Thinking of re-locating to NC, any suggestions?

Hello everyone! DH and I are "thinking" of moving down to North Carolina, although neither of us have ever been there we here it's a great place to live.  We are in our 40's with two teenage daughters. One out of school the other going into high school. Currently, we live on Long Island in New York about an hour or so from NYC. It is not all that rural out here. My hubby is retired from the Police Department and I am a case manager for troubled teens on probation. Do you have any suggestions as to where we would fit in? I've heard the Carey is a nice place and a good friend of mine recently moved to New Bern. I will look up towns and see what the average price of homes are as well as taxes, but your input would really help. I have been banded since 11/06 and would need a follow up doc for fills ect.. I have GHI Thanks

Hey I live to Beaufort which is on the Coast just about 40 miles south of your Friend.  It is Beautiful here.  Schools are ok.  It is mostly a second home retirement area.  Our Beaches are Beautiful and Prices match.  My husband builds here and he is a local.  I grew up in Vienna Va outside of DC but we always vacationed hear.  I had my surgery 2 hours away in Greenvile NC at ECU Physcians Pitt Memorial Hospital, the place all this Y bypass started.  It is an excellent hospital and continuious growing.  It is worth my 2 to 1.5 hour drive to go there.  Not to say we don't have some good Doctors here but not with there expertise in this field as far as I am concerned.  Now for Carteret County the Biggest employer is Cherry Point Airforce base which is between us and your friend.  Like I said it is a toursit area but also military only we don't have the negatives that follow military here, strip joints and such.  We do have hurricanes.   We offer great fishing  and golf for men and lady's I guess.  I do know Carteret county has a teen court and we do not at this time have any or maybe random gang issues.  Out youth here have drug issues, probably from lack of nothing to do but go to walmart or cruze.  Our only skating rink and bowling spot was bulldozed last year to make way for a large shopping plaza.  We do not have a mall as of yet.  Most go to Greenville, Raleigh or Wilmington for serious shopping.  Drugs is not an issue for all teens here.  Carey is the fast pace life if you want unlimited malls, shopping, traffic and a choice for just about everything.  Seems they all come here though when there kids get out of school.  Another nice place is Wilmington NC.  A very fast growing city, excellent hospital and a large campus of UNC Wilmington.  Beaches are right there also.  Like here though expect homes to start easy around 3 to 4 hundred thousand for a basic house and prices go up the closer you get.  I have a brokers licsens and the best thing to do first is contact one for some general Information.  As I know they can be a pushy lot, if you are interest in this area I suggest you contact Margeret Piner, with Linda Rike Realty.  You can find her on the net or at least get the number.  She has been selling properties since the60's here.  Yea she is retired sorta, but she is a good person, involved with the community, and mostly is not a pushy person and I'd swear by her honesty.  She could sent you some information on the area and a homes book.  If you do go that route please let her know Lynn Custer referred you.  I work for the Bank now so I don't see her much.  Bank pay's good health benefits.  Realestate not always!  Anyways where every you go here it is a buyers market, don't let them make you think otherwize.  Good Luck.

Wow how exciting. We moved to Charlotte when I was 2 and I am now 33. I love it here, well we live in Concord actually had to get out of the city if you will. Compared to NY it's not much of a city. I love the country so Concord is great for us. It's enough city and country to make it feel perfect for home. We have a house in N Myrtle Beach, SC I can honestly say that is probably where my husband and I will retire...but we have a ways before we hit that goal.  I have to say I love NC and NC is my home and will always be our home.  Good Luck and I think if you moved you would love it and there is great support for WLS here in NC I know for sure in the Charlotte area.

Hi, My wife and I just moved from West Haven, CT to Charlotte this past March and so far we love it.  It's a beautiful city and just about everyone we've met has been amazingly nice.  I had RNY in January, so I am looking for a follow-up doc in the area myself and based on what I've seen on the boards, there are a bunch in the area that seem like they'd be great. 

