Is Wilmington, NC that bad? (Durham, Washington: violent crime, college, gated communities)
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In the winter you could get a beach rental at a very reasonable price. I would choose something in Wrightsville Beach, it is close to Wilmington and active year round. Carolina Beach is further from everything and to me has a whole different vibe. In the summer it could be fun to rent in downtown wilmington - there are a lot of activities around town. If you do come I recommend you join Wilmington Newcomers Club - not only could you meet other new people but its programs are a good opportunity to get acquainted with the various things Wilmington offers.
Dcsuburbs, I think you would like it here. I lived in the Maryland suburbs of dc most of my life, and now in wilmington 5 years. I love it here, and have found most people, from lifelong wilmingtonians and other transplants, to be friendly.
Now this is just my opinion, but I wouldn't choose any gated community or "plantations" that are all transplants from other places. Live in a regular neighborhood and be friendly, get involved in activities, it's great! I love the beach, the thriving arts community, the opportunity to take adult education classes, the wonderful little city.
I have also lived in the DC suburbs for 30 years, and I will add another vote of approval for living in Wilmington.
Thank you sun daze and goldenage1! I love your suggestions sundaze - I have heard a lot of good things about Wrightsville Beach and my husband and I would love to try a rental there. I think we would definitely want to be in downtown Wilmington to see what the city offers. I've only seen pictures of the area - the river walk area looks really nice and the historic district would be something I would love to see. Wherever we travel, we always explore areas around where we stay and try to find the places that the local residents go to and like - we have found some terrific spots that way. Having lived in this area I know you both can appreciate what we are looking for in our retirement - while we have both had good careers here and have enjoyed all that this area has to offer, it's not what we want for the next part of our lives! Any and all tips and suggestions are really appreciated - thanks so much!
This forum hasn't been that active but I do have one more suggestion. Start a new thread because this one is long and has a negative title. Maybe one on "retiring to Wilmington from DC suburbs looking for suggestions." You might get more help that way. Another is just checking out monthly rentals to see where to stay. If you do start a new thread give as much information about yourselves and what you are looking for as possible. If you are on facebook, private message me and I can give you good suggestions on things to "like" and follow to get more information regularly.
Started reading through this thread but I don't really know where all this crime and what not is that people are talking about. I've never had problems in Wilmington. Yeah some parts of downtown are a little bit sketchy but you should never have a reason to be in those neighborhoods. I honestly feel the best part of Wilmington to live in is the Ogden or Porters Neck area. That way you are close enough to everything you'll want or need but it's nice and quiet in most of the neighborhoods back there.
Started reading through this thread but I don't really know where all this crime and what not is that people are talking about. I've never had problems in Wilmington. Yeah some parts of downtown are a little bit sketchy but you should never have a reason to be in those neighborhoods. I honestly feel the best part of Wilmington to live in is the Ogden or Porters Neck area. That way you are close enough to everything you'll want or need but it's nice and quiet in most of the neighborhoods back there.
I agree with you on the crime. Reading through this thread, I'm not sure how I've managed to last here this long without being robbed, beaten, and murdered.
I've had quite a few chuckles reading through this thread, some of the comments are so far off base, I have to assume the posters are just blatantly trolling. To what end? I have no idea, but they sure are funny
I moved to Wilm in 1995 at the age of 21. My career path eventually led me to Raleigh in 2003, and now in the VA burbs of DC since 2011. When I am done, kids are off on their own, and god willing in good health, Wilm is where you'll find my wife and I. She was born in Wilm, and I do consider it to be my "home". My goal is to retire there and return to the best kept secret in academia as a visiting professor of finance, specifically commercial real estate.
Wilm has changed a lot since I first arrived there. Its a coastal town that has grown up to become a college town too, and some strong industry with PPD having their HQ there, and of course GE. It went thru the bubble/bust reasonably well. Prices are back to where they were around 2002ish and rising again. National home builders came in during the bust and picked off a good amount of real estate from the local builders who couldn't hold on. There is a TON of cheap real estate development options down towards southport that is still trying to clear the market.
Crime? Mostly your typical fanfare of college kids and some coastal crazies who've spent a little too much time in the sun. I would say Wilm is probably 30% white collar, 40% blue collar, and 30% other. I am including the retiree crowd in white collar. But regardless of the socioeconomic mix, it is 99% awesome.
I really enjoyed the "off season" of Wilmington. That's when the town is returned to the locals. The summer is great too, but can get crowded by the weekend warriors from Raleigh and Charlotte.
If you go, my only recommendation as a "must have", is to budget for a boat! You don't need anything fancy, infact in my opinion the best boat to have there is little more than a used 19' Boston Whaler. To really enjoy the area, you have to get a boat. I lived there for 5 years before I had a boat. It completely changed everything for me, and made me truly love the area that much more. Some of the best sunsets you'll ever see in your life. Some of the best kept secrets to enjoying the beach, especially on the northern side of Figure 8 Island, can only happen with a boat. Again, nothing fancy, because salt water will beat up whatever you put in it, and it does get shallow at spots. You want something that you can "beach" with ease. Leave the offshore rigs to your new friends that you'll meet there. Let them have the headaches. You, want something simple, easy, and mobile for when it comes time to pull up and hide from a hurricane. You will experience them there too, no doubt about it. I saw the eye of several. From Bertha, Fran, Bonnie, Floyd, and so on. Once a hurricane finds the Gulf Stream around Jacksonville, you can bet that 85% of the time the storm won't make the sharp right turn with the Gulf Stream south of Wilmington, and instead come straight up the Cape Fear River instead, like a slingshot.
Don't let all the doom and gloom about the traffic scare you off. After living in the Raleigh area for a couple of years, returning to Wilmington was like, well...a day at the beach.
If you are visiting do yourself a favor and buy a city map on the way into town. A GPS won't really do that much good, but alternative routes are plentiful. Just be creative. Also, with a bit of practice you can navigate a lot of the town on a bike.
Traffic in Wilmington is laughable at best. It generally keeps moving quite well compared to anywhere else I've ever lived. And I agree with NC211...nothing like beaching a boat on masonboro island and camping out for the night. Hell the criminals in NC are friendlier than the regular folks in NYC.
Wow, some really great info - thank you! I thoroughly believe that some of the posters in this thread were clearly trolls - they were making Wilmington sound like the worst place on earth for crime, traffic, etc. After doing some research it was obvious that was not the case. Trying to find somewhere to be happy and live a good, but not extravagant retired life is not a simple thing. Wanting to get away from the DC suburbs, the congestion, the stress and the very high cost of living has lead us to investigate areas that are not too far away (my husband's family is from the DC area) but will give us a close proximity to the beach and to an area that isn't too big but not too small either. Wilmington is a place that we want to investigate because it met most all of our needs - and as NC211 suggested, we had even talked about purchasing a boat if we were to live in this area so we could enjoy the outdoors and the water a lot more. We have not ventured further than the Outer Banks (where we vacation ALOT - LOL!) so we are making plans to explore Wilmington and the areas around it - and we will certainly take a look at Ogden and Porters Neck. After living with traffic in the DC area, ANYTHING will be better as far as I'm concerned! We can't wait to begin looking at Wilmington seriously as a place for us to live a good retired life.
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