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I thought I had done my research re NC.However look to the history of NC to get an indication of how it is to live there. Race, religion, civil war.Indiginous folk here are stuck in the past, sad.Never met so many bigoted people. I have not got time to deal with it. Transplants seem to be better.
Never met so many rich folk from old money side by side with VERY poor people of all races. sad. Obama has not far to look to help Americans here in the USA rather than send money overseas.
No place is perfect but pick up a local paper , see how many corrupt officials there are and what the current arguments are all about...they never go away.
Look at the makeup of your local council and work out what their agenda is.
Houses are generally cheaper we lived in a beautiful house but all utilities expensive, water rates shocking. Taxes on everything.
Overall not a cheaper place to live but you have to be comfortable with the culture for it to make any sense.Took me 2 years to sell the house at a loss, so maybe rent first to check out the area.
Local realtors hit paydirt when an out of towner turns up to buy, they will never tell you that even in good times house sell very slowly because most communities in rural areas have low turnover of local residents.
There are good people everywhere but scratch away the veneer and really look at the people. Look beyond the natural beauty of the region and look at the number of trailer parks and lack of amenities , right next to old money.
I have lived all over the World but you really have to know what you are getting into living in the South, the good and the bad.
Where in NC did you live? I lived in the west for a long time as well and had the same notions about the South before moving here. I've experienced almost none of what you've purported in Asheville. Not saying it doesn't exist just not as widespread as I also assumed it would be. This is in reference to the bigotry assertion.
pslamp32
We lived in Forest Oaks CC just south of Greensboro, literally a 15 minute drive from downtown Greensboro.
The club lost the PGA tour venue to Sedgfield a couple of years ago( it was played last week again)Ther had been a huge battle between the clubs for years unbeknown to us.
We were adjacent to Pleasant Gardens acros the 421 which is a different World again.
During our 2 year stay we had record heat, record cold, record snow and bugs for whatever reason loved biting me!
Sadly the slow pace of life and the repeated reasons for getting things wrong as if it didnt matter really irritated me. Maybe if I was retired and had all the time in the World it may not have mattered much.
There was a lot of yes sir, yes madam etc etc but it didnt strike me as genuine but more of a throwback to the old days, weird.
Not many would say this but we went to an open day for the whole community at Reynolda House built on the back of slavery.I hardly saw any black people at the event at all. In contrast downtown Greensboro has events that are almost totally black and they are in the process of opening a museum at the old Woolworths to honour the 4 black students who insisted on being seated and served at the soda fountain.
NC is full of history but they insist on 'celebrating' all the stuff that divides, not unites.
Yea, that would explain things. Asheville is a bit different than most parts of the South. To be perfectly honest, Asheville is probably one of the only places in the East I would consider living. IMO it is the most similar to the West. If I ever move from here chances are I'll go back west or Hawaii. I definitely miss the West all the time but I can't complain, Asheville has been a nice compromise.
the state is run by democrats, at least the ones who are not still in jail, so you have the same liberal nonsense you have in NY, IL, CAL., NJ, MA etc.
i don't know about friendly, the people in Hickory are the biggest bunch of bigots i have ever encountered.
This doesn't even make sense--complaining about "liberals" in one breath and "bigots" in the other.
But yes, NC is all over the political map--a very Purple state where the cities tend to be more Blue, rural areas more Red. State govt has been Democratic-controlled for a long time, but it's "Southern Democratic", which are about the same point on the scale as New England Republicans.
None of which addresses the question of living costs. "Less expensive?" requires somewhere to compare it to; "less expensive than where?"
Asheville is more expensive than the rest of NC, for everything, but especially housing.
Not everything. Health care, transportation, and food are generally cheaper in Asheville than in Raleigh. In fact, even with the higher housing costs in Asheville, the cost of living in Asheville and Raleigh is nearly identical.
Another factor to consider is that "costs" are more than merely financial. You have to consider quality of life factors in the equation, otherwise you have an entirely warped perception of what something "costs".
It might be really "cheap" to live in BFE, SC, but who the hell wants to live there?
And it might cost more money to live in a comparably humble dwelling in Asheville versus your city, but then your city isn't Asheville (not making any judgments; the market makes its own judgments in the form of supply and demand).
To me, something is "expensive" if the quality of life is poor. And each person has to decide for themselves which quality of life factors are most important.
Absolutely. Always the most important criteria to me. I'm probably one of the rare people who would rather be poor in paradise than wealthier somewhere I am not at all inspired.
Not everything. Health care, transportation, and food are generally cheaper in Asheville than in Raleigh. In fact, even with the higher housing costs in Asheville, the cost of living in Asheville and Raleigh is nearly identical.
But when you factor in the median family income, how do they compare?
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