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Old 11-05-2011, 11:55 AM
 
222 posts, read 547,754 times
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I work as an independent consultant and the company that I work with recently told me that if my work gets slow in Charlotte, that I might want to consider picking up some work from the same company in Raleigh. That was the first I heard of their Raleigh presence, and I have to admit that I've never really thought about what it would be like to live in Raleigh. I live in Charlotte now, but am still relatively new (under 2 years) and haven't really put down roots in Charlotte. So I'm wondering whether Raleigh would be a good fit for me.

I'm single, 33, would be renting, not buying, and work in a white collar professional setting. Would be curious to get everyone's take on what my social life might be like in Raleigh, and on how much I'd end up spending on a one bdrm apartment, etc. I guess what I'm really asking is whether people in my demographic tend to love or hate the Raleigh area when they move there.
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Old 11-05-2011, 02:33 PM
 
Location: Durham, NC
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I lived in the Charlotte metro area for 8 years, and just recently relocated to the Triangle for a new job in RTP. Overall, I have to say, I like it here more. It's hard to come up with any specific reasons, but here's a few:

- It's much easier to get around here. The roads are just so much better and much more extensive.
- The are around RDU compared to the same around Charlotte Douglas. Not even in the same league.
- Downtown has just as much going on. There are nightclubs, restaurants, bars, and places to go to. And parking's much easier, and usually free, if you don't happen to live downtown. There are just as many of the same activities for singles to participate in.
- There isn't as much downtown living available as Charlotte, although there are a few really fantastic apartment complexes near downtown. This is where I'm planning to move once my current lease is up:

Raleigh Luxury Apartments | North Hills | Park & Market Apartments

or here:

MAA - Hue

and they're suprisingly affordable.
- Rent prices are more or less the same, obviously depending where you choose to live. I pay 1140 for a 2BR/2BA in the Brier Creek area. I was paying almost the same amount for a 1BR/1BA in Huntersville before.
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Old 11-05-2011, 03:08 PM
 
222 posts, read 547,754 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by superk View Post
- Downtown has just as much going on. There are nightclubs, restaurants, bars, and places to go to. And parking's much easier, and usually free, if you don't happen to live downtown. There are just as many of the same activities for singles to participate in.
Cool. What would you say the young professional scene is like? Here it's mostly people working in banking/finance, or in medicine because of the hospitals. I've heard that Raleigh, being part of the Research Triangle, has a wider range of professions (that is, everyone isn't necessarily a banker, lol).

I've also noticed that a LOT of the young professionals in Charlotte are from the North, particularly the Northeast. How about in Raleigh? Are people there generally from somewhere else? From up north? From other parts of the South?
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Old 11-05-2011, 07:42 PM
 
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Originally Posted by DMG721 View Post
Cool. What would you say the young professional scene is like? Here it's mostly people working in banking/finance, or in medicine because of the hospitals. I've heard that Raleigh, being part of the Research Triangle, has a wider range of professions (that is, everyone isn't necessarily a banker, lol).

I've also noticed that a LOT of the young professionals in Charlotte are from the North, particularly the Northeast. How about in Raleigh? Are people there generally from somewhere else? From up north? From other parts of the South?
Having spent time living in both Charlotte and Raleigh, I'd say they're pretty similar, but I prefer Raleigh a little more overall. My observations jibe with your comments that the young professional scene in Raleigh is less focused on any single industry than Charlotte's is on the financial sector. Also, to answer one of your specific questions, the proportion of young professionals in Raleigh who are from elsewhere is at least as high as it is in Charlotte, or even higher in my estimation. As in Charlotte, most people that you meet here—particularly those who are working in upwardly mobile careers—are not from North Carolina or even the South, but rather are transplants from around the country. And I meet more people from other parts of the world here than in Charlotte, especially from Europe, Africa, and Asia, largely attracted by the universities and/or the tech companies. On the whole, I find Raleigh to be slightly even less Southern and even more diverse than Charlotte, and I like that, although it's a matter of personal preference.

I like that Raleigh is much closer to the beaches and the coastal area than Charlotte is, although again, that's just personal preference, and I know plenty of people who prefer the mountains anyway. I also like that Raleigh is only four to five hours from Washington, D.C., where I have friends and family, and is also an exceptional travel destination in its own right. And I also feel like Raleigh is a few degrees warmer in the winter than Charlotte, and the summers are identical, so the climate is no worse here, and maybe a little better. And I like that Raleigh is so close to Durham and to Chapel Hill/Carrboro. Raleigh itself might get a little boring after a while, but having Durham and Chapel Hill nearby expands the range of options and activities considerably. Durham and Chapel Hill each has its own particular personality, too, and I find that they complement Raleigh's character nicely. I live just east of downtown Raleigh, and I love my neighborhood and love the city, but I find that I typically go up to Durham and/or Chapel Hill about two to five times per month to take advantage of some of the cultural amenities there, or just to hang out. Overall, I really like the region.

To me, the main downside to Raleigh compared to Charlotte is that it just feels like a much smaller, less substantial city than Charlotte, or most other major cities for that matter. A lot of people really like the suburban or quasi-rural feel of Raleigh's sprawling periphery, and that's fine, but I'm a city kid, and I prefer a more urban setting. Charlotte is far more urban (in both the good ways and the bad ways) than Raleigh. As I said, I live just east of downtown Raleigh in the Thompson-Hunter neighborhood, and it and the other areas around downtown, as well as a number of the other neighborhoods "Inside the Beltline" are reasonable urban and walkable, but still not like Charlotte, let alone the bigger cities up North. Raleigh's getting better and more urban, and will probably continue to, but it's still got a ways to go. Durham, about a half-hour drive away, is decidedly more gritty and urban than Raleigh. But still, the region as a whole tends to feel much more like an overgrown city than like a true big city, for better or worse.
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Old 11-05-2011, 09:48 PM
 
222 posts, read 547,754 times
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Originally Posted by tompope View Post
Having spent time living in both Charlotte and Raleigh, I'd say they're pretty similar, but I prefer Raleigh a little more overall. My observations jibe with your comments that the young professional scene in Raleigh is less focused on any single industry than Charlotte's is on the financial sector. Also, to answer one of your specific questions, the proportion of young professionals in Raleigh who are from elsewhere is at least as high as it is in Charlotte, or even higher in my estimation. As in Charlotte, most people that you meet here—particularly those who are working in upwardly mobile careers—are not from North Carolina or even the South, but rather are transplants from around the country. And I meet more people from other parts of the world here than in Charlotte, especially from Europe, Africa, and Asia, largely attracted by the universities and/or the tech companies. On the whole, I find Raleigh to be slightly even less Southern and even more diverse than Charlotte, and I like that, although it's a matter of personal preference.
Thanks for your thorough reply. One of the things I've noticed about the young professionals scene in Charlotte is that I feel like I'm surrounded by all of the former finance majors and B-school types from college Which makes sense, because BoA and other major financial institutions is where those folks end up working. That was never really my crowd; my idea of a good time is perhaps trivia night and Guinness at an English pub, not dressing up in ridiculously expensive clothing and purchasing 12 dollar martinis. I feel that the Uptown scene is largely the latter, perhaps due to the income level of the young professionals here. Hey, more power to them. If I were making what they're making, I'd be enjoying it too. But my crowd during college was more the liberal arts majors, and I think that carries over into adulthood.
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