where in north carolina?

MySharona · Dec 1, 2005

Hi!
From NC here :) Been living here 8 years and I love it ! I would recommend moving further out than Raleigh, though. Clayton is a nice small town .Quickly growing and you can find a nice house for under 200k. We live in Cary, its a bit snooty, but TONS to do for kids. I have really never been to an area w/ this many kids. Every other car is a minivan, which is or isn't desireable based on your situation in life. However, its expensive to us. I think the median house price is about 210, which gets you about 2000 sq ft. Prices are higher in some snootier subdivisions. Almost all schools in Cary are good. Those on the West side of town are a bit better, but of course house prices are higher.I really wouldn't want to live anywhere else than this general area, even if we do end up across town. Durham has some nice parts, but very high crime and some bad schools too. Chapel Hill has some of the best schools, also very expensive. Also to consider, this area has the highest concentration of PHDs and 2nd highest Bach degrees in the country. Could be kids' high test scores are just result of smart mommies and daddies :) I would like to look at other areas around here, but in terms of nursing, there are tons of opportunties and compared to other areas, not too bad of commute times. 2 univ affiliated hospitals, Duke and UNC and 4 or so private hospitals. I have met several nurses and most seem pretty happy w/ where they work. Also, nurse education and further education is great.
anyway, if you want to know more, just ask! Good luck to you!!!

Hi, my husband and I are from boston and are thinking of moving to nc. We have two children 6 and 8 and want to live in a area that the schools are good. We took a quick visit in august of this year and looked at new developments in apex-cary and wake forrest. Most of the new developments we looked at were priced in the 350.000 range and some didnt have much land. What do you think are the best places to look. Im a rn with critical care experience over 10 years and would like to live close to where I work. We looked at an area in apex that I liked on west lake road and it was recently annixed by cary. Do you know what that really means. Thanks I appreciate you opinions.

relocatingsoon · Dec 1, 2005

Stay away from Florida. I have been here 14 years & can not wait for the sale of my home so I can go to NC. Florida is dirty, with bums panhandling on every major intersection, the price of houses has skyrocketed and they build them right on top of each other. Nevermind homeowners insurance, wind insurance, flood insurance & sinkhole insurance. You can't get a decent house for less then 275,000. Remember it is the right to work state which means they also have the right to let you go at any time. Its full of rude transients and the pay is way below average.

twigloo · Dec 27, 2005

I too would like to start my nursing career in North Carolina. I am a Canadian that will be graduating with a BSN in April/06. Is Lafayette a good place to practice?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

ltvixen · Mar 14, 2006

hello! i'm a canadian and will graduate with my bsn in spring 2007. this thread has been really good at pointing out good areas in nc. however, my concern is that 1) i don't have a partner/children and 2) i don't plan on buying a home (evil student loans) therefore school systems/housing prices aren't a big concern of mine. i'm interested in a nice sized place to live with lots of fun stuff to do (good nightlife, culture, etc). i'm torn between charlotte and the triangle, but i'd love to hear more opinions! thanks!

twigloo · Mar 15, 2006

hello! i'm a canadian and will graduate with my bsn in spring 2007. this thread has been really good at pointing out good areas in nc. however, my concern is that 1) i don't have a partner/children and 2) i don't plan on buying a home (evil student loans) therefore school systems/housing prices aren't a big concern of mine. i'm interested in a nice sized place to live with lots of fun stuff to do (good nightlife, culture, etc). i'm torn between charlotte and the triangle, but i'd love to hear more opinions! thanks!

I too, am Canadian. I plan to spend a year working in James Bay but will be moving to NC next year. Keep me posted on what you find out. My children are grown up..I haven't got a partner either, so would like to find out where to live as well.

