Northern GA or Western North Carolina?? (Asheville, Hickory: for sale, real estate, apartment)

[NeedAChangeFromFL]

I am cross posting this on the GA and NC forums. My family and I live near Tampa, FL and need/want to relocate. We want to go to either GA or western NC (eastern mountain area or western Piedmont), and are fairly familiar with both places...more familiar with N. GA though. I would really appreciate ANY advice!

In GA we are looking north of ATL, but not in ATL. Areas like Kennesaw, Roswell, ETC or further north would be ok too. In NC we are looking in the Hickory & surrounding areas such as Granite Falls, etc etc.

Here's what we need/want (the more qualifications an area meets, the better):
1) Good schools (3 young children starting elementary school)
2) SAFE neighborhood (low crime rate, etc)
3) Friendly, child friendly place to live in general
4) Parks and outdoor activities are a must
5) Shopping area (not necessarily a mall, but grocery store, maybe Target, etc) within 15-20 minutes away.
6) We love the mountains & lakes, etc so the closer the better
7) We do not want to live in a rural area (semi rural is ok, but no driving 30-40 minutes to the grocery store)
8) We do not want to live in a cookie cutter neighborhood where every house looks like the one next to it and your neighbors are on top of you.
9) MUST MUST MUST be within 30 minutes of a hospital, preferably a large hospital...especially one with a pediatric specialty center or hospital. We have a disabled child, so this is very important to us.
10) We are looking to rent a 3+ bedroom house (not an apartment, condo, etc) with a maximum rent of $1000-$1100/month.

[cooperwx]

Catawba Valley Medical Center is the largest hospital in the NC foothills. Since this is your "must must must," it may be best to see if the hospital meets your requirements before individual areas are suggested. If it doesn't, you'll need to be further west to be close enough to Mission Hospital in Asheville.

[NeedAChangeFromFL]

Yes, that hospital would be OK. We were just in Hickory last week and I am familiar with where the hospital is, etc. We also looked in Boone and at ASU's medical center (cant remember the name???).
I really liked Boone, but am unsure of that much snow and that many mountains, lol. I liked Hickory as well, but we saw some really undesireable areas....what part of Hickory is the safest?? Any other cities within 15-20 of Hickory nice??
Thanks a lot for your reply.

[TruePride]

Originally Posted by NeedAChangeFromFL

I am cross posting this on the GA and NC forums. My family and I live near Tampa, FL and need/want to relocate. We want to go to either GA or western NC (eastern mountain area or western Piedmont), and are fairly familiar with both places...more familiar with N. GA though. I would really appreciate ANY advice!

In GA we are looking north of ATL, but not in ATL. Areas like Kennesaw, Roswell, ETC or further north would be ok too. In NC we are looking in the Hickory & surrounding areas such as Granite Falls, etc etc.

Here's what we need/want (the more qualifications an area meets, the better):
1) Good schools (3 young children starting elementary school)
2) SAFE neighborhood (low crime rate, etc)
3) Friendly, child friendly place to live in general
4) Parks and outdoor activities are a must
5) Shopping area (not necessarily a mall, but grocery store, maybe Target, etc) within 15-20 minutes away.
6) We love the mountains & lakes, etc so the closer the better
7) We do not want to live in a rural area (semi rural is ok, but no driving 30-40 minutes to the grocery store)
8) We do not want to live in a cookie cutter neighborhood where every house looks like the one next to it and your neighbors are on top of you.
9) MUST MUST MUST be within 30 minutes of a hospital, preferably a large hospital...especially one with a pediatric specialty center or hospital. We have a disabled child, so this is very important to us.
10) We are looking to rent a 3+ bedroom house (not an apartment, condo, etc) with a maximum rent of $1000-$1100/month.

the area i think you may be interested in is Rabun County,ga its where i live now.
1. schools- dont know anything about them i do know they just built a better bypass on 441 near the high school to ease traffic. other than that no idea how the schools are.

2. crime- most of the crime here is petty things such as disturbing the peace or public drunkeness sometimes auto theft every once and a blue moon. i have never heard of any rapes or murders here.

3. it seems to be child friendly to me we arent far from the sc border which there is a large river there where kids can play and we are near lake burton and lake rabun i believe.

4. mountains to hike, mountain biking, large flea markets 2 of them. thats all i can think of at the moment im sure there is more though. my daughter is only 1 so we dont go out much.

5.we have 2 grocery stores an ingles and a piggly wiggly and a super walmart and a home depot both new. we arent far from franklin north carolina which has a super k-mart and an old walmart and plenty of other places to shop at. and not very far from asheville,nc

6. in some places you can be right on the lake or in the mountains we are in the mountains where we live.

7. are not that far from a grocery store i live in tiger and its 10 miles to the grocery store.but it is far enough from the city life.

8. no house here looks alike believe me they are all different you wont find much cookie cutter neighborhoods here.

