First weekend trip to Charlotte (Raleigh, Tryon: transplants, condos, houses)
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Couple back from visit to Charlotte from New York City, Charlotte great city to move to, 400K housing budget can purchase quality home close to downtown
The wife and I made our first visit to Charlotte (just got back this afternoon) from NY (Westchester Co. if it matters). My wife wants to teach in an urban environment, preferably bilingual and I am self-employeed, but we're both tired of snow and the lifestyle up here, and want to be closer to mountains, beaches and a better quality of life, hence our motivation for looking. We stayed at the Westin downtown and focused on South Charlotte based on advice from a realtor since the wife wants to work in an urban school and the commute from northern Charlotte would supposedly be quite rotten.
We really liked Charlotte, and I think we went in with realistic expectations. Our goal was to decide if it was somewhere we could see ourselves, and if we could afford what we wanted. We did not really expect to see 4500 sq ft. houses on 6 acres of land with a 9 minute commute for $200K, but it seemed like our $400K could buy a very nicely built 2-3BR house to start our family within range of downtown from south Charlotte (think 20-25 minute commute). There were nice 2500-3500" houses in the lower price brackets, but you could tell the quality difference as you moved up in price ranges. We really liked the "old southern" style homes with steps in the front, and wide porches, etc., that some of the communities specialize in, although unfortunately that seems to be the exception versus large "box" homes with rather staid brickwork. Our favorite communities were Baxter and Ardrey, although we need some more research.
We spent several hours uptown (aka the downtown area for those not from Charlotte) and were again impressed based on having reasonable expectations. This is NOT Manhattan or Boston, or even downtown Orlando for that matter. The dining/entertainment district that we saw (near Tryon and Trade) is probably all of 1.5-2 city blocks, but there were a fair amount of young and older people out, some nice restros and bars, and a street band with literally about 10 people playing brass instruments in a jazzy New Orleans style that was amazing. My wife and I kept joking that someone had set it up to get us to move down there.
We were also impressed with the very large and modern library uptown, and the "discovery center" looked like it would be cool with kids. If your from the northeast, I would equate Charlotte with a Stamford, CT. in terms of downtown entertainment and services. Again, if you are not expecting Manhattan I think you would like uptown as we did (and also liked Stamford when we were there). We even found very good tapas. I've heard comments about "gangs" but everything seemed quite orderly save for some young dudes in a "blinged out" old car who were pulled over and being harassed by bicycle cops. How embarassing to be pulled over by bicycles when you're a "hard" gang*star! There were some homeless folks and "village drunks" just like anywhere, but they did not seem to panhandle or act agressive.
There were very beautiful homes with true southern charm right in south Charlotte, and we loved Freedom Park, although the homes had simlar layouts, age and prices to match places like Westchester ($600k->1m+), so we think we will settle with the "modern" intrepretation a little farther out.
We're planning on returning to spend more time in the areas we liked, this trip was more to survey the scene. I can see why people moving to Charlotte strictly for $$$ could find it a bad move. Simliarly, I could see it being a bit rough if you were single; we seemed to see lots of couples although it may just have been the places we stopped by. Obviously the natives are still breeding, so there must be singles somewhere unless they've figure out asexual reproduction.
In summary, we'll be back for another weekend or two, and perhaps to stay! Worth a visit, but I would encourage anyone to go in open-minded, and realize the pros and cons of the area. This is not a "smaller, cheaper Long Island," with Charlotte as your NYC, although we personally definitely DO NOT want it to be like that and are glad it is not.
I am glad you liked your trip to the Charlotte area. There are many nice areas and things to see. Charlotteshout.com list lots of local events. It is nice to see your both keeping an open mind about the area. Best of luck to you both.
FYI
The Discovery Place is an awesome place to bring children.
We checked out Charlotteshout before heading down. Very cool website and we were impressed that Charlotte itself and many of the communities seem to hold lots of "events" and festivals on the weekend.
We also did not get any trouble for being northerns, other than a bit of a gas face from a waitress at Rock Bottom brewery when she saw out NY State IDs. We chatted with some locals at another bar and they were very interested in chatting with us and encouraged us to make the move.
It was also interesting to note a few differences from the northeast:
- Most places have people smiling. My wife noticed this immediately in the airport. All the people working at various places from the baggage handlers to the soda jockeys in the fast food places had big smiles. NY everyone just looks pissed off all the time, even if they are nice people under the angry veneer.
- There was an element of politeness that is missing up here. Notable was when people's mobile phones would ring, they would leave the store/restro/bar and go outside to have their conversation. In NY if your phone rings while dining out, you answer it and have the loudest conversation possbile to show everyone that you are important, while ignoring your wife/husband/family or whoever you are dining with.
