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My wife and I are looking to move away from Houston and to somewhere smaller and located on either the coast (either on the Gulf coast, or eastern coast, up to the Carolinas) or in the Appalachian mountains. Her criteria for moving to those places is she needs somewhere to "escape" to like the beach or mountains if she's having a bad day wherever we move. The problem is, everywhere we look has a horrible economy. Everything I've read about Asheville tells me that it's overrun by liberal arts people like us and that we'd be in competition for even secretarial jobs.
My wife really, really wants to move to Asheville but it seems like there are hardly any jobs there for our fields. She's an arborist/horticulturalist but she also has experience teaching undergrad English (she has a Master's in Literature). I'm a technical writer with an English degree and Master's in Literature (just got it a month ago) looking to switch to teaching either public school or college freshmen...but I'd be okay sticking with technical writing if I can find a job in that anywhere else. I'm in my mid 20's and she's in her early 30's. We're looking for somewhere with a mild climate and where we can see the sun more than one month a year (so the pacific northwest is out). Somewhere like Charleston, SC or Wilmington, NC, or a mountain town like Asheville, NC. But, again, we've read such mixed things about the economies in these places, that we're hesitant to choose them.
I originally moved to Houston, TX right after college in Florida because it was the only place I could find a job as a technical writer. Besides meeting my wife out here, it has been a huge mistake. I've developed a series of anxiety & stomach issues since I moved here. It's partly job-related, but it has a lot to do with the stress of living in a large city. I'm determined now to move to a place with a good quality of life, but I'm paranoid that the job search will be as hard as it was for me when I graduated five years ago.
Can anyone give some advice for a couple who wants economic stability but a high quality of life in a coastal/mountainous area?
Last edited by Nikolai Rostov; 01-12-2012 at 11:47 AM..
You probably want to tailor two separate questions to the two separate areas (coast and mountains) since they are so different and of course no response will answer both. I would say first order of business is deciding between yourselves whether you want mountains, or beach, and then posting in the proper forum for each, because in NC, the mountains are too far from the beach to get both easily. Virginia would be a better state for that since the mountains move more eastward there, and you could be somewhere like Charlottesville that's in the mountains but decent distance from the coast, or somewhere like Richmond that is a short distance between the two. In NC, it's about 6 hours between the two terrains.
Yes, unemployment, especially in liberal arts areas, is high in NC.
Look into the smaller college towns such as Boone or Cullowhee if you think you could teach there (Cullowhee, home of Western Carolina Univ, is beautiful). There are also small liberal-arts colleges such as Mars Hill, Warren Wilson, and Lee-McRae that are less dependent on state budget cuts.
Then again, you might choose "beach" over "mountains"--so it is hard to say.
Can anyone give some advice for a couple who wants economic stability but a high quality of life in a coastal/mountainous area?
Would you consider the Greenville/Spartanburg area of SC? There seem to be many companies there which may have tecnical writing jobs. It's close to the foothills of the mountains.
Would you consider the Greenville/Spartanburg area of SC? There seem to be many companies there which may have tecnical writing jobs. It's close to the foothills of the mountains.
That is a good idea, I am a tech writer who worked in Asheville for a few years, until 2007. There's nothing else there in that field, or at best few and far between. Found a job in the GSP area and moved down here, the OP would definitely have a better chance of finding work in this area, and it's close to the mountains.
If the OP has problems being in a big city and wants an escape, Greenville isn't it. I moved from Asheville to greenville a year ago and I daily feel suffocated by how many people there are here and all that comes with a large metropolitan area. Now you might be ok living further out like Travelers Rest or Marietta and commuting depending on where you could find a job. In fact, I'm not very versed in your field, but is it possible you could even find a job working from home and actually head to the mountain area?
On the college note: Having been a UNCA student in recent years, I know that they are laying off teachers, not hiring. I think your best bet would be to get a job with a Community college or south college type thing because the real universities here almost always hire Phds, especially in these economic times. You would have to have a ton of experience to make up for not having one.
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