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My husband and I are looking to relocate to raleigh in the summer of 2009. He is currently finishing his MFT program and I am finishing my MA in Sociology. When should we begin looking for Jobs and are there a lot of jobs in our fields? I have a background in social services and diversity. Also we wanted to rent before we buy. What areas should we look at first? In my research NC is a state that is great for buying a home and job opportunities. We are tired of the Los Angeles hustle and bustle and the smog OMG.
Any advice and thoughts will be greatly appreciated. This will be our first time moving from Los Angeles and we are very excited.
I understand where you're coming from.. having most of my family out in LA, I visit fairly often--and love it... but to live there is completely different. I'm not familiar with your industry, I'm in IT, but with the differences in cost of living you will not regret the move. There are parts of the triangle that are a bit steep as far as housing prices, but at least you get the square footage along with the that steep pricetag. My advice for work would be to get those resumes out there asap, you want to line up several interviews before even coming into town. My gf did that and landed a job (she's an OT) after our single visit... When we moved up here from FL, she started work while I was fortunate enough to work from home.. Whatever happens, I think you're making a great move.
The #1 thing I can tell you if you're coming from LA is to please get out of the habit of useing "the" with Highways
I know you say "the 10" or "the 405" but it's here's just "40" or "540" (or "I-40"), NOT "the 40" etc. People can tell from a mile away that you're from SoCal by that usage...
I must be hanging around with a lot of Calif people lately because I just started saying "the 540" a lot. hmmmmm never realized I was doing that until you mentioned it.
What's funny is that I am from LA and say "the 405" and "the 10" but here I do fine with saying 40 or I-40.
I don't think it's a matter of habit so much as it's just part of the freeway's identity - the freeway is "the 405", not the "405" if that makes any sense.
Although you WILL have to get out of the habit of calling it a freeway. My wife looks at me crazy when I say that these things are freeways.
Hi SZL,
North Carolina is a beautiful state and most likely you'll really love it here. My family and I moved from Southern California to Cary 3 years ago. You're really smart to plan on renting before you buy--that way, you'll get a much better idea of all the options as far as where to live, before you invest in a house. The character of the area (as far as shopping, housing, schooling, entertainment, restaurants...) really changes from one city to another--so the best fit for you really depends on what matters most to you--and the only way to really know your options is to live here and drive around.
Unfortunately, I can't be of any help as far as knowing anything about the job opportunities in your field--but I totally agree with the other poster who said to get your resume out ASAP. As far as where to consider living--I would highly recommend that you consider the Raleigh area. The city that we moved to is Cary, which borders Raleigh (the hospital where I work is in Raleigh and is only 15 miles from my house.) While Raleigh and Cary are two of the more expensive housing markets in NC, the easy access to malls, concert venues, sports venues, restaurants, green-ways, (for biking and hiking) nightlife, high paying jobs, Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, NC State University and some of the best hospitals in the country, in my opinion, makes the higher cost of living worth it--especially for people who are used to having all those things close-by, while living in Southern California. Speaking of the cost of living, no one believes me when I tell them that other than housing and gas, absolutely everything in the Raleigh/Cary area costs more than it did in Temecula, CA (and, right now gas here is actually more than it is Temecula, due to damage to pipelines--or something like that--from the hurricane last month.)
I don't know if you're a 'beach person', but if you do move to the Raleigh area, know that it's a 2 hour drive to the beach (no more driving to the beach for dinner after work.) It's about 3 hours to the mountains, and you have to go to Virginia to ski. We were sooo spoiled in SO CA, because everyone who lives here (especially people who've moved here from the middle of the country) are really excited that the beach is so close! *smile* That being said, there is natural beauty all around you. There are forests, ponds and streams absolutely everywhere. When we lived in California, we would have had to drive for an hour to get to the kind of hiking areas that are just minutes from our house. People are really active here in Cary, the green-ways and parks are filled with people riding their bikes, hiking or walking their dog.
Something we very much underestimated when we moved here was just how much we'd miss our friends, family and just about everything about Southern California--especially around the holidays. Making friends has really made North Carolina start to feel like home. Something that you might consider when you're ready to buy a home, is to buy a home in a new housing development. Our family moved here because of my husband's job. Several of the families from the company that my husband works for also transferred here at the same time as we did. We bought a house in an established neighborhood, but the other families bought new homes in new housing developments, and very quickly those families made a lot of friends in their neighborhood because all of their new neighbors had just moved from out of state and knew no one out here.
