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Went down to NC in Feb. to look at homes in the vicinity of Charlotte. We bought a house about 30 miles outside of the city. While there we met numerous people from Long Island looking/purchasing homes. The countdown has begun. Construction begins in July and the closing is in Dec.
The biggest reason is the schools in NC. Academically, they are way behind the northeast. Schools are way overcrowded, each county generally only has two or three high schools. The high school my kids would have to go to is 20 miles away. Schools have set up trailers outside for classrooms. Some schools are going to year round schools or bussing kids all over to make room. Yes property taxes are cheaper but I think it all evens out. If you want to live in a descent area, you have to live in a subdivision and will usually pay a hefty landowners fee. You have to pay a property tax on your vehicles every year, groceries cost more, salaries are less. Every day there are more and more people coming here, and the politicians and elected officials seem to have no idea how to deal with it. Another thing that is hard to explain, I guess I would just say there isn't as good a quality of life down here. Do you know what I mean? The people are way laid back and just don't seem to care about resolving everyday issues. If you are a northerner, you are welcomed in with open arms, as long as you don't say anything bad about NC, and don't try to change anything. Otherwise they'll tell you to go back where you came from. Which is exactly what I'm doing, and the sooner the better.
I'minformed has been here longer than I have, and I think he can verify everything I've said and probably more. Another thing is the weather, it is HOT in the summer and you leave your AC house much more than you do up there in the winter.
I know there are people in NYC and the vicinity who moving to NC, and it probably is cheaper in NC than where they live. However I think the majority of people in the northeast would not like it in the south. People who were born and bred in the northeast seem to have certain morals, beliefs, and ideals that are not as prevalent in the south. I could ramble on for hours.
I'minformed has been here longer than I have, and I think he can verify everything I've said and probably more. Another thing is the weather, it is HOT in the summer and you leave your AC house much more than you do up there in the winter.
Yeah, you pretty much hit the nail on the head.... hey, is the "lake" in your name by any chance refering to Lake Ontario?
Please do "ramble on," lakeman! This is very interesting. I'd say much the same thing about Houston, where my dad lives, and South Florida, where my sister lives. The "communities" there really aren't. They isolate you in "gated communities" or sub-divisions. Classes and races are kept apart in very segregating, alienating ways--there's no natural mix of people but instead a lot of literal and symbolic walling off. If your mom's a doctor and white, you're not likely to have a friend next door whose dad is a plumber and hispanic, etc. Your only real "contact" with people, even people of your own class and status-level, is if you run into them after a long and/or traffic-snarled drive to the shopping plazas. There's no town, no town center, no cluster of churches and libraries and town halls, and often very few sidewalks. Everything depends on the car, and everyone lives in their bubble of air-conditioning and TV-watching, etc. There are homes on the lakes (most of them painfully artificial), but virtually no public or shared (or environmentally healthy) space on and access to these lakes. And you wouldn't want to swim in them anyway. They quickly get slimy with lawn-fertilizer run-off. Beyond these suburbs are blighted inner cities, and older, run-down strips full of nail salons and muffler shops, and farmland that's soon destined to be lost to yet more suburban sprawl. I think a key difference between upstate NY and all these currently-popular places to move to is that the upstate NY towns and small cities developed in an era that was much more congenial to human needs. It wasn't based on the car, and all the isolating sprawl the car creates. The streets with the big houses gradually merge into the streets with the modest houses. You can walk from home to store to church to village green to town hall and home again. The upstate NY towns and small cities also developed when architecture was generally more stately and distinctive--craftmanship and individuality are always evident, nudging you toward a sense of individual responsibility. (I know that sounds mystical but I swear it's there!) And the all-important porch, to put you out in nature and among your neighbors yet also in your home, was a key part of this architecture. The porches on new homes in NC, Florida, Houston, and other sprawl-areas are at best token things. And everyone's hiding from the heat inside their AC, or shopping, anyway! And then when winter comes, people complain it's too cold--AC really pinches their comfort-zone, just as all the focus on shopping makes people bratty when things are immediately entertaining and convenient. Even the relatively few and very far between public parks are generally kid-less from May to October down there. Forget about a kid hopping on his bike and going from the park to swimming in the lake to roaming the woods back to town for a soda, etc. Just doesn't and can't happen in these kinds of places. By contrast, when we visit upstate NY, our kids can be kids again--and that by itself creates an affection and loyalty in and for these towns. Do others agree?
A-MEN! You said it! I can't wait to get out of NC, it's just not the kind of place I want my family to be any more.
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