Want to move to NC- need advice (Charlotte, Raleigh: homes, safe area)

[Waylon and Paula]

My family is interested in moving to NC. We love the mountains and the ocean and would love a place with both, if possible. We also have a young family and need to find a safe city with great schools and a reasonable cost of living. We like to have activities available to us for the family also. Is there a place in NC that would meet most of our desires? Please refer us to any websites that may help. Thank you!

[LittleDolphin]

Be happy to see you move to our fine state...you'll find our geography is divided up into three main regions: Coastal (flat except for some sand dunes), Piedmont (foothills between coastal plain and mountains) and Mountains.

It's kind of hard to get the mountains and coast in one package...in fact, darn near impossible, except for those towering sand dunes...Kitty Hawk is where the Wright Brothers launched the first flight...

Which do you prefer--the Mountains or the Coast?? Or you could go half-way between the two and choose the Piedmont area and drive a couple of hours to either the high places or the wave-y places...

I'm on the coast and love it but I do travel to the mountains a couple of times a year--especially during the leaf-turning times to savor that blaze of color and apple-cider time. Spring with wild flowers and full waterfalls draw me to the mountains, too...

Hard to select which area, eh? NC's got it all.

[surv1234]

Perhaps you can find a home in asheville and vacation in Wrightsville Beach!

[dsobotta]

We have homes in Roanoke, Va in the Blue Ridge mountains and near Cape Carteret, NC which is only minutes from the Emerald Isle beaches.

I am very happy with our choice to be on the coast most of the time.

Yesterday we left Roanoke and the temperature was 31F. They had freezing rain last night.

We got back to coast around eleven pm. It was 64F. Today I went bike riding in my shorts and tee-shirt.

It was sleeting in Roanoke. You can read about the temperatures along the route in a post that I did.

It will give you a good view of how the temperatures can change in a state like NC where you do have a choice between the mountains and the coast.

Of course in the summertime, it is often cooler on the coast than it is around Raleigh.

My comment to most people who want to move to the coast is to come visit the area and check out what the potential is for jobs.

Since the Crystal Coast is all small towns, it is generally a safe area and the schools are very good in our area.

There are lots of wonderful places to live in the state. I have a daughter living near Lake Norman just north of Charlotte, she loves it there.

We lived in Mount Airy which is a wonderful small town, but it is a place where good jobs are hard to find.

I also lived in Lewisville which is just west of Winston-Salem. That's also a very nice area.

You should have a look at the City data profiles for some of the areas. They provide lots of information.

Once you have more of an idea of where to go, people on the forum can give you a tremendous amount of information about a particular area.

What we cannot do is tell you what is the best area for you and your family.

We also cannot give you mountains on the coast.

Do a Google search for "Coastal NC Paradise" and you will come up lots of information that I have on my Coastal NC site.

There are plenty of great things for a family to do on the coast from historical sites to boating, fishing, and hiking.

I hope you find the right spot. NC is a great state.

It is also a beautiful state.

This was the view off our front porch this evening.



The back deck view of the White Oak River was pretty nice also.