9. not sure about the hospital we have on in clayton but its small i think the larger ones are in gainesville which is 50 miles away down 441 so its not very far really.

10. can easily get a place to rent for that much here. rent usually runs between 500-700$ for a 2 bedroom so im sure a 3 bedroom is not much more.


We live in a place called covecrest its a religious community although we dont go to church its quiet mostly older folks who use the homes as vacation homes most of them live in florida and arent here in the winter. there are at least 4 homes here for sale if that sounds appealing to you and there is always places for rent in your range hope i helped you some.

[Buffsalum]

Originally Posted by NeedAChangeFromFL

I am cross posting this on the GA and NC forums. My family and I live near Tampa, FL and need/want to relocate. We want to go to either GA or western NC (eastern mountain area or western Piedmont), and are fairly familiar with both places...more familiar with N. GA though. I would really appreciate ANY advice!

In GA we are looking north of ATL, but not in ATL. Areas like Kennesaw, Roswell, ETC or further north would be ok too. In NC we are looking in the Hickory & surrounding areas such as Granite Falls, etc etc.

Here's what we need/want (the more qualifications an area meets, the better):
1) Good schools (3 young children starting elementary school)
2) SAFE neighborhood (low crime rate, etc)
3) Friendly, child friendly place to live in general
4) Parks and outdoor activities are a must
5) Shopping area (not necessarily a mall, but grocery store, maybe Target, etc) within 15-20 minutes away.
6) We love the mountains & lakes, etc so the closer the better
7) We do not want to live in a rural area (semi rural is ok, but no driving 30-40 minutes to the grocery store)
8) We do not want to live in a cookie cutter neighborhood where every house looks like the one next to it and your neighbors are on top of you.
9) MUST MUST MUST be within 30 minutes of a hospital, preferably a large hospital...especially one with a pediatric specialty center or hospital. We have a disabled child, so this is very important to us.
10) We are looking to rent a 3+ bedroom house (not an apartment, condo, etc) with a maximum rent of $1000-$1100/month.

My family and I recently moved to Rutherfordton, NC (Rutherford County) from South Florida and could never be happier. While we are still new to the community and probably don't know all of the great stuff it has to offer, we can shed some light on many of your needs.

1. Our oldest son is in 2nd grade and good public schools were important to us as we are coming from a private school setting. Rutherfordton Elementary has the highest rating NC gives and we are so happy with the curriculum and his teacher. Many of the other elementary schools in the area were also highly rated. You can check the school ratings here:

NC School Report Cards

2. Crime is virtually non-existent in Rutherfordton. See attached crime report below. You can probably leave your doors unlocked. However, we rarely do. It's a habit after living in a high crime area.

3. We have a kid's museum downtown, KidSenses, that my boys absolutely love. We have been to some festivals and done some other fun activities. A hundred times better than South Florida in our opinion. Maybe it also has to do with the fact that it is not as hot and humid!

4. Rutherfordton is considered in the foothills and there is plenty of outdoor activities nearby as well as within a short drive. Crestview Park is near our house and there are other parks in town as well in the nearby town of Forest City.

5. We don't have a mall, but we never cared for mall shopping anyway. My wife originally wanted whatever town we moved to have a Target; however, the closest Target is in Hendersonville or Spartanburg, SC. Turns out that it doesn't matter. There is a Super Walmart in Forest City (which is 10-15 minutes give or take east of Rutherfordton) and lots of other shops. My wife believes we have everything we need and if she's happy, that's all that matters to me. There are plenty of grocery stores nearby, a Lowe's, restaurants (not many fancy ones, but adequate), etc.

6. Again, we are in the foothills of the mountains and Lake Lure is only 15 miles or so away.

7. Well, it depends on how you define rural. Most people coming from a big city would consider it rural, but you definitely don't have to drive 30-40 minutes to get to the grocery store. So, under that criteria, it's semi-rural.

8. We haven't seen any cookie cutter neighborhoods.

9. Rutherford Hospital is near downtown and less than a mile from our house. However, it is not a pediatrics hospital. I believe the only pediatrics hospital is Mission Children's Hospital in Asheville. It might be a little farther than 30 minutes but it's not terribly far. We know people who commute to Asheville everyday for work.

Mission Children's Hospital, Asheville, North Carolina (broken link)

10. It is my understanding that there isn't a lot to rent in the area, but my guess is that you could find a 3 bedroom home in that range. If you find yourself interested in the area, I can refer you to a very knowledgeable real estate agent.

We spent two years searching for the right place to move and are so happy to have found this great little town. Forest City is also nice and frankly you can look at Rutherfordton, Forest City and everything in between as one big (little) town. I highly recommend that you come visit and see what the area has to offer. There is no traffic, crowds, and crime. Everyone is so nice and life is just much more enjoyable at a slower pace. Truly a wonderful place.

Good luck in your search.