Where to move in the Carolinas?

[PunditLisa]

@Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker

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.

Now that the real estate market is beginning to pick up, we may have to throw in Lima.

Seriously, part of the reason we’ve visited HHI so often is because my husband’s uncle owns a place in Sea Pines, which he’s owned since the 80s. Developers marketed HHI heavily to golfers in Ohio and Michigan during the 80s boom, as an attractive alternative to Florida, which was the biggest tourist destination for Yanks at the time. With Florida being quite the trek from Ohio, HHI is, indeed a great alternative because we can get to a great beach is in 10-12 hours from Cincinnati.

When they first visited HHI, they had to take a ferry over, and the main artery was a dirt road. Much of the island was still undeveloped so buying there was very affordable to a middle class family. To give you an indication, Uncle could have bought an ocean front lot for $100k, but didn’t want to over-leverage himself. :smack:

The Uncle still owns his place in HHI and they live there about half the year. Many of their neighbors have residences in HHI as well, so there’s a lot of truth in what you’re saying.

Anyway, that is why there are so many Ohioans and Michiganites in HHI.

[Southern_Yankee]

@PunditLisa

…

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.

Yes. Ok, so here’s the thing. This is not intended as a put down of southern people, but in my (and other people I’ve talked to) opinion, there is a slight animosity towards the people flocking to the Carolinas from the north (and also Florida.) As an example. there’s a town outside Raleigh called Cary, and the joke is that it’s an acronym for Containment Area for Relocated Yankees. It’s not overt, but it’s there, specially in smaller towns like where I live. My town has an empty water tower that they are very proud of (:rolleyes:) and they just spent $266,000 to have it refinished and painted. When the topic of better uses for that money comes up, the standard answer is that like to spend all the Yankee tax money that’s flowing in. I say all this not to dissuade you. I’ve made plenty of friends, both locals and transplants. But it took a while to feel welcome. I should also mention that I’ve seen some of the transplanted northerners in action, constantly saying how much better things were up north, and I can understand the animosity to a certain degree. Not me though. I blend.

Also, we chose Charlotte because there were corporate jobs and good schools for our young children (Union County.) If I was retiring and the kids were grown I would personally look closer to the ocean, with Charleston near the top of the list.

[romansperson]

In the Triangle, (where Cary is, and I’ll discuss that in a minute), there are people from all over the world and I have never for one moment felt unwelcome. There are people here from a lot farther away in the world than from which I came. For example, one day my husband and I decided to go see a Spanish art exhibit at the Nasher Museum, which is the Duke University art museum. We ate lunch there on the outdoor patio - and I noticed midway through the meal that we were the only people out there speaking English.

Cary … while I am sure it’s a very nice place to raise a family (and many do) … it’s … beige. If personality matters in the area in which you wish to settle, Cary doesn’t have it.

Cary has gotten a lot of outside press that has made it attractive people looking to move from elsewhere, New Yorkers in particular … who then bitch about how it’s not ‘like home.’ Well no shit, Sherlock … and even though I am not a native Southerner I am beyond annoyed on their behalf. I’d be just as happy to help 'em pack and drive 'em to the airport as anyone who was born and raised here.

[Lasciel]

If you want a mid-sized town, not as hippie/weird as Asheville, and don’t want the muggy of the coastline, then I submit Greenville SC.

Nice town, growing very well, LOVELY downtown. Downside - college town. However, those colleges are Furman U and Bob Jones, so the fallout is a bit limited.

Smaller cities on either side are Anderson and Spartanburg, both close enough to get to Greenville within an hour, and both with much lower property values and taxes. Lots of interspersed small towns, but I wouldn’t suggest a transplant Yankee settle into a smaller town in the south. Much easier to learn to blend in a city.

Greenville is about 3.5 hours to Atl, 2.5 to Charlotte, 5.5 to Charleston.

Otherwise, I’d suggest John’s Island outside of Charleston. I would say James Island (that’s where I grew up), but it’s a bit overbuilt and overpriced now. Do take the advice of the posters upthread and go with somewhere ON the coast - inland more than 15 or so miles gets AWFUL with the humidity and lack of breeze in the summertime.

[Labrador_Deceiver]

Are you driving to Atlanta in reverse?

[Passengernumber4]

I moved from Ohio to Charleston seven years ago. Best decision of my life. There is a small “oh you’re from… Ohio” group of people but the majority will make you feel more welcome than Cini. Feel free to being your Bengals gear, and I might say hi to you some Sunday in a bar.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Labrador_Deceiver

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?