One of the coolest things about living on the East coast is how amazingly close you are to places that you could never easily drive to from California. Washington DC, for example, is only a 4 1/2 hour drive; New York City is only about 8 1/2 hours; Charleston, SC is about 4 1/2 hours and Miami is about 12 1/2 hours--just to name a few. Plus, all the must-see places here in NC, such as the Blue Ridge Parkway, The Biltmore in Asheville and the Outer Banks... Another thing that I'm enjoying is having four seasons. Spring here is breathtaking--there are flowering trees, azaleas, rhododendron everywhere. The temperatures in summer don't get as high as they did where we lived in the Inland Empire, but the humidity is killer! (Although, after 3 summers, I think I'm starting to get used to it.) The fall colors are as lovely as you'll find anywhere. And, while it does get into the teens in the winter, snow isn't all that common--which is good for me, who'd never driven in the snow. (It's snowed about an inch one time since we've lived here.)
North Carolina really is a beautiful state and Raleigh has just about everything that we could ask for in a place to live. If we could transport our best friends and siblings here, living here would be pretty close to perfect. Good luck to you! I think you'll really like it here.
I have no idea about jobs in your field, but I've put together a little LA-to-Triangle conversion chart to help you decide where to live.
If you like this part of LA ----> you might like this part of the Triangle (why they are similar)
Calabasas ---> Cary (snooty suburban enclave)
Santa Clarita ---> Wake Forest (far away suburban enclave, getting snootier every day)
Westwood/WLA ----> Downtown Raleigh (bars, restaurants, places to go)
Miracle Mile ----> Downtown Raleigh (museums)
South/West Valley ----> North Raleigh (bedroom community)
Downtown/Central LA ----> Downtown Durham (gritty, but getting better)
Historic West Adams ----> Trinity Park or Watts-Hillandale in Durham (historic neighborhoods, affordable due to location)
Venice ---> Carrboro (hippies and crazies, though Carrboro is more granola)
Hollywood or Beverly Hills ----> Forget it, stay in LA (we don't want any)
Hope this helps! If I missed the part of LA you like, let me know the area and I'll tell you what I think is the best Raleigh-Durham match.
The #1 thing I can tell you if you're coming from LA is to please get out of the habit of useing "the" with Highways
I know you say "the 10" or "the 405" but it's here's just "40" or "540" (or "I-40"), NOT "the 40" etc. People can tell from a mile away that you're from SoCal by that usage...
Would we want someone to tell us to change the way that we talk if we were to move somewhere far away? If I were moving to Los Angeles, would I want someone to tell me in advance of moving to stop using "y'all"? That suggestion sure sound condescending when it's directed at me.
Personally, I love the diversity that different language interpretations and colloquialisms.
Thank you for your detailed response. I am definielty going to share your message with my husband. We are really looking forward to the move I am trying to convice some of my closest friends to move with me so the move will be easier.
SZL
You are so welcome. I'm happy to know that I might have helped with some of your questions. I'm new to this forum, but it looks like you can send a message directly to another member by clicking on your user name (up in the top right-hand corner of the page--where it says "welcome" and your user name. Doing that will take you to another page--on the left of that page there are boxes, the 4th box down says "direct message" and under that it says "send new message". If you have any other questions that you'd like to ask of another SO CA transplant, please feel free to message me. It was quite an adjustment to move here an not know anyone--now you kind of know at least one person. *smile*
Oh, and one more thing that you might find helpful is knowing about meetup.com (if you don't already). Meetups are groups of people who want to get together with people with the same interests and do stuff. Meetup is nationwide--check it out online and see all the different groups they have (there are movie groups, book groups, hiking groups, beer drinking groups, women's groups, Bible study groups--you name it, someone's probably created a local meetup group to do it). Meetup's not a cult, a pyramid scheme or dating service, it's just a way to get out and meet new people. I didn't discover meetup until I'd lived here 2 years, but I can't tell you how much happier I am now that I have fun stuff to do and great friends to do it with. Best wishes.
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