Any reasons not to move to NC?

We have been really not looking forward to another summer in the heat & humidity of the Florida jungle.  We have friends in NC in Kannapolis & have been visiting for the week. We've visited NC before & always liked it. We know the summers are still hot & humid but nothing like Florida. I'm from Idaho & know there are 4 seasons here but much less snow & much warmer winters.  We like the country roads  between Kannapolis, Salisbury, Granite Quarry. 
I think I have a good plan worked out to turn the paid off golf villa house into a vacation rental. This beach town is a haven for vacationers all Spring & Summer & snow birds in the Winter. Being  on the golf course would make it more desirable. 
There is nothing for our disabled youngest son. He loves to bowl & go to the ymca. But they are over 1 hour away from here. 
I don't have a shop, garage or even a shed which really sucks. It's 1 acre but has 2 ponds which take up a lot of space. In the back can't really even build anything due to blocking the view to the course. It's a vacation house built by the senator who built the course & was never intended to live full time. We've done a ton of repairs, updates & improvements. Just have a couple more to do. I've watched every episode of Scott's Vacation House Rules a few times & think it's about ready. Since it's paid off, we could borrow the $ from this to buy the new house. Then make minimum 7x the monthly payment from the rental.

If you can stomach the DMV, go for it.  I'm not a huge fan of the landscape/geography, but I imagine that perspective is quite different moving from FL (I'm from PA)

The important part is you have been there and you like it.

I've lived here for the better part of 15 years. I live over in Albemarle. I was in Salisbury and Granite Quarry and Kannapolis all this week. The worst Parts about North Carolina are pollen oh, and the oppressive humidity. There is no Breeze like Florida. However there's also only rarely hurricanes this far inland. I personally believe this area is a good place to live and raise a family in. All of the town's you mentioned except for Granite Quarry have a YMCA and the bowling alley for your disabled son. I would also look into the service providers in the area. A good start to that would be to call Cardinal Innovations access line and see what is offered for your son's specific disability set. I I work in the adult mental health side of the system oh, so I got no idea on that side. Or at least not enough of an idea to be useful. I can say real estate in Stanly County is cheaper though, and my brother is a realtor if you need one.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

The humidity has to be less than Florida. We're heading back in the motorhome in the morning. 
He's been "on the waiting list" since moving to Florida. In Idaho we had incredible services. He is 27 so would get the adult services. 
We will need an agent. Our friend did not like the 2 she worked with. 
 

I'll be happy to help is a local however I can. And i agree, humidity is definitely slightly less than Florida. And no love bugs or iguanas, so better in that regard. No breeze, so worse.

Depending on his diagnosis, theres some amazing services around here as well for your son. The access line will be a good start, and id suggest calling prior to move date to get things rolling. 1-800-939-5911. Cardinal in the local oversight of all services for those counties. 

Let me know if/when i can help!

Like many states, NC varies a LOT from one part to another.  

There are many great things about living here, but as far as reasons NOT to, my biggest warnings to people moving from out of state would be:

1) make sure you are ok with the political climate and the politics/behaviors your neighbors might have.

2)House prices in nc are low, but you kinda get what you pay for... in my experience NC seems to under-perform when it comes to city/county amenities & regulations like parks, sidewalks, public bike trails, ordinances, etc.  If you aren't looking for them, no big deal.  But also don't be surprised if your neighbor can turn their property into a junkyard or trash pit and you have no recourse.  Again, obviously this varies area to area, but I moved from the DC area which is vastly different than anything I have experienced in NC.

Some of 1 and 2 can be mitigated by carefully choosing your location.

People from Florida have told me more than once that the humidity is worse here in NC because there is no breeze from the open waters. 

Also, the housing market is super hot right now, so be prepared for that. 

Welcome! Be ready to declare your BBQ preference - tomato or vinegar based 

I could definitely see myself in the Asheville/Pisgah area of NC, but my #1 hobby is cycling and it seems like the mtn biking and road riding there is great.  

EastCoastMojo (Forum Supporter) said:

Welcome! Be ready to declare your BBQ preference - tomato or vinegar based 

Umm...  Yes?  

Winston Salem here

Not too far from Salisbury, was just there a week ago, actually.

I like NC a lot, it's home.

It's humid A F, no lie, that's my least favorite part of it. I try to travel every summer, typically north, and the thing that always hits me is the humidity when I return. Pollen doesnt bother me.

Lexington BBQ rules, by the way. Eastern is gross lol

We've lived in lots of places (corporate relo's), currently in the Raleigh area, but our last assignment was in central Florida.  What I've found through all my moves, is that most places in the US are pretty similar (minus topography and weather).  There will be people you get along with and every place has it's fair share of asshats.  No state is monolithic. 