I grew up in Chapel Hill, lived there from 1981-1994, about an hour west of Raleigh. I don’t think we got a single 6+ inch snowfall in all that time. If we got 4 inches at a time, we considered it a blizzard and school was out for days. We’d often go without any snow cover at all in the winter.

Of course, that was before global warming :).

Edit: This table suggests Raleigh gets a total of 3.9 inches in an average year total.

[Jonathan_Chance]

@PunditLisa

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.

Well, you would have ME - as a fellow Ohio transplant - in Charleston. So there’s that.

And it’s not that the people aren’t welcoming of transplants, it’s just that there’s some backlash because there’s a LOT of transplants here. Being both a military town and a state where a lot of people have relocated for jobs means a lot of new people. But other than some good natured ribbing I haven’t had any troubles. The local minor league baseball team DOES have a ‘go back to Ohio’ night each season but it’s all in fun.

Heck, one other person in my development has those stickers of his family on the back of his car and they’re spelling out O-H-I-O!

So it’s a fun city, and housing, especially a bit off the coast itself, is unreasonably cheap right now. If I can answer any specifics I’ll do my best. Love to have another friend down here.

[Labrador_Deceiver]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

I grew up in Chapel Hill, lived there from 1981-1994, about an hour west of Raleigh. I don’t think we got a single 6+ inch snowfall in all that time. If we got 4 inches at a time, we considered it a blizzard and school was out for days. We’d often go without any snow cover at all in the winter.

Of course, that was before global warming :).

Edit: This table suggests Raleigh gets a total of 3.9 inches in an average year total.

Well, there you go. I believe the stats. I lived about 20 miles west of you on I-40, where we had some sizable snowfalls from 81-94. We had over a foot in about a week in January of 1988, I believe. I think we missed 2 weeks of school that year. Pretty sure Raleigh and Chapel Hill got hit with that one.

Upon relection, there seemed to be a big difference between us and Raleigh when it came to snow.

[Wargamer]

My wife lived in Charleston for 8 years during/after college. She hated it due to the weather. She claims Charleston has only two seasons, summer and January.

As a native North Carolinian, I have to agree that anywhere but the mountains is going to give you hot muggy summers. But, you will get to experience all four seasons, and the late Spring and Fall will generally be fantastic (occasional hurricane excepted, but if you’re inland you’ll get mostly rain and some wind).

For my suggestion, I would point you to the Traid - Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point. It’s about 60-75 minutes from both Charlotte and the Raleigh-Durham area by interstate. W-S is the home to Wake Forest University, and has a strong arts community as well, with the North Carolina School of the Arts in town, and a VERY strong theater company in Greensboro, Triadstage, less than 20 miles away. The Blue Ridge Parkway is 90 minutes or so away, and the beaches are a 6 hour drive at most (to the Outer Banks, Wilmington area is closer - 4 hours or so).

There are a number of interesting restaurants in the area, and several wineries within a short drive, if that’s your thing. Not as many as Charlotte or Raleigh, but you can find something delicious pretty easily. Oh, and we have the BEST Bar-B-Q down in Lexington.

Wake Forest also has Baptist Hospital, a very well regarded medical center, so that area is covered. Transportation options include Piedmont Triad Int’l Airport between Greensboro and Winston (wave at my house as you take off/land), which provides decent flight options. Not the best, as Charlotte and RDU have the major airport sites sewed up. But, you can get to Douglass in Charlotte and RDU in 90 minutes or less depending on traffic.

Politically, the surrounding areas are Republican, but Greensboro and W-S have left-leaning areas.

The Triad is not as bustling as Charlotte or the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill), but it does have its own easy charm.

[crucible]

We live in suburban Raleigh, about 35 miles SW from downtown. the whole area is pretty decent, good transportation system, etc. Lots of new construction all the time.

Constant fighting between the regressive conservatives who current have power and who are working furiously to wipe out any and all social programs, public education, unemployment insurance, etc. and the far more liberal northern and minority infusion of intelligent people. (there might be a bit of partisan rhetoric there, but…that’s really the way it is)

Decent arts and science (lots of it, a lot of it free). As others have said, Raleigh is pretty much central in NC and has a temperate climate (can get terrifically hot for a time in the summer), and is not far from the beaches or the mountains. Good sized and active airport with direct connections to most major cities.

driving to Cincinnati is odd, because the best way to go is to cut up through WV, over into Ohio as though you were going to Columbus, then back SW to Cincy.

I like Cincy too, but prefer NC overall.

[My_Darn_Snake_Legs]

My wife is from NW Ohio, and I’m from south Texas, and we’re both happy in NC. We live not far from Greensboro, NC. It’s within a short drive to Charlotte and the Raleigh/Durham areas, but it’s not as big as either.