Cost of Living

[mm34b]

Originally Posted by tismekll

Any suggestions if not Wake county?

Hard to say since I don't know what you consider to be important aspects of life. Once you remove Wake and Mecklenburg from the equation, you're still left with 98 other counties to consider.

This is meaningless to you, but it will give you a rough idea as to my methodology in choosing a new location to live. My first priority was that I wanted to live in the mountains because I love the topography, lifestyle, folkways and culture of the Mountain Region of North Carolina. By setting that first priority, I've gone from 100 NC counties to 23. My second priority was climate. I wanted four seasons, but no weather extremes. Next, was cost-of-living, population density, local tax burden to fit my personal budget, fairly quick access to a larger sized city with a commercial airport for those rare occasions when I need something not readily available in a small town and an interstate highway for easy travel to other parts of NC and beyond. Now, I'm down to one county. I then visited the towns within the county and made my choice. Simple enough if you know what you want before you start and can prioritize your desires. I had classified all my factors into 2 groups, required and desirable but not required. I guess you can say I made my choice through the process of elimination.

Note: Most folks live in an area near their employment and rightly so. In my case it was not a factor.

[suzmyers]

mm34b

How bout franklin county for those people looking to move to the Raleigh area on a fixed budget? close enough to a city but far enough away from the riff-raff.... I have driven through it.. got really lost, but it is so pretty with so many lakes and nice homes. Have you heard anything bad about there?

[henayneiCLNC]

Originally Posted by mm34b

I believe Ripath is retired, so young family type social services such as public schools, childcare and the like are not an issue. Probably doesn't care to pay extra for those services either since they will not be using them.

as a native of Florida I found that to be an issue as related to services for the young families in Florida - with the large number of retired tax payers who "probably don't care to pay" for those services, it is no wonder that the services to the young families are among those that get cut first when budgets come up short

[mm34b]

Originally Posted by suzmyers

mm34b

How bout franklin county for those people looking to move to the Raleigh area on a fixed budget? close enough to a city but far enough away from the riff-raff.... I have driven through it.. got really lost, but it is so pretty with so many lakes and nice homes. Have you heard anything bad about there?

No, I've not heard or read anything good or bad on Franklin County.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/15/Map_of_North_Carolina_highlighting_Franklin_County .png (broken link)

[Bethanytedder]

Originally Posted by suzmyers

mm34b

How bout franklin county for those people looking to move to the Raleigh area on a fixed budget? close enough to a city but far enough away from the riff-raff.... I have driven through it.. got really lost, but it is so pretty with so many lakes and nice homes. Have you heard anything bad about there?

My sister lives in Lake Royale near Bunn and I lived there briefly in 1991. She talks like the fees are high for the lake property though. Not to mention the property taxes. As for commuting, it can be done as I did it. But the traffic is horrible first thing in the morning driving in there on New Bern Avenue in Raleigh.