Relocating to North Carolina, please help!! (Charlotte, Raleigh: ski resorts, real estate, renting)

[helton914]

Hello,

My husband and I are thinking about relocating to North Carolina but we have no idea where to start looking. We're both 25 yrs old so we don't want to live in a retirement town obviously. We want to live in a town with the following conditions:

Somewhere in the middle where it doesn't take over 2-3 hrs to get to the beach or the mountains to ski.

Lots of snow in the winter & nice weather in the summer

We love to fish & be outdoors, we have a boat & go to the lake every summer.

We're also very athletic & competitve. My husband played high school football & i played softball. We still play co-ed ball where we live now. So we want a town that's big into sports, perferrably football, baseball, softball, basketball.

The town we live in now has a population of about 30,000 so anything around or over that size would be great.

We have 4 dogs, so we definitely need a pet friendly town with maybe some nice parks to go walking, biking, or hang out.

My husband is a cop so crime is a big issue with me. I want to live in a safe town with a low crime rate & no gangs.

I work in advertising & marketing, but thinking of going back to school to get my teaching degree or photography. I take pictures locally as a side job right now.

We're middle class I guess you could say. We plan on renting a house the first year to see if we like the town. After that our price range for houses is $150,000 or less.

I know you're thinking well what's wrong with the town you live in now? Well we want to move around a little bit & explore new options with just the two of us. We don't have any plans of starting a family anytime soon b/c we want to be settled first. We're just looking for something new & exciting. We love to travel & meet new people, so a good friendly town with lots of recreation would be perfect for us. Whatever help anyone can give me would be great.

Thanks

[Francois]

You don't say anything about having a job--it is NOT wise to move here right now unless you already have employment secured; we are facing one of the highest unemployment rates in recent memory here, going up every month. I would recommend looking at a few cities that interest you, finding a job in one of them, THEN moving...good luck!

PS--your post, not being city-specific, probably belongs in the General NC forum, not necessarily the Triangle one.

[coltank]

You can find everything you want here in the Triangle, except lots of snow. You'll have to travel for that.

[helton914]

Well that's my problem. I don't know where to start looking at cities. I've never even been to north carolina. But i completely agree with you about finding jobs first, that's what we plan on doing. We're not looking to move right away, but we are starting to look & that was my question. According to all my conditions what town do you suggest we start looking in?? My work is very flexible & my husband is definitely willing to transfer.

[Francois]

Well, we don't get enough snow to "depend on" for winter recreation (had two snow events this winter that Northerners laughed at, but they closed the city for a day each time. Before that, it had been 2004 since we had any).

The mountains are about 3-4 hours from here, the beach about 2-3. You might look at the Greensboro "Triad" are if you want to be nearer the mountains. Most of the other recreation activities you mention are easy to find in any city over 50,000 or so. The "Sandhills" area near Southern Pines has lots of lakes and golf, but more of a "retirement" population (though not completely, by any means). Wilmington is a medium-sized city right on the coast, but it's a long way from mountains or snow.

I'm wondering if Virginia (but not the DC suburbs) might be more your speed--not as far between mountains and beaches, more frequent snow than NC, but otherwise pretty similar in lifestyle. Richmond or Charlottesville are centrally located (Charlottesville is in the mountains, actually).

[lrhughes]

I think Greensboro or the Triad area offers what you're looking for. It is centrally located with 3-4 hour equal distance between the mountains and the beaches. Greensboro is a lovely metropolitan city. Not too big but certainly not a tiny town. I think our population is at 300k. Fantastic smaller communities that have easy access to Greensboro are Summerfield, Oak Ridge, Browns Summit and Kernersville.

Greensboro has a vibrant downtown with an awesome baseball stadium that houses the minor league Grasshoppers team. Those games rock and the stadium is always full. Battleground and Country Parks are great places to take your dog.

[helton914]

Wow!! Thank you so much for your help, didn't know i would land a real estate agent's advice. I love to ski & i've seen some websites for ski resorts in NC. Virginia might also be a good place to relocate to as well. Thank you to the person above for that suggestion. I appreciate it

[beckycat]

Where are you coming from? I've researched VA before deciding on NC. Both places are very nice to me. The dealbreaker was that the Raleigh area was a little warmer, jobs were better in my DH's and my field, and housing and property taxes are way cheaper. Just my 2 cents.

[helton914]

Arkansas

[Darmstrong12]

Personally, I would advise you to move to Raleigh. While it is farther away from the mountains about 3 - 4 depending where you go, I believe your job situation would be better here. I've heard some startling news about record number of people abandoning homes in Greensboro and that area. My friend is a real estate agent and she has some great places in mind if you should decide to look at Raleigh and the surrounding areas. We do not get much snow but when we do it is beautiful and everything stops so you can enjoy it! :-) Raleigh has a lot of hidden night life as well. Great places to go downtown and many things for younger people to enjoy. I am 26 and I was born here and have yet to discover everything here! :-) Good luck!