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Charleston is more expensive and has more (and larger) bugs (especially their ridiculous flying cockroaches!) but it also has more touristy places to show off when you have guests in town.
Raleigh hands down! It's nicer, bigger and has lots more to offer. Get away from the cute historic downtown area and a lot of Charleston is on the rough side. Plus, like a lot of tourist areas, jobs are mostly service oriented and tend to be lower paying. Overall Raleigh is a much more solid city.
First and foremost lets think about the weather, the pattern is a changing, for whatever reason, and as patterns do. I have lived in Fl. stayed for weeks of summer and fall in Charleston, well, Kiowa island, and I live in North Raleigh. Where there is PLENTY of y'all, trust me, and southern hospitality.
Atlanta is land locked, hot and humid as the gates of Hades in the summer, people stay inside, in the AC, and you are right it is a HUGE city, and unless you are in a neighborhood with stay at home moms, I would think it a little harder to connect.
Also, people don't usually move to Atlanta unless they have to, I mean, its ok to visit, but live there, no thanks, its to hot and humid! LOL.
Charleston SC is hot and humid as well, BUT with an ocean breeze. The reason there are more Y'alls there is because the only states with a worse school system is Mississippi and Alabama, but if memory serves, SC moved into Ala.'s spot with the last testing. SC public schools are horrible, that's why there are so many private schools Look that up. Prvt schools in SC, you will drop your mouse.
and anyone that take 3 hrs to get to the beach from Raleigh is driving miss daisy, or going the wrong way, or to a beach that is further up or down the coast. It takes us about 2 hrs from North Raleigh, and we go several times a season.
Raleigh is a big city, surrounded by many smaller ones. I would look just west, south west near Jordan Lake, and north . the roads are good and you will have easy fast access to anything in and around Raleigh.
another neg to Charleston is the summer storms. Tropical and hurricanes are common enough to be a concern and home owners insurance rates will bear that out.
If you want closer to the beach, I would look east of Raleigh, Spring Hope, and others are nice little towns. The public school system is good in NC. however, like everybody, education money has been cut, and we are going through some rough changes in Wake County. People are so opposed to change. They have tried yr round schools, which for my money is the best for the kids, and if you look into it, they have as much time off, just not all at once, but people do not like change, so fight it tooth and nail. No wonder we get no where, LOL.
And the best is, within a 60 mile radius there are 6 schools of higher learning, all kids are encouraged to go to college, and MAN, does it make a difference to have a well educated community! We love it here. I grew up in Chicago, lived in Ca for a shirt time, and Fl. for 20 yrs and I can tell you without doubt, NC. is my favorite . We won't stay here much longer, because we want Lakes and Mts , but will relocate around hendersonville at some point.
But that is for no reason except personal preference for Mts as opposed to ocean.
good luck with your search, only you know what you really want the most. Jackson ville is very nice too, and Fl has no state taxes. BUT they also have the worst foreclosure rate and unemployment in the country, although Jacksonville has not been hit as hard as the rest of the state.
They call it Mount PLEASANT for a reason, and it is not because it is hilly ;-)
I lived there for about three years and like it a lot, in fact Mrs. Crash and I would like to expand out product brokerage business down there since it is so nice.
Temp and humidity are more bearable when you are near the shore due to breezes. Unfortunately sometimes the breeze gets too much.
We all live mostly indoors anyway.
BTW, you can rent on Isle of Palms very cheap during the Winter, up until Easter , so that could be a good scouting location.
"I pick beach!"
<>Atlanta is land locked, hot and humid as the gates of Hades in the summer, people stay inside, in the AC, and you are right it is a HUGE city
<>Jacksonville has not been hit as hard as the rest of the state.
+1 on all you have written. I just want to say, we have a Jacksonville, too! I still like Mount Pleasant as a choice.
"Atlanta, come for the heat and humidity, stay for the traffic"
Charleston is more expensive and has more (and larger) bugs (especially their ridiculous flying cockroaches!) but it also has more touristy places to show off when you have guests in town.
anyplace south of Charleston and on the water has these bugs, they try and tell you they are, "palmetto Bugs." I call BS, they are HUGE cockroaches and GROSS. and I am not a squimish person,
The reason there are more Y'alls there is because the only states with a worse school system is Mississippi and Alabama
What in the WORLD are saying by this?! Are you truly saying that using "Y'all" as a pronoun is a function of being uneducated? Good Lord, talk about Southerner-bashing! And inaccurate.
Thank you all very much. I appreciate the comparison thank you LPnerd. I have to say the more I search the more confused I get. I have searched various school rating and score websites to try to compare Raleigh, (Chapel Hill, Apex, Cary) & learned lots about the Wake County schools to the point that I am thoroughly confused. In comparing Summerville & Mount Pleasant I have learned some things. I also looked at our current county schools for contrast and at this moment I don’t know anything! Well that is my summary of how to figure out where to relocate to! The dart on a map sounds good right now and less confusing! Thanks for all your help.
The key thing we are debating right now is the education. We live in Forsyth County and the schools are a 10 on the great schools website and people refer to them as good schools. Our concern is our they great compared to the state or the country? GA is not strong on the school rankings so I have been trying to figure out if our area schools are a truly good or if they are just good compared to the rest? Being the best school out of a bunch of not so good schools is not what we are looking for. Not sure if that makes sense.
Because of all the mixed reviews on Wake Co. schools, we moved to Clayton, NC (Johnston Co.). It is just outside Raleigh, but the schools get good reviews...and you would be 30 minutes closer to the beach!!! It is also much more affordable than Apex or Cary.
OP: We pretty much just did the same route. Went to Jax and to the Triangle. I currently live in CT, but lived in Charlotte and FL for about 7 years. Spent time in Charleston/Savannah and Atlanta quite a bit.
I too have an affection for the water, growing up in Southern New England. Being landlocked in Charlotte made me go bonkers.
Jax is a nice city. Just GET READY for heat you don't experience in Atlanta for much longer. Jax is the "coolest" Florida you will experience, but it's still Florida. The sun is also much stonger being further South so it's not just temp and humidity.
As others have noted, Charleston has a great downtown, but outside of that...good luck. I'm not a fan of the people either. The landscape is flat and boring. I mean really flat, and really boring/ugly. Don't believe the "ocean breeze" thing unless you plan on living on or a mile or two off the beach. Anyone who has lived in Florida will surely agree with that. lol
We ended up loving "Southeast" Raleigh...Johnston County. Clayton, Garner, Benson area. It's only 20 minutes to DT Raleigh, you get some "rolling countryside" with horse farms, cattle farms etc, all the shopping you would need for day to day things with access to "day shopping" a short hop away.
Here are a couple pics off my phone of Bypass 70 to give you and idea.
AND for me the most important thing is - 1.5 hours to Wrightsville Beach taking our time. Exit 312 on I40 to the beach was exactly 1.5 hours. Now I know in the Summer months traffic may make that a little longer, but that's very doable to me.
Best of luck,
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What about a compare and contrast?
Are you truly saying that using "Y'all" as a pronoun is a function of being uneducated? Good Lord, talk about Southerner-bashing! And inaccurate. 
