Community Chat

[gmkb]

I would advise educating yourself with NC tax structure, housing costs, weather, medical facilities - in other words all the boring stuff that will affect everyday life. I don't know where you live in Fl., but there is a big difference in temperatures between Miami, Orlando, Ocala, Gainesville, St Augustine and Jacksonville. Any area north of Orlando actually has somewhat seasonal changes. Whatever you decide, I wish you well.

[Tabbycat]

A little more to the east ... The Blue Ridge Mountains are beautiful, too, and the foothills. I believe the winters are just a little milder over here. My SIL & BIL live in Franklin area and it seems they get a little more cooler temps and snow in winters.

[Blahblahvampemer]

We've been looking at North Georgia and Western NC for the last year, and we decided to stop looking in NC. Asheville is fab, and we'll be there shortly for our fourth trip up there this year, but real estate is costly. Gas is higher. Property taxes are MUCH higher (nearly double what we're paying now). Electricity is higher. Sales tax is higher (for me). Income taxes are higher. And so forth.

We crunched the numbers and found out our cost of living will be 20-25% higher there than where we live right now. Even North Georgia would be a bit higher though a great deal cheaper on gas for a few months of the year. It's very difficult for us to give up a geo thermal heating/AC system to spend more for a smaller house.

Crunch the numbers and go from there.

[Blahblahvampemer]

Franklin is great, was there on Wednesday in fact for lunch,but the taxes are insane.

[Drythe]

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@debc wrote:

You will never understand a single thing anyone says.   My BF's husband is from there and it took me 2 years to understand his accent. LOL

Sorry to you southerners.  

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debc

Well just OUCH!  The winkey doesn't help.

I'm a Southerner born and raised in NC.

I've traveled all over the world and anyone who speaks English understands me without  problem. 

[Drythe]

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@chiclet wrote:

We live in Florida and it has nothing to offer us since we don't like heat and beaches.  I love that Western north part of North Carolina so we are thinking of moving.  Any suggestions, warnings etc?  I just feel so overwhelmed thinking of a long distance move. 

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aubegirl

There was a fairly long thread about vacationing in NC on the forum recently.  You might want to search for that.

Also,  I suggest that you come stay several times to see how you adjust.  I'm in the central part of the state.  2.5 hours from the mountains, or the beach.  However, as mentioned, we've had a MAJOR influx of new residents in the past 10 to 15 years and costs are high.  The Davidson area and Winston-Salem are both pretty areas with hilly landscape, and local university activity available near-by.

[Tabbycat]

Accents .... It may take a little time at first. We've been in NC for more than 10 years. I personally love the accents. Depending on the region North Carolinians grew up, some accents are thicker than others. My other BIL is from Charlotte area and I LOVE his accent. He speaks real slow and has that long southern draw. We love the area we settled in. So much better climate than where we came from up north.

@Drythe ... Hi Drythe, sounds like we live close to the same area.

[151949]

I'm so sorry you are unhappy in Florida. I spent much of my childhood there and then dragged DH to Florida on vacation at every possible opportunity so we were very prepared to make the move. If I was to find I was not happy I would sit down and make a list up of reasons we were unhappy so that when we made a decision to move somewhere else we could be sure we weren't going to run  into the same problems again. For instance you say you don't like the heat - what is the temperature in the summers where you are looking to move? What is the humidity like there in the summer? We live in Florida about 8 to 9 months of the year but we enjoy travelling during the hottest part of the summers.This year we are in the area of SW New York along the Lake Erie shore for an extended stay.

Anyway, best of luck with your move.

[151949]

I just looked up Ashville webpage - they say in the summer it is rare for it to go above 80 , even in July which is the hottest month. To me that means it is probably pretty cool there much of the time. They also said that in the winter the surrounding mountains get a lot of snow but the city of ashville will get rain - I interpreted that to mean they would get a lot of ice storms, which can be very treacherous.

If I were interested in this area I would not make any rash decisions.