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we have been thinking about an NC relocation for years. Our home is for sale, there is interest in it, but we are fading fast in the search for homes (and a reason to stay) here.
We are from Rochester, NY and while that's NY, its NOTHING like the city. We are 17 miles form Rochester, a 240,000 city. Of those 17 miles, 5-8 minutes is corn fields and forest. there is no traffic. The down side is 2200 sunshine hours, 66 snowy days, 4 consecutive months with lows below freezing and 2 surrounding months only a degree or two higher. A 1600ft^2 home on 0.5 acres would be $160,000 to $180,000 but have taxes around $6,000-8,000. Its a great place for other reasons, but we are pretty much over it.
That said, Greensboro looks good for many reasons. Via real estate listings, it almost reminds me of here in terms of house/yard style. I was wondering some neighborhoods that might suit us... we are used to being kind of in the country. Out home for the last <6 years is in the center of a one-intersection village est. 1803 so there is charm, places to walk. The city where the jobs are (albeit a small city, smaller than Greensboro) is 20 minutes away. No where in our village, nor the larger surrounding areas for shopping have "bad areas" where you wouldn't walk with your kids at night. I realize statements like that can be offensive or put people in boxes, but lets face it, it needs to be discussed. We are quite drawn to a large enough yard to have a detached building for my car hobby (which is sadly almost ALL keeping our beat daily drivers going, and a 1950 chevy 4dr hotrod). We also want to have a pool, and are quite surprised virtually none of the homes for sale seem to have one.
I was hoping to get some neighborhood suggestions, some warnings of things that might not be obvious. Also, to better and more fully understand the actual cost of owning a $180,000-$200,000 home (taxes, utilities, insurance, and more).
Another huge thing is natural stuff like swimming holes and freshwater fun for when Wilmington's drive isn't in the cards. Also, kid stuff for rainy and cold days. My bride stays home with our kids, so that's important. Rochester has a lot of it, but 100 inches of snow per year begs things to do for people who are shorter (toddlers) than the average snow in the yard. As I type, parts of my yard still have a foot. Happy second day of spring.
I should add: I make about the US household average... certainly NOT 6 figures. Personal? maybe, but I would want you all to know that as it plays into how we can afford the aforementioned home.
we have been thinking about an NC relocation for years. Our home is for sale, there is interest in it, but we are fading fast in the search for homes (and a reason to stay) here.
We are from Rochester, NY and while that's NY, its NOTHING like the city. We are 17 miles form Rochester, a 240,000 city. Of those 17 miles, 5-8 minutes is corn fields and forest. there is no traffic. The down side is 2200 sunshine hours, 66 snowy days, 4 consecutive months with lows below freezing and 2 surrounding months only a degree or two higher. A 1600ft^2 home on 0.5 acres would be $160,000 to $180,000 but have taxes around $6,000-8,000. Its a great place for other reasons, but we are pretty much over it.
That said, Greensboro looks good for many reasons. Via real estate listings, it almost reminds me of here in terms of house/yard style. I was wondering some neighborhoods that might suit us... we are used to being kind of in the country. Out home for the last <6 years is in the center of a one-intersection village est. 1803 so there is charm, places to walk. The city where the jobs are (albeit a small city, smaller than Greensboro) is 20 minutes away. No where in our village, nor the larger surrounding areas for shopping have "bad areas" where you wouldn't walk with your kids at night. I realize statements like that can be offensive or put people in boxes, but lets face it, it needs to be discussed. We are quite drawn to a large enough yard to have a detached building for my car hobby (which is sadly almost ALL keeping our beat daily drivers going, and a 1950 chevy 4dr hotrod). We also want to have a pool, and are quite surprised virtually none of the homes for sale seem to have one.
I was hoping to get some neighborhood suggestions, some warnings of things that might not be obvious. Also, to better and more fully understand the actual cost of owning a $180,000-$200,000 home (taxes, utilities, insurance, and more).
Another huge thing is natural stuff like swimming holes and freshwater fun for when Wilmington's drive isn't in the cards. Also, kid stuff for rainy and cold days. My bride stays home with our kids, so that's important. Rochester has a lot of it, but 100 inches of snow per year begs things to do for people who are shorter (toddlers) than the average snow in the yard. As I type, parts of my yard still have a foot. Happy second day of spring.
I should add: I make about the US household average... certainly NOT 6 figures. Personal? maybe, but I would want you all to know that as it plays into how we can afford the aforementioned home.
I look forward to hearing from you
Drew
If this is the case and you are looking for affordable homes within the distance of a water hole but still close enough to the cities then I would look into NE Davidson County, NW Guilford County or SW Rockingham County. I believe either one of those areas would work for you but preferable I would go with Guilford County or Rockingham County over Davidson/Randolph County.
I am really surprised to find how there doesn't really seem to be "county" near these cities even though they are the size of mine. Having lived out side of NY state and met many people who have never been here, many thing its like NYC (which i couldn't live in if it was free) but it seems its more county here than most places in the east. There are literally fully commercial farms 20 minutes from skyscrapers (errr... tall buildings) here. Someone with $250,000 to spend can have chickens and maybe a horse or two. Those aren't my goals or anything... at some point a little breathing room is... not animals.
I am really surprised to find how there doesn't really seem to be "county" near these cities even though they are the size of mine. Having lived out side of NY state and met many people who have never been here, many thing its like NYC (which i couldn't live in if it was free) but it seems its more county here than most places in the east. There are literally fully commercial farms 20 minutes from skyscrapers (errr... tall buildings) here. Someone with $250,000 to spend can have chickens and maybe a horse or two. Those aren't my goals or anything... at some point a little breathing room is... not animals.
Well you never stated what amount of acreage you want to buy. There is county so to speak but that would be more in Randolph or Davidson County.
I recently stumbled onto Brown Summit. Its not county but it seems the yards are bigger and the country is nearby. I'll look into those other areas. I appreciate it
I know Greensboro was mentioned, if that's not set in stone, I would definitely check out some of the more 'country' areas west of Winston-Salem. Namely. Pfafftown, Advance and Yadkinville.
Most cities in the southeast are fairly sprawly because of when they developed, but I think that Winston, anyway, gives way to fairly rural areas pretty quickly in most directions. Greensboro less so because it has the airport and Winston to the west, High Point to the south, and the sprawl of Burlington (which bleeds into Mebane, which bleeds into greater RDU) to the east.
As for pools, I grew up in SC and have found that private pools are far less common in NC (at least in the Piedmont and points west) than in SC (which, in turn, has fewer than Florida). Public, neighborhood, and membership pools, however, are much more common, in my experience. Like Sue said, it boils down to upkeep. I have family in SC that has a pool and they use it from April (sometimes March) to October. Some years they never even bother covering it. Even though it's only an average of 5-10 degrees cooler where we are in NC, that's a big enough difference that pool season is cut down by a month or so on each side, and there are more hard freezes in the winter.
But like I say, shared pools of some sort are common. We belong to a membership pool and also have a public pool, a YMCA pool, a neighborhood/subdivision pool or two, and a swim club within a mile or so of our house.
Country, as I define it, is farms and cows and tractors everywhere. Whats what its like on all 4 sides of my village, but only for a little while before the next village. Our village, 17 miles from the city, has tractor pulls and a county concert every summer. That's the environement. There are plenty of roads with no one on them for me to test drive my 'rod when I am working on it at night...
So strange that pools aren't more common there. We will absolutely have one if we move down, even if it has to be on the smaller side
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