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We have been planning our move for 5 years, and decided to go ahead with our plans to retire and be closer to our children in NC. If you listen to the "talking heads" to much, you almost get to a point where you can't make a decision. There is more to life than how much money you have in the bank or the stock market. Even with the downturn in the market, our area has been very good to us with past job opportunities and the profit on our Maryland house. But now it's time to move on.
I guess bottom line is, we just weren't ready to put our lives on hold indefinitely waiting for the latest report from the latest expert, and are ready to get on with the business of living. I have my daughter's wedding to help plan as soon as we unpack next Tuesday!
Oh, TuborgP and Sundaze - it looks like you were my Maryland neighbors and now will be my new NC neighbors.
There are a lot of folks in Maryland wanting and having retired and come to the Triangle. Maybe we need our own blog called Way outside the Beltway. I gave all of you guys rep points with a smile because we are all so happy.
I am new at this forum idea on the internet, but I want to encourage all who plan to move here. I raised my children here and then moved away for ten years. Came back last year and so very glad to ibe n Carolina again. We moved to Durham to be close to children, but now want to move to Mebane nearby. Husband wants to go rural on me but stay close to family. We want to buy a townhome we found and love, but need to sell a 1965 brick ranch with a 3/4 acre lot in a wonderful neighborhood with lots of trees and next door to RTP, 3bedroom, 2 bath, large den (could be 4th bed) and a huge deck -lots of room for gardening, adding workshops, etc. We're also trying to simplify and want to try having someone else do the maintenance! Let me know if anyone interested in Durham location. Good luck to all who are moving and congrats to all who are already here!
SF...are we starting to convert you??? I'm teasing you and I know you know it! I'm glad you aren't one of the doom and gloomers. You made your decision and if its the right decision for you, then I'm happy you are ok with it. Just remember...should you change your mind...I'm right here!!! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
when you decide to buy or rent. The concept of living in the same home for many years before it is a "home" is gone. Just as we no longer stay in the same job all our lives, changing homes more frquently than every 5 years is now the norm, especially in an area like ours. We have a relatively young population and a lot of high tech jobs. These and other factors make moving in and out of town and moving "up" from starter homes inevitable. You do not need to stay in a home for 5 years to make it "worthwhile" financially or in any other way. If you do not want to "lose money" you may need to stay in certain homes more than 2 years, but that isn't even true in a lot of neighborhoods. A house is a haven which is an extension of ourselves, and owning one suits the lifestlye of many people, though not all. Inform yourself by reading (these forums are great) and consulting the appropriate professionals to help you make a good decision as to whether to buy and what to buy. Renting is also good. It just depends on what makes sense for you. Choose what makes you happy! We've got lots of choices!!!
Location: Between a nook-a-ler reactor and a dump, North Cackalacky
283 posts, read 1,259,517 times
Reputation: 135
We moved here because it was something new, but mostly because I got a position with a company I've long respected and for whom I wanted to work.
This area offers numerous professional IT opportunities w/o the hassle of a Silicon Valley, NY, NoVa, etc.
This part of the country provides easy access to so many things we enjoy - the mountains, the beach, Shenandoah Valley, recreation, proximity to other cities, lack of snow.
By no means is the Triangle perfect, but it is simply a fantastic place to be for so many reasons.
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To Frudy and the Legion of Doom: you have no idea what a truly bad housing market is. Read all of the reports, historical accounts, etc etc etc and keep parroting the end is near. (And btw, don't provide any actual stats to support your position w/r/t the Triangle. Hint: not all nationwide stats apply to every area, variations can and do exist.)
Then go spend a long weekend in Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, NJ/NY, or any number of other rustbelt cities and report back. When you can walk down a street and lose count of the foreclosures, see abandoned homes being stripped of anything of value, see actual quantifiable depreciation of housing values, your proclamations of the implosion of the Triangle will seem even sillier to the rest of us.
Considering the hypocrisy you project - "Triangle housing is dead, homes are a depreciating asset here, don't come here and don't even think of buying but I'm darn glad to be here and even happier I bought a house" - it's impossible to take you seriously anyway.
Based on the responses, it looks like the question is more about why we bought a house this year rather than just why we moved to the Triangle in the first place, so I'll address that, too.
First of all, I was tired of renting. I've been renting for so many years & there comes a time when you say, "Enough!". So that was part of our motivation. However, we were prepared to take our time until we found exactly what we wanted. We could have waited a year or more. Time was not the issue. Finding a house we loved was the only requirement.
