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Our family (one hubby, 2 little girls under age 3, 1 dog, and 2 cats) is considering a move from the Chapel Hill area to Asheville. Anyone have thoughts on how schools, housing costs, and people compare? We love this area but jobs may take us to Asheville. We are originally from the Northeast but have been in NC for over 5 years now and it's been great. Thanks......
Public schools: Chapel Hill/Orange better than Asheville/Buncombe
Housing costs: Probably about the same, two of the pricer areas in the state.
People: Older, somewhat less educated, and probably friendlier in Asheville.
IMO you HAVE to take the climate, outdoor activities (both advantage Asheville) and travel time to family in the Northeast (advantage Chapel Hill?) into consideration.
Our family (one hubby, 2 little girls under age 3, 1 dog, and 2 cats) is considering a move from the Chapel Hill area to Asheville. Anyone have thoughts on how schools, housing costs, and people compare? We love this area but jobs may take us to Asheville. We are originally from the Northeast but have been in NC for over 5 years now and it's been great. Thanks......
I think you'll find Asheville drastically different from the Chapel Hill area in a lot of ways.
Asheville is known as an arts center. It's also known for low paying jobs, high real estate prices, extreme drug problems, aggressive pan handlers, freaks and weirdos doing nothing all day, high crime rates, poor leadership in city and county government. etc., etc. Asheville used to be known for its beautiful mountain ridges and views, but the transplants and developers took care of messing that up.
Asheville used to have mountain culture, which has now pretty much been lost with the influx of so many new people. The entire area is very liberal with Asheville being known for its high gay and lesbian population.
If you stray outside of Asheville into the [real] rural mountainous areas you will see more of the real mountain culture, most of which (being from the CH area) you will probably view as very strange and extremely backward. The unemployment rate is extremely high because many of the people simply do not want to work - they are often on welfare and food stamps, or find a doctor to help them get on disability. You'll also see a lot of people that do not know how to take care of themselves - overweight, poor hygiene, soiled clothing, poorly dressed, etc. etc. Lot's of inbreeding!
Many of the "outsiders" that have moved to the Asheville area to enjoy the mountain scenery and climate stay away from Asheville unless they need something only available in the city. And they are careful about venturing too far into the rural areas. The meth lab owners don't like strangers!
Here's a video of Asheville's Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville where in the summer months they have "Friday Night Drumming". This will give you a fairly good idea of the people that are attracted to Asheville for its art, etc. (Also, I should tell you that UNC-A and UNC-CH are as different in student body and culture as night and day.)
PS - I see that you have young children. If you care anything at all about your children's education - I can assure you that they would not receive a good education...
PPS - I forgot to mention - the nearest (real) airport with reasonable prices is in Charlotte (125 miles away). Flying out of Asheville's little airport will cost you dearly, probably 3 to 4 times as much depending on where you're flying.
I think you'll find Asheville drastically different from the Chapel Hill area in a lot of ways.
PS - I see that you have young children. If you care anything at all about your children's education - I can assure you that they would not receive a good education...
PPS - I forgot to mention - the nearest (real) airport with reasonable prices is in Charlotte (125 miles away). Flying out of Asheville's little airport will cost you dearly, probably 3 to 4 times as much depending on where you're flying.
I don't know where your perception of Asheville comes from, but it is VERY skewed.
I was born and raised in Asheville, more specifically, Arden, which is just south of Asheville. I now live in Chapel Hill. I'll argue that Asheville has some good schools, if you get into the right district. The top 3 school districts in my opinion are the Roberson district (TC Roberson HS), the Reynolds district (AC Reynolds), and the Asheville City Schools disctrict (Asheville High). The school performance might be lagging a little bit behind East Chapel Hill and the like, but they are definitely still good schools, and every school has very strong athletic programs.
I went to TC Roberson High School, graduated with a 4.6 gpa in 2003, went on to Clemson University, graduated from there Magna *** Laude with a BS in biochemistry, and I am currently attending the School of Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill. I dare anyone to tell me that I did "not receive a good education" growing up in Asheville. This sentiment comes from someone who is obviously not familiar with the area.
As for Airports, Greenville, SC is closer, though somewhat smaller than Charlotte. There are still a lot of flights out of there. Atlanta is also only 3 hours away, and is a much larger airport than Charlotte.
FWIW, I liked living in Asheville much more than I do here in Chapel Hill. It is cooler in the summers, you have 4 seasons instead of Hot and Cold like you do in Chapel Hill. Asheville is much prettier as well. It is 3 hours to Atlanta, 1+ hour to Greenville, less than 2 hours to Knoxville, 3 hours to Chapel Hill, and 2 hours to Charlotte.
Housing is NOT as expensive in Asheville as in Chapel Hill, unless you insist on living in the downtown or North Asheville area. For example, my 1350 sq ft townhome, built in 1986, with no garage, 2 bedroom, 2.5 bathrooms, cost me $175,000. My sister bought a townhome near the Asheville Airport (technically she is in henderson county), which was 1300 sq ft, 1 car garage, 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, built in 2005, cost her only $150,000. I'd say she got the better deal.
That drum circle video is hilarious! Yes, Asheville is a fun place to visit and has incredible scenery, but it has a large contingent of residents who just are out of touch with reality. I have family in both areas, and I would choose Chapel Hill over A-ville as the best place to raise my children- I would visit A-ville 2-3 times a year, though!
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