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My family (including two school age boys) are looking to get out of NY and move to a beach town in NC. We want a progressive town that is fairly affordable. We also want everything else like low taxes, good schools, low crime,etc. Any ideas on where to start?
I think the most progressive town on the coast is Wilmington. It is fairly affordable, especially compared to NY. Definitely a beach town, with all the positives and negatives of such.
To be honest, what you're looking seems a tall order because top schools don't seem to correlate to low taxes...
However, you might want to check out Wilmington, New Bern and Beaufort/Morehead City. The first two are larger towns, and Beaufort/MC are more villages. I can't address education as we don't have kids in school, but I do know some teachers in the local school system in Beaufort/MC and they are fine people, very dedicated. One won a state-wide award for her science teaching. Many of the instructors at the local community college have Ph.D's.
See other postings by me and others about these communities and check out city data's demographic info for each of the communities.
Will you be bringing your jobs with you? Finding well-paying jobs in coastal NC can be challenging unless you bring needed skills with you or have work that's more globally-based...
That said, coastal NC is a fine place to raise a family--especially if you like water-based family activities like boating, sailing, kayaking, fishing, beach walking and kite flying.
Beaufort's Maritime Museum has Build a Boat Weekends where sons/dads, mothers/daughters can build a little boat together over the weekend. What could be more fun than that?
My family (including two school age boys) are looking to get out of NY and move to a beach town in NC. We want a progressive town that is fairly affordable. We also want everything else like low taxes, good schools, low crime,etc. Any ideas on where to start?
Try Craigslist, I saw a lot of info there, especially in a town called Southport.
I love N.C. and would do anything to convince my wife to move there.
Check out the Crystal Coast areas, Carteret and Onslow Counties. It is not too slow moving and I found it to be classy and great beaches also.
I was to wilmington for about 15 seconds and turned around.....it seemed like I was in philly where I entered from. i turned around and headed to Myrtle beach and was amazed at the beauty and activity. Not too fast but certainly not too slow either.
If you like the Jersey shore than Myrtle beach was much closer to "it" than any town in NC I visited. It is a compromise no matter where you look to live somehow unless of course you are loaded to the gills with dough!
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