really a concern. Diversity is good in some areas....however, there are something that I don't want to expose my kids to at such a young age. The South is more in tune with good strong home values. Don't get me wrong...I love California and we will be back here all the time. Most of our Family is here. I was born in Newport Beach...I am neighbors with Tamra Barney and grew up next to Jeane Keough from the R.H.O.C........but I am fed up with the people here. My experiences with majority of the people is that everyone is fake. They are all putting on a role and I don't want to be around fake people. The children here......8 year olds brag about their designer clothes....their i phones....the new Tiffany's necklace their Daddy just bought. I understand rewarding our kids....and I don't think there is anything wrong with buying nice things but it's their attitude that bothers me. The bragging and comparing.....what happened to playing Barbies and playing outside? This is not the environment I want to raise my Family in.
Arizona can be a great place to visit, but I would never live there for reasons that echo yours
Honestly, you are doing a great thing for your family by considering the south - there truly is no better place to raise a family!
I suggest you look at places like Birmingham, Knoxville, Roanoke and Greenville, SC. Best of luck!
Ok so we have narrowed it down to 4 cities....the options are Charlotte,NC.....Columbia,SC.....Greenville, SC and Franklin,TN. We have gotten a lot of advice from people about the cities they recommend and these are the 4 we like the most. To recap.....we are relocating our family from Orange County, CA to somewhere in the South. The things that are most important to us are finding a good and safe family community to raise and grow our family....great education....and close to a big city with sports and business opportunities. In the future we plan on building our dream home and ideally would like to stay in the same area so our kids don't have to change schools....so a town that can grow : )
If this is too vague just let me know and I will try to improvise on our search criteria.....any opinions and suggestions are greatly appreciated!!! We need all the help we can get from people who actually live there
All four of these cities have safe communities with good schools, so nothing to worry about there. The Charlotte and Franklin (Nashville) areas are definitely larger than Greenville and Columbia and they offer major league professional sports as well as minor-league sports. Columbia's sports scene basically revolves around USC but Charlotte is a short drive just in case you want to catch a NBA or NFL game. Greenville has a lot of Clemson fans in the area and has minor-league baseball and hockey. There are definitely business opportunities in all four cities. I think you said something about online consulting? I don't know much about that industry in particular. I'd suggest a visit to all four to get a feel for the cities, check out job opportunities in each, and go from there.
Ok so we have narrowed it down to 4 cities....the options are Charlotte,NC.....Columbia,SC.....Greenville, SC and Franklin,TN.
Congratulations on narrowing it down--now you'll want to start a thread in each of those four city forums to ask your own questions. The "North Carolina" board obviously isn't where to ask about 3 of those places, and there is one just for Charlotte for Charlotte questions. Good luck!
Ok so we have narrowed it down to 4 cities....the options are Charlotte,NC.....Columbia,SC.....Greenville, SC and Franklin,TN. We have gotten a lot of advice from people about the cities they recommend and these are the 4 we like the most. To recap.....we are relocating our family from Orange County, CA to somewhere in the South. The things that are most important to us are finding a good and safe family community to raise and grow our family....great education....and close to a big city with sports and business opportunities. In the future we plan on building our dream home and ideally would like to stay in the same area so our kids don't have to change schools....so a town that can grow : )
If this is too vague just let me know and I will try to improvise on our search criteria.....any opinions and suggestions are greatly appreciated!!! We need all the help we can get from people who actually live there
Well, I'm in Charlotte and like the area with the proximity to the mountains and the ocean. But, I would seriously consider Grenville, SC which isn't far from Charlotte. I think it has a hip downtown and a good number of used record stores.
With BWM and Michelin big employers there it means there's a lot of high engineering thinkers in the area which is also cool.
The reason we narrowed it down to those 4 states was based on a cross country drive this past summer. We were so impressed with the South and how hospitable everyone was not to mention how much cheaper the cost of living is. While we love living 2 minutes from the ocean...being able to be financially free is more important to us. My husband lived in Cherry Creek, CO for 5 years and loves the mountains. I too love the mountains but am not sure if I could handle it year round. My sister-in-law moved from San Diego to Greenville in June and is so happy with the move and it has encouraged us to do the same. My husband loved loved loved Atlanta,GA and Franklin,TN. Franklin is just outside of Nashville, the communities seemed great and I have only heard positve things about it. I do not know much about Atlanta other than it is a big city and there are lots of sports teams there. Personally.....I have always loved the Carolinas. They have amazing beauty and they seem to have everything I am looking for in a place to build a home. I don't really have specifics because I don't know much about the Carolinas. Mainly why I am on here.....to figure out where people recommend for young families in he Carolinas : ) Once we have it narrowed down to a few cities we will take a trip and dig a little deeper : )
Moving from SanDiego to Greenville is like apples and oranges, Greenville is a much smaller and more rural area, yet it has just about everything you need. If you like the mountains but are not ready to live "in" them, I would suggest halfway between Hendersonville NC and Greenville SC where you will have access to I-26 and I-85. Don't go into a culture shock by getting into the "boonies" too soon, you will definitely miss the diversity and things to do. Suggestions halfway: Mill Spring NC, Columbus NC, Inman SC, Campobello SC, Landrum or Tryon SC, Greer SC. There is also more employment closer to Greenville SC or Spartanburg SC than there is actually in the mountains. In this economy though, do not go anywhere without prospects of employment.
From those towns, you are only 1/2 hr or so from the mountains and you still get some views from the "upstate" foothills areas as I mentioned. Visit Hendersonville NC and the towns around Asheville NC while you are in the area and see how a mountain town feels to you.
We have many Californians living here.
The weather will make a difference for you as well, coming from San Diego you may forever compare weather with SD wherever you move to. It's about perfect.
I'm looking to move out of California with my new bride and we're strongly considering NC as my wife is from Suwanee (?) in Georgia.
We don't yet have kids so really the decision comes down to best working opportunities (I'm in marketing and advertising) and best outdoorsy stuff (hiking, mbiking, camping) We both like to eat out but I don't need Gordon Ramsey, just friendly and fun places that attract nice crowds.
Currently we're weighing up Charlotte vs Raleigh but being originally from the UK, I have never been to either and don't know much about either. Any other brits out there relocated to this region??
Any help anyone can give is appreciated.
N&A
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and I think that there is culture in every town. Plus....with all of the money we save on our Mortgage we can save up for weekend trips to New York not to mention we do quite a bit of traveling over seas with our kids. Lack of culture is not really a concern. Diversity is good in some areas....however, there are something that I don't want to expose my kids to at such a young age. The South is more in tune with good strong home values. Don't get me wrong...I love California and we will be back here all the time. Most of our Family is here. I was born in Newport Beach...I am neighbors with Tamra Barney and grew up next to Jeane Keough from the R.H.O.C........but I am fed up with the people here. My experiences with majority of the people is that everyone is fake. They are all putting on a role and I don't want to be around fake people. The children here......8 year olds brag about their designer clothes....their i phones....the new Tiffany's necklace their Daddy just bought. I understand rewarding our kids....and I don't think there is anything wrong with buying nice things but it's their attitude that bothers me. The bragging and comparing.....what happened to playing Barbies and playing outside? This is not the environment I want to raise my Family in.
I'm a confused relocator (CA to NC...maybe?)