NC is a very diverse State, from topography (mountains) to the flatlands of the Piedmont / coast.  Politically as diverse as well, from Chapel Hill being about as far left as you can get on the East Coast, to very Republican when you get 40 miles outside out of any of the few metropolitan areas.  It's like trying to compare Lakeland to Miami, very different places in the same state.

Real estate like everywhere else in the country is all about location location location.  For instance, here in the Raleigh area, house prices are a direct function to the commuting distance to Research Triangle Park.  My house 10 miles as the crow flies closer to RTP would be worth $150k more easily.  School zoning is the other major price driver.  I looked at a neighborhood when we moved an identical house down the street (same neighborhood) was $100k less because it was across the county line, and not zoned to Wake county schools.

School rankings in NC (like most places) is a direct correlation to socio-economic conditions.  The higher the free and reduced lunch percentage, the lower the school ranking.  I'm not advocating that's a good thing, it's simply the way it is.

Parts of NC (like Raleigh) are about as close as you can get to modern day boom towns.  There is Billions of dollars of investment going on over the next few years with Life Science Investment, and toss in another Billion with the new east coast Apple center.  That's thousands of high paying jobs, on top of the thousands of construction jobs to build those facilities.  All of which drives up property values.  There is fierce competition in the sub-500k market within a reasonable commute time to Raleigh.  You drive 40 miles away, and it's like an entirely different state.

I do miss the "cheap" housing of the Lakeland area.  The only house I've owned that we've loved.  That same house here on that same level golf course, easy $300-400k more.  All about location.....

I grew up in central Florida and after I left the harness racing business for school I came back to stay. 
 

After the incredibly active 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, I got spooked and decided to move. My wife is from Waynesville, which is in Haywood County, just west of Asheville, so that's where we moved in 2006. 
 

It could be an okay place to retire or bring your own job. It sure sucked for me, and she wasn't happy either. We were back in FL a year later. 

wake74 said:

We've lived in lots of places (corporate relo's), currently in the Raleigh area, but our last assignment was in central Florida.  What I've found through all my moves, is that most places in the US are pretty similar (minus topography and weather).  There will be people you get along with and every place has it's fair share of asshats.  No state is monolithic. 

NC is a very diverse State, from topography (mountains) to the flatlands of the Piedmont / coast.  Politically as diverse as well, from Chapel Hill being about as far left as you can get on the East Coast, to very Republican when you get 40 miles outside out of any of the few metropolitan areas.  It's like trying to compare Lakeland to Miami, very different places in the same state.

So true, on both paragraphs.

I"ve worked contracts in towns from S. of Miami to Maine, to Salt Lake City, and a few dozen in between. No matter how different some of the surface stuff is - and that can be alot - its just the surface. The similarities are way more than the differences. Some of those surface differences can be so hard to get past sometimes, though.

I've got a well educated cousin (William and Mary) spent most of her life around greensboro (since the 60's)... about as far left as anyone I've ever met. Seems to fit in fine, so I'm not sure what that means!

wake74 said:

School rankings in NC (like most places) is a direct correlation to socio-economic conditions.  The higher the free and reduced lunch percentage, the lower the school ranking.  I'm not advocating that's a good thing, it's simply the way it is.

Since I never did have any kids, I would not have thought about that, but I think your on to something!

In reply to mdshaw :

Outside of the big cities in NC, you might have neighbors that are from NC, but around most of the cities, you might run into 1 in 20. So, you'll have lots of company as an outsider.

Reasons not to move:

Real estate: I've been in Raleigh, NC since the 1996, and the metro areas have been growing since before I moved here. The pace has picked up, and real estate is a seller's market, with lots of investment firms doing cash offers on houses. Be ready to pay out the nose.
Split political climate. ProDarwin touched on it. He didn't even really touch on it. That's all I'll say on this board.
Lagging infrastructure vs. population growth. 
Zoning laws can be baffling depending on the municipality


Reasons to move:

Diverse geography, from mountains to oceans
Active SCCA and other auto enthusiast groups all over the state.
Beautiful driving roads
Four seasons, but the winter is fairly mild. It's almost always top down convertible weather
Strong job markets in many fields
If you like outdoor activities, there's so much to do in the state- hunting, fishing, biking, kayaking, world renowned golfing, etc.


I like it here. The positives far outweigh the negatives.

Brett_Murphy said:

Reasons not to move:

Real estate: I've been in Raleigh, NC since the 1996, and the metro areas have been growing since before I moved here. The pace has picked up, and real estate is a seller's market, with lots of investment firms doing cash offers on houses. Be ready to pay out the nose.
Split political climate. ProDarwin touched on it. He didn't even really touch on it. That's all I'll say on this board.
Lagging infrastructure vs. population growth. 

Zoning laws can be baffling depending on the municipality



I like it here. The positives far outweigh the negatives.

