Considering move to warmer place... (Denver: HOA, crime, homes)

[Mystery123]

Originally Posted by ALStafford

The pollen thing is VERY VERY REAL. Think of all the advice you received in moving here about how to adjust to how dry it is...always have water with you, buy saline nasal spray and lip balm, etc. It's the same in NC for allergy seasons; and yes, there's two. One in the spring (check the Triangle City-Data about the "green storm" "green fog" "green snow" etc. etc), and again in the fall, when falling leaves develop powdery molds. So, plan for a morning antihistime, carrying tissues always, and using allergy eye drops.

There is a significant Asian/Indian community in Cary, NC, especially the western part, toward Morrisville. Again, the Triangle City-Data has many questions and answers regarding the Asian/Indian community, and most will point you that direction. And, in eastern Cary, if Udupi Cafe is still there, I strongly recommend!

I see. I'm not allergic but my mom is.
Not sure if she's allergic to pollen specifically but she gets allergies off and on in Denver.

Wherever I move, it'll be at least for another 15 years or until kids finish/go to college so need to look at all the details.
It's a pain to move over and over again.
I'll check the Triangle city forum.
Thanks

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by ALStafford

Tech jobs are more concentrated in the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, and it's NOT RDU, that's just the airport); insurance and banking more in Charlotte, although I know of folks working in the tech department of Bank of America there, so certainly there are jobs in tech there as well.

Raleigh is about 3 hours to the mountains (Boone area), and about 2 hours to the beach (Wrightsville Beach). Charlotte is closer to the mountains but further from the beach.

I lived in the Triangle ~10 years, and much preferred it over Charlotte. I really couldn't tell you why, but I feel the Triangle is a bit more laid back. A bit more accepting of diversity. Most likely leaning left (although the state is not dissimilar from CO in that the urban centers increase in population (and some of the mountain towns that are population centers with major universities like Asheville and Boone) has the state turning from red to purple, and DEEPLY RED rural areas). Certainly, better schools, especially college/university in the Triangle. So many little weekend events almost all year. The farmer's markets in Durham and Carrboro.

Having lived in several different states in my life, NC is the only one that could potentially pull me back, but it would take quite an offer to do so (all personal reasons). I'd really recommend giving the Triangle area a look, too. The Triangle City-Data forum is one of the most active ones on City-Data, and they're really helpful. You might even find some of my old postings before I relocated here!

This is what a lot of North Carolinian (conservative ones) have told me. Blue in the city, but deep, deep red in the rural areas.

[HatchChile]

Originally Posted by Phil P

I was in Denver and now I'm down the road from NC in northern Georgia. It is a bit of a jungle, so many more leaves per acre, but I like it a lot! The trees are next level, there's so much variety! There's nothing that can compare to a hardwood forest in the Rockies, aspen are so tiny and monotone in comparison . The nice part is I really haven't seen many snakes (I did see several rattlers in Denver) and the mosquitoes really are not bad! Weather is better IMO, even if it gets hot in the summer, it'll be nice to have some down time split into 2 chunks of the year where I don't feel guilty playing video games instead of being outside

Ha, I feel the same. I lived in Denver and Boulder, and now in Triangle area of NC. The immediate beauty of this places is undeniable. The hardwood forest just blows me away. A lot of trails right in the city. Plus I can literally drive to one of the prettiest beaches in East Coast within 2.5 hours, or to Outer Banks under 5 hours, or can be in Asheville under 4 hours. Also before the pandemic, it was nice to just drive and explore places. You can get to so many places under 6 hours: Charlotte, Atlanta, Washington DC, a bunch of VA cities including Richmond, Norfolk, etc.

This place is taking off though. I am so glad I moved when I moved here and bought my house about 2.5 years ago. I wouldn't able to compete with 50K-100K over the asking price offers here at this point. It is still affordable compared to so many tech hubs though. But, Google announcing that they'll be building an engineering hub didn't help the frenzy, and now a few weeks ago Apple said that they'll be building a huge campus here (this supposed to be their first and only campus on East Coast). So, the housing market has been nuts.

I have the same feeling about the summer here. It's humid and hot, but I have tons of hobbies so I literally stay in my air-conditioned home and do not feel guilty about it. I did go up to the western NC a couple of times to kayak when I first got here. It doesn't get as humid and hot up there compared to Piedmont.


The political environment is changing because so many people are moving here. Trump literally won by 1% I think (about 100K people) in 2020. The cities are very progressive. As a non-white, gay and atheist I have had zero problems here. Triangle is very diverse and highly educated. You are kind of in a bubble, but that bubble is growing because of housing shortage. So all the smaller cities around Triangle are changing too.

[poppydog]

Originally Posted by HatchChile

The political environment is changing because so many people are moving here.

