Charlotte vs OKC (Tulsa: coupons, 2010, unemployment rate)

[Kingsley]

Can anyone here who has lived in both (or visited extensively)help me with similarities or differences between the two cities?

[sasafras]

Lived in Atlanta and all over Florida extensively, and have visited Charlotte. Completely different. What type of person are you and what are looking for in a city/community?

[lucymacy]

I'm currently in Charlotte. Been here for about a year, and I'm actually relocating to OKC in June. Eastern OK was "home" for me for the first 28 years of my life, but I'm transferring with my job to OKC. I can't really compare anything to OKC right now, but I can give you my take on Charlotte.

Charlotte, for me, was a mistake. I transferred here from South Florida, and in hindsight wish I'd either stayed in Florida, or went ahead and transferred on to OKC then.

The cost of living in Charlotte I thought was much lower than Florida, but I have actually had a harder time making ends meet in Charlotte than I did in FL. They tax you to death here.

I've also found it harder to make friends here. As I mentioned earlier, I transferred with my job. The people I work with were NOT very welcoming, and even a year later I still feel like an outsider.


Now, one thing I love about Charlotte, that I will definately miss is the selection of grocery stores. Most of the grocery stores will double coupon up to .99 every day, and will often triple up to .99cents. Just this weekend when I did my grocery shopping, I was able to get $70 worth of groceries and spent less than $20 by taking advantage of triple coupons).

So, are you in Charlotte and moving to OKC? Or in OKC moving to Charlotte?

If you're coming to Charlotte, I hope you have a job already to come to. The unemployment rate for NC has hit almost 11%.

[Kingsley]

Thanks for the feedback. I am not ready to move yet. I just was interested in OKC and Tulsa for sake of interest. I have been to Charlotte but would like to visit the cities in Oklahoma soon and wanted to get other point of views before coming out there. I just have no idea what to expect all I know is that OKC and Charlotte are similar in size.

[soundforlanguage81]

I lived in Charlotte until I was 20. Like a few other NC cities it is GROWING. It went from 315,000 people in 1990 to 700,000 (estimated for the 2010 census). Mecklenburg county is projected to hit 1,000,000 people by 2015 (presently at 900,000) It's also projected to surpass Memphis and Jacksonville to become the largest city in the southeastern U.S. Young professionals as well as immigrants are pouring into Charlotte in droves. And with me not being the city type, I packed up and headed west...

Pros:
-It doesn't have the urban sprawl like Atlanta, So living in a small outlying town and commuting into the city is possible (For now)
-Home prices in most neighborhoods are still fairly reasonable. The median price recently peaked at 158K but due to the economic slowdown, prices are falling.

Cons:
-Like stated in an above post NC is rather tax happy. It can come as quite a shock.
-Summers can be UNBEARABLE
-It's the 12th most dangerous metro area in the U.S. (But is mainly confined to west Charlotte)

I've passed through OKC a few times, It's a beautiful city. It seems to keep a stable population: between 500,000 and 600,000 people..I know that OKC is spread out over 4 or 5 counties, so I would imagine the population density is rather low. Housing like other midwestern cities I would think is lower than the national average..

Couldn't go on a full comparison of the two, wouldn't be fair.