eastern suggestions? (Charlotte, Greensboro, Durham: real estate, high crime, how much)

[relocator]

My Fiance & I are looking to relocate from NH. Are looking at carolinas for reasons of golf, ocean, more moderate climate, and hopefully a more affordable lifestyle. Looking for an area to move to that is nearby to golf courses and within reasonable distance (1/2 hr) to ocean. Reasonable real estate is a must. Also would love to know of areas that have good access to land and trails for horses. Any thoughts on River Bend for fulfilling these needs? ANY thoughts on other areas would be extremely helpful. thanks!

[jennie3940]

i am from new hampshire also and i used to live in maysville....not far from the city jacksonville but a quiet little town. I was there 19 years ago and would love to relocate there again if ever possible

[relocator]

thanks for your input about maysville, jennie! Can you tell me a little about the town? We live in white Mtns of NH, where towns are very small and people are friendly. We are hoping to find an area that is near more "activity" (culture, restaurants, things to do, etc..) but still live in a friendly, neighborly place. We'd like to be near ocean (w/in 30 mins) but also be able to have land (5-15 acres), so that we're not on top of our neighbors, and would like to have horses (ideally to also be near some trails). I don't know if this fits Maysville -but would love your input and suggestions, since you have familiarity w/ what NH is like

[AprilMayBe]

Hi I also live in NH and am considering moving eventually to the Carolina's. I've found the most amazing website to assist in this search. If you want you can go to it too and post your questions there. The Forum Experts are from the Carolina's and are just wonderful with answering all your questions. Go to this site Moderator cut: link removed and then click on FORUM and go to the state of North Carolina and you can read all the different type of questions and either hop in and ask yourself or you can start up a new question and the Forum Expert's name is Bud and he's fantastic assisting you with your questons. I've learned SO much from this site, it's extremely helpful and the people are from New England like us or I've found they're mainly from New York or New Jersey! Wait till you start reading this wonderful Forum, you will learn SO much about the Carolina's this way. For instance if you plan on having kids? The schools in North Carolina are where younger couples seem to be migrating too. With me? I'm a little older than that age group and don't have to worry about any school systems, so South Carolina is where I'm thinking of heading...although the more I look at the Real Estate sites for North Carolina, it's going to be a tough decision to make...Good luck in your new lives, you're doing the right thing, you GO for it and don't you dare look back. I drove friends of mine that bought a house down to South Carolina the week before Christmas and I LOVED there house so much that NOW I'm thinking of this area where they moved to! The drive down from New Hampshire is a breeze too! We left on a Monday night around 8:00 and we were in Middletown, NY by a little after 11 that night. The next morning we got up early and we drove 11 or so hours, and that night we were in Virginia and sta*** there. The next morning Wednesday? We left Virginia and in no time we were in North Carolina, then South Carolina and around 10 of 1 we were talking to the Real Estate woman and she escorted us over to their new home. It's a beautiful drive down there too! Don't go 95S...it's the most boring road you ever saw in your life. Instead trave 81...remember that if you do end up driving down there at all...it's VERY scenic, a lot like where you're living right now in fact! We went all through Pennsylvania and then the Shenendoah Valley area of Virginia, it was STUNNING! Good luck with your new venture and remember what I said, don't look back, you're going to LOVE living there, the weather alone has me sold on it!

Good luck and if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask me. Go to that site Moderator cut: link removed and check it the NC or the SC Forums out, wait until you see all the people that have questions JUST like you!

[jennie3940]

maysville a little town with lots of land. the people there are great. I didnt meet on person there that wouldnt take the shirt off there back for you if then needed to lol. jacksonville is like 10 miles from there and that is where the city is. all the restaraunts and theaters any thing you want is right there. when i was married i went around the country twice with my ex. and out of all the places i been maysville is the only place that i loved.
there isnt a night that goes bye that i think dont of moving there again because i miss it so much,but i have 3 girls and all my family is here in nh and i dont want to take them from that...jennie

[kelllington]

Brunswick County has 39 golf courses, and is close to beach, but still has plenty
of room for horses. Close to Wilmington, a beautiful, historic, port town.

More affordable than most places near water.

[Robojudge]

AprilMayBe,
For a non-North Carolinian, non-southerner, I couldn't have said it better than you did. As a North Carolinian, I admit to a certain bias. But there are parts of South Carolina that are outstanding. South Carolina does not have the natural geographic diversity of North Carolina or the economic power, but it is a great State. If you haven't visited the Charleston area, it is a must see. If I don't retire in North Carolina, Charleston will be my next "first choice."

[relocator]

Thanks for all of your input & suggestions. It's so tough to try to narrow down a new place to call home on the internet - of course we'll take a trip to wherever we think we've decided on - but somehow have to narrow down the possibilities from afar.

