Where to move in the Carolinas?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My husband and in our late 40s, with college-age kids, and are starting to look forward to the next phase of our lives. The plan is to retire in 5-10 years, provided the market doesn’t do anything nutty. We currently live in Ohio, and the majority of our family is here, so we’d ultimately like to move to a place that is within a drivable distance to Cincinnati.

Because interest rates are so sweet right now, we’re considering purchasing a 2nd home now, with the intention of moving to it permanently or semi-permanently (snow birds) once we retire. We’d also consider buying land and building on it later.

We’ve narrowed our search to the Carolinas because it ticks off a lot of boxes – temperate climate, within a day’s drive of Cincinnati, natural beauty, (mountains, lakes, ocean), decent cost-of-living, and access to medium-to-large-sized cities so that we have access to good medical care, concerts, plays.

We’ve already ruled out Savannah (too small), Outer Banks (too remote) and Myrtle Beach (too touristy). Here are some places that are still in consideration:

Asheville used to be #1 on our list, but more than one person has commented that it’s become a hang-out for hippies. One guy referred to it as Berkeley of the East. Not sure that’s our scene, man.

When we were in our 30s, Hilton Head Island was like our 2nd home because we vacationed there so often. It’s still a contender, but summers scare me. It’s way too hot and humid, and overrun with tourists. What we still do like about it is its great location right on the ocean, its good restaurants, shopping, as well as tons of outdoorsy choices, like hiking, kayaking, tennis, etc. (A vibrant tennis community is a real bonus for us, since we both play competitively.) HHI is also within driving distance to Atlanta, where we could fly to just about anywhere else in the world, since we love to travel.

Charleston is our current frontrunner because it’s the size we want, has the culture we seek, the climate we like…but I’ve heard that they’re not all that welcoming to transplants. If anyone has thoughts on that, I’d love to hear them.

Friends have also recommended Raleigh and Chapel Hill, but we’ve never been to either place. We enjoy little towns, but not sure I could live in a small town year round.

So, does anyone have any thoughts on these areas, or others? I’d love to get some feedback so we can plan a weekend trip or two and explore the areas.

2

If Raleigh, with a metro area of well over 1 million, is a small town to you, then Charleston and Charlotte would be the best options.

Personally I’d go with Charlotte as it’s known in Georgia as “the new and improved Atlanta”, it’s not long overdue for a major earthquake, and it’s above sea level. Also a major airport hub.

3

There are many smaller towns around Asheville that are quite a bit more conservative - Brevard is one. It’s close enough to Asheville for the restaurants and shopping, but outside the “hippy” atmosphere.

My parents retired to a coastal community in North Carolina, but soon became tired of the heat and humidity there. They found the mountains much more to their liking.

4

I’ve lived in Charlotte for the last 9 years.

Pros: Good-sized city with pro sports teams (NFL, NBA, NASCAR, minor league baseball), decent theater, evolving restaurant scene (Johnson and Wales has a campus here and many graduates stay and open places) and plenty of shopping. It’s becoming more cosmopolitan due to the big banks being the major economic drivers. Taxes are fairly low (particularly if you live outside of Mecklenberg county.) 2 - 3 hours to the mountains, 3 - 4 hours to the ocean. Plenty of outdoor activities, including the U.S. Whitewater center. There are some adult communities around you might be interested in (Sun City is actually in SC, but minutes from the city limits. They have a very active community with golf, tennis, etc. I know people who live there and love it.) Great YMCA system with amazing facilities for tennis, swimming, etc. There are other nearby smaller towns that might suit your tastes better. I live among beautiful horse farms, but am only 15 from my office. The weather is pretty good. All four seasons. Snow once or twice a winter, but it almost always melts on its own within a day.

Cons: The city has no identity. Nothing to make people remember it. That may not be important to you, but I find it odd for a city of this size. Traffic (not bad compared to Atlanta, but getting worse.) The heat and humidity can get bad in July and August. It’s still a bible belt town in many ways.

5

Wait, you’re worried about the climate in Hilton Head, but not Charleston? They’re virrtually identical.

Also, Raleigh is the biggest city on your list. It isn’t a small town. Chapel hill is right next door, and close to Durham. All three are college towns.

Third thing is, I don’t think you’ll be doing much driving from Hilton Head to Altanta for flights. That’s a long haul.

6

Hendersonville, NC, is near Asheville and has no hippie vibe whatsoever. Flat Rock in particular is nice.

7

I live in the Triangle area (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) and the nice thing about it is that there’s something here for almost everyone.

There’s great restaurants in Durham in particular, and lots of arts and cultural activities due to the presence of UNC, Duke and NC State, along with places like the Durham Performing Arts Center and the amphitheaters in Cary and Raleigh.

Raleigh has the NHL team in the state (Carolina Hurricanes) and if you like college sports, particularly basketball, there’s lots of that as well.

Both UNC and Duke have huge medical centers so no need to go far for that either.

There’s also a high concentration of well-educated people in this area and it skews very liberal in contrast to a good bit of the rest of the state, Asheville and parts of Charlotte excepted, if that matters to you.

