S/O of where to live...Western North Carolina

[CAMom]

OK, so I posted this thread a few days ago and got some awesome responses!

 

My dd (16) and I have been researching Western North Carolina ever since.

 

Any why or why not input on moving there from folks who are familiar with the area. We found a house on realtor.com that we keep going back to look at over and over again.:)

 

I've been cruising the city data forums but it seems like everyone from that area just advises not to move there. I'd like some input from people I feel like I "know." :D

 

We're hoping to schedule a trip there in the not too distant future.:)

[ravinlunachick]

I love WNC, and used to want to live in Asheville. Nowadays, the yuppies there just annoy me, LOL.

 

If you didn't want to live in WNC, you could always choose Upstate SC. The mountains are a short drive away, and there's plenty of "city stuff" to be had.

[Pawz4me]

I love Asheville and the Brevard area, but that's sheerly based on visiting, I haven't lived in or near either place. Boone is more northwestern NC, but it's got a very good reputation as a great place to retire. It's significantly higher in elevation than the Asheville area, and the winters tend to be harsher. Blizzard conditions aren't uncommon in and around Boone.

[Kathryn]

We're also fond of the Asheville area and wanted to move there.

[Reeciecup]

I know an awesome house in western nc. It's a half hour from the ski slopes in Boone! But far enough so you don't get tons of snow, just enough to enjoy.

 

http://www.visualtour.com/applets/mobiviewer/viewer.aspx?t=2758456&prt=10003

 

My good friend owns it, but she moved to Florida. I miss her :(

Edited August 31, 2012 by Reecie

[MiniBlondes]

Western NC is beautiful! We vacation in Asheville every fall. I am in north central NC. :)

[Heather in Neverland]

It depends on how rural you want. Asheville is awesome but it is big and busy. Black Mountain is nearby and a beautiful place to live. We lived in Nebo which is a small town about an hour east of there. We love WNC!!!

 

I do know, though, that several people had to move due to job loss. So as long as you have secure employment you will love it. And make sure you eat at the Magic Mushroom Pizza place. Best pizza ever!!!

[Nakia]

Well I live in Western NC, so what else could you ask for? ;)

 

I think it's a great place to raise your family. Cost of living in the more rural areas is manageable. Unfortunately, even the rural areas are becoming more populated. Still it's beautiful and peaceful, especially compared to the rest of the world. I sometimes dream of moving away, but I can't imagine where else I'd rather be. Both my husband and I grew up in Haywood County, about 40 minutes west of Asheville, which is a very cool city.

 

Heather, do you mean Mello Mushroom?

[Twinmom]

Hickory is an awesome place to live. My husband works in the software industry and as he works from home, we can live anywhere with easy airport access. Hickory is a great place to raise a family...we chose it for that reason. Small town but not too small, but with wonderful people and a beautiful lake. Close enough to Charlotte, Asheville and Winston Salem to get in for anything big like a sporting event, concert, specialized medical care, etc but you still get to live in a lovely, welcoming small town with a nice combination of old and new homes and historic sites. Great local medical care, all the good stuff in terms of shopping but not too much, if you know what I mean! Nice restaurants but not overcrowded with them except around the mall. Great homeschooling community, too. We love it here!

Edited August 31, 2012 by Twinmom

[MamaT]

I live 12 miles out of Asheville. We love, love it here. It is absolutely beautiful, there are lots of outdoorsy things to do, there is always something interesting going on in Asheville, there is a large homeschooling community . . . I could go on and on. If you have specific questions, feel free to pm me.

[jenL]

We just came back from a weekend in WNC, and I told my dh that we will move there someday. I really fell in love with downtown Hendersonville, but I would happily go deeper west toward Waynesville too. Flat Rock has a great history to it, and the homes are gorgeous, but very much outside of our price range. We're in the Charlotte area now, but I truly love when we travel to the mountains (about 2-3 hours depending upon where we are going).

[Chris in VA]

My mil lives in Murphy. She moved there to retire. It was so wonderful that my brother-in-law and 3 of my sil's moved there, too! It's a nice, little town (really little, for this suburban girl) and property can be had for a song. I know a couple of wonderful churches, a terrific fireplace store (owned by said bil! lol) and where just about every thrift store is located...If it wasn't so far, we'd have a house there, too, just to be near family. Too many trees for me, but people make a place for me.

 

I wasn't impressed with Asheville, honestly, but I am used to many-storied buildings and a city feel, and Asheville is very artsy/New Age-y. It reminds me a bit of Old Town Alexandria here in VA, but not as clean. ;)

 

The weather is great, tho, people seem nice, and I hear homeschooling is rather easy.

