Winston-Salem vs Greenville vs Tampa vs Concord vs Apex... (living, best, cost)

[RunD1987]

Hey there!

So we narrowed our list of Cities/Towns to move South to these 5. We have some time left to do some research on these areas.

I know these towns and Cities have a lot of variance between them. How would you rank them. Three questions how would you rank these 5 in terms of:

Best to fit our budget. My Wife and I each are going to lose about $10 an hour with pay. We will have some savings with us and plan to pay most of our debt down to balance the deduction of pay. We are hoping to move into an area where there is an abundance of rentals that are $1100 or less.

Kid friendly amenities: Parks; museums; zoos; so forth

Safety

Look forward to reading the responses!
Thanks

[march2]

Winston Salem, Greenville, Tampa, Concord, Apex

All of these are located in really good metros (Greensboro/Winston Salem, Greenville/Spartanburg, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte). I live in the Charlotte area, have friends/family in all but TSP, but lived in the Orlando area (Near TSP) for a year. I could recommend any of them. But given the pay information you gave, here's how I'd rank these areas in this order in terms of Buying Power (average income vs. cost of living). The national average is 100:

1. Winston Salem - 51.83 (ie 51.83% of the national average, which is a great score)

2. Greenville - 78.83

3. Concord - 87.59

4. Tampa - 101.16 (All FL metros have the issue of having a good cost of living, but very low average annual income, which hurts their Buying Power score)

5. Apex - 101.36

Good luck in your search!

[ClemVegas]

I think if you check out these cities yourself, you will lean one way or another.