Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My husband and I are living in Arizona and are interested in moving to North Carolina to retire.
The Cary area looks good to us, as well as the Charlotte area.
We have never been there, and are looking for the best neighborhoods to look into to retire on a limited income. Home or townhouse. Rent or buy.
Any suggestions?
We have heard there are relocated New Englanders in Cary area. True?
Thank you.
My husband and I are living in Arizona and are interested in moving to North Carolina to retire.
The Cary area looks good to us, as well as the Charlotte area.
We have never been there, and are looking for the best neighborhoods to look into to retire on a limited income. Home or townhouse. Rent or buy.
Any suggestions?
We have heard there are relocated New Englanders in Cary area. True?
Thank you.
I could throw a rock and hit one right now. Maybe two if my aim is good.
Yes. There are plenty in Cary. You mention retirement, limited income, and homes/townhomes.
I assume you want to buy. What sort of price range/age of home were you thinking?
Have you investigated it online yet?
Will you be driving your own cars and not require public transport here? (Public transportation is a bit iffy in these parts)
__________________
When in doubt, check it out: FAQ
meh whatever presents some important questions. I'd also add:
Do you want to live in a 55+ age restricted community, one that is mostly mature adults, or a very mixed, family environment?
Do you have friends or family in the area? If you are not going to a 55+/adult community, are you going to want to utilize resources like senior centers to make new friends and find activities?
Why NC? And EXACTLY WHAT is it about Cary that looks good to you?
We moved from Phoenix/Mesa, AZ to Raleigh, NC for retirement in June, 2012. Very happy here, but our original destination was Wilmington, NC. When we visited Wilmington (for the first time) in Feb, 2012 we realized within 48 hours that it was not 'the place' for us to live. We made the two hour drive to Raleigh, and before we even hit the city limits, we felt comfortable. Two days later, we put a deposit on a lot, and moved into the completed house in January, 2013.
So you might want to look back onto some of my older posts, which may give you some insight as to what we were looking for, after 25+ years in the East Valley of Phoenix. If I can answer specific questions, let me know.
My husband and I are living in Arizona and are interested in moving to North Carolina to retire.
The Cary area looks good to us, as well as the Charlotte area.
We have never been there, and are looking for the best neighborhoods to look into to retire on a limited income. Home or townhouse. Rent or buy.
Any suggestions?
We have heard there are relocated New Englanders in Cary area. True?
Thank you.
If you have never been here before, I would wait to purchase anything. Please consider renting for at least the first year that you live here. You may decide that the area you land in, is not where you really want to be after that year.
That is what happened with us. We are retired and came into the area from New England. A year and a half after living first in Cary, then Apex, we decided that it wasn't a very good fit for us. So after our leases were up at the two year mark, we headed further south and now are in the Sandhills area- a perfect fit for us.
We are so glad that we did not rush to purchase when we first arrived in our new state. We are still renting by choice- but that is one nice thing about renting in a new area- you actually do have choices! Not being locked in to an area at this point has been wonderful!
Come on down!
Last edited by mamasplace; 09-27-2013 at 02:31 PM..
Reason: can't spell on Fridays
We're also looking to retire to NC, but in about 6 years. We'll be moving from the New England area as it's just too expensive to retire here. We plan on taking trips on an annual basis to really check out the area. I lived in Wilmington many years ago as a young child and so have fond memories of the area.
First, we are planning on renting for the first 6 months at least. We are not sure we will be at home there either. We are also looking at Charlotte.
We have good friends from Mass. who moved here to Arizona before we did. They did a lot of research on North Carolina too, and they spent 9 months there 2 years ago... They loved it.
We wanted something close enough to New England that we could drive there for special occasions, yet something that did not get very much snow. My husband overdosed on shoveling snow!
We plan to start in Cary and visit many areas on the state, even going into South Carolina, and maybe even Virginia.
Like one of you said, we do not know if any of those areas will be a good fit.
Can we rent in a 55+ community? Our figure is about $1000. to $1500 at the most.
The reason for a townhouse is we have a little dog and we would like a small outdoor area for him.
We have looked on Zillow and other sites and see many nice homes for rental. That is an option too...
We have our own vehicles. We may want to find part time work to keep busy... We do not know anyone
there yet.
We do plan on visiting the area before we decide to move there, and really look around. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
We're from New England as well, moved to Cary 5-1/2 years ago and love it here in the Triangle! We're not retired yet....a few more years to go. We bought a large townhome in Cary when we first came. It was wonderful but too big (>2400 sf and 3 stories) so we sold it in July. We decided to downsize to a one level home and are moving into our new home in Carolina Arbors next week. Carolina Arbors is a Del Webb > 55 active adult community on the Raleigh/Durham line, 1 mile from Brier Creek (a great shopping area). The community is brand new, with about 110 homes sold far (there will be about 1200 when completed). The draw will be the clubhouse which won't be ready until June 2015. There is a "sister" community in Cary called Carolina Preserve which is built out and the clubhouse should be almost identical. The clubhouse will be 34,000 sf, indoor pool, outdoor pool, tennis, full gym etc.
Just another alternative to consider. No rentals in the new community but rentals occasionally become available at Carolina Preserve. Best of luck in your search!! Hope you enjoy here as much as we do.
Thank you for this information. We lived in Chelmsford, Mass. for 12 years before moving to Arizona. My husband grew up in Saugus. Where did you come from?
We did live in a 55+ community here for 9 years. We were the youngest ones there at that time. We owned our own home there but were tied into a Land Lease. After a few years we felt uncomfortable with that arrangement. The rent on the land
doubled in price. We sold,thankfully, and bought in a regular development 2 years ago. We would never buy anywhere again where we did not own the land!
Once we get our home ready here to sell, we will be taking a trip to NC to check the area out. My husband worked for 3 months years ago in Wilmington and loved the area, but does not want to live near the coast. Research brought us to both the Cary/Raleigh area and to the Charlotte as area we were interested in.
I'd love to hear back from you.
NancyB
Does Containment Area mean "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees"? I read that somewhere in these posts.
We would both feel very comfortable coming to an area that had some folks from "home" there. My husband is not hard to spot as a New Englander because he always wears T-shirts and Ball caps with the Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins or Celtics written all over them. He is forever getting stopped and asked where he is from.
NancB
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
