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My family and I are considering relocating from Phoenix, AZ to North Carolina next year. We are currently researching all aspects of the move, housing, jobs, insurance, etc. I have several questions that I can't seem to find the answers to and I am hoping there is someone that can help.
1. What is the weather like compared to Phoenix, AZ? How much does the humidity play in to the summer months? How much snow is received throughout the state? What areas receive less? How much in the middle part of the state?
2. We are looking to rent a home that's around 2500 sq ft, what would the average utility bills be like? We currently live in a 2600 sq ft two-story home and our bills during the summer months (keep in mind our summers run from March to November) averages around $400 per month and water bills run $60 a month.
3. Based on the what other posters have stated regarding the driver's license, even though we have valid driver's licenses in Arizona, we would still have to take the driver's test to obtain a North Carolina license?
4. Without knowing for sure what town we would be living in, I know that it will be difficult to determine car insurance, however, what are the averages? We currently pay $400 per month for 3 vehicles in Arizona.
5. If you were to recommend a nice area to live, what would your recommendation be?
Any information you can provide regarding living in North Carolina are greatly appreciated. I have lived in Phoenix all my life and am ready for a complete change. Not concerned about schools as our children aged 18 to 22.
Thank you in advance for your advice it is truly appreciated.
My family and I are considering relocating from Phoenix, AZ to North Carolina next year. We are currently researching all aspects of the move, housing, jobs, insurance, etc. I have several questions that I can't seem to find the answers to and I am hoping there is someone that can help.
1. What is the weather like compared to Phoenix, AZ? How much does the humidity play in to the summer months? How much snow is received throughout the state? What areas receive less? How much in the middle part of the state?
2. We are looking to rent a home that's around 2500 sq ft, what would the average utility bills be like? We currently live in a 2600 sq ft two-story home and our bills during the summer months (keep in mind our summers run from March to November) averages around $400 per month and water bills run $60 a month.
3. Based on the what other posters have stated regarding the driver's license, even though we have valid driver's licenses in Arizona, we would still have to take the driver's test to obtain a North Carolina license?
4. Without knowing for sure what town we would be living in, I know that it will be difficult to determine car insurance, however, what are the averages? We currently pay $400 per month for 3 vehicles in Arizona.
5. If you were to recommend a nice area to live, what would your recommendation be?
Any information you can provide regarding living in North Carolina are greatly appreciated. I have lived in Phoenix all my life and am ready for a complete change. Not concerned about schools as our children aged 18 to 22.
Thank you in advance for your advice it is truly appreciated.
Native Charlottean here..looking to relocate to Phoenix by year end of 2010. Just curious....are you relocating due to career or just heard great things about Charlotte?
1. What is the weather like compared to Phoenix, AZ? How much does the humidity play in to the summer months? How much snow is received throughout the state? What areas receive less? How much in the middle part of the state?
Humidity can be high in the summertime. Lot of bugs are here. The winters here are "doable"...Coldest months are January and February...Forget about the 300 days of sunshine that you are use to...Not here.
4. Without knowing for sure what town we would be living in, I know that it will be difficult to determine car insurance, however, what are the averages? We currently pay $400 per month for 3 vehicles in Arizona.
Given NC just had a statewide rate hike..you are probably going to pay a little more in Charlotte for Car Insurance
5. If you were to recommend a nice area to live, what would your recommendation be?
Ballantyne area(The Beverly Hills of Charlotte, NC
University area is nice..however I have heard that its getting overcrowded.
South Charlotte
My family and I are considering relocating from Phoenix, AZ to North Carolina next year. We are currently researching all aspects of the move, housing, jobs, insurance, etc. I have several questions that I can't seem to find the answers to and I am hoping there is someone that can help.
I'll try.
What is the weather like compared to Phoenix, AZ? How much does the humidity play in to the summer months?
The humidity makes it feel much hotter than it is. People who don't like it spend a lot of time in air conditioned buildings and cars. The eastern part of the state is hotter than the western.
There are frequent thunder storms. Sometimes there are tornadoes, though not as frequently or with as much damage as the ones you hear about in "tornado alley."
Hurricanes also hit NC, especially in the eastern part of the state.
How much snow is received throughout the state? What areas receive less? How much in the middle part of the state?
The mountains get more; the coast gets less. Nowhere gets a lot. Last year in our area (near Hickory) we had three snows: one in January, one if February, and one in March. None was more than a couple inches. Obviously more than Phoenix, but nothing like Michigan. Much less than Flagtaff, if city-data can be trusted.
We are looking to rent a home that's around 2500 sq ft, what would the average utility bills be like?
