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My girlfriend and I are considering relocating to Raleigh next August and need advice and your help is appreciated. We want somewhere that has the following:
Diversity
Educated
Active nightlife
Great for families
Housing ($1100-$1300)
Job Market
Any other information you may think is important. We are young and will just be finishing up with college. She will have her Bachelors in HR/Entrepreneurship and I will have my associates in Accounting.
My girlfriend and I are considering relocating to Raleigh next August and need advice and your help is appreciated. We want somewhere that has the following:
Diversity
Educated
Active nightlife
Great for families
Housing ($1100-$1300)
Job Market
Any other information you may think is important. We are young and will just be finishing up with college. She will have her Bachelors in HR/Entrepreneurship and I will have my associates in Accounting.
Your help is greatly appreciated!
Thank you
Find jobs first. The area has a strong job market, but it isn't as if employers are desperately looking for any warm body.
Your other expectations seem reasonable.
You might be surprised to find that you might earn the same amount of money in Omaha with your degrees and have a lower COL.
The strong job market, diversity, and similar COL/Size are what drew us to Raleigh. What are some of the more diverse areas of Raleigh and what areas should we stay away from?
Another thing to consider is that you may find some difficulty finding an accounting position with only an associate degree. According to US Census statistics, 49.2% of people in the Triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) have a bachelor's degree and 17.5% have graduate level degrees. There are quite a few schools here and you'll be competing with graduates from NCSU, Duke, UNC, NCCU.
I am not trying to paint a negative picture but a realistic picture. Try to secure that job first. On the bright side, you'll have plenty of choices of schools if you decide to go back for your bachelors!
When I say diverse I mean areas that aren't majority one race. Here in Omaha it is very segregated still by areas to stay away from I mean which areas are high crime areas.
The plan is to go back for bachelors when after we get moved and settled in, with the plan being to get my Masters!
While there is some segregation, mostly by income, you will find that the area is much less segregated than northern cities. Attitudes towards race are different than in the North. Not in a "more racist" or "less racist" sense, just different.
My girlfriend and I are considering relocating to Raleigh next August and need advice and your help is appreciated. We want somewhere that has the following:
Diversity
Educated
Active nightlife
Great for families
Housing ($1100-$1300)
Job Market
Any other information you may think is important. We are young and will just be finishing up with college. She will have her Bachelors in HR/Entrepreneurship and I will have my associates in Accounting.
Your help is greatly appreciated!
Thank you
OP, I very recently moved from the Triangle to Iowa, I'm originally from the Midwest, and I've been to Omaha a few times. It's my experience that people's motivations for moving can be very different. I understand wanting to move to experience more diversity, and the Raleigh area will provide that for you. It's one of my favorite things about living there. People are friendly, overall, and a lot of people are very social and looking to expand their circle of friends. When we lived there, we had Indian friends, Hispanic friends, Middle Eastern friends, interracially married friends -- and really none of that mattered except to enhance our understanding of different cultures... they are all just great people we enjoyed hanging out with. My husband is Chicano and he misses the easy availability of some of his favorite foods, like chorizo. I mean, much of that food is here too, where we're currently living, but you have to go out of your way to look for it and it's not as convenient as "back home" in NC. Between the people, food, and festivals in the area alone, you won't be disappointed.
However. I am someone whose motivations for moving, at this stage of life, are more economic-based than anything else. And I will caution you that the Triangle area is changing and although diverse, there is a new type of economic segregation appearing that, I promise, you will eventually notice if you are coming from a lifetime of being raised in the Midwest. I lived near Wake Forest and watching that area change to a location with many -highly- affluent subdivisions that caters, now nearly exclusively, to people pouring in from higher cost-of-living states (NY, DC, CA, etc) became difficult, because it has limited lower middle-income folks' access to different amenities and, much more importantly, their ability to bridge the gap into better financial security through access to decent schools, jobs, etc. It's just...different... and a little disturbing at times when you see/hear the nouveau riche attitudes behind some of it. You may not see it right away, but it seems to be increasing along with housing prices and just generally higher COL there. For that reason, I'd say Omaha, right now, offers more on an economic and egalitarian level. Or other parts of the Midwest. For example, I can't believe the number of signs I see in the Des Moines metro offering $9-11/hour for basic service-level jobs (flipping burgers, etc) -- you certainly won't find that in the Triangle, and might find it difficult to tap into a well-paying income stream and eventually buy a house if your qualifications fall outside those of other applicants with more education and if you don't work for a biotech or IT company.
But I was young once, and needed to spread my wings, so I understand where you're coming from. Good luck wherever you land. Just keep in mind that if you continue your education (and I would encourage you to do so in a field like accounting), you'll need to be a resident in NC for a full year before you can get the in-state tuition rate.
job market is strong here. I suggest a visit before you come. It's about the same size as Omaha
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