I have a website
Coastal Paradise that talks about the area though it is weighted towards the area a little to the west of Morehead City.
We live about 17 miles from Morehead City in Cape Carteret.
Map of the area (http://coastalnc.org/generalarea - broken link)
We go to Morehead City all the time. I can be at the shopping center where the Belks, Walmart, Staples, Sears etc is in well under twenty minutes.
There are lots of homes in the area in $200K-$300K range if you don't want to be right on the water. You just have to pick an area and what you want. Here it is often important to decide what kind of water you want.
Deep water is expensive, water view is not bad. I have even seen some very reasonably priced new 3 bedroom two bath homes under fifteen minutes from the beach. They're in the low $200ks.
$300K to $400K can get you in a waterfront community with pool, clubhouse, boat ramp etc if you do a little looking.
We find property taxes and insurance to be about 50% less than it was in Roanoke, Va. Car insurance is more expensive.
This winter which was our first and according to the locals, one of the colder ones, was a piece cake compared to living in the mountains of Virginia where we have been for the last seventeen years. Often the small gas log fireplace in our living room turned on for a few minutes was all I needed for heat.
Another weird thing is that Carteret County water tastes fantastic. It's actually better than the water we get in Roanoke.
I rode my bike every month this winter and didn't miss walking on the beach a single month.
There are
great trails in the area which the governments have done a wonderful job on building.
Morehead has more traffic and congestion than our area. The train does run through the town and they have decided that it will do so for the near future.
There are a number of boat access points and marinas. I have a kayak and having been
kayaking on the White Oak River. Hammocks Beach Park near Swansboro is a great area for that.
I'm hoping to get a skiff this spring. The dock you see is in the kayaking pictures is behind my house.
Morehead City has everything but some of the top end shops and Best Buy, Target, and SAMs or Costco. I understand that Best Buy and Target are in future plans.
They're building a new Lowe's Home Improvement Center in Cape Carteret and there are plans for a smaller Walmart and another Walgreens as well.
We could use a nice mutliplex theater center, but there are small multiple screen theaters in Morehead, Altantic Beach, and Emerald Isle.
There is a bigger one in Jacksonville (20 minutes from Cape Carteret) which also has Target, Books a Million, Best Buy etc, but we all stay away from there because the traffic is a shock to our coastal minds.
The Morehead City area can also get bogged down by the traffic to Beaufort which has to cross a drawbridge which somehow seems to get raised at the most inconvenient times. I have also been caught by train in Morehead.
Those issues and less expensive housing are the reasons we chose Cape Carteret. The housing cost was the big deal. I recently saw a new brick home on the water near Swansboro for around $450K.
My bias for the area around Swansboro-Cape Carteret-Emerald Isle is hard to hide, but we spent three summers looking in the Beaufort area before giving up and finding this area, and it has turned out great.
Beach access in Morehead City requires going over to Fort Macon or trying to find a spot in Altantic beach with parking. Most people just go on to Fort Macon.
It's more convenient to get to the beach in Emerald Isle most times of the year.
If you want to ask more specific questions, you can reach me at
dsobotta@coastalnc.org .
I'm happy to talk about the area because I really love it. There are travel guides to Beaufort and Swansboro on my website that have lots of information.
Access out of this area is usually by US 24 which is far less frustrating than the 50+ stop lights along US70. US24 is four lanes all the way to I40 which has a nice chunk of 70 MPH speed limit. I can be at the Raleigh-Durham airport exit in about 2.5 hours as long as I hit the Raleigh traffic in off peak.
Our other house is 325 miles away in Roanoke, Va about 5.5 hours of driving.
You might enjoy this post if you like fishing, "
Not her first choice."
I have lots of pictures of the area at my
Picasa Web Albums site.
I am sure you already know, but the seafood, especially
shrimp,
grouper, flounder, oysters, and tuna are all fantastic down here. The small restaurants here turn out
some amazing food.
The area also has a lot of
festivals which are great inexpensive fun.
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