Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > North Carolina > Coastal North Carolina
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 02-28-2012, 01:03 PM
 
16 posts, read 84,770 times
Reputation: 13

Advertisements

Hi,


We are planning a house-hunting trip to the coastal areas of SC and NC and looking for some input. Originally, we were looking at Myrtle Beach, which my husband has visited and liked, but Wilmington also caught our eyes. What would you consider the pros and cons of each of those locations?


We are a family of husband (retired), wife (work from home) and 2-year old child. We do not need to find work locally. We are looking for a 4 bedroom (or 3 bedroom plus bonus room for office) house around 175-225 K. We would like to be within easy drive to daily shopping, playground/swimmingpool/park and perhaps 10-20 minutes to beach; good public school area or Catholic School nearby. I like museums/libraries etc., but we do not like too much traffic and hectic feel on a daily basis.

Looking for a place to enjoy a relaxing, but not boring, life!


What do you think would be the best match? And why?


Thanks a lot in advance for your thoughts!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 02-28-2012, 02:13 PM
 
Location: Sneads Ferry, NC
13,323 posts, read 26,778,087 times
Reputation: 6915
Just some quick generalization: Wilmington is a real city with some culture and entertainment districts and decent shopping. People retire there because it is still a nice place to live. There are good schools if you look a bit, for example in Hampstead.

Housing and taxes are probably cheaper in Myrtle Beach, however I saw very few 4-bedroom houses, and a lot of small, cheap 3-bedrooms. I did not see an *quality* housing in MB. I don't know if there is anything like a museum in MB, or any entertainment other than the beach. I'll leave it to you to check out the quality of the schools.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-28-2012, 02:15 PM
 
37,789 posts, read 41,472,106 times
Reputation: 27042
Wilmington is definitely more livable and has a greater authentic sense of place.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-29-2012, 06:10 AM
 
22,768 posts, read 30,599,621 times
Reputation: 14732
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirsten101 View Post
Hi,


We are planning a house-hunting trip to the coastal areas of SC and NC and looking for some input. Originally, we were looking at Myrtle Beach, which my husband has visited and liked, but Wilmington also caught our eyes. What would you consider the pros and cons of each of those locations?
Both areas are touristy, but Myrtle Beach takes it to an extreme.

I could do a pro/con, but that takes a while -- maybe you could expain what you find appealing about MB?


Quote:
We are a family of husband (retired), wife (work from home) and 2-year old child. We do not need to find work locally. We are looking for a 4 bedroom (or 3 bedroom plus bonus room for office) house around 175-225 K. We would like to be within easy drive to daily shopping, playground/swimmingpool/park and perhaps 10-20 minutes to beach; good public school area or Catholic School nearby. I like museums/libraries etc., but we do not like too much traffic and hectic feel on a daily basis.

Looking for a place to enjoy a relaxing, but not boring, life!


What do you think would be the best match? And why?


Thanks a lot in advance for your thoughts!
I always thought MB itself would be a miserable place to live. IMO it is like a giant resort -- has very little sense of community, no real downtown, very little history to speak of. You're living on the "redneck riveria," full of tourists on vacation 24/7. That gets old. Wilmington has some of that tacky-resort-feel, but not too much.

Myrtle Beach is going to have much easier beach and water access, though. IMO Myrtle Beach was built for the common man, Wilmington was built for the wealthy.

Last edited by le roi; 02-29-2012 at 06:24 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2012, 03:34 PM
 
2,424 posts, read 3,512,471 times
Reputation: 2436
Population of Myrtle Beach and surrounds triples in the Summer months, and I may be conservative with that estimate.

If you are not opposed to living a little farther north, take a look at Manteo, NC. It is just across the bridge from the Outer Banks. Not a crowded town at all since most of the traffic is on the Outer Banks.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-04-2012, 05:47 PM
 
16 posts, read 84,770 times
Reputation: 13
Thank you very much for your replies! They are much appreciated!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-05-2012, 07:10 AM
 
638 posts, read 982,948 times
Reputation: 485
We looked in Myrtle Beach before choosing Wilmington. As a matter of fact,we looked all up and down the East Coast. We moved here from Orlando,Fl. where we lived for fifteen years and we call Myrtle Beach "mini Orlando" because it reminds us of Orlando except it doesn't have the big theme parks.....just mini ones. LOL If you want to live in what feels like a "resort" area,then Myrtle would please you. If you like more of a mix of everything,then Wilmington would be best. The beauty of it is, no matter which one you choose,the other one is only an hour/hour and a half away and makes a nice day trip. We go to Myrtle and Raleigh for nice day trips often. We've even went all the way down to Mt. Pleasant and come back up to Myrtle all in a nice day away trip.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-05-2012, 12:19 PM
 
Location: NC Piedmont
4,023 posts, read 3,778,518 times
Reputation: 6549
I agree with others that Wilmington is the more "normal town". However, one thing you will figure out pretty quickly - it is more than 10-20 minutes to the beach from most of Wilmington. If you are on the East side near 74 you can get to Wrightsville Beach that quickly or if you are at the South end and very nearly out of Wilmington then 421 to Carolina Beach isn't that bad. A few more minutes on 421 gets you to Ft Fisher where there is an aquarium and a very nice public beach. I am not a big fan of Wrightsville for day trips with kids. It has public access but it is a "tall hotel beach" where Carolina is more of a "boardwalk/cottage" beach and Ft Fisher is more "back to nature".
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:




Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > North Carolina > Coastal North Carolina
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top