- Disappointingly, we heard very few NC accents, and no one "blessed her heart!" I used to love hearing the NC accent and all the funny little phrases when I was in Raleigh.
- People drive a bit more agressively than I thought they would, and everyone seemed to use turn signals. Not sure if they were transplants, but a couple of people were very agressive. In general, I like that folks drive at a reasonable speed on the highways. Limit is 65 and average speed was like 74-80. I like this as I actually think you age at an accelerated rate if you only drive 55 and I've got things to do before I die ;-). Maybe that nascar stuff runs in people's blood.
Thanks for the great summary of Charlotte.. we are planning on going down later this month. We currently live on Long Island and looking for a change. Question - Did you drive around South Charlotte yourself or get a realtor to help out? Any suggestions you would have to make the most out of our trip would be appreciated.
Thanks for the great summary of Charlotte.. we are planning on going down later this month. We currently live on Long Island and looking for a change. Question - Did you drive around South Charlotte yourself or get a realtor to help out? Any suggestions you would have to make the most out of our trip would be appreciated.
Getting lost in a new city is always fun. Then next time you are in town you should be a pro
Thanks for the great summary of Charlotte.. we are planning on going down later this month. We currently live on Long Island and looking for a change. Question - Did you drive around South Charlotte yourself or get a realtor to help out? Any suggestions you would have to make the most out of our trip would be appreciated.
I have an old friend/colleague who is an RE agent down there and former NY/CT guy so I went out with him on Sat. This was helpful in that he was able to show us a few different areas and styles of neighborhood/home. We went down there thinking we wanted one thing, and after seeing some "greatest hits" want something very different than what we originally intended. We have never owned a home so that may be a factor, but I would suggest looking at some different stuff that your used to since it might surprise you what you like when you have more options.
On Sunday and Monday, we drove around ourselves, with the help of a GPS. The realtor sent some recommendations after our day on Sat with addresses and we wanted to check out a couple of things on our own in more detail. There are so many new roads the GPS took the "scenic route" a few times, but got us to where we needed to be.
This plan worked out really well, better than "aimless wandering" since we got some sense of the area on Sat, from the beautiful million+ homes in south charlotte to stuff that was more in our range a bit farther out. As I mentioned, we also refined our feelings about what we wanted and they were quite different that what we had been thinking "on paper."
We also really enjoyed staying uptown so we could check out the city and get a feel for it, while having access to major roads to make our exploration work well. I can give you the name of the guy I am working with, or there are obviously several agents here, but I think having a local "expert" helps, especially if you only have a few days. Wandering and getting lost might be nice if you have 5-7 days to work with and could spend the first 3-4 getting your bearings before focusing your search.
Our upcoming plan is to determine if there are any other cities we want to check out, and then return to Charlotte, staying near one of the communities we really liked. On that trip we plan to talk to residents, check out the local shopping, and just get a better feel of the area and people. If that trip is successful, we'll return in Dec'ish to start signing some papers
There is also another really cool place for children uptown called "Imaginon" the building is amazing. I'm an adult and I loved the place as well.
Also, uptown Charlotte is under going many changes. There are about 30 news skyscrapers planned around the city. All over 15 stories. Some are over 50 stories! Most are around 20-30 stories though. There are also a lot of people moving uptown, that is why most of these towers are condos.
There are 4 new musuems being built as well. The mint, the bechtler, the discovery place, AACC, and a new theatre. The designs for these buildings are amazing. They will add so much culture and things to do uptown.
I could go on all night telling you about the things coming to uptown Charlotte. The city will be much different from what you saw in the next 3 years.
I will say the sense I got there was that the city was "up and coming." Uptown was very clean, and things like a very impressive library and the discovery place seem to indicate the city is putting its money into the right things.
We walked down a couple of back alleys and stumbled on a few nice little parks with well-groomed lawns and benches, etc. that added to this feeling. Many similar-size cities I've visited in the "rust belt" have a feeling of decline or stagnation, I didn't get that in Charlotte.
There is also another really cool place for children uptown called "Imaginon" the building is amazing. I'm an adult and I loved the place as well.
Also, uptown Charlotte is under going many changes. There are about 30 news skyscrapers planned around the city. All over 15 stories. Some are over 50 stories! Most are around 20-30 stories though. There are also a lot of people moving uptown, that is why most of these towers are condos.
There are 4 new musuems being built as well. The mint, the bechtler, the discovery place, AACC, and a new theatre. The designs for these buildings are amazing. They will add so much culture and things to do uptown.
I could go on all night telling you about the things coming to uptown Charlotte. The city will be much different from what you saw in the next 3 years.
oops, I spelled museum wrong.....I wonder why we don't have an edit button?
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