[CAMom]

Well I live in Western NC, so what else could you ask for? ;)

 

 

 

Honest to goodness, that's one of the first things I thought of when Brenna and I zeroed in on the Asheville area!:D

 

Such great input!

 

Here's the house dd and I are dying to live in!:)

[Samiam]

Hmm, I'm torn here. We actually live in Asheville/Hendersonville for one year, moved there for no other reason than we JUST WANTED TO LIVE THERE. That was two years ago.

 

We loved it for many aspects, and were happy to move after that year for other reasons.

 

We loved it for the ability to get out and enjoy beautiful nature. And it seemed that almost everyone there enjoys it, and participates in outdoorsy activities, and you just really felt that you able were enjoy God's great world with ease! I mean, we were 10 minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's common to gather down near the stream and swim and tube. That's just want ya do. Loved that!

 

We loved the urban-hippie culture, because it meant there were LOTS of options for healthy, organic food....lots of farm-to-table produce available. We were the "norm" in terms of our eating beliefs. Actuall we were kinda novices, in comparision to what others knew in that area. I say urban-hippie, because while Asheville has a huge "hippie" culture, we weren't that hippiesh, but more modern type hippies :).

 

We actually ended up loving Hendersonville more than Asheville. Asheville is very touristy downtown. Cute, but touristy. Hendersonville is cute, but feels like a nice small town. They get their share of tourists, but just didn't feel touristy. We went there quite often. Amazing little local bakery!

 

But cost of living is expensive in Asheville/Hendersonville area. There's not really alot of industry there. It seemed that alot of people make their own careers, ie arts, farming, tourist-related, OR they worked in mininum wage type retail jobs. So you have ALOT of low-income families, and then there's some upper $$$$ families....seemed middle class was less common.

 

Housing is crazy high. Mountain land is not cheap! Rentals were either complete dumps asking too much, or nice, but way too costly. If you end up farther out, you might find cheaper housing, it will probably be a dump, but cheaper....then you pay the difference in gas to get to civilization. For example, Black Mountain, someone mentioned that...beautiful to live there, but really NOT a whole lot going on for day to day life. Not much shopping, only one small grocery store...it's is really going to be small-town, living in the mountain life. I think I would either go crazy or spend a ton of $$$ on gas.

 

If you aren't in NC , you may not realize, GAS is SUPER EXPENSIVE because NC adds extra taxes. You will drive A TON in WNC, unless you live right in town.

 

Most people were super nice...and we met some that seemed like, well, they'd been up in the mountains too long, lol.

 

There's very little shopping in terms of modern stores. Maybe it's just me, but I guess I like knowing that I can pretty much go to any store and get what I need (guess that comes from being used to living in a much bigger city area). It was hard getting used to the fact that there just wasn't alot of shopping choices there (Asheville doesn't want most chains..they want to keep it local stores for the most part).

 

Alot of people will go on vacation in the area, but unless you actually live there, they don't have a true idea of day to day life.

 

After one year of living there, we moved an hour south to SC for DH's job. We still go up to the area quite often. We look back on our year with much fondness, and sorta wish we could still be there....but we've decided our best option would be to get a small cabin that we could go up for several weeks throughout the year but still live in day to day where we are now.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Samiam

[CAMom]

Thank you, Samiam!

 

I've been doing some cost of living calculators. Most say that Asheville is, on average, about 25% cheaper cost of living wise compared to where I live now.

 

The house I linked right above your post...there's no way in the world we could afford that house here! It would be at least $900K. A house around the corner from me just sold over the weekend for $549K it is 3 bedrooms with 1800 square feet. Just a few sq ft. bigger than min and on a bit of a smaller lot.

 

I looked up gas prices, too. :) The cheapest gas in my neighborhood is $3.97 per gallon for regular. The cheapest gas in Asheville is $3.64 per gallon for regular.

 

I live in the 4th most expensive place in the country according to some sources. Right behind New York City, Honolulu and San Francisco. Just about any place would be a lower cost of living.

 

Dh has a software development company and works remotely for almost all of his clients. So, our income shouldn't fluctuate much and seems like it would go farther almost anywhere but here. ;)

 

It would be a huge decision to move across country! I so appreciate you helping me think through it!!

[besroma]

Honest to goodness, that's one of the first things I thought of when Brenna and I zeroed in on the Asheville area!:D

 

Such great input!

 

Here's the house dd and I are dying to live in!:)

 

That is beautiful! I love Asheville.

[Kathryn]

Hmm, I'm torn here. We actually live in Asheville/Hendersonville for one year, moved there for no other reason than we JUST WANTED TO LIVE THERE. That was two years ago.

 

We loved it for many aspects, and were happy to move after that year for other reasons.