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Mar 15, 2006

Pardon me for saying so, but I really get bored with people bashing Durham all the time. Especially when the bashing either comes from (a) People Who Live or Lived In Raleigh (caps for emphasis) or (b) People Who Really Never Lived In Durham. (There's also the category of, People Who Have Lived In Raleigh And Have Never Lived Anywhere Else, but it would seem none of those people have posted here.) Raleigh isn’t exactly perfect, either. But I digress…

Please – not every house in Durham is a crackhouse, we’re all not carrying guns around with us for personal protection, and as a matter of fact, I live within the city limits and only lock my doors just before I go to bed. I’ve never had to call the police and I don’t keep my cars in a garage for fear of auto theft; they sit right in my driveway, unbothered and unharmed.

I live in North Durham, above I-85 and about fifteen minutes from Duke University. I have never been mugged, shot at, accosted, followed, carjacked, or otherwise disturbed in any way. We own 2100 square feet on 1/3 of an acre (if it’s land you want, and who doesn’t, avoid new construction – my house will be ten next year). I do not live in a slum, a rundown neighborhood, or on the edge of the ghetto in some undesirable part of town. In fact, my house has appreciated by $60K since we bought it two years ago (a little less than half that is due to the fact we redid the kitchen, though) and we didn't pay an arm and a leg for it to start with.

I've attached a picture. I live less than 20 minutes from Duke, which is basically downtown, and I can hear birds in my yard and crickets at night in the summer. Not a crackhouse in sight...LOL...

I hear schools in Durham County might not be that great (LOL - I know the deal), but my nieces go to school in Wake County at a “Governor’s School of Excellence” and I can’t say they impress me too much either. The fact that they’re so overcrowded and Wake County, according to the front page of this morning’s News and Observer, really isn’t willing to up the taxes :nono: to support a school bond referendum strikes me as rather sad. The private schools in the area must be ecstatic at Wake’s reluctance.

Durham is home to the Durham Bulls, Duke University, and the Research Triangle Park (and if you tell my mayor Bill Bell that RTP is in Raleigh, God help you – his favorite thing is setting people straight on this issue). We are known as the “City of Medicine”, after all! We’re about halfway between beaches and mountains, and are less than twelve hours away from NYC by car. RDU International Airport has a daily flight to London (DH is British and when we came back from overseas this flight was a big selling point with me) so Europe is only a few hours away by 777!

(And for my Canadian friends , Air Canada goes to Toronto daily from RDU as well, so home wouldn’t be too hard to get back to during the holidays or for vacations.)

We do have some excellent hospitals in the area – UNC, Rex (which actually is part of UNC, but it’s private where UNC is public), the Duke University Health System, and WakeMed are all within a respectable commute of various areas of Durham. I live about 40 minutes from work (traffic can be horrendous here at times) and my office where I work now is the next exit up from the airport.

So please, don’t think Durham is some black hole off the edge of the earth. Raleigh news stations certainly paint us that way – even though they’re only MINUTES from here and not exactly Nirvana themselves. Sorry to run on so but this is a big issue with me.

BTW, I’m prior military and a Navy brat and have pretty much lived everywhere – CA, NJ, FL (I concur with the awful heat on that one!), PA, OK, VA, NC, HI (I was even born there!), Germany. I even lived in Saudi Arabia for 2.5 years right after I got married. So I’m not completely blind to the rest of the country.

PICK US! Raleigh, Durham, Morrisville, Wake Forest – NO MATTER! This is a great place to live – come down and check it out! I recently read in a news article that the Triangle area is full of “halfbacks” – Yankees (easy now, I’m half Yankee myself!) who moved down to Florida, couldn’t hack the heat, and moved halfway back home. I was in a restaurant the other day and the waitress, who was from WI, commented that I was the first person she’d ever met who was even remotely from here (my dad retired and we moved to NC when I was much younger; I graduated from high school in an NC town most folks have never heard of). A couple hundred thousand transplants can’t be ALL wrong, right?

RNSuzq1, RN · Mar 24, 2006

Hi to all the Canadians interested in moving to NC. Itvixen - you asked about "night life and culture" - We have 3 children so my "night club days" are long, long gone, but if that's what you're looking for, Charlotte would be the place to go. It has a much larger downtown area than Raleigh and from what I've heard - lots more night life. Raleigh has some museums, historical sites, etc., but again I've heard Charlotte has more to offer as far as culture.

