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If you move back to Boston, I give it 5 years before you're out of there. You seem like the type that thinks the grass is always greener.
actually we move where my husbands job takes him. Sometimes we don't have a say/ much of a choice in the region. We've been lucky so far but Charlotte was initially not on our list but given the choice of Arizona or here we chose here and had 2 weeks to make it happen once the actual contract was signed
I hear complaints all the time from NE transplants about how much groceries and household goods are, how expensive the utility bills are in the summer (what with all the AC and lawn watering) and how much houses cost. I think a lot of people have this idea that "the South" is dirt cheap and you can move here and live like a king, not realizing that the Triangle area is very different from the small towns in that regard. Hear it all the time.
gas is cheaper on the bright side.. but food is way more expensive than NE and Fla. Electricity is a lot cheaper in the Carolinas also .I suspect its because housing wasn't built around the time of the Pilgrims landing lol!
Housing is exploding in the major metro areas. In just the year and a half we've been here we've seen houses go from $180,000 to $250,000 in the same areas. I guess Charlotte just did tax assessments and people on my Next Door app have said their taxes have gone up 60%+ Some even 80%
I hear complaints all the time from NE transplants about how much groceries and household goods are, how expensive the utility bills are in the summer (what with all the AC and lawn watering) and how much houses cost. I think a lot of people have this idea that "the South" is dirt cheap and you can move here and live like a king, not realizing that the Triangle area is very different from the small towns in that regard. Hear it all the time.
The only thing I would say to the bolded is, are they really comparing apples to apples?
For instance, almost half of the cities and towns in MA are on a Partial or Full water ban, meaning you can't water your lawn unless you are on a well.
Beyond that, a good portion of homes in MA (maybe NE more broadly?) don't have Central AC; your options are a fan or window unit. Further, the worst of the summer in MA lasts a week compared to 3-4 months here.
To me, I would expect to pay more in the summer for electric and water here.... because.....well you're consuming more.
But thats just me.
I would not call here "dirt cheap". But my family gets by on one income here better than we did there, so overall it is cheaper (at least for us).
gas is cheaper on the bright side.. but food is way more expensive than NE and Fla. Electricity is a lot cheaper in the Carolinas also .I suspect its because housing wasn't built around the time of the Pilgrims landing lol!
Housing is exploding in the major metro areas. In just the year and a half we've been here we've seen houses go from $180,000 to $250,000 in the same areas. I guess Charlotte just did tax assessments and people on my Next Door app have said their taxes have gone up 60%+ Some even 80%
Grocery stores are more expensive yes - but how much more is your grocery bill per month, 50-100 dollars? Barely even noticeable in the grand scheme of things.
Restaurants here are not more expensive - significantly less expensive actually. Especially if you like to drink.
Everyone, thank you for your input! I have to say all of what you’ve had to say is incredibly helpful. To the posters who mentioned areas like “pleasantville” type living.... we love that. The thought of having neighbors and families nearby whom want to spend time with one another seems rare, and I know it varies from street to street. I’m thrilled to know there are places like that. I don’t know a single person in NJ who has an experience quite like that. Everyone here seems to keep to themselves.
And obviously, you can’t predict the friendliness forecast of a particular neighborhood, but I’m sure when there are plenty of families moving into the area it is more common.
As for those of you mentioning the differences in cities (Boston, Manhattan, Raleigh, Charlotte, etc), we have been to all minus Boston. We are not not not “city” people. We felt that Raleigh offered enough of the city type amenities that we would ever desire. We currently live within an hour from both manhattan and Philli and rarely visit either.
I will preface my response by saying that much of what I will share I have shared before in threads like this, so I am sure many of the regulars will be saying "not that guys story again!"
We moved down two years ago next month from MA. Prior to moving down, we had come down for a long weekend in January then a one day "look at all the houses we liked and figure out which one we will put an offer on" in February. Raleigh wasn't even on our radar 65 days before we closed, we were actually looking out West. I was born in OH, moved to MA when I was 8 and then moved to Indonesia when I was 11 only coming back to the States for college. Moving "sight unseen" is sorta what I have done in life. When our plans to go West fell apart (do to Real Estate prices inflating) , my wife and I pulled out a map and starting crossing out states we wouldn't live in; basically the Pacific NW, Plains/Midwest and anything South of NC were easily removed from consideration. Raleigh caught our eye during the visit and the rest is history.
Enough about me.
We left MA for the same reasons you state wanting to leave NJ. We wanted a "better quality of life" which to us was a better sense of community to raise our kids in, where neighbors know and talk to one another and an area where our kids could flourish. The weather was also on the list as was real estate. Yes taxes are lower here on real estate, but that comes with a trade off. I can't speak from personal experience yet (my daughter starts Kindergarten in July) but from everything i can find online and with neighbors, there is a wide spread of school quality here ranging from great to "holy **** thats just adolescent babysitting". School was important to us, so we chose areas based on that.
