Making a move

[apamburn]

Well we decided to pull the trigger. The house is listed online as of yesterday, we've had 2 showings so far. Our plan is to head to North Carolina for climate, acceptable politics, and proximity to family.

I got authorized 2 weeks ago to become a remote employee, so I'm full time work from home and free to go.

The market is really hot here in Utah. We listed our home for about $180k more than we owe, and will likely get it.

Should be headed that way at the end of the month and then the house search begins.

Any opinions or info on the Raleigh-Durham area, or areas between Fayetteville and Raleigh (Dunn, Sanford), or any other areas up to 1 hour from Raleigh?

[PRC 74]

I hate to say it but the politics in NC are turning to the left much like CO. Sad to see. Otherwise a nice place. I live in SC. You might want to check out Greenville SC area. Just as nice and conservative.

[Johnny C!]

I have to agree about the politics in Raleigh,
but the outlying area are very conservative.
I was born & raised in the mountains. We have
4 great seasons and a great climate. Not too
cold & not to hot. Mountain biking & breweries
are the hot ticket in the last few years. Great
mountain scenery and lots of waterfalls, where
I live. Asheville is becoming a liberal town but
industry & shops have grown up all around so
we rarely go there anymore.

If you make it here on a scouting trip, I'll be
happy to show you around my AO. We're on
the NC/SC border, so we have easy access to
the upstate, as well.

Good Luck!

[m48shooter]

The parents lived in R/D for almost a decade. The hood is deep and just keeps growing. The nice mountain roads are getting over-run and grid locked as the development companies drop subdivision after subdivision spreading the sprawl...

[PRC 74]

Ashville, becoming liberal???

[paranoid]

Ashville, becoming liberal???
Downtown Asheville went full hipster years ago.

[PRC 74]

Yep, that's what I meant. It is kind of San Fran east now.

[twinboysdad]

Wife is from Greensboro. NC will be blue sooner than later, many east coasters have moved down and changed the demographics. I would avoid RDU and Charlotte. Greensboro, The Piedmont Triad in general, Hickory, and the Coast is good. I like SC better as well and Greenville is great.

[Gun Mutt]

Lump me in with the haters. Spent a year in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill and thought I was back in the PRK. Southern heritage is dead there, replaced by anti-Trumpers and micro breweries.

[mike135]

I've had my eye on the region for a while, but I share the concerns about NC--seems like the trends are in the wrong direction.

I started looking at western SC and eastern TN--seems like you can get a lot of the benefits without as much of the undesirable elements. But if distance to Raleigh is non-negotiable then I'm sure you could do much worse compared to other states. :smile:

[apamburn]

I've had my eye on the region for a while, but I share the concerns about NC--seems like the trends are in the wrong direction.

I started looking at western SC and eastern TN--seems like you can get a lot of the benefits without as much of the undesirable elements. But if distance to Raleigh is non-negotiable then I'm sure you could do much worse compared to other states. :smile:

It is, basically.

We want somewhere that:

- is a tech hub (for work). I won't do DOD or government, so I need a place with lots of private options.

- has reasonably priced real estate.

- I am free to own the guns I want, legally, and as conservative as possible

- is reasonably close to family. My wife's family is in MA, and I have family in SE VA and FL.

Raleigh checks all of those boxes about as well as any place could, I think.

[COG]

You might want to check into your gun stipulation. My brother lives in the Raleigh area and he tells me it is a real hassle to purchase handguns. From what he tells me, firearms must be registered with the sheriff and all firearm purchases have to be signed off by the sheriff's office before purchase. This might be just the Raleigh area, I'm not sure about the rest of the state.

Anyways, I have family members that live in NC and most have expressed their desire to move. Believe me, I love the NC countryside and spent much of my youth on our family farm in the southern part of the state. Unfortunately, the politics in NC has gone socialist/communist and is getting worse. Eastern TN or SC are way more firearm friendly. (Have family in both of those states too.)

[apamburn]

You might want to check into your gun stipulation. My brother lives in the Raleigh area and he tells me it is a real hassle to purchase handguns. From what he tells me, firearms must be registered with the sheriff and all firearm purchases have to be signed off by the sheriff's office before purchase. This might be just the Raleigh area, I'm not sure about the rest of the state.

Anyways, I have family members that live in NC and most have expressed their desire to move. Believe me, I love the NC countryside and spent much of my youth on our family farm in the southern part of the state. Unfortunately, the politics in NC has gone socialist/communist and is getting worse. Eastern TN or SC are way more firearm friendly. (Have family in both of those states too.)

They have a stupid "purchase permit" that you have to pay for every time you buy a firearm, I believe.

The record is kept on file for a determinate period of time as I recall.

That's definitely BS.

We aren't tied to Raleigh, to be honest. Does anyone have suggestions of other places that meet our requirements?

