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Right on. I moved here from Toms River about 7 years ago, and it's been the best decision my wife and I ever made. Seriously. Will you have the same experience and luck? Hopefully, but with something as life altering as a 500-mile relocation...you need to do some serious research and really weigh your options. Good luck to you.
we need to get WoW going in the triangle though. linger longer.
Best of luck to you guys, wish I could figure out where I want to live the rest of our lives, but I have a feeling its not this area ! Something is definately missing ?
to be fair, you do list your location as Willow Spring, which is how big exactly? not that Raleigh is a raging metropolis, but if you like big towns, why did you choose to live in the country?
In all fairness, when I mention my feelings about living here, ( Here means a 100 mile radius) ....
My wife and I are in a very similar situation to the OP. But my overal feelings are quite different. We moved down here from the DC Metro area in March 2006. My mom had just passed away and we inherited a decent amount of money. We were young(mid 20s) and couldn't afford housing in the DC area. Moving here and buying was one of the smartest things we ever did because we would have bought in DC at the top of the market. But we made mistakes like the OP did. We didn't spend much time down here and quickly bought a sub 200k home in NE Raleigh without doing research(didn't know city-data existed). Our neighborhood was cookie cutter with tiny lots. Nobody took care of their yards and it just wasn't a place we wanted to start a family. We were fortunate to be able to sell our house and walk away about even(after realtor fees). After much research, we moved to Holly Springs in 2008 and I fell in love with our house and neighborhood and the town. At the time, we had a discussion and asked each other if we could stay here for 30 years. We both said yes.
Then we had a baby and everything changed. We realized that being so far from family was really tough and I was genuinely surprised out how active my in laws were with our son. Grandma is absolutely baby crazy for our son. It's great. So we thought about moving back home. Im currently Mr. Mom and not working so it is a good time. My wife just got very lucky and landed a fabulous job making 2x her current salary in DC. So all of a sudden, we are now moving in 3 weeks as well. I am really going to miss Holly Springs.
Despite not doing proper research and living in a sub par neighborhood for 2.5 years, I still enjoyed the first half of our stay in NC. Since moving to HS, I have loved living here. We have found everyone to be very friendly and I have nothing bad to say about the Triangle. But we decided family was more important and that is our sole reason for moving home(well I do get to watch my Orioles again so that's another big selling point!).
Anyway, sorry for the long post. To recap, NC is a great place and I have enjoyed living here. But before you come here, please do the following:
RESEARCH!! RESEARCH!! RESEARCH!!!
We won't make that mistake again. We are going to rent in Northern Virginia for a while until we get a good feel for the area. I want this to be the last house I ever buy!
Which MD areas are you targeting? I'm afraid that (unfortunately) you will not find Baltimore area schools to be anything like CT-quality. The closer one is to DC, the better the schools tend to be (though you probably already know this). Most of our friends living in the Baltimore suburbs send their children to private schools.
Good luck with the move; there's no point in staying somewhere one is not happy. DC/Balt is an excellent place to be career-wise!
We are looking at Baltimore City. Believe it or not there are some great neighborhoods in the city, you just have to look for them. As far as the schools in the city go, well, um, okay, we are aware they suck big time. Everyplace has it's pros and cons.
Right on. I moved here from Toms River about 7 years ago, and it's been the best decision my wife and I ever made. Seriously. Will you have the same experience and luck? Hopefully, but with something as life altering as a 500-mile relocation...you need to do some serious research and really weigh your options. Good luck to you.
Alright, just what I wanna hear! My wife and I are planning a trip down in the next month or so to do a "look around". We sold our "too big" house in Jackson, NJ, and are renting short term in Toms River (Been in this area all our lives)
I just started a job search, and securing a position in the Raleigh area will determine when we can plan to move down. We RV alot and always seemed to travel down that way to places we wanted to visit. It will be nice to be closer to some of them. Opens up a whole new vacation area for us. Also look forward to riding my 2 wheeler out towards the mountains.
Keeping my fingers crossed for a decent job at a decent company!
The common thread running through many of the posts here seems to be the surprise folks feel when they realize how much they miss their family and support group back home, wherever that may be. When we moved here 11 years ago, two families of friends were already here, so we had a built-in extended family waiting for us. I think many people underestimate how the distance will affect them and what that separation will mean for them and their families. Sometimes, with the increased mobility afforded by life in the 21st century, the things that are really important get lost in the shuffle.
The common thread running through many of the posts here seems to be the surprise folks feel when they realize how much they miss their family and support group back home, wherever that may be. When we moved here 11 years ago, two families of friends were already here, so we had a built-in extended family waiting for us. I think many people underestimate how the distance will affect them and what that separation will mean for them and their families. Sometimes, with the increased mobility afforded by life in the 21st century, the things that are really important get lost in the shuffle.
Good post. The reason we landed in Raleigh instead of places that may have been a better fit for us, like Austin, Tampa, West Coast, is that all our family, and my job, is in NY. Being a half days drive away has made a huge difference for us. Best move we ever made.
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Agree With You
Best of luck to you guys, wish I could figure out where I want to live the rest of our lives, but I have a feeling its not this area ! Something is definately missing ? 
My wife and I are planning a trip down in the next month or so to do a "look around". We sold our "too big" house in Jackson, NJ, and are renting short term in Toms River (Been in this area all our lives)
