Moving from New England (Raleigh, Greensboro: apartments, rental, house)

[SFT]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has made the move from the northeast (New England area) down to North Carolina and how you have liked it. I recently made a trip down to Myrtle Beach and loved the area, the weather, and the people. Everyone seems nicer on average down there compared to up here in New England.

Unfortunately Myrtle Beach area does not seem like the most logical place for me to move because my future career is going to rely on me being around areas with a lot of people, or wealthy areas. Also, I'd maybe even get sick of living right in Myrtle Beach. Regardless, I found the Raleigh area to be the most legitimate city close to Myrtle Beach (unfortunately 3 hours away).

Now to a few questions:

I saw the rent at a lot of places seems to be quite a bit cheaper than up in New England, as low as $400 for a 1 bedroom apartment. These are in Raleigh and Durham. Generally, is that a pretty average price for a decent rental or are these probably in bad areas?

Is there much to do in terms of hiking or lakes, etc. within 2-3 hours of Raleigh area? In New England we have mountains everywhere as well as plenty of lakes. My understanding is the mountains are like 3 hours west of Raleigh, but what about smaller hills/lakes?

Do the surrounding areas and even maybe Raleigh have any bit of a southern feel to them? People maybe a bit nicer than up north, etc. or is it just like cities like Boston (lots of a**holes).

And are Raleigh and Durham fairly nice cities? Like not excessive crime/gangs and trash everywhere? If anyone could compare it to Boston who has been up here that'd be great.

[Charlton Dude]

Moving to NC, the Triangle area specifically, was the single greatest move we ever made. Life here has been incredible. Lots to do, fantastic weather with the best of it coming now, better employment opportunities, great variety of quality homes, very low cost of living for us compared to where we lived, happier more pleasant people in the real world. I could go on and on. For us, it is truly heaven on earth. We would NEVER move back north. Not for anything.

[KellyCrash]

We moved from Central Mass 3 years ago. I LOVE it here. Not over crazy about the school system tho. It's starting to frustrate to me, but not enough to go back to MA, yet anyway. Sounds like that wouldn't concern you at this point. Lots of friendly people. Seems like everyone here is from somewhere else. I love the weather.

Your question about trash struck my funny bone. LOL It's pretty clean here. Raleigh and Durham both have their problem areas and less than ideal parts of town like any city.

[DanielleNC]

Originally Posted by SFT

I saw the rent at a lot of places seems to be quite a bit cheaper than up in New England, as low as $400 for a 1 bedroom apartment. These are in Raleigh and Durham. Generally, is that a pretty average price for a decent rental or are these probably in bad area

Average for a 1 bedroom would be between $600-$700. There are older apartments for under $600. It will be hard to find anything decent for under $500, including studios. $400 would definitely be pretty sketchy and is not the norm.

[SFT]

Thanks for the responses especially about the rent. I was comparing rent to where I live (a suburb of Boston) rather than to the cities around here and even $600-700/mo for an apartment in the city isn't bad because I don't think you can live anywhere in Boston for less than $1000/mo (at least in an area you'd want to be in).

I would still appreciate any information regarding things to do outside such as nice likes nearby, hiking, etc. I would definitely miss the mountains in New Hampshire as well and interested to see how the mountains are in western NC.

Thanks again for the information.

[KellyCrash]

Oh we have lakes - Lake Jordan, Lake Crabtree, Falls Lake, Lake Wheeler.

[DanielleNC]

There's also nice hiking at the Eno River.

[caraleighkat]

I moved to Fayetteville, NC about 2 months ago. The weather means tons of roaches and centipedes... which I was not prepared for. I have friends who moved to Raleigh and Greensboro who assure me that this was not their experience... but I was very traumatized when I first moved here... I rented a house that was completely infested with smokey brown cockroaches. I saw 3-4 each day, running around my kitchen, bathroom and living room. My landlord and neighbors laughed at me and said that was just normal living in the south. I am having a hard time liking NC so far... I am obsessing about having made a terrible mistake coming here. I was ready to settle here and raise a family, but if I have to spray my house with pesticides every three months, what's the point. I'm not going to raise kids where neurotoxins are constantly being sprayed. I'm really depressed over this...

[SFT]

After taking a look at some the mountains and some pictures of Eno River, it seems that New Hampshire and North Carolina look quite similar (at least in the warmer months). North Carolina almost seems like a stretched out New Hampshire with warm weather, we have mountains, lakes, beach, hiking, etc. all within an hour or two at most, but the cold weather makes me want to travel elsewhere at least temporarily.

Again I thank everyone for the information, I have more information to go forward with now. Hopefully I will be moving when I finish school at the end of this coming year.

[Zoya]

Originally Posted by caraleighkat

I moved to Fayetteville, NC about 2 months ago. The weather means tons of roaches and centipedes...

I find this funny....because the only time I've ever had to worry about roaches was when I live in MA.

I think you have a landlord problem....it's not the state.