It really is less expensive here
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12/16/2014
If you're thinking of leaving your "big city" and moving to NC, you couldn't pick a nicer place, honestly. This is the one southern state that is welcoming to "transplants". If you go to Georgia or South Carolina you won't get as good of a reaction, but North Carolina has a good history of accepting people from other places once they get to know you.
I know, we have a high tax rate, but you actually get some services for that tax rate. Many counties have a lower homeowner tax rate, if you live in the county and stay out of the city limits. If you don't mind driving 10 extra minutes to go shopping, you'll find yourself getting a much better deal on taxes. However, those taxes provide you with essential services - so keep that in mind.
If you choose to live in the cities of North Carolina:
You have more expensive housing, but typically better schools (this does not necessarily apply to small towns), they require a higher tax rate, but your 911 response time is in 2 - 30 minutes. Typically, the cities are more receptive of "foreigners" and "transplants". If you are from a large city, such as LA, NY, etc., you will probably be most comfortable in the cities of Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, or Winston-Salem and maybe Asheville, though it's a little smaller. Wilmington is great too, but it's a lot smaller, but it has the added benefits of being on the beach. Charlotte is easily our largest city, so I would recommend that one to anyone who wants to live in a decent sized city. It has many outlying suburbs that are less expensive to live in.
There are all manner of smaller cities and towns and just countryside that you can purchase homes in. The less civilized it gets the less expensive the land and homes become. There are still huge tracts of 100+ acres available many places here for development, though they are typically in the countryside and not worth developing. The place is here, the money is definitely not that bad. However there are less expensive places in the states.
Here we have mountains, ocean, and everything in between. It's a much more gradual fall in the land though, completely unlike california. We have cold weather here, unlike LA. We have a local population which is very conservative. "You can't sling a dead cat without hitting 9 churches." is a phrase that was made to describe the bible belt of the south, and North Carolina is in it. The cities are not conservative like that, but the smaller cities and towns are very conservativ
Sonya | Lexington, NC