I have a lot to say about Asheville, so here goes.
We moved here a year ago from Palm Beach County, Fl. Live in South Asheville, Beautiful development, great neighbors. As a matter of fact, I am extremely impressed with nearly all of the people in of Asheville. These people are considerate, polite, helpful, and just plain nice. Southern hospitality reigns here.
On a sour note, there is a serious drug problem here. Very high personal crime rate, very high violent crime rate, for such a small city. Go to CnnMoney.com and read about Asheville. 70% and higher of the crime is drug related. Where the national average is 100 per 1,000, we are at 177 for personal crime.
The socioeconomic differences between people here is absolutely astounding. All walks of life are gathered here. Very diverse racially, as well. You can walk out of a beautiful neighborhood, and be in a low income, or trailer park area instantly. Buncombe County (Asheville) has more trailer parks and trailer homes than any other in NC.
As far as a job here, I think there is a lot of whining going on. Being an entrepreneur, I see several opportunities here that are overlooked. There are many people here with superfluous amounts of money to spend. For example the area in South Asheville, Biltmore Park, Biltmore Forest, The Ramble, ..these people buy, eat, use...etc. Why not open your own business here! A restaurant would be a good start! We are lacking in S Asheville of a decent Italian restaurant, as well as many others(plenty of Mexican). If you don't get to a restaurant by 5, you can expect to wait a long time. The decent (few) restaurants are jammed....literally. Sunday after church...forget about eating anywhere...the places are packed. Carrabas opened in Arden/Fletcher recently, and they are so busy, you cannot even stand int here. People bump into you. The wait there, by 5:15 is 45 minutes to an hour.
How about a specialty store, a bakery (an Italian Bakery cannot be found), a clothing store (nothing in S Asheville, nowhere to shop), a baby furniture store, a deli, any service...any service ...would do well. A spa, a decent nail place,...use your imagination. This place is ripe for decent commerce. Oh, and what about a day care center? Huge over crowding problem there too!!!
Better yet, come here and work out of your house! An ecommerce store, and ebay store, an organizing service, a house cleaning service, a personal chef service...again, the sky is the limit. Forget about the 9-5 BS, and having a boss. Who needs it anymore? Teachers and counselors don't get paid enough anyway.
Schools--Sore subject with me. No better than Florida. Again, the socioeconomic differences between the kids poses a HUGE problem. Additionally, the way that many teachers speak, (southern drawl is fine) using improper English, is unsettling. Not all teachers, but many. The education here is nothing outstanding, nothing unusual. Very common. Kids here are practically failing in math and reading, particularly the African American children. It is very sad, but the stats show it to be true. Many children don't have parents together, single Moms...etc. So, the kids are not getting the attention and discipline at home, therefor they "act out" in school in very upsetting ways (sometimes criminally). Much of the time at school is spent waiting for a teacher to finish corrrecting yet another kid who cannot behave. We were in the "best" school system (Estes,Valley Springs, TC Roberson) Look them up online and see greatschools.com, or on the site North Carolina Report Card, We are sending our kids to private school now.
Taxes- They are very high. (property). City is annexing towns on the outskirts of the city as fast as they can. Look on a map, and find Biltmore Lake, in Candler. Yep, they are annexing that too!! Then there is the water Bill -way too high! There is a cap gains tax on it, because the City needs to replace their 100 YEAR OLD UNDERGROUND cast iron pipes.!!!!!! Yes, you read that right. The pipes are giving way, and it is a huge problem. Water bill here is double what our FL bill was, and we HAD A POOL in FL. Lastly, there is a .29 gasoline tax!!!!! And the sales tax is high. OOps, forgot state income tax. (unlike FL)...oh, no and here is the real kicker...an automobile tax, EVERY year, that you HAVE to pay. Whether your car is leased, or you own it!!!! For one of our cars, it was $800!! And again, to be clear, it has to be paid EVERY year, on the same car. (it goes down a little each year, as the car ages)
Drivers license- You have to take an entire test, and have lots of documentation. Don't go there with your LAMINATED Social Security Card. Uh uh..no no, they will not accept it in lamination!! And if you are a husband and wife, the wife needs a bill in her OWN name. The husband needs a bill in his name. OK, I am bitter. I had to go there 3 times before I had all my docs in a row!
Asheville is beautiful, and the weather is good. Only REALLY cold for 2 months out of the year (20's and 30's). Even then, the sun pours down during the day. Other times of the year it is so pretty out, and not too hot. 70's. Hot in July and August. (80's)
You might want to rent at first, to avoid all the extra costs. The Real Estate Market is good here. No real decline, actually staying above most markets. A gradual increase each year of 7 - 10% is realized here. No real change in that.
If you are a Floridian, originally from the North, they will call you a "half back". But, not to your face :}
Anything else you want to know, please ask. I will try
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Asheville NC, the good, the bad, and the ugly
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