We have been here exactly one year today! We came from PA (which we hated for 15 looong years!) and moved to Matthews in a neighborhood (subdivision/community or whatever you call these things in your area) called Shannamara. WE LOVE IT. Matthews is right outside of all the goings-on in the city. We can make it to Uptown - they don't call it downtown here - in 15 mins. easy. We do not commute as my husband works from home. Traffic during detain times can be pretty bad but the city is so tiny that it isn't as bad as other metropolitan areas are. Boston, Philly, NYC, Houston, SF are all much worse. You'll hear lots of complaints about the traffic and that's good. The expectations here are high. It makes moving here wonderful for the rest of us!
Matthews has every store, restaurant and other hometown stuff you could want. It is exceptionally pretty and everything from the gas station to the more inexpensive neighborhoods are landscaped beautifully.
We have friends who also live in Matthews but they are in the Mecklenberg (Charlotte) County side. We are a few miles away and are in Union County. Our taxes are a quarter of what we paid for up north. The houses here are all brick, we have a clubhouse, large pools and 3 watersides! The golf course here is called the Divide (because we are divided by the two counties - get it? Ha ha) and there are tennis courts as well as a variety of social clubs catering to over-55s, golfers, tennis players and kids. The HOA? $417 a year. Crazy, right? We totally love Matthews and Shannamara. Union County has dirt cheap taxes (our house is 3500 sq. ft. So it isn't big by any stretch of the imagination) and the taxes are about $2100. That's a fraction of up north. Everything is cheaper here except groceries. Sales tax is kind of high at 7.75% I think.
The schools, in case you wanted to know, are fabulous. Both of my kids go to schools that are only a few years old. They are equipped with the latest and greatest technology, progressive curriculum and really well thought out details like having the Hugh schoolers get licked up last so they can sleep in. If the little ones are up at 7am anyway, hey let them go to school earlier! The extracurricular activities, football in particular, is huge. The high school games attract lots of people just as if it were a college. Great buildings, staff and materials run by mostly wonderful people.
Lots of northerners came down here and changed the face of this city in the last 10 years. Some locals don't like it. Some even hate the newcomers because we demanded more, took up more space, filed the fields with new communities and ruined the peace here. In some ways they are right. I saw it happen in my hometown in MA and it was hard to see all the changes. But this city is made better by the skilled workforce, demand for excellent culture and cuisines, parks, gardens, festivals and so on. It's a wonderfully safe city on this side of the spoked wheel. I live at the 5 o'clock if you are looking at Charlotte like a clock face.
I'll probably get heat from saing that Union County's schools are great, taxes lower and that Shannamara is just an elitist snob neighborhood. Whatever. We are trying to make our place here in our new hometown by volunteering and really getting immersed in this place. Most locals are thrilled to have people show up and not be a drain. Worse is when they come down from the north (especially NJ and NY) and insist that everything up there is sooo much better. I was in NYC. It's action-packed and has a lot to do. However, Charlotte has a town "feel" yet,still manages to have nice museums, theater and art galleries among other things.
My advice is to stay within a reasonable drive to the city and pick a spot with good schools because your house will be worth much more at selling time. Besides Mathews, you could look next for in Mint Hill which is a bit more country-ish. Myers Park, Dilworth and Ballantyne are also great choices. They are the pricier areas so you could spend anywhere from $250k to a few mil in the right spot. If you have a smaller budget, you could still find a cute 3 bedroom for $125k with some tinier homes (there are a lot,of adorable brick bungalows) even less in areas like Indian Trail. I'm giving you the names of town I know personally, there are many more but I'm not an authority on those areas. I know what brought us to this town and this neighborhood that made it a perfect choice for my family. Maybe you'll come and find something completely different but you should be able to stay within shouting of uptown.
My advice is to stay for a week or two and look all around for people to ask. Find a neighborhood you like and walk through it, talk to the people and not just your realtor. In our search we quickly knocked off Monroe. It has bad traffic and lots of crime in certain spots. We have visited here for years to see fiends and it is so different now than it was then. Some people hate that. Make yourself a good neighbor, volunteer and chat with everybody. You'll quickly find out that these people love their city, rightfully so, have high standards for how well she is kept up (they should!) and are normally really thrilled to see the new people become involved neighbors and not just whiners complaining about how much better life is in Their City.
Sorry this is so long but I think people need to read the good stuff about a city. You will hear tons of complaints. Not everyone is happy but I wil say this I love it here, my family loves it here and there is no way I would go back to Manhattan, Boston...although maybe SF.
Good luck!
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