I'm originally from Boston - a place where you will never, ever run out of things to do, but I live here because this is my husbands home State. He works at a major medical center in Raleigh and said there are a lot of Canadian Nurses there. As beautiful as it is in Canada, I'm just curious why so many people from there want to live here???? 2 of my Grandparents were originally from Prince Edward Island and St. Johns - we visited once when I was a kid and it's so "Incredibly Beautiful" , I'd move there in a minute if I could. Are the Nursing jobs hard to come by up there, or is just the weather you're coming down for?

Just a hint, if you do move down here - you will probably suffer from culture shock at first (it's a much slower pace of life), but the Natives don't like to be bashed about their accents, way of life, etc. My husband said a couple of the Canadian Nurses are always making fun of our culture, way of talking, foods and complaining that we're all backwards - he nicely suggested that if they don't like it, they go back where they came from... The town I live in is quickly being over-run with people from all over the North East and once they settle in, they start complaining about everything "Southern". Even though I'm originally from up North, I get pretty defensive when they start cracking on the South and trying to change things to make it more like where they are from... They came down here to get away from where ever it was they were - so I just wish they'd embrace this way of life and just enjoy it, it's a nice place to live.

ltvixen · Mar 25, 2006

hey susannc - thanks for the heads up about charlotte...i have started looking into it and have been hearing really good things. as for culture shock, i'm familiar with it already! i moved to london, eng when i was 20 for 2 years. i grew up in a city with like maybe 30,000 people. so yeah hello culture shock! i'm wanting to move to the states because overall i feel they tend to offer new grads much better packages than canada does, as well as i love to travel, and on top of that! i need some warmer weather. lol. although i do believe cape breton island (where i am from) is quite possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth....i need some variety. and some warmth. thanks for responding!

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Mar 29, 2006

Just a hint, if you do move down here - you will probably suffer from culture shock at first (it's a much slower pace of life), but the Natives don't like to be bashed about their accents, way of life, etc. My husband said a couple of the Canadian Nurses are always making fun of our culture, way of talking, foods and complaining that we're all backwards - he nicely suggested that if they don't like it, they go back where they came from... The town I live in is quickly being over-run with people from all over the North East and once they settle in, they start complaining about everything "Southern". Even though I'm originally from up North, I get pretty defensive when they start cracking on the South and trying to change things to make it more like where they are from... They came down here to get away from where ever it was they were - so I just wish they'd embrace this way of life and just enjoy it, it's a nice place to live.

Oh, man, you're after my own heart. What those folks don't seem to get is that their complaining makes them sound even worse and even MORE ignorant, uneducated, and just plain more STUPID than those they are complaining about....

My feelings exactly. If you don't like it, GO HOME.

