Thinking of moving to North Carolina? Our pros and cons...

 

Riverview Park, North Carolina 

My wife and I are recent early retirees at ages 51 and 48.  Since August of last year, we’ve been traveling with our Pomeranian dog, Toby, to various destinations in the eastern parts of the United States.  We plan to continue living this nomad lifestyle in the foreseeable future.

On August 24th of last year, we had closed on our home we had lived in for 14 years in Pennsylvania.  After the closing, we headed down to our brother’s house in North Carolina that same day.  Our SUV was packed to the brim as we had to stuff all of our remaining belongings that day.  Our closing that morning was at 9:30 am, and we were still packing our stuff until about 8:45 am!

We set off to our brother’s house which would take us about 9 hours from Pennsylvania.  It was a hot sunny August day, and our poor Toby was having a hard time due to the lack of space in our SUV.  We had to put his bed (and him) at the bottom footwell area of front passenger side, which made both Toby and my wife uncomfortable...

We made a pit stop in one of the rest areas in Virginia for a bathroom break and to grab something to eat. Unfortunately, the only available food at the rest area was vending machine food.  We grabbed two turkey sandwiches then ate inside the SUV, before heading back on the road.  

I must say the sandwiches were really good.  We had zero expectations when we bought them, but we were pleasantly surprised at how good they were.

We would arrive at our brother’s house around 5 pm or so.  My brother made sure we wouldn’t go hungry!    He had prepared some pasta with chicken cutlets for dinner.   It was really good!

It was so good to see our family.  

The next few days would be a blur as we were getting all of our documents in order.  We got our drivers licenses issued in North Carolina, and we updated all of our accounts with the new address.

Once we were finished with all that, we started to get a feel for the land and its people.  We went out grocery shopping at Aldi, then picked up some local Cajun food.  We tried couple of pizza joints and we weren’t disappointed.  

We had visited Raleigh, NC area about 12 years ago.  Much has changed since that time.  There were many more cars, stores, restaurants, and people.  Raleigh area almost looked like the Philadelphia suburbs we had just moved from!

Here are our pros and cons as well as our observations:

Pros of North Carolina

  • Low cost of living compared to New York City, Hawaii, or Pennsylvania
Hands down, North Carolina is the least expensive state we’ve lived in.  Almost everything costs less here than the 3 states mentioned above.  

Median cost of a home in the city of Raleigh is around $273,000, according to Homes.com, by far the least expensive out of the 3 cities we had lived in.  Cost of insurance (health and automobile) is also the least expensive compared to others.  Cost of gasoline is also cheaper than others.  

  • Oceans, mountains, and beautiful parks
There are beautiful beaches on the eastern shore of the state and there are the Smoky Mountains to the western side of the state.  

There are also beautiful state parks to visit.  Recently, we enjoyed the Fort Macon State Park in Atlantic Beach.   Many state parks do not charge entrance fees!  

In around the Bogue Banks and most coastal towns, North Carolina’s love for boating and fishing comes through.  There are many boating access areas found on the coastal towns, with its own unique beauty surrounding it.  
  • Things to do
There are plenty of things to do in the state.  Besides natural attractions, there are sports franchises in the city of Charlotte (Charlotte Hornets/NBA and Carolina Panthers/NFL).  Big city amenities are found in Charlotte as well as in Raleigh including:  concerts, special events, theater, museums, etc.

Small towns like Beaufort, maintains its small town charm, with its picture perfect streets and scenic views along the Front Street.  There are numerous picture worthy places to take in the views and just frolic in the daytime...
  • Warm people
Compared to New York City and Pennsylvania, we met many locals who were really friendly.  We had no trouble starting up conversations, especially in around the Bogue Banks, Beaufort, and Morehead City areas.

Maybe this is attributed to the southern charm thing.  As a northerner, this was certainly refreshing!

Cons of North Carolina 
  • Traffic is getting worse near big cities
Raleigh twelve years ago was not bad in terms of traffic.  At least that’s what I remember.  It’s not the case anymore.   Majority of highways will be jammed packed during rush hour but also the secondary roads.  

During lunch or evening hours, traffic in shopping centers is bad, comparable to any large city we’ve lived in.  
  • Cost to register a car & getting a new license plate is high
North Carolina is the most expensive in terms of registering the car and getting a new license plate.  We paid around $300 for taxes alone, then another $300 to get new license plates!  Ouch.

We heard locals complain of this high cost the day we got ours, so it’s probably impacting everyone...

Although we’ve only experienced North Carolina for several months, we are enjoying its many charms.  The beach towns are simply beautiful, and so are the many parks we’ve visited.  We hope to visit many more charming small towns and parks in our future travels!

Thank you all for reading!

Jake

Wandering Money Pig 


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