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I appreciate you honest feedback, this is something to take into huge consideration. We would like to start planning a family and do not want to jeopardize our family for the hopes of things being better there . Nurses in our region make anywhere from 25-35 dollars an hour in hospital settings as a floor nurse. You'd obviously make more if you did travel nursing or ran a floor.
I don't really think you can compare NJ COL to NC COL. I'm a nurse, and made more here than I did in New York 2 years ago. Nurses are usually paid based on experience. I don't see her having ANY issue with finding a job. Its pretty easy to negotiate wages as well. The bigger issue we had with jobs was more for my husband. New York has what's called prevailing wage for construction contractors, where you are paid by the state based on the county you work in, $25-70/hr. There is no prevailing wage in NC, so we struggled with that. This time around he will have his Class A, so I presume there wont be an issue with him finding a job with such a broad spectrum. OP, I do suggest you rent for a year before buying a house. Visiting is one thing, living here is another
Thanks, I aprecciate all this feedback. My husbands current fields pays around 25-40 dollars an hour and with double pay for overtime, which almost always happens and double time with hazmat condition and when working on road side, which is very frequent.
zombiegirlRN - I don't know if there are many jobs in NC that pay double time for overtime! This is a state that considers $10 - $12 an hour, "big money". All of those fast-food people who want their $15 an hour minimum wage are considered "greedy takers" by the prevailing political establishment! If you are seriously thinking of starting a family, if your husband ends up making much less than in Ohio, he might want to play "Mr. Mom" until the kids start school! It seems that daycare in North Carolina comes with New York prices from what I've heard! My niece does this, her husband is an accountant and she's a Ph.D in Physical Therapy. Something to think about!
What do a lot of people do in NC in these areas for fun or leisure?
We love the outdoors and fishing, not into shopping.
Plenty of outdoors activities and fishing in NC, especially near Charlotte. You can very quickly be in the mountains and have tons of trails to hike. Lots of fishing to be had in the area.
There are tons of places more appealing than Cleveland...
if you want a more rural area, look near Southern Pines/Pinehurst, whose hospital, FirstHealth of Moore county, is one of the top 100-ranked hospitals in the country. High (wealthy) retiree population means "job security" as far as that goes.
Your questions about acreage and cost need to wait until you do a better job of homing in on one part of the state. It's much too large a state to just say "Oh, I know just the neighborhood for you" without a narrower search criteria. Kind of like someone saying "Hey, I'm looking for 5+ acres at $300K somewhere in Ohio"--how would anyone answer that?
Narrow it down to 2-3 general areas for more specific questions like that.
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What do a lot of people do in NC in these areas for fun or leisure?
There are 10 million people here--you name it, they do it. I don't believe you can say "Oh, people here do X". Your questions almost sound like you think NC has about 1,000 people or something? How much do you know about the state? If you're interested in something, you can find somebody doing it.
There are tons of places more appealing than Cleveland...
if you want a more rural area, look near Southern Pines/Pinehurst, whose hospital, FirstHealth of Moore county, is one of the top 100-ranked hospitals in the country. High (wealthy) retiree population means "job security" as far as that goes.
Your questions about acreage and cost need to wait until you do a better job of homing in on one part of the state. It's much too large a state to just say "Oh, I know just the neighborhood for you" without a narrower search criteria. Kind of like someone saying "Hey, I'm looking for 5+ acres at $300K somewhere in Ohio"--how would anyone answer that?
Narrow it down to 2-3 general areas for more specific questions like that.
There are 10 million people here--you name it, they do it. I don't believe you can say "Oh, people here do X". Your questions almost sound like you think NC has about 1,000 people or something? How much do you know about the state? If you're interested in something, you can find somebody doing it.
What do people in Ohio do for fun and leisure?
Okay so I guess major cities with larger health systems. If someone were moving to ohio I could name all the major health systems in our area up until about columbus which is about half the state. I was reading on a previous post and they said what's your budget and do you want to live in the city city.. so by giving my budget of what we can spend on a house, and that we don't want live in the city, i.e. having some land is where i was getting at.