Good luck,

Joe

Hiya I am also a transplant from NY ( upstate-Syracuse area) .  I have been in Charlotte NC now for almost 6 years.  I love it!!!! The first year was tuff , as I missed my B/F , friends, food, and everything else I knew from NY.  But now I love it here.  I go back to NY a few times a year but I would NEVER go back to live.  I can't really say much on the schools as I have no children in school.  I was a country girl since birth and through my upper teanage years ****il we moved to Syracuse) and then I became a city girl when I moved here.  Even so there is no comparison.  Where ever you end up , good luck .  Charlotte has some great support groups and doctors ( Particulary mine :) )

My family has always lived in North Carolina. However, my grand parents and mother lived in Ohio for a period of time. We love it here, i don't think we'd feel at home anywhere else. We live in Lenoir, between Hickory and Boone, and about an hour and a half away from Charlotte. We are known as the foothills, because we are at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. There's alot to do here: skiing and hiking in the mountains, boating and skiing (there are some lakes close to here.) But we are not right in the middle of all the traffic coming in for these "tourist" areas. We are just close enough so we don't have to drive far to do them. I have two daughters who attend a private school near here. We don't have a high crime rate and not a lot of noise. It would seem very peaceful to someone accustomed to big city life. We are part of what some like to call the "Bible Belt". There are lots of churches of every denomination around here and nearly everyone goes to church. Hope you are able to find an area that is suitable for your family, North Carolina is a wonderful state. Lots of heritage and pride in our history. Good luck!

Thank you all for such great input....I sure have my work cut out for me.

Hi Everyone - Former NY Girl here -  This link is very useful for anyone considering moving to NC  http://www.city-data.com/forum/charlotte/ You can exit out of this to the North Carolina forum too there are different city links. Good Luck on your Journeys both Weight and socially.   I don't miss the snow for 1 minute. Ok for the few minutes where it looks beautiful, but not the icy gray skys and the dark grey colored snow.

Hi Angie -

We moved here from the San Francisco Bay Area 5 years ago. We wanted to wind down to a slower pace and less expense place to live. I just had my RNY done through DukeWLS, the program at UNC Chapel Hill seems to be very good and there are several other programs in the greater "Triangle" area that encompases Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Cary is a very nice place to live, especially if you like "middle to upper-middle class suburban" neighborhoods.

I have to admit that while I was looking for a slower pace ... it was a bit slower than I thought ... That said, it's getting better all the time. It takes a little while to get used to not having the "perks" of living in/near a major urban center such as NY or SF. 

One thing that might help you is to know about how much housing costs per sq fot here vs. home. For example, in San Jose CA, where I used to live housing runs about $700/sq. ft. but you can buy the same home in a comparable neighborhood for about $150/sq ft. here. While our 2200/sf home we had in San Jose on a .3 acre lot is now worth about 1.5 mil.,  we have a large 4000/sf brick ranch on 1.4 acres right in the midst of the suburban NW Raleigh ... I think it Zillow's at about 500K. I'm not sure if that helps envision the differences ... I would say that the type of neighborhoods are similar in many ways. Upper middle class, white collar neighborhoods. Also if your girls are like to go to a NC State, UNC school, one of the many private colleges and universities in the area, you'll find that there are a number of choices that are in or near the "triangle". While I'm a licensed RE broker, I'm not practicing right now ... I'm focusing on me for the time being. However, I'd be glad to "talk" with you if you like and I can put you in touch with people that I believe can do a great job for you without suffocating you as you try to make a decision. 

All the best in your quest for a new life in the south,

Barb

Hi Angie, I grew up right across LI Sound in CT.  I could see Fisher's Island and Block Island on a clear day.  I have been in NC for over 10 years and I just love it.  The good news is folks down here are wonderful and will make you feel welcomed and at home.  You will find Southerners to be kind, well mannered as well as courteous and respectful to others.  Most folks I know that move down here, stay here; even if they've tried to move back "up north" a time or 2!  It's the kind of culture where you feel at home like no where else in the world.  I love it here. Please keep us posted!  We'd love to have you and your family here! Blessings, Diane