There was recently a thread on this on the Raleigh-Durham board. People's answers were so far apart that it ended up being a non-answer, and it would be hard to figure an average. Our house is 3200 sq ft, and for electricity we pay between $60 and $150, depending on the season. Our stove, washer, and dryer are electric, but our water heater is propane. We have heat pumps (electric), but our downstairs back-up heater is propane. (Upstairs is electric, but we haven't needed to use it.) We set our thermostats at 63 in winter, 80 in summer.
We know people who live in single-wide trailers and pay more for electricity than we do.
If you live in a city, you might have natural gas for some of this.
Our water is free, from our well, and we have a septic tank, not sewer, so I can't help you with those.
For trash collection we pay $37.74.
Phone/DSL package is about $80. I don't know how much cable adds.
Based on the what other posters have stated regarding the driver's license, even though we have valid driver's licenses in Arizona, we would still have to take the driver's test to obtain a North Carolina license?
Yes, the written test. It isn't hard.
Without knowing for sure what town we would be living in, I know that it will be difficult to determine car insurance, however, what are the averages? We currently pay $400 per month for 3 vehicles in Arizona.
This must include your kids. Are they coming with you?
If you were to recommend a nice area to live, what would your recommendation be?
Our area is nearly perfect - for us. But for you? What is nice?
Urban, suburban, rural? Do you have jobs? Do you like to stay at home or have places to go out? Will you be looking for jobs? Do you want to be near the beach? The mountains? How about jobs? Do you plan to garden? Hike? Get jobs?
For us, a nice area is a rural area near Hickory. For you, it might be Ashville, or Charlotte, or near the beach, or wherever your jobs are.
Do you want to live in an HOA community?
Not concerned about schools as our children aged 18 to 22.
Will they be coming with you? Do they need jobs, too?
Have lived in Arizona for 40 years and want to live somewhere where this is actually climate and four seasons. It gets pretty hot during the summer and I am extremely tired of sunshine, more sunshine and even more sunshine. Have to drive two hours just to see wooded areas. We don't plan on moving until at least one of us has secured employment. We are considering a trip in March or April.
My three kids will be moving with us and most of us will need jobs. We don't plan on moving until employment has been secured. Has it been difficult to find employment in North Carolina with this economy? I know that it is extremely difficult in Phoenix to find employment depending on your occupation. Currently Arizona has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country plus the state is on the top ten list to go bankrupt in front of Michigan.
There was a mention of pests on the post, can you tell me what type of pests are in the state? Also, I have a Rottweiler, any knowledge of laws against having this breed?
Thank you all for help this forum has been great to information that wouldn't be posted anywhere else.
There was a mention of pests on the post, can you tell me what type of pests are in the state?
As soon as it warm up in spring, there are things flying everywhere. I don't know what they all are. A nice thing about winter is that you don't see the bugs.
Spring through early fall the pests that bug me most are the flies, mosquitoes, and carpenter bees.
Flies: Of course they're bad at the barn, but they come in the house, too, if we aren't careful (and if we are!).
Mosquitoes: I use a lot of repellant during the warm months. It depends on where you live, though, and what your property is like. We have a slow-moving creek on our land, so we get extra.
Carpenter bees (borer bees): The males can't sting; the females can but don't unless they're desperate. What they do is drill nest holes in any unpainted wood they can find. We painted our deck this summer. Hopefully that will help.
If you garden, you will discover all sorts of things that like to destroy your plants.
I like spiders, but they are pests to some people. We have many kinds, including big wolf spiders. The only poisonous ones are the black widow and the brown recluse. I see an occasional b.w., but not nearly as many as we had in CA. I've never seeb a b.r.
There are chirpy-buzzy things that I don't know the names of, but in August it sounds like there are lawn-sprinklers in the trees.
Lots of crickets and grasshoppers!
We see squirrels, chipmunks (in town), groundhogs (woodchucks), mice, and voles, frogs, lizards, and salamanders. I don't know if you consider these pests.
In this area there are only two kinds of poisonous snakes: rattlesnake and copperhead. The rattlesnakes generally move out of the area when people take over. I haven't seen any copperheads, either, in the 2+ years that we've been here. We do have harmless snakes, mostly black snakes. In the eastern part of the state there are more poisonous snakes, especially in the southeastern part.
I've read on these boards that there are big cockroaches, but we don't have them.
Much of the state has fire-ants. I got into some when we visitied Durham, but I don't think they live in the mountains or the western piedmont.
People aren't great about keeping their dogs on their own property. Wandering dogs are common.
You just get used to the pests. I only notice them because I'm not a native, and they're different than what I lived with in the west.