[Invisible_Man]

I'd stay right where you are. Utah seems like a nice place to live. You now have the go ahead to work from home. The Northeast and I'll include the whole East Coast is not somewhere you want to move to. You'll get a lot of money for your house sale but it won't go very far with the crazy prices we have over here. Like others have mentioned any open quiet areas are being built up with sub divisions everywhere causing gridlock any which way you turn. The roads here were just not built to handle this kind of volume.

[apamburn]

I'd stay right where you are. Utah seems like a nice place to live. You now have the go ahead to work from home. The Northeast and I'll include the whole East Coast is not somewhere you want to move to. You'll get a lot of money for your house sale but it won't go very far with the crazy prices we have over here. Like others have mentioned any open quiet areas are being built up with sub divisions everywhere causing gridlock any which way you turn. The roads here were just not built to handle this kind of volume.

Thanks for the advice.

Our home is still on the market, no offers yet. The wife and I joke that it must be a sign :-)

The cost of living in the areas of NC we are looking at is actually lower than in utah right now as costs have been increasing drastically here over the last 2 years.

We are researching keeping and renting our Utah home. Values are still increasing and we would have a plan b in case NC doesn't work out.

[pangloss]

They have a stupid "purchase permit" that you have to pay for every time you buy a firearm, I believe.

The record is kept on file for a determinate period of time as I recall.

That's definitely BS.

We aren't tied to Raleigh, to be honest. Does anyone have suggestions of other places that meet our requirements?

Individuals who have a concealed carry permit are not required to obtain a pistol purchase permit from the sheriff. I bought several pistols when I lived in NC, and I think only one of those involved a purchase permit. Also, I think the permits are kept on file by the FFL and not returned to the sheriff. NC had a lot of prohibited areas when I lived there, but I think their gun laws have improved over the last ~9 years.

East Carolina is pretty rural. Rocky Mount, Wilson, and Goldsboro are all about an hour east of Raleigh. If you go west of Raleigh there are more people and more traffic.

Sent from my moto e5 cruise using Tapatalk

[apamburn]

Individuals who have a concealed carry permit are not required to obtain a pistol purchase permit from the sheriff. I bought several pistols when I lived in NC, and I think only one of those involved a purchase permit. Also, I think the permits are kept on file by the FFL and not returned to the sheriff. NC had a lot of prohibited areas when I lived there, but I think their gun laws have improved over the last ~9 years.

East Carolina is pretty rural. Rocky Mount, Wilson, and Goldsboro are all about an hour east of Raleigh. If you go west of Raleigh there are more people and more traffic.

Sent from my moto e5 cruise using Tapatalk

We are actually very interested in the Rocky Mount area and that is where we are most interested in buying right now.

[Eldora]

May I suggest the "Foothills" area near Surry & Yadkin Counties in NC. I 77 is handy if you're going North or South. Very reasonable real estate and the politics are conservative. 1 hour to Winston-Salem and 2 hours to either Charlotte or Raleigh. It's wine country if you're into that and the Blue Ridge Parkway & Appalachian Trail are almost within sight.

[Johnny C!]

If you want lower taxes I think you
should look at the SC tax compared
to NC. Maybe just across the border?

I had a co-worker that moved just
across the border for that very reason
while adding 25 miles to his daily
commute. He apparently thought the
trade off was worth it.

Good luck!


John

[pangloss]

We are actually very interested in the Rocky Mount area and that is where we are most interested in buying right now.

I lived in Winston-Salem for five years. I drove through Rocky Mount a couple of times, but I never got far off the highway. A friend of my wife lives there and as far as I know she seemed pretty happy. I have a dislike for cities, and I think Rocky Mount is small enough that I could be reasonably happy there. As with anywhere, I'd prefer to be a bit out of town. Have you thought about Chattanooga, TN? If I didn't have deep roots here that took me 17 years to get back to, I think I'd seriously consider moving to the Chattanooga area.


May I suggest the "Foothills" area near Surry & Yadkin Counties in NC. I 77 is handy if you're going North or South. Very reasonable real estate and the politics are conservative. 1 hour to Winston-Salem and 2 hours to either Charlotte or Raleigh. It's wine country if you're into that and the Blue Ridge Parkway & Appalachian Trail are almost within sight.

I like Yadkin County. A good friend and coworker lives there, and I shot at the indoor range there a good bit. I had to drive up to Virginia quite a lot and Surry county is really pretty country too. There are a lot of conservative parts in NC, but like most states, the population centers vote liberal.

[7 Mary 3]

I will second the advice to stay in Utah

NC/Raleigh has has gone down the tubes ever since Money Mag said it was the best place to live like 10+ yrs ago. They call Cary the "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees" lol
I almost fell for the sirens song back before the eco/housing collapse. Im surely glad I didnt make that move...Id be underwater for sure.