Fortunately for the people that liked NC before all that, there is still much of NC that has NOT changed like Raleigh/Durham/Cary. More stable politicly outside the metropolis like areas; Not in the direction the out of towners in the citys want it to be, but at least more stable.

Zoning is easy - Cary only wants what ever it already has, and what ever touches whatever they already have. Just do what ever Cary wants, and everything will work out fine (and pay no attention to that man behind the curtain) I'm sure you have seen the "NO Cary" signs. They have to keep moving them farther and farther out.

I think mdshaw is retired, so might not be looking too hard at the hiring market. Some of the same problems in Charlotte, but getting out past Knapolis is starting to thin out a little. At least last time i worked there, Charlotte suburbs was thinning out around that area.

I've got to add another reason to move there...

NASCAR!

Truthfully, I'm not a fan, but due to the moonshine racers, you can still find good automotive machine shops in NC. They are vanishing everywhere else.

I lived in Mooresville for 2 years while attending NASCAR! Tech, a UTI campus.  It's a great little town and racing is huuuge.  I remember there being a shop dedicated to rebuilding NASCAR lug guns.  The preacher at our church moved to Trinity, an hour east, and is moving again.  Here's his house for sale.  https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7238-Trotters-Run-Trinity-NC-27370/50091969_zpid/?view=public%3Futm_source%3Dtxtshare&fbclid=IwAR1VdrnelmqvkfCwPBK3tIwAHJaOYClzgl-E4vOnqLcSt8RLg-uUK-LtpOo

Look around Stanly and Davie counties too.  As stated above, Cary is the Concentrated Area of Relocated Yankees.  Most of the rest of the state is not, FWIW. GLWS!  YMMV.  Pork BBQ!

Moved here 2 years ago and I'll likely never leave.  My job is up near Raleigh but I'd rather commute 50 minutes on back roads than live anywhere near a city.  So we bought a small farm in a small farm town in Wayne county.   Its great.   Especially moving from NJ.  Cheaper real estate didnt really apply as we ended up spending more than our NJ home but we went from a standard suburban cookie cutter on 1 acre to a lovely custom farmhouse on 11 acres so its hard to compare.  But even with that difference my monthly outlay is considerably lower due to taxes.

I can't say I've had Curtis' experience with the DMV.  DMV here is great.  But Im sure it varies from location to location.  In our little town its just two old ladies in a building down in town.  After I registered my first two cars they got to know me and they dont give me any trouble, even when I bring them the weird stuff.  Even when there were lines I cannot think of a time I was in there more than 45 minutes.   So find a small town and use their DMV office.

Living away from the more populated areas means more driving to get to things but I can get most of what I need without going near Raleigh and most of the driving is easy and fun roads rather than congested highways.  Sure there are congested highways but most times you have options to get around them if you enjoy driving a twisty road.

hybridmomentspass said:

Lexington BBQ rules, by the way. Eastern is gross lol

Explain the difference please.  I thought they were the same.  And I don't really like either.  

Let's talk humidity.

My wife complains constantly all summer here in south central PA about humidity. Meanwhile, I hate winter with a passion usually reserved for mating animals. I keep trying to convince her the humidity is basically the same as here (according to my online charts), especially in western NC/eastern TN. But, I must confess I have not lived there to truly know if it's worse or the same.

The coast of NC?

Hurricanes every what?  8 to 10 years.

In land, probably no problem.

In reply to spitfirebill :

Briefly- Lexintong BBQ uses tomato based sauce. Eastern uses Vinegar based sauce. SC BBQ uses mustard based sauce.  I like them all but prefer   Eastern.

ddavidv said:

Let's talk humidity.

My wife complains constantly all summer here in south central PA about humidity. Meanwhile, I hate winter with a passion usually reserved for mating animals. I keep trying to convince her the humidity is basically the same as here (according to my online charts), especially in western NC/eastern TN. But, I must confess I have not lived there to truly know if it's worse or the same.

As a prior northeasterner I dont find the humidity to be any worse than up north other than you'll get more days of it, but much less of the abysmal cold so its worth it.   I find more "dry heat" days than humid, but it can be a pretty intense heat.  I have A/C...I'll live.

I love NC. Though we live there seasonally . My place is walking distance from Crabtree Mall in Raleigh. We have owned the same house since 08 when we built it. Prices have been stagnant for this particular property till about 2 years ago. Of course appreciation is nothing like the west coast. 
 

35 months ago we bought tw other houses - one in Apex and one in Cary. Both are rented to two families from seattle that work in IT. 
 

don't like the humidity. Love going to Wilmington every chance I get. Love the slow pace of life. 
 

wish the airport had more flights . 
 

I have two classmates that live locally. One married the ex senators daughter - other lives in Asheville. Since we are all into cars - we get together on drives few times a year 
 

good luck.