Suburb of Charlotte or Suburb of Dallas (Matthews: neighborhoods, good schools)
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We are planning to move out of NYC within next year. Would love to hear pro and cons as to which would be better for us to move to. We have to toddler aged kids and great schools and safe location are important to us. We are looking to spend around 400K. Thanks in advance.
In all honesty, both cities will offer great neighborhoods and some excellent schools. Dallas is much larger. It all is a matter if you want to live in a metro of 2 million or a metro of 4 million. I believe the cost of living is pretty similar and growth patterns are as well. I do believe that sports teams are much better in Dallas. But, you already know that. Good luck.
Barring anything thing else such as being on a lake, then when you have seen one sun belt suburb built in the last 20 years, you have seen them all. I'd say there isn't much difference beyond that if you have a job lined up.
I moved from Dallas to Charlotte. Dallas has better restaurants and sports teams, but the summers are horrendous. If you are moving from NYC, Charlotte summers will be hot enough. Also Charlotte has more trees and better surroundings - mountains in 2.5 hours;beach in 3. The only reason I would choose Dallas is if the job is measurably better and if a larger city is important to you.
Thanks for all the replies. My concerns regarding Charlotte is the following. I know that summers are hotter than NYC, however how are winters? Does it snow as much as NYC? Would one have higher annual utility bill because you have both relativity hot summer and winters?
I like the fact that Charlotte is green. We were looking at providence towne and Matthews because they seem to have good schools. However, would we have as much access to shops and restaurants as we would in Plano TX? Is commute to Charlotte from those suburb be very long?
As much snow as NYC? Oh my, no. It's been 2-3 years since there has been a significant snow here and even that only lasted a day. It's very uncommon. Snow removal in Charlotte means letting it melt. it won't take long.
On the other hand if you want to see snow in the winter, only a short 90 minute drive will have you in the highest mountains on the East coast where there will be plenty of snow and the activities that go with it.
Matthews to Charlotte is actually less miles than Plano to Dallas. I would think the commute is similar, but there are closer-in areas with good schools in Charlotte as well. Charlotte is very suburban compared to northern cities so you don't have to move to a completely different town to have a good school.
Shopping is accessible everywhere but there is not as much of it as in Dallas. I think that's a good thing. We have some very nice shopping centers and malls, a few roads unfortunately lined with strip malls, but many areas are green and bucolic. There are a few areas where it feels you are in the country (some dead-end roads) but you're only 15 minutes from downtown. You could certainly choose to live near shopping - in the Ballantyne area for instance.
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