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My husband and I are traveling down to NC from CT in mid-April to do some house hunting. We are lucky enough to be self-employed and can choose where we WANT to live...and we WANT to live in a warmer climate near the beach!
Thought maybe those who know the area could help. We are looking for:
*a family neighborhood
*maximum $500K house purchase- preferably 2800SF+/4 BR+ home
*neighborhood amenities (pool, clubhouse, family activities)
*a friendly neighborhood where we can walk/bike/socialize
*excellent schools (high school & middle school kids + planning for one more :-)
*Near or very close to the beaches
We have looked at different developments in Southport, Newport and just discovered Hampstead as another possible option. All of this is based on the schools, location and how much bang our housing dollar has.
We are wondering if anyone has specifics or recommendations of certain neighborhoods...because once we find one, we are ready to go! We see there are so many developments out there, and are excited for our trip in under 3 weeks...but we have a lot of ground to cover on our 4 day trip and want to really narrow it down before we arrive.
Any advice or recommendations are much appreciated!
Best of luck to you all. You will find each area's bang for your buck more accomodating than up north that is for sure with the economic downturn, housing is a bit more affordable and large inventory on hand and anxious sellers. With you being self-employed, really do your research before jumping in, I too am self-employed but in the quick service industry and in it for the long haul. That's probably the key, waiting a while and being patient to see things turn around, rather than jumping ship like a lot of folks do from time to time!
Lots of helpful links and check with the chambers of commerce in Brunswick county. The schools are good, unemployment is the biggest concern, but that's hopefully going to recover as the service industry demand improves in many sectors.
We are leaning towards Hampstead and looking for any info about good family neighborhoods there...we see some excellent home values on line and compared to Southport and Newport, it seems like you get much more for your money while still being near the beach. Ahhhhh!
If anyone has info specific to Hampstead, that would be great! We live in an area now where it takes anywhere from 10-20 minutes to get to "real shopping" so that wouldn't be a negative for us :-)
We are leaning towards Hampstead and looking for any info about good family neighborhoods there...we see some excellent home values on line and compared to Southport and Newport, it seems like you get much more for your money while still being near the beach. Ahhhhh!
If anyone has info specific to Hampstead, that would be great! We live in an area now where it takes anywhere from 10-20 minutes to get to "real shopping" so that wouldn't be a negative for us :-)
I hope you will use the search feature on the Coastal NC forum in the upper right and search Hampstead - you will find a lot of info there. And as I have said many times before, sadly, you cannot find stats on just Hampstead on city-data.com. I guess it is because we are unincorporated, but yet I see other unincorporated places on here....just don't know the answer.
You sound like you would love it here with your family situation. I think you might like Pecan Grove Plantation or Pelican Reef - those two neighborhoods seem to be full of families and you are close to the schools, Hampstead Kiwanis Park, and access to Surf City and the beach. You would also be reasonably close to the new Harris Teeter, Lowes Home Improvement and all the other shopping that will come with that development. The Harbor at Summerset is also a lovely development near Belvedere area but does not have the community pool. Lots of folks there and in Belvedere join the pool at Belvedere Country Club (this is NOT a fancy club with a big fancy pool, but folks seem to enjoy it) Olde Pointe has some lovely homes also and a club and pool as well - also not a fancy club, and I think pretty affordable.
There are some nice developments in the south part of Hampstead that would put you closer to shopping in Wilmington, but if you are a real beach lover, you might want to stay in the north part of Hampstead.
Good luck with your move - we have lived in Hampstead for a good while - I am not a realtor - and if you have any specific questions that aren't answered when you run a search, just send me a private message and I will do my best to give you more info.
Thanks so much! I did utilize the "search" option and found some of your other posts helpful as well.
The homes we have seen online are in Pelican Reef and Pecan Grove, so I am happy to hear it is family oriented. I've found that many of the developments around Wilmington are geared towards those who are in retirement, and while I love to have more "seasoned" neighbors, I also don't want to be the only family on the block with kids :-)
We got our mortgage approval today and leave in 2 weeks to go house hunting...we just can't wait.
Thanks again for the info, it is much appreciated!
Thanks so much! I did utilize the "search" option and found some of your other posts helpful as well.
The homes we have seen online are in Pelican Reef and Pecan Grove, so I am happy to hear it is family oriented. I've found that many of the developments around Wilmington are geared towards those who are in retirement, and while I love to have more "seasoned" neighbors, I also don't want to be the only family on the block with kids :-)
We got our mortgage approval today and leave in 2 weeks to go house hunting...we just can't wait.
Thanks again for the info, it is much appreciated!
Hope the weather will be great for you and you can enjoy a little time on the beach as well as house hunting! If you go over to Topsail Island, drive all the way south to the end and enjoy walking around the tip of the island - it is just so gorgeous down there!
And if you are here on the weekend, perhaps a little visit to Kiwanis Park and the soccer and baseball fields will be helpful to see all the kids out participating in their sports activities. We are retired, but love to see all the kids and action.
Glad the search feature and some other posts were helpful, and now good luck with the "real" search!
We've lived in Hampstead for 8 months and like it overall. I have 4 kids, one in elem, two in middle, and one in High School here and the kids have made friends easily and most of the teachers ae competent. The areas you are looking at houses in are the best, we live in Belvedere and although we're a little more rural than the other neighborhoods its not far to find the kids from our house! The Kiwanis park is so nice and I just love being able to drive over to surf city to Topsail Island for the beach whenever we want to. My only problem is that highway 17 is so busy I don't even want to pull into any of the Hampstead businesses because then I have to somehow get back on that busy busy road with people driving way too fast! I hope your search goes well.
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Hampstead