I am wondering if anyone can give me feedback on the general state of economy in NC (we are stuck too, at this point, in the decision between NC & SC). I hear mixed things about availability of jobs & rates of pay & would love some feedback. Right now my Fiance' & myself are in Hospitality industry (bartenders at present- but have event work, serving experience, and i managed a hotel, but wouldn't want that again). We truly are hoping to make a move into more of a career field and part of our reason for moving out of northern NH is to go to an area with more financial/employment opportunities (there are so few businesses & rural layout & seasonal po****tions make it really tough to have your own biz here). Can anyone suppy feedback on this?

thanks

[AprilMayBe]

Good morning! It's only me again, I wanted to give you guys an update first on this incredible story regarding my friends that moved to SC.....I drove them down from NH to Lexington, SC (which is near Columbia) to their beautiful new home Dec. 12th to the 18th. They flew me home on the 18th of Dec. to Manchester airport. I got a call from them a few days later that they were shopping (again!) at the Columbiana Ctr. Mall but this time an Irmo, SC policeman pulled them over. My friend smokes and what did she do? She flicked a cigarette out the window! SO he bagged her big time for it. He gave her a ticket for doing this, it was for exactly $465. Littering is one of the laws that you really really have to watch out for and remember not to flick a thing out of your car window. Didn't she have to go to court on top of this? I mean she couldn't have just paid it? No! It was on January 17th, so the Judge asked her "How do you plea?" So she pleaded Guilty and she got the full fine of $465...PLUS there was 15 hours of community service which she BOUGHT for $5 an hour when it was explained to her, so THIS ticket then cost her $540. They don't take checks so she had to go to the Bank the next day to get the cash to go pay for it! I'm just SO thankful this didnt happen when I was with them that whole week...yikes, thankfully I don't smoke either! Her husband is hard of hearing so he doesn't have a CLUE how much this ticket was!!! (Funny or what!) In any case it's behind them now, the SC plates are on the truck and their car now, those NH plates were whipped off so fast after that saga happened! SO now with me? I'm not impressed one bit with SC any more! These friends also told us it's pretty expensive in the supermarkets compared to ours, they're finding out. One simple example is a box of kleenex, here you can get 2 boxes for $1.00 and in all 3 supermarkets she went to in SC? They were 1 box for $2.00. That's only one example. So they're finding it a little more expensive, I suppose it all evens out all across the country with all this stuff!

[AprilMayBe]

I'm still leaning toward NC now no matter what any one says and lately it hasn't changed my mind at all! The internet is a wonderful tool, by the way! You can investigate and find out SO much and you learn SO SO much from it! It's like "homework assignments in school" you delve in to it and the more you find out about something or some place? The more enlightened you are about it! For instance, I don't care anymore about the taxes every one keeps telling me about and what I'm reading online that they have in NC. I'm hearing that state has tax bills for this and tax bills for that, and it's every time you turn around! For instance, a state tax, a county tax, a city tax etc......but you know? If it's economically a better state to live in? Then GOOD "bring it on baby!" AND if they don't pull what the SC law enforcement seem to have to pull on people? I'm leaning toward North Carolina every day now more and more in this huge decision to move to this part of our great country!

I can tell you that I'm still young enough to work for so many more years because I'd be SO SO bored if I didnt! I'm semi-retired let's say that, from a large company, so with me, I'm leaning toward living near a city but not IN an actual city, you know what I mean? Especially where I'm coming from the Boston area? I'd want and need to be near some type of a city. For instance on the drive down to SC we stopped at Hickory, NC and I absolutely LOVED this cute town, JUST everything about it! Go online to see this area of NC, it was absolutely beautiful. The only thing about it? It was about 50 miles from Charlotte, NC, although Gastonia wasn't that far from this place. I think a lot of retirees live in this area and I can see why. Beautiful lakes all around here! If you didn't want to be near the ocean or the coast? What beautiful lakes NC! Something about that NC though that has me sold I'm telling you! It'll probably be exactly where I end up down the road!

NOW lately, I'm wondering about the Greensboro, NC area because there's 4 areas that are right near Greensboro, easy enough to drive? Sunset Hills, Fisher Park, Latham Park or Hamilton Forest, it's got me wondering about this whole area because Duke University is near here evidently? It looks pretty nice when you see the real estate!

I'm hearing that the Durham area has a lot of high high crime areas to watch out for??? The Trinity Park area is quite good though to live in and has a lot of older type homes, (the 27701 zip code) it's neat checking out these areas, Good luck! One more area....Asheville, NC is a place that I'm hearing a LOT of good things about! The only thing is? I have NO idea if it's near a city??? It seems to me it's way out in the sticks of NC, it certainly seems to be online! May be when people from the area see this post they will help us out with these wonderful areas!

Other than these parts of NC mentioned here? I was investigating the state of SC like you wouldn't believe up until this saga with the ticket happened to my friends a few weeks ago! Now, I'm seriously leaning toward NC more and more!

Good luck whatever you two decide, it's a very GOOD move, no matter what people have to say or no matter what you find out, just do your homework good! You're definitely doing the right thing, don't look back, you can always drive up to NE from there, it's no problem! You GO for it! Just think of our horrendous snow storms and our freezing cold below zero winter days; always always think of that and you'll be JUST fine; you won't get homesick for New England one bit I bet!