If you're determined to come east Id look hard at upstate SC or TN. NC is a little funky with gun laws I think and SC taxes are less and cost of living is overall less. Lots of people live across the line and commute to Charlotte.

Personally myself Im living the "Best Place to Live in the USA" mess. Houses going up all over and traffic is FUBAR in Xburb. We will cash in when its time to pull the cord tho since our place is pretty nice and fairly new and isnt built on a postage stamp like all the $800K houses going up....

7M3

[apamburn]

I think given the recent thread "Where Freedom Dwells", now is an opportune time to revisit this thread from last year.

As I described above, we listed our home for sale in Utah and indeed made a very nice profit off of it. We moved across the country and bought a home in Rocky Mount, NC. It's safe to say we bought in the nicest neighborhood of the city: a private community of executive homes with large lots, on former Plantation land, behind the 19th century plantation house.

We got here in July 2019 and things were obviously different than in Utah. We wanted to allow for some time to adjust to the changes and get used to the area, which didn't feel "like home". I mean, we had lived in Utah for about 10 years, and we hadn't been here for more than a few months.

However over the last year we have had the chance to get to know the lay of the land, and our opinion of the area has not improved.

I was going to type out a much longer post, but suffice it to say:

In the last year we have come to the realization that Rocky Mount:

- has a corrupt city government that has a history of turning a blind eye to malfeasance of council members
- is dominated by race in everything; it permeates everything and every discussion.
- is precisely the kind of place that could have a race-driven riot / meltdown should a George Floyd-like event occur here.
- is precisely the kind of place that I could expect to target my family, our home, and our neighborhood as the "rich people" that are responsible for keeping them down resulting in a McCluskey scenario
- is precisely the kind of place that I would expect an attorney or government to do their best to screw me in a McCluskey scenario
- lacks any sort of cultured life at all. Restaurant selection, cultural activities, entertainment, etc...is abysmal
- is overwhelmingly and permanently Democrat
- has terrible schools (even the charter school our kids are in)

We have had good experiences with many people here; nice people for the most part.

But many here are so focused on what they think they are owed by others (specifically me) that they will never produce enough to move on.

Add to that the humidity which we still loathe and the balance shifts heavily towards the negatives from the positives (at this point, only one: proximity to extended family).

My prediction for the next 5-10 years in Rocky Mount:

Property values will remain stagnant or grow at a slow rate. No significant economic growth will happen because the city council is (a) too busy eating out of the cookie jar, (b) the city council is too focused on redistributing wealth, and (c) crime rates and taxation will drive big businesses away. Crime rates may remain about the same unless a Floyd-like event occurs, in which case there will be a sharp escalation in crime rates, and possibly violence targeting people in my economic class and neighborhood. Any economic crisis will exacerbate these issues.

---

Now in hindsight, we should have done a little better work studying the area, namely researching and taking seriously school ratings and reviews, looking closer at what kind of lifestyle is available here (restaurants, etc...), and looking into the city government and political scene.

Some of the issues I don't think I would have recognized prior to living here, like race. I feel like the west was blissfully ignorant of issues of race. Here it's in your face.

With that said, we listed our home on the market, and if we can break even, we're out, and probably Arizona-bound.

My prediction is that the economy in AZ will continue to grow and the gap between what I can get out of this home in NC, and what I can buy there in AZ, will only be bigger as time goes by.

[7 Mary 3]

Some of the issues I don't think I would have recognized prior to living here, like race. I feel like the west was blissfully ignorant of issues of race. Here it's in your face.


Thanks for the update. I have a min 10 years to retire and in 6 years the oldest is done school. With the chicom flu Ive been working remotely since March. So in 6 there is no reason what so ever that I need to be physically in this state. I will gladly pay for an airline ticket once a month or so to fly back east for work for a meeting in exchange to live in Free Murica. The rest of the time all I need is a phone line and interweb access.

Im looking at NW MT...missoula etc. I understand that the weather is less severe there then the rest of the state. Then there is the *cough* demographics of that part of the country. If not maybe upstate SC but I think most if not all the states in the south are a lost cause.

I need to figure out how to dip my toe into the waters. A weeks visit isn't enough to make any kind of judgement. I hate the idea of renting for a year to get the lay of the land, but I also want that safety valve to not have to sell a house if things don't work out. Lots of brain storming to be done

7M3

[mrstang01]

I used to live in Tarboro, not far from Rocky Mount. Used to be there wasn't a lot of IT in the area unless you went to the Triangle, or down to Greenville. ETA, I didn't realize this was a zombie post when I made this. I thought apamburn was already there. His description of RM sounds like everything I've heard recently. Glad I'm out.


We are actually very interested in the Rocky Mount area and that is where we are most interested in buying right now.