New Yorker moving to New Bern and I have some questions

[RoaminRebel]

Originally Posted by J. Pederman

Philly's median household income is just under $37k, with 25.6% below poverty according to the US Census

In comparison New Bern's median household income in the same period was just over $35k, with a 23.5% poverty rate.

These two locales are not comparable in this way. The demographics are distributed differently. When you are looking at the median household income of Philly proper, you are looking at "inner city" locations, many of which are low income or on government assistance.

You are not counting the fact that the people with the high paying jobs live in the suburbs of Philly and commute in for work. The Philadelphia Main Line comes to mind.. a quick search finds that the median household income of Villanova was 366,904K/ year....

By contrast, the surrounding area of New Bern is primarily rural, with many living in abject poverty.

[Richard Martin]

Originally Posted by RoaminRebel

These two locales are not comparable in this way. The demographics are distributed differently. When you are looking at the median household income of Philly proper, you are looking at "inner city" locations, many of which are low income or on government assistance.

You are not counting the fact that the people with the high paying jobs live in the suburbs of Philly and commute in for work. The Philadelphia Main Line comes to mind.. a quick search finds that the median household income of Villanova was 366,904K/ year....

By contrast, the surrounding area of New Bern is primarily rural, with many living in abject poverty.

Philly is part of a large Combined Metropolitan Statistical Area (1)(2). Due to this it's difficult to get a good number for just Philly and the surrounding counties without spending some time doing it the hard way. For the purposes of this discussion, I ain't doing it. The Philly CMSA median income is $47,528 (2).

(1) Delaware Valley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(2) Highest-income metropolitan statistical areas in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[missynancy]

He's right on spot with that one......Philly is 20 minutes away for me in south jersey - and our town's income is way about the 'philly numbers' and we are almost a non-issue with crime...

[indyroma]

Originally Posted by todd81

At this point with a blizzard heading to Long Island I'd rather be in New Bern! Very interesting points all of you have brought up. I will continue to do more research in the meantime but at least thanks to all of you I have some sort of base idea of what the area is like. Hopefully I will visit soon to see for myself.

I too am really considering New Bern. I live in the Washington DC area, and have gone down to NC to check out some cities and towns. I thought Wilmington was going to be the winner since it is a smaller city, has a historic downtown, great old homes, and is right by the beach. It also has fishing and boating as well. But then I visited New Bern, and loved the feel of the downtown. It was not touristy like Wilmington. It was as if it was were everything happened for the locals- a farmers market, several parks along the water, a small theater, live bands, cheap but good restaurants, convention center with events, public boat ramps and harbors, festivals, and Victorian homes starting from the mid 200k! You are not walking down one main street, but more in a loop. I LOVED it. I wanted to buy a Victorian home to be within walking distance to it all. I was thinking a little boat at the harbor, within walking distance, would top it off to go fishing and crabbing. Even though the beach takes longer to get to, it would be worth being near the downtown for year round entertainment. THEN I saw that there were two government housing projects there, which is the epicenter of the crime in that area. Now my husband does not want to live downtown and I am deflated. We do still want to live in New Bern, but maybe 10 min out from DT. It takes about 7 min. to get from Trent Woods to DT, and about 10 min. from the golfing community south of downtown, which is where we are looking at. Fair Field Harbor, east across the bridge from DT is about 20 min away from DT. They have affordable homes on the water there, but they have some legal issues going on there and many vacancies, so I am scared to invest there. I will live somewhere outside of DT, close though, and maybe 10 years from now the crime won't be so bad and I can buy a historic home. New Bern has been working very hard to make the downtown better overall. Even with the crime, though mostly within the slums, I still have New Bern as my top choice.

[HP91]

Maybe try to rent in the Historic District for awhile and see how you do with that. If you (or your husband) doesn't like it, then you invest elsewhere. I can understand not wanting to invest if you are unsure. But renting maybe could help you with that decision. It may be exactly what you hoped it would be.

As well, you may still consider the Historic District in Wilmington. Or even head to Washington which has a very nice historic district along the water. Edenton is also a great spot if you like historic districts...and is also a long the water.

[LLN]

Originally Posted by indyroma

THEN I saw that there were two government housing projects there, which is the epicenter of the crime in that area. Now my husband does not want to live downtown and I am deflated. We do still want to live in New Bern, but maybe 10 min out from DT.

These kinds of post used to infuriate me. Now I just let it slide. Does your husband think he is better or more vulnerable than ALL THE PEOPLE that live downtown now? Why would they live in those historic mansions if they were skeert? Yeah stuff happens, but the vast majority of crime is in those two areas or several other undesirable areas.

Many of the folks in those big ol historic homes downtown are elderly. They can manage the risk. Does your husband feel like he is better than us since he is from DC area. I for one would beg to differ.

I live in second tier historic area, much farther from the housing projects than the big time historic district down town. If my first three or four years, we had 7 - 10 murders within 1000 yards of our home. But they were all in a specific area, and area that I never pass through nor do I worry about it.

Y'all need to dismount your high horse. People down here aren't stupid. They live in those wonderful houses because they are wonderful. To be a sissy, and to miss out on something you want to do, is pitiful.

Tell your husband to man up and get the house you want. You will be fine. So will he.

Good Luck

[HP91]

Bottom line though is people will decide to spend their money based on what they feel is a secure investment. Many of the South's towns just pretended like there wasn't a problem with man of their neighborhoods. But revitalization doesn't happen without money and money is limited if only locals are spending it.

New Bern has a great downtown and historic district....and it also has subpar public housing in it. It needs to rebuild that public housing near the district into more senior type housing with higher quality construction and more security. It's not the fault of those wishing to invest to clean up the community, it's the fault of those already invested.

[LLN]

Two things are undisputable (or is it indisputable), regardless of one's agenda.

1. The public housing is a disgrace and a blight on the fair city of New Bern.

2. The vast majority of the crime is NOT in the downtown or in the historic district(s).