Quote:
Originally Posted by Dancinnprancin26
I have been researching relocating to North Carolina's coastal area but it's hard to see anything but tourist material. What is a good area for a 20 something Y/O professional to move? Where do I start!?  lol thanks! |
I have had the privilege of knowing lots of interesting twenty year olds, including my own set of young adults. Of the three, two would like living here on the Crystal Coast, and one is actively trying to figure out to accomplish the move. Of course finding a job is the biggest challenge. The third one of our children thinks we live beyond the limits of civilizations. While I am happy with a very fast cable modem, he has to have Verizon FIOS and lots of restaurants like Chilpote Mexican Grill and Sweetwater Tavern. He would prefer an eight lane highway to a two lane road through a National Forest.
It is one of those equations that we all face. Do you want to live where you love living but might have to do something which does not pay as much as you want or do you want to live where you can have your favorite job and perhaps be within traveling distance of a place you love?
I absolutely love NC's Northern Outer Banks, I have been traveling there since I was one, and that was a lot of years ago. The summer crowds gradually pushed us south along the banks until we were vacationing on Hatteras Island.
When we decided to make the move from the Virginia Mountains where I used to commute weekly to the DC metro area for my job, we spent about three years visiting places along the coast from Assateague on Virginia's eastern shore to Southport and Oak Island on North Carolina's coast.
We had already ruled out South Carolina because of the extra summer heat though Charleston is a really great town for young professionals and probably higher up my list than Wilmington.
We even looked at Ocracoke, but in the end having limited services and a very thin strand of road as an exit when storms rolled around convinced us that we would not be happy on the Northern Outer Banks. A lot of people have found it to be a great place. But we already did our isolation thing when we lived on the Nova Scotia coast in the seventies and in the wilds of New Brunswick in the early eighties so we started looking closely at
the Southern Outer Banks which has never been as well known as the Northern Banks unless you were a North Carolina native.
It was an area very familiar to me since I have been coming with family members to the area to fish for as long as I can remember. I fished on the Point at Emerald Isle when I was less than twenty and getting there required a long ride down the beach in a four wheel drive vehicle.
The Southern Outer Banks is
an area of small towns but there are
lots of reasons to love the area. It is an area of extreme beauty. The waters here are sometimes very hard to even describe with words, but
pictures come close to showing the true colors of the water. The year round population of Carteret County is 65,000 but that doubles at least during the summer peak of visitors. However, the summer tourist traffic is nothing compared to the Northern Outer Banks. We actually have much better roads, and the area can be approached fairly easily by Interstate highway. Even now at the first of August, we are quickly headed to the point when in three weeks, the beaches will start to empty as children go back to school. We will actually miss the visitors since they make the area feel festive.
Because of the summer influx of tourists we have great services from Best Buy, Star Bucks, Olive Garden, TJ Maxx, Out Back to Panera Bread. Almost all of this is in the Morehead City area about 18 to 20 minutes from where we live near Emerald Isle. In the end Carteret County or the area we call the
Crystal Coast was the place that
fitted our needs the best. Four years later, I am still happy with the decision, and we are in the process of selling our mountain home. This is now home for us.
You should consider the area if you absolutely love the water and being able to easily enjoy it. We are sandwiched between the 158,000 acres of the Croatan National Forest and the 56 miles of the Cape Lookout National Seashore which is accessible only by boat. We love
the area's trails and
visiting Cape Lookout is also very special.
If your idea of fun is finding your own beach in a boat or walking on a nearly deserted beach, then this might be the area for you.
There are limited evening entertainment options unless you like those moonlight beach walks, relaxing with a book, or one of our more exotic evening activities like flounder gigging. There are small bars in Morehead City and often there is live music on the docks in Beaufort during the weekend evenings in the summer. However, beach access and water access in the area is exceptional. You can walk on the beach anywhere, and there are a number of free parking areas. There are plenty of places to launch a boat or a kayak. Emerald Isle has some wonderful biking trails stretching for miles.
The area has a lot of fishing, and people who love fishing and boating. We also have access to some of the best fresh seafood on the east coast, from
flounder and
grouper to
shrimp. Every restaurant has their own
shrimp and grits recipe. We had grilled Spanish mackerel fresh from the ocean for dinner last night.
Just driving across the bridge to the beaches renews my spirit. In fact the whole combination of
land and water stretching as far as the eye can see is something very special.
If you love being able to talk the owner of
the local product stand or know
the people in the family run restaurants, this might be the place for you.
If having
a white heron as an early morning visitor thrills you, then this could be the place for you.
If being able to taste your
first ripe homegrown tomato the first of June is important, or if you like having
a palm tree by your porch, this might be your spot.
If having a Target closer than 30 minutes is important, we are still waiting for ours in Morehead City, but we do have one in Jacksonville about 35 minutes away.
Take a look at
the index of posts that I have written for people who might be interested in moving to the area.
Then visit
the website where I have lots of local information and pictures about the area.
If all of that appeals to you, read my travel guides to
Emerald Isle (http://coastalnc.org/emeraldislenctravelguidecd - broken link),
Swansboro, and
Beaufort (http://coastalnc.org/beaufortnctravelguidecd - broken link), then come for a visit and explore the employment opportunities which I will tell you upfront are mostly limited to service industries unless you are a teacher or medical professional. There is work on the area military bases but it usually takes some special skills. Housing in the area is very reasonable, and there are plenty of places to rent.
This is an absolutely wonderful area for someone to live who loves the out of doors, friendly people, and a laid-back beach atmosphere without too much of a tourist atmosphere. It is a year around community with medical services and only 2.5 hours to Raleigh and about three hours to the Chapel Hill-Durham area which is a wonderful place for young professionals if you can handle the traffic and hectic pace of life.
You cannot get a
Bogue Sound Watermelon or fresh shrimp right off the boat in Raleigh but you will have a lot easier time finding a job.
Living here lets us have
some amazing days and live near some fantastic spots like
the Point at Emerald Isle, but there are trade offs. If lots of shopping with access to the latest stuff is important, you might not like the area. If you can live with Belk's as your department store and find your special stuff online, this is one of the most beautiful spots on earth. It is also a spot where you can focus on the important things like family and friends. The festivals we have year round are an important part of life here.
I can almost taste
those Episcopalian lobsters now. Then there is
the Mullet Festival, and it won't be long until is time for
the Emerald Isle Christmas parade where there are almost more people in the parade than watching it.
If this
list of things to do at the beach matches what you like to do, come for a visit.
Here is
a map to some area attractions and my current favorite local restaurants, Nicky's, Riverside, Fairway, T&W's, and Ballyhoo's. I had some great
hand breaded fried clam strips (http://crystalcoastnorthcarolina.us/content/fried-clam-strip-nickys-swansboro - broken link) as an appetizer yesterday at Nicky's.
There are more articles about the area posted at
this site.
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Depends on what you want
