Looking for Small Town in NC (Charlotte, Raleigh: appointed, house, neighborhood)

[newlywed]

We relocated to Fayetteville from MI almost one year ago. We love North Carolina, but are not so hot on Fayetteville. My husband and I are both from very small towns and would like to return to a rural area. We are looking for things like proximity (20 mins or less) to stores, restaurants, malls, etc., a "small-town" feel such as a pride in Friday night high school football, everybody knows everybody, that kind of thing. We also don't want to live in a dump. We are 27 and 28 years old and are about to start a family also. Any suggestions?

[mm34b]

Which region of NC do you want, Mountain, Piedmont or Coastal Plain?

Define "small town", population wise. For reference, the city of Fayetteville is around 125K.

[Bethanytedder]

If you want to come east, I live in Greene County, Snow Hill to be specific. Although that town is totally rural, we are positioned directly in the middle of Lenoir, Wilson, Wayne, and Pitt Counties. At best we are 25 miles from each place with Wilson, NC being the furtherest and Kinston, at 15 miles, being the closest. We live right outside the town but still we are the last house in the city limits going towards Kinston as we are 14 miles from Lenoir Memorial Hospital in Kinston, Pitt County Memorial in Greenville is located about 18 miles from us, Wilson Memorial in Wilson, NC is about 25 miles from us and Wayne Memorial in Goldsboro, NC is about 19 miles from us. Depending on the area of the county that you move to, you might be closer to some of these areas. But Snow Hill is the county seat and the commutes to these larger cities are not that bad if you don't work in Greene County itself. I will be the first to admit that normally people don't move here on purpose. They usually arrive here by two means, either they were born and raised here or they marry someone that was born and raised here as my husband was. Then we have our neighbor Robert who did come here on purpose. Which might explain his "strange" behavior. I have stories believe me but he is really cool to be around. The housing costs are not that bad either. If you don't like it here, believe me there are a lot of smaller towns floating around in the east at least and I am sure they are in the other portions of the state as well. Since you mentioned Fayetteville, I assumed you were interested in the east. But if the heat is more than you can handle here, perhaps take a look at Mt. Airy in the mountainous area near the Virginia border.

[newlywed]

We prefer the Coastal Plains but would go to the Piedmont region as well. Small town, hmmm, the town I came from had a population of about 850, but the county was about 31,000, so probably somewhere in the neighborhood of the county population at most or less.

[newlywed]

Originally Posted by Bethanytedder

If you want to come east, I live in Greene County, Snow Hill to be specific. Although that town is totally rural, we are positioned directly in the middle of Lenoir, Wilson, Wayne, and Pitt Counties. At best we are 25 miles from each place with Wilson, NC being the furtherest and Kinston, at 15 miles, being the closest. We live right outside the town but still we are the last house in the city limits going towards Kinston as we are 14 miles from Lenoir Memorial Hospital in Kinston, Pitt County Memorial in Greenville is located about 18 miles from us, Wilson Memorial in Wilson, NC is about 25 miles from us and Wayne Memorial in Goldsboro, NC is about 19 miles from us. Depending on the area of the county that you move to, you might be closer to some of these areas. But Snow Hill is the county seat and the commutes to these larger cities are not that bad if you don't work in Greene County itself. I will be the first to admit that normally people don't move here on purpose. They usually arrive here by two means, either they were born and raised here or they marry someone that was born and raised here as my husband was. Then we have our neighbor Robert who did come here on purpose. Which might explain his "strange" behavior. I have stories believe me but he is really cool to be around. The housing costs are not that bad either. If you don't like it here, believe me there are a lot of smaller towns floating around in the east at least and I am sure they are in the other portions of the state as well. Since you mentioned Fayetteville, I assumed you were interested in the east. But if the heat is more than you can handle here, perhaps take a look at Mt. Airy in the mountainous area near the Virginia border.

Thank you for your input, we really appreciate it. The weather is great, we don't mind the heat. I will check out the area you mentioned, you never know...

[Bethanytedder]

Originally Posted by newlywed

Thank you for your input, we really appreciate it. The weather is great, we don't mind the heat. I will check out the area you mentioned, you never know...

Hey, just let me know. I would be happy to give you the 50 cent tour. We have a lot of community pride which is good because that, two pharmacies, a grocery store, laundromat, a couple of dollar stores, a McDonalds, Bojangles, a funeral home, hardware stores, a video store, etc. is all we have. We have no walmart, no theater, no bowling alley. But they are located straight down 258 S going to Kinston for about 14 miles. The average home now is about $100,000.00 although we bought the house we are in now in 1992. It is on .9 of an acre of land and we paid 60,500.00 for the 8 year old, 1700 square ranch. Green Acres has some good smaller and older homes for about $50,000.00. Planters Walk directly down the road from Green Acres are newer and more expensive, something like $125,000.00 perhaps. Now my mother went into the most expensive area behind the tennis courts and club house and she build a 2300 square foot brick house two years ago there for right at $200,000.00. Greenridge Road would be the more expensive areas. And there is a new area for lower incomes just coming into town called Genesis Hills. And of course there is the historic district as well. Older homes that have survived for a century. Snow Hill has a population of about 2000 people perhaps if they count the prisoners. But I wouldn't want to live on 903 going towards Maury. That is where the prisons are. But they have not had any problems that I recall since the 80's.

Oh and here is the town link

http://www.snowhillnc.com/

[JOHN33_NC]

Mocksville is in Davie county. small town with a rural setting, great school district. Centrally located between Charlotte and Winston Salem. Its is a small town but has alot to offer. Check it out, you wont be disappointed.Oh and did i forget to mention Football is a big thing here....the town practially closes up on Friday nights for the games

[shelf]

if you're used to Fayetteville, how about Dunn or Erwin or one of the small towns outside of Fayetteville. We just moved to Dunn (Originally from Goldsboro but airforce carried us all over and we're thankful to be back in NC) DH is stationed at Pope AFB in Fayetteville. We're 40 minutes from all the shopping in Fayetteville, Goldsboro and even Raleigh but it's a very small town. So far we love it.

[mhogan10010]

If you are interested in looking a little closer to the water and aren't afraid, of Storms, then you might consider some of the small towns near the Pamlico or Albamarle sounds.
Bath Pantego or Belhaven.or
Plymouth, Edenton, Hertford or Elizabeth.
I am originally from MI, and used to live in NC-not far from bethanytedder, but in a larger city than you are interested in.

[Cassie]

I recommend looking into Summerfield in the NW Guilford area. The town itself is small but charming and it's very close to shopping and restaurants. It's also about 15 minutes from Greensboro. There is still rural farmland left outside of Summerfield and the area has a small town feel. There was a community effort there recently to build either a park or ballfields for the kids. I've forgotten which, but members of the community volunteered their time to do it.

It's quite different from Fayetteville.

Originally Posted by newlywed

We relocated to Fayetteville from MI almost one year ago. We love North Carolina, but are not so hot on Fayetteville. My husband and I are both from very small towns and would like to return to a rural area. We are looking for things like proximity (20 mins or less) to stores, restaurants, malls, etc., a "small-town" feel such as a pride in Friday night high school football, everybody knows everybody, that kind of thing. We also don't want to live in a dump. We are 27 and 28 years old and are about to start a family also. Any suggestions?