 

We loved it for the ability to get out and enjoy beautiful nature. And it seemed that almost everyone there enjoys it, and participates in outdoorsy activities, and you just really felt that you able were enjoy God's great world with ease! I mean, we were 10 minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's common to gather down near the stream and swim and tube. That's just want ya do. Loved that!

 

We loved the urban-hippie culture, because it meant there were LOTS of options for healthy, organic food....lots of farm-to-table produce available. We were the "norm" in terms of our eating beliefs. Actuall we were kinda novices, in comparision to what others knew in that area. I say urban-hippie, because while Asheville has a huge "hippie" culture, we weren't that hippiesh, but more modern type hippies :).

 

We actually ended up loving Hendersonville more than Asheville. Asheville is very touristy downtown. Cute, but touristy. Hendersonville is cute, but feels like a nice small town. They get their share of tourists, but just didn't feel touristy. We went there quite often. Amazing little local bakery!

 

But cost of living is expensive in Asheville/Hendersonville area. There's not really alot of industry there. It seemed that alot of people make their own careers, ie arts, farming, tourist-related, OR they worked in mininum wage type retail jobs. So you have ALOT of low-income families, and then there's some upper $$$$ families....seemed middle class was less common.

 

Housing is crazy high. Mountain land is not cheap! Rentals were either complete dumps asking too much, or nice, but way too costly. If you end up farther out, you might find cheaper housing, it will probably be a dump, but cheaper....then you pay the difference in gas to get to civilization. For example, Black Mountain, someone mentioned that...beautiful to live there, but really NOT a whole lot going on for day to day life. Not much shopping, only one small grocery store...it's is really going to be small-town, living in the mountain life. I think I would either go crazy or spend a ton of $$$ on gas.

 

If you aren't in NC , you may not realize, GAS is SUPER EXPENSIVE because NC adds extra taxes. You will drive A TON in WNC, unless you live right in town.

 

Most people were super nice...and we met some that seemed like, well, they'd been up in the mountains too long, lol.

 

There's very little shopping in terms of modern stores. Maybe it's just me, but I guess I like knowing that I can pretty much go to any store and get what I need (guess that comes from being used to living in a much bigger city area). It was hard getting used to the fact that there just wasn't alot of shopping choices there (Asheville doesn't want most chains..they want to keep it local stores for the most part).

 

Alot of people will go on vacation in the area, but unless you actually live there, they don't have a true idea of day to day life.

 

After one year of living there, we moved an hour south to SC for DH's job. We still go up to the area quite often. We look back on our year with much fondness, and sorta wish we could still be there....but we've decided our best option would be to get a small cabin that we could go up for several weeks throughout the year but still live in day to day where we are now.

 

Good advice, but from the OP's other thread, it's not applicable. She's coming from a much, much higher cost of living area and her husband will have the same income. We are in the greater Asheville area fairly frequently and I've never felt like there was a lack of national chain stores. Yes, downtown, there aren't, but the downtown area is not all there is.

[Nakia]

Honest to goodness, that's one of the first things I thought of when Brenna and I zeroed in on the Asheville area!:D

 

Such great input!

 

Here's the house dd and I are dying to live in!:)

 

 

:D:D:D

 

The house is beautiful!!

[Samiam]

. We are in the greater Asheville area fairly frequently and I've never felt like there was a lack of national chain stores. Yes, downtown, there aren't, but the downtown area is not all there is.

 

Ha, and there ya go, visiting is not like living there. I see you are in SC, so I assume the Upstate if you go to Asheville often , and since everything is in the UpState, I cant imagine you did much "everyday general life shopping" while visiting Asheville. We never went downtown to do real-life shopping. I'm talking about general life shopping. ingles is the only major grocery store in the area, unless you grocery shop at Walmart (which I don't). One old junky Harris Teeter. I'm used to having 3-4 major grocery store chains to choose from. Two Targets in the entire Greater Asheville area. No Jo-Ann's. Only 3 REAL Starbucks in the area. Libraries in general stunk. Not a lot of big name furniture stores. Only one PetSmart. One Michaels. No Hobby Lobby. One mediocre mall. Gosh, the list can go on and on. Alot of the stores they did have were old and rundown, outdated. Yes, all of this is not a huge deciding factor in life, and certainly one could say that the benefits of life there outweigh that lack of shopping, but on the other hand, having a plethora of life conviences can also be a benefit sometimes. Online shopping doesn't cut it for everything! Like I said, I came from a much larger metropolis, so the lacking of shopping choices was frustrating to me, in Asheville. You make do with the choices you have and move on. I didn't dislike Asheville because of it, but it does deserve to be noted on the "con" list.

