Moving from CT to NC-need some help!

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by looneytoon

There are so many opinions on this site and I just don't have time to read through all of them.............but I would like to share my experiences with the Charlotte and Union County area:

Brief Residence History:

1947-1975 Lakewood California
1976-1979 North Lake Tahoe, California
1980-1982 Little Italy, Boston Mass
1983-1985 Sarasota Florida
1985-1987 Fort Collins Colorado
1988-1991 East Charlotte North Carolina
1992-Present Waxhaw, Union County NC

OK..........you can see the history. Have lived in several areas of the country and having traveled, both for business and vacation, to many, many more, it is pretty hard to beat my present area.

If you can set your own schedule, traffic is no problem. In fact, out my way, it is seldom that there are any cars in front of me at the stop signs (we don't have many traffic lights down my way).

The area is "booming", but the city council is pretty straight and works very hard to limit the impact of the sub-divisions.

Oh, here is something: Last week, we just voted down a Walmart coming to Waxhaw! There is a new Lowes Home Improvement store going in, however.

Waxhaw is a VERY small downtown with no liquor by the drink and mostly little mom and pop shops and a couple of OK restaurants. We have to venture about 20 minutes toward Charlotte for finer eateries.

Golf is everywhere and seldom crowded. Walking on as single is never a problem and senior rates (55 or older) will get you green fees of around $25 with a cart.

I can drive up to Sugar Mountain for skiing ( 2 hours and 40 minutes), get up to some good trout fishing in 2 hours and shoot pistols and shotguns 10 minutes from the house.

I have an office in my home and set my own schedule flying around the 48s. My company has encouraged me to live wherever we want. We have looked at all of the areas and decided to stay right here!!!

We built a custom home (not large, but big enough) in 1992 with a pool, hot tub and landscaping...............$129,000 on just over an acre, heavily wooded. Totally private and my friends that visit from California, Idaho and other spots just cannot believe how good we have it.

Now, today, this same house (if you can find an acre) will run you around $300K or so. Still a great value for the quality of life we enjoy.

Our future plans:

Buy a truck and fifth wheel to travel and camp? during the hottest and most humid months and visit friends and places we haven't been in many years.

Only to come back home to a great house and laid back community.

Pretty hard to beat, over-all.

Not heavy in the Arts, but we would fly to NY for that, anyway!!

Hope all find this, at least, amusing.

I love this!!! Good for you, we should all be so lucky

[Yingxiong]

Hi all - I'm also in northern CT and looking to get away from the high cost of living. We're looking at North Carolina and Colorado (Front Range area).

Our main concerns are quality of life based on cost of living, crime rates, good schools, and demographics. Our property taxes on a 2800 sq ft house on 1.5 acres is over $9000 a year! We can sell the house for about $500k, and are looking to get more house for the money - which looks to our advantage in NC.

We've been looking in High Point, Mooresville, Huntersville, Kannapolis, Concord.

If anyone that has moved to NC from the north can comment on their quality of life - particularly property taxes - compared to New England, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!

[badgertim]

Hi,

Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents on relocating from CT to NC ...

We moved here in Feb of '76 with two young boys from Manchester,CT... turned out we decided to stay 31 years, so far, after stints in Conn., Montana, and home states of Wisconsin and Illinois...

Before you finalize the Charlotte area ... look in the Central Piedmont

Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Kernersville, High Point...

Good hunting to you!
tim

[Magdalena1]

Originally Posted by skymax_taf

Hello

I have a suggestion for you guys coming down to live here -- Please open up a restaurant with authenic polish dishes. I have lived in NC all my life and the one thing I love about traveling is eating other style dishes that generally you could not or can not get here.

But, with the influx of new people here that is changing. Particularly around the Raleigh and Charlotte areas.

Now some additional notes on My State. Your husband is a carpenter therefore he should be able to get a job any where in this state. This state from one end to the other is going through a building boom like nothing I have ever seen. Therefore, if you want an acre of land to put a double wide or house on -- get here quick before it gets gone.

