Reposting here: Where will growth be in 10 yrs-Charlotte or Raleigh? (Greensboro: real estate, crime)

[Belinda5]

We are ex-Toronto residents living in "anemic" Greensboro, NC for almost 10 years.
We are looking at relocating to Charlotte or Raleigh (or their surrounding areas). Jobs for us are not a concern although we are in the financial sector and in real estate brokerage.

We know Raleigh is statistically more educated and the downtown nightlife is more quiet compared to Charlotte. We also know Charlotte is more like a big city with higher crime and lower quality public education. We have visited both cities over the past 10 years and like both of them for different reasons.

Our question is: given the current state of the economy and the performance of both cities in the 'good times' along with future growth plans,
which city do you think has the biggest growth potential in the next 5, 10, 20 years?

My spouse thinks Charlotte because of its infrastructure, while I think Raleigh because of its universities, high tech and medical fields.

Our goals are real estate investment, and a place for our 20 something kids to develop careers. One kid is at UNC and the other at UNCC right now so we are equally divided. (Our kid at UNC thinks Chapel Hill is boring; our kid in Charlotte loves the faster beat of Charlotte and all it has to offer)

As 'young' empty nesters now, we have not really enjoyed living in Greensboro the last 10 years because of the limited growth, small town atmosphere, and 'older' population. We also did not like the public school system our kids had to endure.

Any suggestions for Charlotte or Raleigh future or potential? We would appreciate input from both sides.

Sorry if we offended any Greensboro natives, but Greensboro is a tough place to adjust to when you come from a highly progressive, multicultural, liberal, big, and prosperous city like Toronto. We are committed to staying in NC but need a change.

[Sayantsi]

Having come from Toronto, you'll probably like Charlotte - tons of bigger-city style restaurants, shopping, and living. Raleigh is nice if you're looking at growth though as I expect Raleigh will grow faster than Charlotte now that the financial industries are bruised. The best part of living in Greensboro was its easy to get to Charlotte or Raleigh, and the restaurants, but there's not much else. Raleigh is imo between Greensboro and Charlotte in development, schools, taxes, and cosmopolitanity.

If you're in the financial sector, Charlotte is probably the better fit - the industry is bigger in Charlotte. Its a bigger city though, more traffic, higher taxes, etc. Both cities have good sports, but Charlotte has professional football, basketball, and minor league baseball, Raleigh has hockey and minor league baseball in Durham, and of course great college basketball.

Both cities are going to grow fast over the next generation. Lower taxes, better winters, better general quality of life than the North has brought people south for generations and its not going to end any time soon. Charlotte will continue to grow and spread, and it actively infilling development at this point. You'll see that in the future in Raleigh, but the area is still growing out as its less developed, and infill is less active.

[sowk09]

If you're looking as far as 10 years down the road, I think Raleigh will have more growth because it has more room for growth, such as expanding the downtown, etc. I don't know this, but have just sort of gathered this from other posts on this forum, like the one asking when Raleigh will become like Charlotte.

[Francois]

I was just reading something predicting that the Charlotte-Atlanta corridor (to include Spartenburg and Greenville, SC) is the big "untapped" area for the next few decades. The NC "crescent" including the Triangle and Triad is a part of that but the big hot growth area will be between CLT and ATL.

[rnc2mbfl]

The Triangle, and Raleigh/Cary in particular is projected to grow faster than Charlotte over the next few decades. But, that's not much different from the past decade+. The Raleigh area has been growing faster than the Charlotte area for some time now. But, that doesn't mean that that Charlotte won't grow rapidly. It's just that Raleigh is projected to be the fastest growing metro in the nation for the next ten years.