Please tell me about Wilson NC! (Raleigh, Durham: real estate, renting, crime)

[NurseD]

Hi All,

Considering a position in Wilson NC and would like to know a little more about the area and where are the best/safest (SWF) areas to live (will be renting before deciding to buy). Also my job will be in Home Health, any comments will be greatly appreciated. Oh yea, and which is the nearest beach and how far???

[cassy1]

You should also post this under North Carolina general thread you will probably get more hits.

Wilson is very nice, although I have read some negative points brought out by a few people on this site, for the most part I have never experienced any of what they post.

Wilson is growing in leaps and bounds, housing west, and north west of Wilson is supposed to be the best. Although, I have seen some very nice neighborhoods in the city of Wilson. Stay away from the downtown area, unless you like some crime added into your life.

The town itself, is very clean, growing with new stores and businesses. They have a few sports bars, but not much for the younger crowd.

The housing prices are all over the place, newer homes with okay prices and then some way up there. Search the forum (the button up on top) for Wilson and you will find a few hits.

Good luck, and feel free to pm me if I can help you.
Sandy

[Sky1]

My wife and I avoid Wilson.

[Desdemona123]

Originally Posted by Sky1

My wife and I avoid Wilson.

Why? It's not really helpful to someone to just say 'avoid'..without reasons why. Why you avoid it might be attractive to someone (urban feel for example) or it might be a real cause for concern they should be told about.

[coltank]

From what I have heard there are still a lot of racial tension in the city. It's a smaller town more on the outskirts, so change is slower to reach it. Otherwise, I have always thought it was a cute town, although I have mostly just driven through it on the way to Greeneville. Your beaches aren't too far away, and I'd think maybe the Beaufort area would be closest.

[Beffrey2]

Originally Posted by Sky1

My wife and I avoid Wilson.

Good....Wilson does not want you.....

I like Wilson. There is not much to do, but that can be said for most cities in eastern NC. Wilson is a nice looking town. It is growing towards the north and west. The east side has to much crime.

[BeccaK]

Wow. Thats not cool. Ok I lived there for like four years. From when I was three till six and I made my first friend there that I still tlk to today. I think its a great place. I have wonderful memories from there. I live in Melbourne, FL now and i'd much rather live in Wilson.

[Wire120]

Originally Posted by Sky1

My wife and I avoid Wilson.

If you hate Wilson, then you must think Rocky Mount is a third world country. Wilson is growing nicely for what it is. Its really surpassed Rocky Mount in many ways.

[Wire120]

Originally Posted by coltank

From what I have heard there are still a lot of racial tension in the city. It's a smaller town more on the outskirts, so change is slower to reach it. Otherwise, I have always thought it was a cute town, although I have mostly just driven through it on the way to Greeneville. Your beaches aren't too far away, and I'd think maybe the Beaufort area would be closest.

Ive never had a feeling that Wilson had much racial tension. It doesnt compare to Rock Mount's though. Especially with the whole Martin Luther King statue joke and when the makeup of Rocky Mount is 60 percent black, 40percent white. Its pretty half and half in Wilson.

[Longing_for_Wilson]

I grew up in Wilson, and it's a great place to live!

Sadly, my job and my wife took me away from Wilson in 1999, and I now live in Cary .

We had plenty to do growing up in Wilson. No, we didn't have Chucky Cheesey, and some of those other big city type amusements, but we seemed to do o.k. without it. And, since Wilson is pretty close to the beach, we could take off Saturday morning, spend the day at the beach and come back the same day. I cannot think of anywhere else I would have wanted to grow up.

Wilson is actually growing pretty well. For that reason, I started buying investment property there a few years ago. You can find some FANTASTIC deals. I plan to retire in Wilson.

One nice thing about Wilson that you can't find in Raleigh/Cary/Durham is widespread honesty among subcontractors. People come and go so much in the Triangle area that repairmen know they can screw people over and there are few consequences. Newcomers just check the yellow pages and pick the first company they see. No one knows who to REALLY trust. I actually hire people from Wilson to drive to Cary to work on my house because I know who I can trust in Wilson, and it's still cheaper than hiring people in Cary or Raleigh.

There is an element in Wilson that refuses to move into the present. For example, when I was selling my house in Wilson a real estate agent suggested that he would steer blacks away from it. It was completely illegal him to say that, but he said it in such a matter-of-fact way that I first thought he was joking or that I misunderstood what he was proposing. He wasn't joking so I chose a different agent. Fortunately, those attitudes are dying away.

I like Wilson, and everything is close by and easily accessible. In Cary, it takes 20 minutes to go anywhere. In Wilson, I could have walked to my closest grocery store. You can get anywhere in Wilson in under 10 minutes.
Here's another aspect of Wilson that makes it better than the triangle -- AFFORDABILITY. In Wilson, I could buy a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house two blocks from a school for around $70,000. And, Raleigh is only a 45-minute drive away now that they completed most of the outer-beltline, which bypasses the Knightdale bottleneck.

I grew up in an old neighborhood, and everyone pretty much knew each other. Once a neighbor caught me and a friend attempting to hitchhike, and he told our parents. I thought at the time that small-town familiarity sucked. Now, I wish I lived in an area where people cared that much about my children to call me if they see them misbehaving.

Wilson is a great place to live and work!