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We moved here from San Diego to get ahead, the only thing cheaper is the rent and gas is only .50 cheaper than San Diego. It is alot further to get anywhere so the gas kind of evens out. The bug are horrible!!! My family and I have to stay out of our backyard because we get eaten alive.
We got here and had to register our cars a old suburban and a 06 scion it cost us $400 and then $60 for inspection, then after 3 months you get a bill from the tax collector for the value of your car and that has to be paid every year on top of the annual registration and inspection fee. CA is cheaper.
Sales tax is 6.75 and an additional 2% tax which I do not know what it is for.
The roads stink so I do not know where they are putting their money because they are not repairing on making sense of the roads. You will get lost for sure especially in the cow poke towns, there are 3 different names on the same stretch of road. You end up on the other side of town with no explanation.
Lightning storms are terrible, I watched a house in my neighborhood get hit by a bolt and catch on fire, they say do not be on the 2nd floor but all of the houses are two story.
You have to run the ac for 6 months of the year due to the humidity it will kill you. My bill has been outrageous.
You cannot get healthy food here because they ship the produce from CA and it is already 5 days old and it goes bad before you get it home and you pay $5 a pound for dry oranges!! People smoke like chimney's in the restaurants and where ever they want.
Please do not respond with bad attitude because we are moving back, I just want people to know the truth about moving here.
I hear you. My daughter and son-in-law moved here and we followed. They moved back to San Diego. Couldn't take the rednecks, schools (my daughter is a special needs teacher), heat, humidity and the lawlessness of the South. You are right, we have never paid so much for food, gas and electric. When you tell someone from here you lived in San Diego, they say isn't it really hot there and expensive. They are nuts. Houses might cost more but when you consider food, gas and electric, it evens out. Who wants to sit in the house for six months of the year. Go outside and sweat. The highway system is terrible. I hear you all the way. Everyone should give it a year, that will be your honeymoon. It doesn't last. Trust me. Good luck.
It just gets me how a lot of people from the most expensive places to live do nothing but complain about how expensive it is. Also to the best of my knowledge MD has the same bug infestation as NC in the summer time. Mosquitoes are not just partial to the south as I also moved from the woods and I actually love sitting outside now. Citronella torches really do help as well as spraying the yard once a month. As far as expensive, well I alone was spending $380/month for electric alone. Here that is my electric, gas, water, sewer, phone and internet. My taxes are the same and my mortgage is the same. I am not a local and a transplant myself but I cannot get over how many people I read on here that move here for the cheaper houses and taxes. Sorry everything is not cheaper but don't you think you need to compensate somewhere for the cheaper, if any, mortgage or taxes, especially compared to NJ taxes. Sorry for venting but not all transplants are out for cheaper, but I always do try and find the bargains when shopping, LOL.
I hear you. My daughter and son-in-law moved here and we followed. They moved back to San Diego. Couldn't take the rednecks, schools (my daughter is a special needs teacher), heat, humidity and the lawlessness of the South. You are right, we have never paid so much for food, gas and electric. When you tell someone from here you lived in San Diego, they say isn't it really hot there and expensive. They are nuts. Houses might cost more but when you consider food, gas and electric, it evens out. Who wants to sit in the house for six months of the year. Go outside and sweat. The highway system is terrible. I hear you all the way. Everyone should give it a year, that will be your honeymoon. It doesn't last. Trust me. Good luck.
Just curious...not in a condescending way...but what makes the South "lawless"?
SSD - I am so sorry. Yes, the cost of living is nearly identical to most other areas of the country when it comes to food and gas, healthcare, etc. Taxes on houses are significantly lower than many other places in the country, but they are about identical to what we paid in KS. Also, the cost of homes is much cheaper than in many other areas, but again - it was about identical to what we paid for square footage in our previous home. So I don't see the bargain in cost of living (except for the cost of housing if one is from a high cost area).
I am a native, but after living in the Kansas City metro - where I was very comfortable, had a great life and wonderful friends - I had a terrible adjustment moving back here. And my family is HERE! Plus, lifelong friends! But it was a very hard move back. It is just not easy to move ANYWHERE if you are happy where you are!
For me, the first two years were spent trying to get my bearings and it didn't help that I felt homesick for my friends, my former neighborhood . . . and I kept mentally comparing everything here w/ everything there.
But gradually, I started discovering things I enjoyed . . . got into a routine . . . and the pieces fell in place. I think at first I was insistent on trying to replace what I had left, and that is impossible. I used to think - oh, if I could only transport my house, my neighborhood and my friends here . . . wh/ is goofy, of course, LOL!!! After all, I had left and nothing was the same except the furniture I brought w/ me!!!
I decided to try to find something new - or rediscover something I had loved about this region - every week. Find just ONE THING. And before long, I realized that I was letting go of my former home more and more, and starting to feel like I was getting settled in NC.
Piece by piece, I started constructing a new life for myself, rather than trying to duplicate one I had left behind.
It isn't always easy (altho I will have to say - I hardly had an adjustment when I moved to KS - I guess I was ready for the move and I happened to land in a very compatible spot, LOL).
If you can make the shift to "this is an adventure" . . . rather than "this is too challenging to be fun" - it will help.
One thing I can promise . . . several months is not long enuff to know if a move was the right thing or not. It takes a lot longer b/f a person can even begin to stop mourning the losses (friends and family you left behind; adjustments to things big and small, kids making new friends, learning your way around a new place, etc).