Secondly, a warning about how humid it gets here. This has been mentioned on some other posts but I want to stress this again. I have lived here all my life and fuss about the heat and humid conditions in the summer especially when the weather backs up against the mountains where you do not get any relieve for long periods at a time. Your husband working outdoors is used to a cooler climate - so I just wanted to state it can get pretty depressing here in the summer with high humid conditions and high heat.

There isn't really a winter here now. I remember in October around Halloween it used to get into the high 30s low 40s. Now, the kids are out trick and treating in short pants.

You asked about skiing here and we have some good ski areas. Problem is skiing here is mostly on ice (not packed power due to wind blowing the powder off the ridges - what little we get unless it is man made) unless you are lucky to be there when snow is just falling. Plus the runs may not be as long as you are used to. I now start the season skiing here on one of three ski areas finishing up the season in Utah.

Really good public and private camping areas here. I will be in Dan Nickolas Park over Easter holiday where this park is known for its family friendly amenities. If you are into primitive camping - try up around Linville where you can see the falls.

Number of good small communities around Charlotte and Raleigh. Looneytoon in the above post recommended a good one and I will recommend Wilson over near Raleigh. Wilson is a growing town with easy access to Raleigh, Rocky Mount and the coast.

When you get down here, contact me. I will give you language lessons for understanding us Southerns and you can teach me to speak polish

Hi,
Thanks so much for the info. I haven't visited that site for a couple of days. Yes, it's not an easy move, especially that all friends look at me like I'm crazy. Lots of people move, I can see that from posts, lots of them are thinking about moving, just like us. We are planning to visit NC probably in March, or April when the weather is nicer, and see for ourselves.

Yeah, I'd love to open a polish restaurant! That's some idea!!! Well, we'll see.
I hope that Southern American isn't that hard to understand? I have enough problems with Northern American and still learning.
Anyway, I'm suprised by how many people responded to my threat, I think that people in NC are very nice to commit their own time for advising some strangers. Isn't that great?
Thanks a lot,
And thank you for making our decision much easier,

Magdalena1

[jtflyr]

For those of you looking into Charlotte I'd look at the area northwest - not as built up, not as much traffic, less taxes and better schools. Try Lincoln County near Denver "of the East". We moved here six months ago and are very pleased with the area and the friendliness of the natives.

[lovinthelake]

Originally Posted by Magdalena1

Hi,
Thanks so much for all the information!!

Gosh, I'm so glad to find this website!!! I had no idea how many people are relocating, and when I mention to my friends idea of moving, they look at me like I'm crazy. From some reason they just prefer to pay more that 3/4 of their earnings for a house than spend the money for pleasure.

I'm so happy that there are some ski resorts in NC!!! My husband and I love to ski,so we need to choose the area that is no farther that 2-3 hours from ski resorts.

I'm sure the lifestyle is much different in NC than here, but I think I might like it a lot. Fact that we don't have time to spend with our family and friends because everybody is working and there is always not enough time is really annoying. I'd love to find a place that is similar to where we live now which is a town about 70,000-80,000 in population, but 5 miles away we have a city Stamford which has about 120,000. To sum it up, I would love to live somewhere where you have some privacy and nature, yet would like to be a bigger city if we want to go to the theater, museum park etc.

Best,
Magdalena1

Ps.Antonietta, could you write some more about the area you live in? Why did you choose that place? Job perspectives, family?

Hello again Magdalena1,
I am sorry for the delayed response. I have PM you some more information

[JViello]

Originally Posted by debct

What areas in Charlotte should be avoided?

As a CT native formerly living in Charlotte and now back in CT the answer is YES.

If you like living on a flat city "island" that is terribly congested...go to Charlotte.

Yes it's "pretty" and yes it's "growing" etc...but I ran from there with my hair on fire and for contrast I enjoyed my college aged days in Orlando so I'm not some Yankee who couldn't fit in.

Good luck, it works for some - but not for me.