[Rebecca]

Ha, and there ya go, visiting is not like living there. I see you are in SC, so I assume the Upstate if you go to Asheville often , and since everything is in the UpState, I cant imagine you did much "everyday general life shopping" while visiting Asheville. We never went downtown to do real-life shopping. I'm talking about general life shopping. ingles is the only major grocery store in the area, unless you grocery shop at Walmart (which I don't). One old junky Harris Teeter. I'm used to having 3-4 major grocery store chains to choose from. Two Targets in the entire Greater Asheville area. No Jo-Ann's. Only 3 REAL Starbucks in the area. Libraries in general stunk. Not a lot of big name furniture stores. Only one PetSmart. One Michaels. No Hobby Lobby. One mediocre mall. Gosh, the list can go on and on. Alot of the stores they did have were old and rundown, outdated. Yes, all of this is not a huge deciding factor in life, and certainly one could say that the benefits of life there outweigh that lack of shopping, but on the other hand, having a plethora of life conviences can also be a benefit sometimes. Online shopping doesn't cut it for everything! Like I said, I came from a much larger metropolis, so the lacking of shopping choices was frustrating to me, in Asheville. You make do with the choices you have and move on. I didn't dislike Asheville because of it, but it does deserve to be noted on the "con" list.

 

Western NC is a big adjustment when coming from Metropolis. Asheville isn't as hard- two targets!!! The closest target to us is over an hour away.The farther south you move from Asheville- the more rural life becomes. If your DH works remotely and your income doesn't change- I think you are in the best possible set-up to enjoy life in WNC. It helps to be "free" of the industry here and the lack of it.

Asheville is pretty and has "everything." The stores are large and clean and beautiful - Kohl's, Super Wal-mart, Ect.

[Kathryn]

Western NC is a big adjustment when coming from Metropolis. Asheville isn't as hard- two targets!!! The closest target to us is over an hour away.The farther south you move from Asheville- the more rural life becomes. If your DH works remotely and your income doesn't change- I think you are in the best possible set-up to enjoy life in WNC. It helps to be "free" of the industry here and the lack of it.

Asheville is pretty and has "everything." The stores are large and clean and beautiful - Kohl's, Super Wal-mart, Ect.

 

:iagree: It all depends on what you're used to and what you're looking for.

[Mynyel]

Looks like I am the only dissenter :)

 

Well not exactly dissent. I don't mind it here but it isn't my favorite. There is *A LOT* to do outdoors. My dh hasn't ever found a good fishing hole (much to his everlasting consternation). There are places to fish but either they are fished out (because they are stocked areas) or you have to pay to even go fishing. There also can be some tight regulations on fishing here as well. My biggest complaint is there is no large lakes or ocean :) I do love the water. Don't get me wrong, I love rivers but there is nothing like lazing on the beach soaking up some sun.

 

We have also found that you have to pay for pretty much everything. The Arboretum, Nature Center, Grandfather Mountain, Chimney Rock etc. all require payment. Which I understand but for us this is prohibitive and we can't go because we can't afford to spend $70 just to get into a place (that example is Grandfather Mountain).

 

Mosquitoes are plentiful as well as ticks. Ick :P

 

This is also a very liberal area. Very Liberal. We aren't so that plays a part. The cost of living is very high as well. It is very difficult to find a decent hours for under $150k. The jobs are scarce unless it is service jobs. Other than several breweries they are pleased as punch to get in the area there are no major corporations or companies that are headquartered here. Matter of fact the closed (I think it was closed or significantly reduced) the Volvo plant they had here not to long ago. The Asheville postal hub was one of the many around the country that got shut down as well.

 

I will say people are friendly but they don't get close. At least in the circle I run in they don't. However there is a ginormous homeschool community in the area. Although, color me biased, it is heavily centered around Biltmore Baptist Church. A lot of opportunities I see have something to do with the church in some way. They have a co-op and the prices seem exorbitant but they seem fair. There is a group for homeschool sports teams and I can say that they are way out in left field with prices. I saw a woman wrote a $800 check for her ONE daughter to play soccer. That is just insane to me.

 

Now that I have whined about the bad :) The Good! Graveyard Fields on the Blue Ridge. Absolutely lovely anytime of year. Although my favorite is this time of year when you can go blueberry picking! Anywhere on the Blue Ridge really is nice. It is awesome to go driving through in the autumn when the color change is happening. Bring your camera, you will wear it out. The Davidson River is lovely to be at as well no matter the time of year. Plenty of places to stop off. We are also a short jaunt from the Smoky Mountains which I love as well. I do prefer the Tennessee side :). There are places to explore and hike and spend a day.

 

So if you make a decent income (which to me would be at least 40k and up) this place really isn't that bad. However it isn't for us. We are actually going to be moving out after we get our tax return next year. We will be getting more bang for our buck where we are going to :)