And as far as ohio goes there are different things to do for leisure or fun. There are a lot of breweries up north for people who like beer. Cedar point is huge, kalahari. fishing on lake erie. wonderful metro parks for walking. and nice camping grounds in southern ohio. We also have a few waterparks that are fun, kings island, soak city. festivals in the summer time are popular.
Those are just a few of the really popular things to do in ohio... I'm obviously on here trying to get help for objective factual advice, it kinda seems like your comments are derogatory and trying to make me feel stupid.. I don't think there are 1000 people in the state, i'm not an idiot, and i obviously don't know much about the state or i wouldn't be on city-data.com.
If you don't have anything objective or pleasant to say, please keep your comments to yourself.
Francois is just trying to give you a reality check. The questions you are asking are pretty broad and NC is a large and very diverse state. Each of your questions has multiple answers depending on what specific area of the state is being considered.
Besides the obvious medical centers in Charlotte, Duke in Durham, and UNC in Chapel Hill, I would encourage you to consider Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem. Excellent medical school/hospital. Winston-Salem is a smaller and slower growing metro than Charlotte or Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, but still has plenty to offer. Loads of outdoor recreation in the region, but also a lot of cultural offerings (symphony, art museums, opera, children's museum, etc.) and a vibrant downtown. Your housing budget is more likely to stretch further in this area.
And as far as ohio goes there are different things to do for leisure or fun. There are a lot of breweries up north for people who like beer. Cedar point is huge, kalahari. fishing on lake erie. wonderful metro parks for walking. and nice camping grounds in southern ohio. We also have a few waterparks that are fun, kings island, soak city. festivals in the summer time are popular.
Not sure what Kalahari is but we have all the rest. Carowinds is not as big as Cedar Point, but they do have a new big coaster (they bill it as the biggest "giga coaster" in the world).
I'll see your Lake Erie and raise you the Atlantic Ocean.
We've got tons of beer all over the state, but you'd be hard pressed to find a more concentrated beer mecca than Asheville.
Plenty of fantastic hikes and camping in the mountains and throughout the state. National Seashore on one side of the state and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the other end.
Wet & Wild Emerald Point in Greensboro is a good big water park. Carowinds has one also.
Tons of music festivals in the spring, summer, and fall.
NC is a great outdoors destination.
Francois, is it FirstHealth instead of Moore Regional now? I thought it was Moore Regional. It's a good hospital at any rate. Pinehurst is a golf mecca for a lot of folks, not a big city, though, if you're looking for somewhere smaller.
P.S. looked up Kalahari — looks similar to Great Wolf Lodge, indoor waterpark place. We have one of those in Concord.
We don't have a Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame, but we do have a NASCAR Hall of Fame if that's of interest. Charlotte has pro sports (football and basketball) if you like those, but college basketball is still king in NC. No pro baseball in NC, but many good AAA teams. In the Triangle we're partial to the Durham Bulls.
I think you'll be bored in NC. Ohio cities in general are more interesting places to visit than most NC cities.
After reading the OP's comments about leisure and attractions, it seems that Charlotte's metro is the only fit.
Cedar Point and Kalahari can be matched (in some ways) by Carowinds, Great Wolf, and the Whitewater Center. Just as Cavs fans take the train into town to watch the game; Hornets/Panthers fans do the same (and Charlotte's trains are newer than Clevelands). Charlotte's brew scene is growing rapidly and so is the food scene. Cleveland's chef Rocco Whalen has a Fahrenheit location in downtown Charlotte. Charlotte's location is a rooftop dining experience 22 floors above the city with skyline views (and Charlotte's skyline is now larger than Cleveland's to be honest).
If not Charlotte, metro Atlanta is very active and vibrant. I think for this OP, it's Charlotte vs Atlanta.
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