Charlotte, or Raleigh? And why?

[Waterboy526]

Originally Posted by groove1

I have been to Raleigh MANY times (I'm a Hurricanes fan). Many people live in the Charlotte city limits from the UNCC area to NODA to SouthPark to Ballantyne to Steele Creek to Plaza Midwood. These are all neighborhoods/areas within Charlottem proper though they may sound like seperate towns. Also, the bedroom communities in Charlotte are right next to Charlotte. Huntersville, Indian Land/ Fort Mill, SC, Tega Cay SC, Concord anda few more all border Charlotte at some point. Most of Metro Charlotte is within 15 miles of uptown if going by I-77. I live in Fort Mill SC and what we have you can call a downtown too, but is definitly not like Charlotte of course. Downtown Raleigh does not feel like an urban downtown. The population density in Metro Charlotte isn't like NYC or anything, but it's more desne than Raleigh.

Let me just start by saying that I really liked Charlotte (stayed there for 3 days last week) and the downtown is bigger than Raleigh, however Raleigh is growing just as fast as Charlotte if not faster and by 2015 Raleigh will have about 5-6 more skyscrapers and will look much different. Raleigh actually has a slightly higher population density than Charlotte, don't have the link, but look at the census.gov quickfacts. Raleigh does not have the same crime problem Charlotte has, but obviously bad crime is usually located in small pinpointed areas, so there are many nice areas of Charlotte, just as there are bad areas of Raleigh. Anyway I think I would have liked living in Charlotte too, but Raleigh is only 4 hours from Home (Fairfax, VA) and Charlotte is about 6, plus my wife is in the biotech field and she got a GREAT job here. One more thing to consider is that by and large Raleigh has slightly more expensive housing than Charlotte, but you can usually find what you're looking for in either city at a fairly reasonable price.

[cocos mom]

Don't even think about Florida...I've been here since1979 and still hate it. Too expensive and too much crime. We are moving to Wilson N.C.

[friendnc]

Both are great areas. We live in the Charlotte area and I have in-laws in the Raleigh area. We perfer Charlotte. A little more affordable and more to do recreationally, which area two big things with us. Like I said, they are two of the nicest areas in the U.S. to live, so don't anyone get up in arms. We just prefer metro Charlotte.