Also, housing prices have been pretty stable here in recent years. There hasn't been an unusal jump in housing values like what happened in many other parts of the country. That made me feel better about taking the plunge toward home ownership. In addition, interest rates were low (we locked in a nice rate before the little bump that took place in late Spring this year). Lastly, the poor exchange rate on the dollar was a good thing for us because we had some funds locked up in foreign currency. Converting it into dollars meant that we got more cash than we would have even a year ago. Add all of these factors up and you can see why buying a house this year was a smart move for us.
When I found a neighborhood I really liked, I focused all of my research there. I looked at many homes in this neighborhood, but when I saw the house that we ended up buying, I just knew it was the one for us. The layout of the house & the lot just felt like home to both of us. Of course we wanted our house to be a good investment, but it was also very important that we felt comfortable & content. We wanted a place that was cozy and relaxing and warm and welcoming and ... well, a home. It was thrilling to find a place that illicited all of those feelings. We bought it less than a week after it hit the market.
Interestingly enough, there are no homes available for sale in our neighborhood in our price range at this time. There are some cheaper houses & some more expensive houses, but nothing like ours. This just reminds me of how glad I am that we spotted this little gem of a house when we did. If we hadn't pounced on it then, lord knows how long it would take for something equivalent to hit the market in this neighborhood.
I moved in the hopes of distancing myself from my parents......the mistake was letting them come down to visit, see the house, hear the price and now they are about to move down. Anyone know a good place to go to after the Triangle Just kidding.
I am actually thrilled my parents are going to be moving down. My wife and I moved because she wanted to finis her Master's without having to work and by selling our home in MD and moving here we paid cash for our 1st home, she got her Master's and is now working. We are moving to HSP in a month when our new home is built. We are very excited as we are building our own home and I don't want to hear from Mr. negative Frudy about this being the wrong time to.............(fill in the blank). We did it, we are happy and we are planning on staying in that house for a while. We have a ton of equity in it so if work was to force me to move we would not sell it and either rent or leave it as a second home or whatever the market dictates. We have plenty in savings as well so again not too worried about losing out and we are looking to have kids in 08' as well so all is looking up.
We moved here 2 years ago from NJ. We owned a home in NJ (which we could only afford by moving 1 1/2 hours from dh's job) and were ready to upgrade and plain/simple couldn't afford the quality of life (nothing outrageous, just middle class as others have mentioned) we had hoped for.
We sold our 1500sf updated cape on less than 1/4 acre (very narrow) for $240k in a not so great neighborhood (but not so terrible either) (a little too close to Trenton). The year after we left there were 3 gang shootings on our small block. We tried to stay in NJ but to get a 3 bdrm/2.5 bath colonial one would need to spend $350k (and that is on a tiny lot on a VERY busy road or some other such sacrifice). Plus we were sick of the winter weather.
The powers that be kept turning our heads to the Triangle area so we stopped by for a visit one trip to Myrtle Beach (family) and started our relocation adventure.
We've been here 2 years and LOVE it. We have the quality of life we were looking for; a nice house in a safe family friendly community.
Lauren
I moved in the hopes of distancing myself from my parents......the mistake was letting them come down to visit, see the house, hear the price and now they are about to move down. Anyone know a good place to go to after the Triangle Just kidding.
I am actually thrilled my parents are going to be moving down. My wife and I moved because she wanted to finis her Master's without having to work and by selling our home in MD and moving here we paid cash for our 1st home, she got her Master's and is now working. We are moving to HSP in a month when our new home is built. We are very excited as we are building our own home and I don't want to hear from Mr. negative Frudy about this being the wrong time to.............(fill in the blank). We did it, we are happy and we are planning on staying in that house for a while. We have a ton of equity in it so if work was to force me to move we would not sell it and either rent or leave it as a second home or whatever the market dictates. We have plenty in savings as well so again not too worried about losing out and we are looking to have kids in 08' as well so all is looking up.
Gonna hear from me anyway.
If you're here for only 5 years or less, you will likely lose money. If you're here for more than 10 years, you'll likely gain money. It's just that simple. Note the word LIKELY, not definitely. We've played by the odds, and as a result turned out much better than most people who are highly leveraged and dependent on their home equity, and the odds favor that gap increasing in the coming 2-3 years based on our investment decisions.
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Great Post
Just kidding. 
