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My sister & I are considering moving to Western North Carolina (near Asheville but, not directly in the city) from Southwest Florida in the next
2 1/2-3 years. We hate the weather here & need a new start. Can someone give me some insight on jobs, cost of living, what areas are good for kids please? She is a preschool teacher & I am a bank teller, we are both single parents.
I think we probably need more information to give you any good answers.
Answering your questions at a high level:
Jobs – Not plentiful. It's a tourist town with related services and health care accounting for the lion's share of a very shallow economy. Shallow describes it in the best of times. Not sure about the demand for a preschool teacher, but banks here are not booming (are they anywhere?). I deal with two banks on a regular basis and two others infrequently and they all have what I would call skeleton staffs.
Cost of Living – This will be dependent on where you wind up, but if you are close to Asheville, it is probably higher than you think. Every day expenses compare slightly favorably but similar to larger cities. Housing is more expensive than people would expect. There are sites out there than can give you a reasonably accurate number.
Areas good for kids – Can't help you there, our kids both have four feet each.
What is lacking in your short post that needs to be considered. I apologize if you have but just opted not to post it:
Do not move anywhere without spending a decent amount of time there, some in the worst time of year. Here, I would visit in each of the four seasons, but the decision may be made in either winter. Winter can be a rude awakening for people because the mountain roads, even in the immediate Asheville vicinity, can be impassable with a relatively small amount of snow. That means you have to be prepared to ride out a few days at home.
Do not move here without employment secured. Many people assume they will find something, only to be shocked when they either can not, what they find will not pay the bills or in a line of work they hate. The beauty the area has to offer is a tradeoff and that is not for everybody. That is especially true when yo have mouths to feed other than your own.
What are you looking for in a new location? Places with more suitable weather are plentiful, so there has to be more to the equation than that. That may also allow people to offer alternatives.
Do not underestimate your decision. A lot of people have the attitude that if they don't love the place, they'll just move again. Moving has financial, emotional and even physical costs. Also, given the lack of economic growth overall, the ability to pick up and move again in a few years can not be taken for granted.
Sorry if this is more negative than you had hoped to hear. We get these types of questions at least twice a week on the average. We love it here, but neither of our livelihoods are at all dependent on or affected by the area economy. I'm pretty certain if they were we would not be here.
I am living in the Tampa area and am considering basically the same move. I used to live about an hour from Asheville so have some familarity with the economy... It isn't great... But the Florida economy is nearly as bad since the real estate market crashed here. I am not crazy about the weather here either.
I think the difference in the economy/jobs is that you can't take something from nothing. But if you are somewhere that has something, even if it is temporarily down, it can improve as the economy improves.
In FLorida, things might improve. House market might come back, business might start hiring again. So there is something there that is less than it was but might grown back into something more as the economic situation improves.
In WNC, things will not improve until more people elsewhere feel economically stable enough to spend more for vacations in WNC. There are no real number of plants/manufacturing to start hiring again. Much of the industry has pulled out and bulldozed over what were small industrial places.
So while FL may feel nearly as bad economy wise, it does have room for growth and I hope it does. NOt sure how much there is to grow in WNC.
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