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There are quite a number of people from NJ now living in NC. It would help to tell us from what town or city you came from. There are parts of South Jersey that seem as remote as the surface of Mars to me! I'm in the Charlotte area, BTW, but have made the adjustment after 10 years!
Every time I get my tax bill, I feel like I've won the Lottery! My current house is three times the size of my old NJ house. There are things you will miss about the old Garden State ...to be sure!
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Not New Jersey - Philadelphia born and raised here - but Springsteen is one of my favorite artists, does that count? We still go to the Jersey Shore every summer with my extended family who all live in the Philly area. The Triangle is a nice, mostly suburban region with milder winters, lower cost, and less congestion, but I still miss the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic and would move back in a heartbeat if I could. Will be visiting friends and family in Philly over Thanksgiving including my annual trek to a Central New Jersey diner. Can't wait! Hard to explain, but when I'm up there, I feel like I'm "home."
For the average Northeastern transplant, Apex is a nice suburban town. People are friendly. Schools are good. Weather is nice. Expenses are relatively low. You can make a very nice life for yourself here. You may miss family, friends, the shore, proximity to NYC/Philly, as well as NJ diners and delis, but the other above attributes might make up for those losses, especially if you are struggling financially in New Jersey. I've been here almost 5 years (after living in DC for many years), and unfortunately, it still doesn't feel like my home. At this point, I doubt it ever will. But I can't say that life is bad here.
I moved here from Bergen County, NJ, in June 2015 and so far, all is wonderful. The weather is great, but you do need to be prepared for several unrelenting months of heat and high humidity. I will say I prefer that to unrelenting cold and wind in a NJ winter. It's overall much cheaper, not only but including real estate taxes, eating out, the vet, parking at the airport, etc. etc. The scenery is beautiful and the roads are far less crowded. The air is cleaner.
You do need to be prepared for some culture shock. People are much less aggressive here, and when they are sometimes, I just figure that they've just arrived from the northeast US. Here's an example: you are merging onto I40, and the person in the right hand lane drops back to let you in...this never happened to me on the NJ Turnpike! And when I went to the DMV for my new car tags I was in and out in 4 minutes. They even lent me a screwdriver to change the plates.
Offices are bigger than in the NYC area since real estate is not such a problem. The dentist's treatment room here is easily twice if not more than the space in NYC.
I hardly miss anything; well, some friends, but we have phones, Skype, internet and airplanes...
We moved from Toms River, NJ back in 2005. It was harder for my husband as he was born and raised in Toms River (I'm from the UK). But it's hard to go back to NJ now - seems so dirty and people seem so rude!!
I found it was a lot easier to make new friends here. People in NJ were mostly from NJ and had all their school/college friends and weren't very interested in meeting any new people. (Just my opinion obviously!)
I spent a good part of my life in NJ and while I love the proximity to New York and Philadelphia and the tremendous offerings with regards to restaurants, if some person is in a position to make a move, I don't know many reasons I can think of for a person to stay back in NJ. The only things that come to mind are a union job (state jobs in NJ pay a lot more and have much better benefits) and family.
Marialidia pretty much stole my thunder. :-) I moved to Durham from Bergen County in December 2015 and I love it there. I say "there" because I am at a meeting in NJ as I type this and I can't wait to get home.
I can tell the NJ drivers; they are the a-holes who tailgate, cut you off, and don't yield coming onto the highway. The locals drive like human beings. The tailgaters are from NJ, trust me!
People are nice, they're friendly, and if you are an outgoing person it is easy to meet people. I have not encountered any snobbery or social climbing here the way there was in NJ. Kids play outdoors in my neighborhood, we have a Halloween parade every year and a neighborhood cookout in the summer.
There is a great foodie scene and lots of live music. In northern NJ, the entire cultural life is in Manhattan, so Bergen and Passaic are like culture wastelands. In the Triangle, you drive 15-20 minutes to something fun.
The only things I miss are my friends (and I have been catching up with them this week) and good deli. Deli in Durham is 47 kinds of turkey-esque meat, 47 variations of ham, and roast beef. So in NJ I loaded up with corned beef, pastrami, pickles and rye bread when I got here and now I am deli-ed out and ready to go home.
Marialidia pretty much stole my thunder. :-) I moved to Durham from Bergen County in December 2015 and I love it there. I say "there" because I am at a meeting in NJ as I type this and I can't wait to get home.
I can tell the NJ drivers; they are the a-holes who tailgate, cut you off, and don't yield coming onto the highway. The locals drive like human beings. The tailgaters are from NJ, trust me!
People are nice, they're friendly, and if you are an outgoing person it is easy to meet people. I have not encountered any snobbery or social climbing here the way there was in NJ. Kids play outdoors in my neighborhood, we have a Halloween parade every year and a neighborhood cookout in the summer.
There is a great foodie scene and lots of live music. In northern NJ, the entire cultural life is in Manhattan, so Bergen and Passaic are like culture wastelands. In the Triangle, you drive 15-20 minutes to something fun.
The only things I miss are my friends (and I have been catching up with them this week) and good deli. Deli in Durham is 47 kinds of turkey-esque meat, 47 variations of ham, and roast beef. So in NJ I loaded up with corned beef, pastrami, pickles and rye bread when I got here and now I am deli-ed out and ready to go home.
Had the misfortune of living 10 months in Edison Township, I agree 100% about the rude drivers now infesting this area.
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I'm in the Charlotte area, BTW, but have made the adjustment after 10 years! 
We still go to the Jersey Shore every summer with my extended family who all live in the Philly area. The Triangle is a nice, mostly suburban region with milder winters, lower cost, and less congestion, but I still miss the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic and would move back in a heartbeat if I could. Will be visiting friends and family in Philly over Thanksgiving including my annual trek to a Central New Jersey diner. Can't wait! Hard to explain, but when I'm up there, I feel like I'm "home."
