Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am extremely interested in moving from boston to Cary (especially after visiting last month) and have some questions from those who may have done the same relocation. As you know, the cost of living is astronomical, the commutes are horrible (I work in the city), and the weather is flat out miserable (short summers and long winters). I guess I don't care about the weather as much but am looking for an overall better lifestyle for my wife and two kids. However, my wife has three younger sisters and brothers and is very cautious about the idea of moving. I am convinced that they will soon find the same hardships as me in that it is almost impossible to afford to live a nice lifestyle in a good school district in the Boston area anymore. So obviously I am ready to move while she isn't - has anyone had a similar situation in moving that they can speak to and what are the pros vs. cons? Also, I am thinking with all the people moving to Wake County that the schools will become overcrowded or that you may be zoned to be in a good school and that gets changed years down the road - does anyone know how that works? I literally can't go a day without thinking about the future for my children and how I want what is best for them. I feel like there is much better opportunity for them in Cary, especially that they'll probably be able to graduate with far less debt than up here - but what about the fact that their aunts and uncles are undecided and one set of their grandparents will never leave MA. What do you guys think of moving from Boston to Cary? thansk so much in advance,
Matt
Last edited by Mutschler; 09-13-2008 at 02:55 PM..
We moved from Central MA to Cary 2.5 years ago. We moved to be closer to my family in NC & SC. We left tons of close family & friends in MA tho and that has been hard. I've enjoyed being closer to my family, but I don't get to see them as much as I had thought. Sometimes it feels like I might as well be back in MA for as much as I see them.
Anyway, I do not regret for a minute living here. This area is so beautiful and clean and friendly. The parks are amazing. I am so impressed with how important the Town of Cary feels their parks are. Everything here is new & fresh. There is a keen attention to detail & esthetics and strict building codes to maintain a certain look here. New England has a certain charm of it's own, but I think it's old, tired and dirty in comparison. I would move back in a heartbeat tho if it was in the best interest of my husband's career. I miss the family there. Although I wouldn't seek out a return if that makes any sense.
I surely do not miss commuting down the Mass Pike into Newton. Agh. That was horrible. I hated that. Going through the Weston tolls & the bottleneck there. I do not miss that. We have our share of traffic around here, but to me nothing compares to the traffic on the Mass Pike at rush hour.
Oh & the thing with the schools. Yep. Schools here are overcrowded & are having a hard time keeping up with the growth. Many schools have been converted to year round to accomodate more students. & Rezoning of schools. That's something they do yearly since I've been here at least.
It is no doubt very hard to leave your family & your support network. A ton of people here in the Triangle are from somewhere else. They too have left family & friends to start over here. Therefore I think people are more friendly and more open to new friendships.
We moved to NC 1 1/2yrs ago from the south shore of MA. I can give you my impressions...
Pros:
1. Weather - fantastic
2. Congestion - much less the MA, but you need to be careful where you live, there are still bad commutes here
3. Cheaper home prices, rents are similar
Cons:
1. Smaller market means fewer high quality jobs. My wife and I are finding it difficult to find interesting work. Both of us are finding mostly small companies poorly managed
2. Lack of evening programs for higher ed. In boston there were tons of schools were you could take some evening courses, there is basically nothing here...
3. Lower salaries, say 15%
4. Slow pace of life both in and out of the office...if you are type A you'll be climbing the walls
5. Left family and friends behind
Everything else is about a push, it's slightly cheaper here for heating/cooling costs. You can find all the stores etc you are used to. There are some cultural activities, but nothing close to the quality/quantity in boston.
To be honest, I'm coming to the conclusion that it's a bad idea to spend my prime earning years here. Moving to a bigger city with more opportunities is starting to look where we may be headed. I think retiring here would be fine, but I'd head west towards the mountains...
What kind of work do you do? I think it would be important to the pp to note that. What kind of jobs have you been looking for?
It's my understanding there are a lot of high tech type stuff here. Not in the job market myself I cannot comment on that. My husband is a software architect/programmer/engineer whatever you want to call it. It's my impression these types of jobs are plentiful here. He hasn't done any job hunting really so we haven't encountered any problems finding work.
I have a huge extended family.. on both sides of my family tree. Besides me and one cousin in Texas, everyone lives within a 30 mile range of where they grew up in Massachusetts.
I wanted some "elbow room" and also wanted to live somewhere with more temperate weather. I talked hubby into moving to NC (Cary) in 2005. It was the best thing we ever did!
I sympathize with your desire to move, but your wife will be miserable if you try to talk her into coming. She's the one who will have to hear it from her parents and family. Any difference in cost of living will probably be made up with all the trips you'll have to make back up there for holidays. So unless she's a selfish jerk like me (I don't go up for holidays, 4 kids under 6, still get lots and lots of guilt trips) I would sit on the idea and see if maybe her mind comes around to it in a year or so... Good luck!
PS: If your kids have cousins that they are close to, that would be another huge factor not to overlook. I would take the gang up to visit or even move back to MA if there were any other kids in the family.
2. Lack of evening programs for higher ed. In boston there were tons of schools were you could take some evening courses, there is basically nothing here...
Wake Tech has more continuing education students than curriculum (although I believe they offer both in the evenings). My wife is about 3 classes shy of a Graphics Design degree (she already has a bachelors from Meridith) and she's done every single class either in the evenings or online.
It only takes a year to get resident status. Durham Tech is another community college that offers many classes and programs in the evenings and online. NC State and UNC have evening courses too and it is not difficult to gain admission as a continuing ed student at either school.
I have a huge extended family.. on both sides of my family tree. Besides me and one cousin in Texas, everyone lives within a 30 mile range of where they grew up in Massachusetts.
I wanted some "elbow room" and also wanted to live somewhere with more temperate weather. I talked hubby into moving to NC (Cary) in 2005. It was the best thing we ever did!
I sympathize with your desire to move, but your wife will be miserable if you try to talk her into coming. She's the one who will have to hear it from her parents and family. Any difference in cost of living will probably be made up with all the trips you'll have to make back up there for holidays. So unless she's a selfish jerk like me (I don't go up for holidays, 4 kids under 6, still get lots and lots of guilt trips) I would sit on the idea and see if maybe her mind comes around to it in a year or so... Good luck!
PS: If your kids have cousins that they are close to, that would be another huge factor not to overlook. I would take the gang up to visit or even move back to MA if there were any other kids in the family.
I have to agree. If your wife is not onboard with the move and very close with her family, she might end up resenting the move.
We are from MA and have been in NC for a year and really like it here and do not regret moving at all. However, I could see us moving back that way to be near family again. It can be lonely until you have a good group of friends.
I never understood people from the Boston area moving to NC at all. Probably ignorance on my part. Boston and eastern New England in general is increible. I know it's expensive but the Triangle area is getting more and more expensive every year as people keep moving there to "Cash out" on their homsales from more expenisve areas ( California, Long Island, Florida, NJ...and clearly Boston) We returned to live in Upstate NY last year after living in NC for almost 13 years and while I wouldn't say I regret the years I spent in NC...they probably would have been better (for the kids sake) had they been spent up here. School system is a mess down there and they are so disconnected from cousins/extended family it really doesn't seem like it was worth it anymore. It was my wife and mine's MUTUAL decision to move down there in the first place and another MUTUAL decision to move back up here....I would probably be a divorcee now if either of us had pressured the other to move to NC.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Don't do it