8

Yes, we’ve been to both. If we chose either Charleston or HHI, we’d do the snow bird thing and return to Cincinnati in the summer.

The friend who recommended said it was a great college town, so I guess I assumed the town kind of was the college. I’ll have to look more into Raleigh and Durham.

Adding Charlotte to the list. Thanks for the info, Southern Yankee. I take it that you felt welcomed there. We’re a bit too young to look into retirement villages just yet, but a great YMCA would be nice.

9

Lisa, I’d look hard at Chapel Hill. It’s one of the classic southern college towns, with a ton of things to do, places to eat, lots of cultural events, etc. Plus, it’s close enough to the big city that you can go there if you’d like. For that matter, I’d check out Charlottesville, VA.

There is a University in Raleigh (NC State), but it it’s too big to be called a classic college town. I think the metro area is 2 million people.

10

Can you expand a bit on the weather? We don’t mind seasons, but if we could be outside 8 or 9 months of the year, that’d be great.

11

I grew up in Chapel Hill and live in Asheville. Chapel Hill is a wonderful town, but it is a heavily college town. The heat in the summer is atrocious, and it’s a muggy heat: don’t plan on spending much time outside in July or August unless there’s a swimming pool nearby.

Asheville does have more than its fair share of hippies, and the town is heavily Democratic. But it’s more weird than it is hippie (if you move here and spend any time downtown, you’ll almost certainly come across this person). There’s definitely a wealthy section of town, make that wealthy sections. The weather is better than in Chapel Hill, but we lack the access Chapel Hill has to the cultural centers of Raleigh and Durham.

I’m no fan of Charlotte, but lots of folks are. Since my in-laws moved away, neither I nor my wife have any desire to go there.

12

Winters are usually mild, but it can get below freezing at night during the coldest months (December, January and February, usually), and you can get some upredictable weather - temps will be right along the freezing line and you won’t know whether to expect rain, snow, sleet or freezing rain. Or a fun combo of all of 'em in the course of a day! This only happens a few times a winter though.

Summer can be quite hot (think the 90s daily during some stretches of July and August), though since I’ve lived here (13 years now) they’ve also tended to be dry and that limits the humidity a good part of the time. But if you plan on being outside in the summer, you do have to deal with the heat and strong sun.

Spring and fall are usually terrific, especially spring. I’m originally from Cleveland and there’s no way I’d ever move back.

13

Raleigh is pretty damn muggy. You may have long periods without rain, but, the average relative morning humidity during the summer in in the 90s.
It’s no Houston, sure.

14

Savannah has a population of 350,000+, is that too small? Of course it’s in Georgia, not the Carolinas.

HHI is a 4 hour drive to Atlanta, and it’s one of the more expensive cities to fly out of. You could probably get a better fare departing from Savannah, Charleston, or other small airport. You’ll likely have a connection in ATL, but then so does everyone else. As we say - when you die, whether you were good or bad, your soul must go through Hartfield before you reach your final destination.

My MIL moved to the Charleston area 7 or 8 years ago. I never heard her say anything negative about the transition. Personally, I would recommend living on or near the beach just outside Clarleston (Mt. Pleasant/Isle of Palms, James Island, Sullivan Island, etc.) and driving into the city when necessary.

15

Yes. We have spent some time there since it’s so close to HHI, but it’s just not big enough.

Cincinnati used to be a hub for Delta so we know all about fare gouging. Still, we’d much prefer to drive 4 hours and get a direct flight than get a better fare with a layover.

That’s good to know. Friends of ours keep talking up Kiewah, but I think that it draws a wealthier crowd than we are used to. He was a VP for our company so I doubt that they have the same budget restrictions that we have. :slight_smile:

16

I’ve found it to be better than either Cleveland, where I grew up, or Virginia Beach, where I lived for 14 years before coming here. Early summer mornings can actually be pleasant - being away from large masses of water tends to help!

17

PunditLisa:

I’ve only been in that area once, and it was in January, and there was a hell of a snowstorm. It was bad enough that I took an extra day’s unplanned vacation rather than drive home in it (which was the plan for that night), the roads were very icy.

(in case that’s not typical of Raleigh/Durham winters, I’ll let on that the year in question was 2004, maybe you residents could tell me if that was remembered as a harsher winter than most)

18

South Carolina is a wonderful place … I like all of it … just learn to say, “ya’ll” and you will fit in.

I think more inland like Anderson, South Carolina is safer from hurricanes, lakes can be more fun on week days than the shore line vactioners.

Lot of good bargins and like you said the interest rates are low now and that won’t last forever just like gold at $1,700 an ounce didn’t last.

19

You probably get 2 decent snowfalls a year in Raleigh. By decent, I mean 6+ inches.

Does that sound right, Raleigh folks, or is it overstating the snowfall?

20

You think HHI is overrun with “tourists?” Heck, you’d probably see some of your former neighbors and co-workers. It’s frightening the number of Ohioans that you see in HHI. I’m not convinced that there’s some secret plan to try to get SC and to swap Hilton Head for Toledo.