Sparta/Tomah/Fort McCoy (Mountain, Fayette: sales, vehicle registration, houses)

[mpalm1968]

My husband and I are getting ready to move back to Wisconsin from North Carolina. We are both orginally from WI. He served 22 years in the Army and retired. We are moving to the Sparta area and not sure about homes, rent, etc. If there is any information you can give, it would be great.

[angelaf]

Hi,
I'm sorry I don't have info for you, but I'm kind of in the opposite boat as you... living in Wisconsin now (near the MN border) and will be moving to NC soon. Can you tell me how the humidity and heat compare? I keep hearing about the humidity in NC, but it gets pretty humid here too... would you say it's much worse in NC? I know it depends on what part of NC you're in, too-- we're looking at Asheville, Hickory, Mount Airy, maybe Charlotte. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance!

[mpalm1968]

I will tell you that Fayetteville is far worse than back home in Wisconsin. Its hard to even breathe at times. Asheville is beautiful. The western part of NC is a lot different. With the mountains, tree's, its a lot like being home. The more East you get the worse it is. Sorry, I'm not a North Carolina fan. If you are a Packer Fan, plan on getting the NFL package because hardly any games shown. I'm glad we had Fort Bragg to go to!!

The sales tax is high here also. (7% pluse 2% on alcohol) There is also the inspection fees you have to pay for every year for vehicles on top of the vehicle registration. All around, its a lot more expensive then when we were home, even on visits. 2% milk here in Fayetteville is $4.10 a gallon. OUCH! They also don't sell Lienenkugels here, that was hard for my husband to deal with.

Let me know if you come up with anymore questions. I am more than happy to help you out.

[angelaf]

Thanks!
I know it gets much more humid as you get closer to the coast, and we're not looking at any places as far east as Fayetteville (I don't think) so I'm hoping it won't be as bad as what I've been warned about. I'm excited about Asheville, I keep hearing that it's beautiful and a great place to live, but I also know that houses are more expensive there than in other places we've looked, and jobs seem to be harder to come by. I'm going to be driving down with a friend in two weeks (my first visit) so hopefully I'll get a better feel of things then. Of course, we're not coming during the hottest part of the year, but that's probably a good thing!
I hadn't realized the higher taxes would make such a difference--that's pretty high for a gallon of milk! I also just recently learned about the taxes on vehicles and other items--even dogs! It's going to be a change, for sure... but the property taxes are so much lower that it will more than make up for it, I think. We're in St. Croix Co. and our property taxes for our old, not-even-very-nice house on a half-acre lot are over $2600 now and going up every year. The gas and electric bills nearly kill us every winter-- last Feb. I got a gas bill for over $400 for ONE MONTH. Yeah, we turned the heat way down at night this year!

[baked bean]

The gas and electric bills nearly kill us every winter-- last Feb. I got a gas bill for over $400 for ONE MONTH.

Angelaf:
Our winters on the east coast tend to go in cycles of mild and bitter. Was last year a particularly cold winter in Wisconsin, or is this normal?

[angelaf]

It wasn't particularly cold. The gas prices were up, so that was part of it. It was also partly because the gas company didn't come out and read the meter for a couple of months (I think) and they were estimating our usage-- so when they did come out to read it in Feb. they charged us an arm and a leg to make up the difference. But even without that mistake, a typical month for us in the winter is around $150-175. (Keep in mind, that is just gas--electric is separate and always at least $100 a month.) I kept the furnace down to 62* at night this winter which helped but was unpleasant. Our house is older and not very well-insulated but our furnace is a new, high-efficiency model. I think our experience is pretty typical.

[sillygal]

I am not a fan of NC either, I am trying to leave........lol.

[ihatefonddulac]

We lived in Spartanburg, South Carolina for a couple of years, moving there from Minnesota, and although we didn't really care for Spartanburg, we did live 30 minutes from the border of western NC, and we just loved that area. We did go to Asheville often. We were about an hour away. It is very nice there. The mountains are beautiful, and the people in western NC were very friendly. The humidity is very different than the Midwest. When we first moved there, I had been used to hanging my dishrag on the middle of the sink after using it. You can't do that there. Within in a few hours, the dishrag was black with mold. You have to spread everything out flat to dry there and never leave anything wet laying around. The air is harder to breathe. Some areas, like Spartanburg, SC and Charlotte, NC have really bad air pollution, but pollution isn't that bad in western NC except the Smoky Mountain National Park, unfortunately. I think the air there is harder to breathe because of the humidity. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a beautiful highway to take a drive. It goes through the mountains and goes right through Asheville. The crepe myrtle trees there are also just gorgeous. You should enjoy it there!