WaynesvilleRN · Mar 29, 2006

bullcityrn · Apr 1, 2006

Pardon me for saying so, but I really get bored with people bashing Durham all the time. Especially when the bashing either comes from (a) People Who Live or Lived In Raleigh (caps for emphasis) or (b) People Who Really Never Lived In Durham. (There's also the category of, People Who Have Lived In Raleigh And Have Never Lived Anywhere Else, but it would seem none of those people have posted here.) Raleigh isn't exactly perfect, either. But I digress...
Please - not every house in Durham is a crackhouse, we're all not carrying guns around with us for personal protection, and as a matter of fact, I live within the city limits and only lock my doors just before I go to bed. I've never had to call the police and I don't keep my cars in a garage for fear of auto theft; they sit right in my driveway, unbothered and unharmed.
I live in North Durham, above I-85 and about fifteen minutes from Duke University. I have never been mugged, shot at, accosted, followed, carjacked, or otherwise disturbed in any way. We own 2100 square feet on 1/3 of an acre (if it's land you want, and who doesn't, avoid new construction - my house will be ten next year). I do not live in a slum, a rundown neighborhood, or on the edge of the ghetto in some undesirable part of town. In fact, my house has appreciated by $60K since we bought it two years ago (a little less than half that is due to the fact we redid the kitchen, though) and we didn't pay an arm and a leg for it to start with.
I've attached a picture. I live less than 20 minutes from Duke, which is basically downtown, and I can hear birds in my yard and crickets at night in the summer. Not a crackhouse in sight...LOL...
I hear schools in Durham County might not be that great (LOL - I know the deal), but my nieces go to school in Wake County at a "Governor's School of Excellence" and I can't say they impress me too much either. The fact that they're so overcrowded and Wake County, according to the front page of this morning's News and Observer, really isn't willing to up the taxes to support a school bond referendum strikes me as rather sad. The private schools in the area must be ecstatic at Wake's reluctance.
Durham is home to the Durham Bulls, Duke University, and the Research Triangle Park (and if you tell my mayor Bill Bell that RTP is in Raleigh, God help you - his favorite thing is setting people straight on this issue). We are known as the "City of Medicine", after all! We're about halfway between beaches and mountains, and are less than twelve hours away from NYC by car. RDU International Airport has a daily flight to London (DH is British and when we came back from overseas this flight was a big selling point with me) so Europe is only a few hours away by 777!
(And for my Canadian friends , Air Canada goes to Toronto daily from RDU as well, so home wouldn't be too hard to get back to during the holidays or for vacations.)
We do have some excellent hospitals in the area - UNC, Rex (which actually is part of UNC, but it's private where UNC is public), the Duke University Health System, and WakeMed are all within a respectable commute of various areas of Durham. I live about 40 minutes from work (traffic can be horrendous here at times) and my office where I work now is the next exit up from the airport.
So please, don't think Durham is some black hole off the edge of the earth. Raleigh news stations certainly paint us that way - even though they're only MINUTES from here and not exactly Nirvana themselves. Sorry to run on so but this is a big issue with me.
BTW, I'm prior military and a Navy brat and have pretty much lived everywhere - CA, NJ, FL (I concur with the awful heat on that one!), PA, OK, VA, NC, HI (I was even born there!), Germany. I even lived in Saudi Arabia for 2.5 years right after I got married. So I'm not completely blind to the rest of the country.
PICK US! Raleigh, Durham, Morrisville, Wake Forest - NO MATTER! This is a great place to live - come down and check it out! I recently read in a news article that the Triangle area is full of "halfbacks" - Yankees (easy now, I'm half Yankee myself!) who moved down to Florida, couldn't hack the heat, and moved halfway back home. I was in a restaurant the other day and the waitress, who was from WI, commented that I was the first person she'd ever met who was even remotely from here (my dad retired and we moved to NC when I was much younger; I graduated from high school in an NC town most folks have never heard of). A couple hundred thousand transplants can't be ALL wrong, right?

I have to agree with you 100%...we are new to NC and if we had listened to all the advice we got about avoiding Durham, we wouldn't have the awesome home and sense of community that we do. We live in SW Durham, about 15 minutes from Duke on one side and 15 minutes from UNC Chapel Hill on the other. We live in a 2400 sq ft house on a little over half an acre with deer, bunnies, crickets and frogs, and behind our home is a protected land area that will never be built on. Our neighborhood is safe, we know all our neighbors, and you'll find many families out walking after dinner. It's not uncommon to pass someone in their car and have them wave to you whether they know you or not. We are also not far from a major recreational lake area. Of course there are bad areas of Durham but what city doesn't have that? If you do your research properly you can figure out where to avoid. Yes, the schools do have their share of problems, but the problems I'm aware of don't even make me bat an eye because it is LOADS better than where we came from in CA. We looked at Cary and Apex and although it's a nice area, it's a little too "little suburbia" for us, not to mention the fact that the schools in Cary reassign the kids annually so you never quite know where they will end up from year to year. Who needs that?! Durham can definitely be a nice place to consider and you know what? I'm almost glad people avoid it so it won't get overgrown and lose its charm! :lol2: We love it and are thankful every day we chose to be here.

gcja · Apr 1, 2006

waynesville & carolinapooh: your house is beautiful. nc sounds great. how much would a house like yours go for today , 20 minutes outside the city. thanks