There are some great resident experts on the RE thing here, so I'll let them guide you where you can find what all you are looking for.
As for the "soft" things you are looking for. There are a ton of towns/areas/developments that have great convenience to them; we live in Heritage in Wake Forest and don't even really have to leave our "neighborhood" to go to the grocery store, the bank, the dentist, our doctors office, my daughters preschool. It really isn't like anything that exists in MA.
We are 2.5 hours to the beach and roughly 4 hours to the Mountains. The neighbors at the corner we bought a house at have become many of our best friends in a short time. Family gatherings in the driveway after work, dinners on the weekends, weekend trips to the Breweries out towards Asheville, or to the Pamlico River or to a beach house are largely readily available if you have the desire.
The brewery scene here is great and in most cases kid friendly and many of them have food/ food trucks that are great. Lots of greenways; either within a neighborhood (Heritage has a pretty extensive greenway system that connects you to the HS or to other parts of town) or public. Good parks downtown, great kids stuff (Pullen Park, Marbles, NC Museum of Science) and the zoo in Asheboro is surprisingly great. Not Cincinnati Zoo great or Philly Zoo great, but way better than Franklin Park in Boston or Roger Williams in Providence.
The foodie thing seems to be growing. Our biggest disappoint here frankly (and perhaps trivial) is the Chinese food. We ate Chinese once a week in MA (my parents would come over to see my daughter on Weds and we would eat Chinese). I have tried every Chinese food restaurant North of Raleigh between Durham and Wake Forest and not a single one has been good enough to go to a second time. When we go back to MA to see family, we eat Chinese basically daily.
In short, we have grown to really really like living here. Yes there was an adjustment (especially for my wife. We went back to MA for Thanksgiving the year we moved down and she was like "me and the kids are staying, come get us at XMas"....so it took her awhile to warm up). The dads go bowling, have driveway beer summits, the wives do wine and tv show get togethers routinely. A horde of 30 kids live within 6 houses of our corner get together everyday after school for basketball, bike riding, street football, you name it.
It is quite literally "Pleasantville".
In closing, I know little about SC. But one thing that was key to our selecting this area is the job market/wage rate. I work in IT and this area has a great pool for that. I'm not sure SC can come close to offering either.
I would aim your housing focus on the type of vibe you want; urban/ city feel, or cookie cutter "Pleasantville" suburbs, or more mature "small town" feel, or out in the sticks in an area that hasn't fully developed yet. All options are available.
Sorry for the disjointed response.
This response has been incredibly helpful for us. That sense of community is what we want as a family, and for our children’s upbringing. Would you say this is a commonality in the area due to so many young families “flocking” to the Raleigh area? Or did you guys just hit the neighborhood jackpot?!
This response has been incredibly helpful for us. That sense of community is what we want as a family, and for our children’s upbringing. Would you say this is a commonality in the area due to so many young families “flocking” to the Raleigh area? Or did you guys just hit the neighborhood jackpot?!
I would venture to guess (and others can confirm or deny) that the sense of community permeates many of the areas/towns in and around Raleigh. I think you would easily find it whether you are living in Wake Forest or Clayton or Cary or Holly Springs or Garner or Bedford Falls. I would even venture to guess city spaces like ITB or Durham have a touch of it as well.
I have shared this little anecdote before here, but I'll share it again. My wife and I bought our first home in 2012. Mature neighborhood in a middle class town in MA. In four years living there, I never once met one of my direct neighbors. Ever. Not a head nod, or a wave. Not a "hey Drew, how's it going?". Nothing.
When I drove my wife, kids, our dogs and what stuff we were bringing down from MA I had 10 neighbors in my driveway with IPAs in hand before i even got the first car load of stuff out of our truck.
You had said in one of your posts that people up North tend to stick to themselves (paraphrasing). I agree 100000%. Its largely what I found "undesirable" about living in MA as a non-native.
It couldn't be any more different here based on what I have experienced in 2 years. Even to the point that on some days, it may be "too much". (In a "Im in a funky mood today and just wanna hide, but everyone is outside having a cold pop and catching up and wondering why I am not there")
All that being said, I do think the little group we moved into was jackpot-esque, but in no way unique.
And that just the British. Spanish and Vikings earlier (and possibly the Chinese) and let's not forget the people already here. All that from 12-years (and college) in NC schools.
And that just the British. Spanish and Vikings earlier (and possibly the Chinese) and let's not forget the people already here. All that from 12-years (and college) in NC schools.
Was a joke..... womp womp... didn’t know we had to be literal on dates but clearly we do so..
At least all the housing isn’t as old as the Henry Whitfield House. Date: 1639. in Conn. also one of the oldest houses in New England.. there fixed it
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