Pretty good summary except for this statement. There’s a sizable contingency of the newcomers, especially from the Northeast and other high tax areas that are coming here because they think it’s a conservative paradise, which is way off base. Go look up John Tedesco. He’s exemplary of this trend and then they enter NC politics and tear down the progressive policies we have fought hard for and built up over generations. Some liberal newcomers to NC have a bit of a savior complex and think all the newcomers are going to turn NC blue, when in reality it ain’t like that at all.

For the record, NC has a long history of purple polka-dotted politics. Look up NC leaders like Jim Hunt, Terry Sanford, Harvey Gantt, Frank Porter Graham, or Bev Perdue. You have those folks and then you have folks like Jesse Helms on the other side. Jesse once famously said of Chapel Hill that you should put a fence around it and make it the NC Zoo. That dichotomy exemplified by Hunt vs Helms and Gantt vs Helms has been around a long long time. NC voted for Obama in 2008 but we have a history of split ticket voting. Something like 3 of the governors since the 1960s have been Republicans to 8 Democrats.

[Mystery123]

Thanks for replies.
I looked homes in CA and most are in huge colonies with very small backyard unless little far out from suburbs.
I'm leaning towards CA due to the weather and also good education later on for kids although I see good colleges in NC as well.
Wife is leaning towards NC due to cheaper homes and living costs.

Now the question comes about what areas to avoid.
You know we have Colfax area near downtown Denver and some neighborhoods in Aurora that are not that desirable.
I'm sure every city has few areas like that.
Any insight around suburbs of San Francisco, Sacramento and North Carolina's "bad" neighborhoods around major cities?

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by Mystery123

Thanks for replies.
I looked homes in CA and most are in huge colonies with very small backyard unless little far out from suburbs.
I'm leaning towards CA due to the weather and also good education later on for kids although I see good colleges in NC as well.
Wife is leaning towards NC due to cheaper homes and living costs.

Now the question comes about what areas to avoid.
You know we have Colfax area near downtown Denver and some neighborhoods in Aurora that are not that desirable.
I'm sure every city has few areas like that.
Any insight around suburbs of San Francisco, Sacramento and North Carolina's "bad" neighborhoods around major cities?

I live in Orange County. Lovely place. If you can afford it. I would think SF burbs are way too pricey. Sacramento gets really hot.

[Mystery123]

Originally Posted by Gaylord_Focker

I live in Orange County. Lovely place. If you can afford it. I would think SF burbs are way too pricey. Sacramento gets really hot.

Doesn't LA area get hotter than the Northern SF or Sacramento?

I checked few homes in Irvine and they are pricier than near SF or Sacramento.
Nothing under $700k for 4 bed home.

I'm in IT and income is okay if there's job but job security is not so great as I found last year.
Wife works odd jobs so that doesn't help much in expensive areas.

[poppydog]

CA and NC are very different. I used to live in LA but I would not move to CA now. So many fires and this season is shaping up to be a bad one. By contrast NC is very, very green with lots of outdoor opportunities. NC has big Indian and South Asian communities in the cities. Morrisville and Cary have especially large communities but there are plenty. If you can visit both I’d do that. I think one will quickly stand out as your preference.

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by Mystery123

Doesn't LA area get hotter than the Northern SF or Sacramento?

I checked few homes in Irvine and they are pricier than near SF or Sacramento.
Nothing under $700k for 4 bed home.

I'm in IT and income is okay if there's job but job security is not so great as I found last year.
Wife works odd jobs so that doesn't help much in expensive areas.

I think it depends where in LA you live. I live in Irvine. Yep, nothing under 700 for a 4br.

[BabyBoomers2]

Well, for us, we didn't like living in NC (Huntersville), but going to Cherokee casino, in the mountains was definitely fun. I had never seen the Atlantic Ocean, until we visited Wrightsville. It was simply "ok". Huntersville did remind us, in some ways, of Parker, CO. We had a house in Parker, before selling and moving to NC in 2007. Very little diversity in Parker, when we lived there. IOW, not everyone wants much, if any, diversity where they live.

After NC, it was a move to northeastern FL. for 10 1/2 years. For us, now that we are back in Colorado, we should have never moved away in the first place. Even as Seniors, in our early 70's, we can handle the winters, love the Rockies/Elk and most definitely the rodeo action we didn't have for 11 1/2 years we were gone. Being a former rodeo cowboy/team roper, and my wife being a huge fan of rodeo, we are so glad to be back where big rodeos are..........Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and surrounding states.

Unfortunately for some and others love it, parts of Colorado now look like Los Angeles. Back in the mid 70's, I use to be in emergency medical in L.A. and Orange County, so I know what both look like. I actually met my wife in Costa Mesa and, after we married at Knott's Berry Farm, we decided to move to Colorado. I had already been from Cheyenne down thru the Front Range of Colorado and really liked what I had seen. The Rockies were stunningly beautiful!

NC and FL turned out not to be for us, just like Colorado isn't for everyone. We don't have any family living here, but that is fine with us.