Wilmington has it's pros and cons.
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5/31/2022
I think that a lot has changed since covid for this city and will continue to keep changing with our insane economy. But I was born and raised in Wilmington and have lived here all my life. I am however, trying to leave Wilmington.
There's a lot of good here and honestly, it's actually hard to find another city that competes with Wilmington, ESPECIALLY coastal cities.
Wilmington has beautiful beaches, it's a nice mid sized city and has an okay night life.
People in Wilmington are very nice and if definitely has a more southern feel than a lot of cities that I have visited.
Pros and cons:
Pros:
The warm weather, and all 4 seasons year around.
The beautiful beaches.
Nice and friendly people.
It's a mid sized city, not too small, not too big.
Good restaurants and places to eat.
Affordable if you are coming from a bigger city up north.
Cons:
Lack of jobs and especially good paying jobs. Of course, you CAN find jobs in Wilmington but I find that there is a lack of opportunities here. Most of the jobs here are tourist and service industry jobs. Lots of jobs in the food industry. Lots of business and management jobs too. But not very many tech or science jobs. Teacher pay in Wilmington is astonishingly low and pay in general is not the best.
Traffic. Wilmington doesn't have a huge population but it is a tiny city when you look at it on a map. The roads are not built for the influx of people coming here and the traffic is pretty bad for the amount of people that live here.
The prices in Wilmington have been going up for years and covid hit us hard. Wilmington was one of the number 1 places in the entire U.S. to move to during covid. And we had a huge increase in people moving here. Due to this, there's been an insane rental shortage and sky high rent prices. I'm talking like 40% increases in some of the rental complexes.
Not enough houses. Wilmington has used up almost all of its land already and if there's the tiniest bit of land left, a luxury apartment will be built there and ask for way too much in rent. Houses are getting more and more expensive and there's not enough houses being built.
Leland and Hampstead are a little ways away and are helping to combat this and I would suggest living in Leland to buy a home.
Last, is crime. Wilmington has a lot of crime. There feels like there's a shooting downtown once a week, if not more. We have a big heroine problem here and a very high crime rate. The city is very divided and some parts of town are really nice and other parts of town are very run down.
Wilmington is a nice city and I've enjoyed living here but Im looking elsewhere just to find more opportunity.
Kate | Wilmington, NC