The job situation is bad, which is why I kept mentioning it in my previous post. Because your family will need several jobs in the same area, it will be even harder.
Part of NC's problem is the current economic situation that affects the whole country (world!), but another problem is that much of NC used to be manufacturing. However, in the early 2000s most of the furniture work went to China, and the hosiery jobs went to Honduras and other places. So some parts of NC were already struggling even while Charlotte and Raleigh were booming. Now all areas are struggling.
We have several neighbors who are out of work. One is thrilled that she just found a part time job that pays $9/hr.
If you can get the jobs lined up, though, NC is a great place. You'll experience the four seasons without an extreme winter, and we have lots of trees! (For trees, seasons, and beauty, you might consider the Pacific NW - although that might be too much of a shock!)
1. What is the weather like compared to Phoenix, AZ? How much does the humidity play in to the summer months? How much snow is received throughout the state? What areas receive less? How much in the middle part of the state?
Weather is one of the best things about NC (spring and fall, for sure), but summer, especially if you're coming from a dry state like AZ, will be brutal. In July-August is can get into the 90s with 95% humidity for days at a time. My parking space is about 100 yards from my office and I can leave my air-conditioned car and be drenched in sweat just walking in the front door.
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3. Based on the what other posters have stated regarding the driver's license, even though we have valid driver's licenses in Arizona, we would still have to take the driver's test to obtain a North Carolina license?
A written test; I don't know about an actual road test (I don't think so). Wouldn't that be the case in any state? It shouldn't be a bother, regardless. Don't you WANT to learn the traffic laws in a new place, in case some are different from what you're used to?
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Have lived in Arizona for 40 years and want to live somewhere where this is actually climate and four seasons. It gets pretty hot during the summer and I am extremely tired of sunshine, more sunshine and even more sunshine. Have to drive two hours just to see wooded areas. We don't plan on moving until at least one of us has secured employment. We are considering a trip in March or April.
Yes, we have four seasons (though the two nicest ones can be amazingly short--it can go from winter to summer or vice versa in 2-3 weeks sometimes. Our summers will be worse than what you're used to, because of humidity; our winter is probably colder, but it's pretty wimpy as far as "winter" goes, so say those who move from up North. We "typically" get a couple of snows per winter, of 2-6 inches each, but note that "typically" is an average, not a guarantee! For 4 years in a row we got essentially NO snow that stuck around, but 10 years ago we had over 20 inches.
If you come in April, you will see NC at its finest, with the dogwoods and azaleas in bloom. You might want to come in late July if hot, humid summers are a deal killer .
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My three kids will be moving with us and most of us will need jobs. We don't plan on moving until employment has been secured. Has it been difficult to find employment in North Carolina with this economy? I know that it is extremely difficult in Phoenix to find employment depending on your occupation.
DEFINITELY secure employment before coming; our unemployment is among the highest in the US, but thousands are still flocking here each month, increasing the competition even more. The kind of assumptions one can make about job availability in a normal economy are thrown out the door.
Naturally, it depends on industry--nurses and math/science teachers can pretty much go where they want--but even "ironclad" industries before, such as hi-tech, are suffering unemployment and layoffs. State government cut positions and had a small pay cut to its workers this year, and more of the same will probably happen next year. Taking on the (pocketbook and mental) expenses of moving without a job(s) lined up could be devastating when you find yourself in a place knowing nobody, with no networking (which is of course always the best way to get jobs) in place nor social network for support.
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There was a mention of pests on the post, can you tell me what type of pests are in the state? Also, I have a Rottweiler, any knowledge of laws against having this breed?
Mosquitoes can be horrible in the summer (last year was a killer). There are a lot of spiders, if they worry you, including black widows. We have a few varieties of rattlesnakes in various parts of the state, but as a lifelong North Carolinian, I've NEVER seen one in the wild (thank God!). We have water moccasins, another poisonous snake, but they are fairly rare and mostly in the marshy Eastern areas. Copperheads are the venomous snake that are found in every county of the state, but their venom is not usually fatal to humans and they, too, aren't really so common. There has been so much development in NC as thousands move here every year, that many animals are being bumped from their habitats, so you do see things like deer, raccoons, and yes, snakes, "relocated" to populated areas where there are at least some trees around.
No laws against Rotties that I'm aware of. You can probably find a NC Rottweiler society or something if you search online, and they'd know for sure.
Thank you to all of you have replied and given us a sense of North Carolina. We will definitely make sure that we have secured employment prior to moving since we currently have jobs in Arizona (for now). Is there anything else we should be aware of regarding North Carolina such as photo radar, etc.?
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