It is okay to feel miserable for a while, LOL!!! You have left a life you knew and have come to a place where nothing is familiar . . . It is going to take a while! You have dismantled your world . . . and now it is up to you to put it back together again - one day at a time.
For all of you feeling disconnected b/c of a move . . . things really do get better with time. You will make new friends, you will find a grocery store you like, LOL, and you will find special places you enjoy going. But it does take TIME.
CALIFORNIAMOMMY: if you can't find the positive things and let go of expectations and comparisons, it really is never gonna feel like home here.
rednecks? where do u live? or should I say where did they live? there are great schools here but obviously no one did their homework...and life in CA is any better? our electric went down considerably and the Freeway in San Diego is a picnic? well for the OP it isnt for everyone so have a nice trip back home...
Just curious...not in a condescending way...but what makes the South "lawless"?
Hee Hee. I would like to hear that explanation, too. "the lawlessness of the South" - that sounds like we are all wild heathens w/ bad teeth and gun holsters, running rampant in the streets, shooting it up at the local Saloon!!!!
It just gets me how a lot of people from the most expensive places to live do nothing but complain about how expensive it is. Also to the best of my knowledge MD has the same bug infestation as NC in the summer time. Mosquitoes are not just partial to the south as I also moved from the woods and I actually love sitting outside now. Citronella torches really do help as well as spraying the yard once a month. As far as expensive, well I alone was spending $380/month for electric alone. Here that is my electric, gas, water, sewer, phone and internet. My taxes are the same and my mortgage is the same. I am not a local and a transplant myself but I cannot get over how many people I read on here that move here for the cheaper houses and taxes. Sorry everything is not cheaper but don't you think you need to compensate somewhere for the cheaper, if any, mortgage or taxes, especially compared to NJ taxes. Sorry for venting but not all transplants are out for cheaper, but I always do try and find the bargains when shopping, LOL.
I agree. If you are looking for a new place to live and are not happy with where you live currently then this is a great place to move and start a new life. My mistake along with many others is I really loved where I lived and relocated for what I thought would be a much lower cost of living. Unfortunately that is the only reason I agreed to relocate and I was wrong. It is totally and completely my fault and has nothing to do with the area I relocated to.
I was thinking the same thing. It seems more often than not, people who find they don't like it in Charlotte or Raleigh usualy share a common trait in that they came "here" for one reason and one reason only. Money. There needs to be more to it than that or it just doesn't work in the long run IMHO.
Last edited by North_Raleigh_Guy; 09-15-2008 at 08:48 PM..
SSD - I am so sorry. Yes, the cost of living is nearly identical to most other areas of the country when it comes to food and gas, healthcare, etc. Taxes on houses are significantly lower than many other places in the country, but they are about identical to what we paid in KS. Also, the cost of homes is much cheaper than in many other areas, but again - it was about identical to what we paid for square footage in our previous home. So I don't see the bargain in cost of living (except for the cost of housing if one is from a high cost area).
I am a native, but after living in the Kansas City metro - where I was very comfortable, had a great life and wonderful friends - I had a terrible adjustment moving back here. And my family is HERE! Plus, lifelong friends! But it was a very hard move back. It is just not easy to move ANYWHERE if you are happy where you are!
For me, the first two years were spent trying to get my bearings and it didn't help that I felt homesick for my friends, my former neighborhood . . . and I kept mentally comparing everything here w/ everything there.
But gradually, I started discovering things I enjoyed . . . got into a routine . . . and the pieces fell in place. I think at first I was insistent on trying to replace what I had left, and that is impossible. I used to think - oh, if I could only transport my house, my neighborhood and my friends here . . . wh/ is goofy, of course, LOL!!! After all, I had left and nothing was the same except the furniture I brought w/ me!!!
I decided to try to find something new - or rediscover something I had loved about this region - every week. Find just ONE THING. And before long, I realized that I was letting go of my former home more and more, and starting to feel like I was getting settled in NC.
Piece by piece, I started constructing a new life for myself, rather than trying to duplicate one I had left behind.
It isn't always easy (altho I will have to say - I hardly had an adjustment when I moved to KS - I guess I was ready for the move and I happened to land in a very compatible spot, LOL).
If you can make the shift to "this is an adventure" . . . rather than "this is too challenging to be fun" - it will help.
One thing I can promise . . . several months is not long enuff to know if a move was the right thing or not. It takes a lot longer b/f a person can even begin to stop mourning the losses (friends and family you left behind; adjustments to things big and small, kids making new friends, learning your way around a new place, etc).
It is okay to feel miserable for a while, LOL!!! You have left a life you knew and have come to a place where nothing is familiar . . . It is going to take a while! You have dismantled your world . . . and now it is up to you to put it back together again - one day at a time.
For all of you feeling disconnected b/c of a move . . . things really do get better with time. You will make new friends, you will find a grocery store you like, LOL, and you will find special places you enjoy going. But it does take TIME.
CALIFORNIAMOMMY: if you can't find the positive things and let go of expectations and comparisons, it really is never gonna feel like home here.
Thanks Ani. I know we have been over this many times. Thanks for your support AGAIN!!!!! I just wanted to let people know that just because someone is not happy here does not mean there is something wrong here it just means that maybe they made a mistake and left their "home" for the wrong reason.
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