Seeking Info About Cornelius & Lake Norman Area (Huntersville, Mooresville: transplants, for sale)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Looking to relocate in the coming years from NY and stumbled upon what seemed to be an awesome area - Lake Norman. The fact that the Lake it right there, bike trails, near a city, and the real estate is reasonable (versus NY anyway), makes it a real candidate for us.
We'll be first time homebuyers, and schools will be important. Ideally would either want to have the lake in our backyard, or be walking distance to it w/ a boat slip.
I have a ton of questions, but I generally just want to get a sense for the area and who lives there.
1) Generally, is it a "good" area? Which are the nicer towns / neighborhoods? Are there areas to watch out for?
2) Who tends to live there? Is it young families or older retired folks on / near the lake. Do people live there full time or is it a lot of summer homes?
3) Though we plan to work from home, how long is the rush hour drive to Charotte? How about without much traffic?
4) How are the public schools? Are some areas / districts better than others?
5) Is there much around / to do in terms of shopping, going out to eat, etc? Is it a fun place to live? (outside of the obvious - that it's on a lake).
6) Are people friendly in general? How about towards a couple of NY transplants?
7) What's the best way to get a feel for the area before considering a serious move? What should we check out?
8) Has the lake ever flooded? Am I safe being so close to it?
9) If you had to convince me to NOT move there - what would the reason be?
1) yes
2) both but mostly full-time, probably skews more towards older for the lakefront houses as they're obviously more expensive
3) "Lake Norman" is a big area. It seems like most commonly people are referring to Huntersville/Cornelius/Davidson/Mooresville on the east side of the lake but the west side is growing as well. If you're actually on the lake you're probably looking at a minimum 25-30 minutes at rush hour from the south/southeastern portion, but 77 can be a mess at rush hour and gets worse the further north you go.
4) good for the most part. People like to bash the schools in Mecklenburg county but the schools in the northernmost portion of the county are some of their best, although you will want to check the assignments if you're looking at a particular house. Mooresville schools are good as well and I think Lincoln County (west side) are above average too.
5) yeah, although the east side is more developed
6) I think so. Already a lot of transplanted NY'ers especially on the east side
7) drive around. I like Jetton Park in Cornelius. Lake Norman State Park in Troutman (north) is actually the only place on the lake you're allowed to swim from the shore.
8) don't think it's ever flooded
9) probably not the best place to be if you're trying to get away from NY'ers
1) yes
2) both but mostly full-time, probably skews more towards older for the lakefront houses as they're obviously more expensive
3) "Lake Norman" is a big area. It seems like most commonly people are referring to Huntersville/Cornelius/Davidson/Mooresville on the east side of the lake but the west side is growing as well. If you're actually on the lake you're probably looking at a minimum 25-30 minutes at rush hour from the south/southeastern portion, but 77 can be a mess at rush hour and gets worse the further north you go.
4) good for the most part. People like to bash the schools in Mecklenburg county but the schools in the northernmost portion of the county are some of their best, although you will want to check the assignments if you're looking at a particular house. Mooresville schools are good as well and I think Lincoln County (west side) are above average too.
5) yeah, although the east side is more developed
6) I think so. Already a lot of transplanted NY'ers especially on the east side
7) drive around. I like Jetton Park in Cornelius. Lake Norman State Park in Troutman (north) is actually the only place on the lake you're allowed to swim from the shore.
8) don't think it's ever flooded
9) probably not the best place to be if you're trying to get away from NY'ers
what's your budget?
Thanks for the info! We're not trying to get away from NY'ers - we're trying to get away from the insane cost of living. Where we live, a 4-5 bedroom home around 2500-3000 square feet is over a million. Starter homes (75-100 years old, never never updated, 3 beds / 1 bath, little property) go for $550-600k+ PLUS 10-15k / year in taxes.
We try not to think of budget in terms of "what we can afford if we really try" as many do, so our budget is the least amount of money possible to get something we like. We can probably stretch to the 750k-800k range, but would prefer as low as possible - something that starts with a 3 would be nice.
Our real goal, btw, is to use our NY down payment ($250k or so) to buy a house outright somewhere else. But I understand that in the Lake Norman area (east side), this might not be possible. But I'm willing to have a small mortgage for a premium location.
I have a ton of questions, but I generally just want to get a sense for the area and who lives there.
1) Generally, is it a "good" area? Which are the nicer towns / neighborhoods? Are there areas to watch out for? None of the areas around the lake are bad - some are more rural than others
2) Who tends to live there? Is it young families or older retired folks on / near the lake. Do people live there full time or is it a lot of summer homes? Any and all - depends on the area.
3) Though we plan to work from home, how long is the rush hour drive to Charotte? How about without much traffic? I live at Exit 23 and it takes me 30 minutes at peak go up a few exits and starting adding 15 minute increments. At worst traffic 90 minutes or so if you are at Exit 36ish
4) How are the public schools? Are some areas / districts better than others? Again varies.
5) Is there much around / to do in terms of shopping, going out to eat, etc? Is it a fun place to live? (outside of the obvious - that it's on a lake). Depends on your wants. It is not horrible but not a ton of 5 star foodie type places
6) Are people friendly in general? How about towards a couple of NY transplants? They keep coming LOL
7) What's the best way to get a feel for the area before considering a serious move? What should we check out? Come stay a week
8) Has the lake ever flooded? Am I safe being so close to it? No
9) If you had to convince me to NOT move there - what would the reason be?[/quote] Don't complain that this is not NY - it is not NY. It is NC and will never be NY (hopefully)
Thanks for the info! We're not trying to get away from NY'ers - we're trying to get away from the insane cost of living. Where we live, a 4-5 bedroom home around 2500-3000 square feet is over a million. Starter homes (75-100 years old, never never updated, 3 beds / 1 bath, little property) go for $550-600k+ PLUS 10-15k / year in taxes.
We try not to think of budget in terms of "what we can afford if we really try" as many do, so our budget is the least amount of money possible to get something we like. We can probably stretch to the 750k-800k range, but would prefer as low as possible - something that starts with a 3 would be nice.
Our real goal, btw, is to use our NY down payment ($250k or so) to buy a house outright somewhere else. But I understand that in the Lake Norman area (east side), this might not be possible. But I'm willing to have a small mortgage for a premium location.
300K will get you 2500-3000 sq ft close to the lake. It will NOT get you on the lake.
300K will get you 2500-3000 sq ft close to the lake. It will NOT get you on the lake.
So I'm seeing on Zillow... Looks like lakefront starts in the 650-700 range. Totally fine with non lakefront as long as my yard is large enough for a pool, and I can walk to the Lake to get on my boat. I feel if I have to pack up the family and drive, I'll use my boat less.
donx, we are retiring to Lk Norman in a couple of years from NJ. I would suggest doing what we did, follow these forums, make some trips down there for long weekends and explore. You will find just about any housing type you like. There are many subdivisions that are on the lake and have boat slips although the house itself might be water view or no view at all. The community is on the lake. Best of both worlds. There are condos around as well. Lots of shopping all around. As far as friendly, that is what really impressed us the most. Everyone we talked with while visiting there was open to conversation and friendly as you could want. A lot of people from NY, NJ metro area. Taxes are much lower there especially property tax. There are county taxes though and registering your car will cost more along with a boat if you have one, but you will still save big when compared to NY or NJ. I would suggest by going to whatever search engine you have and type in subdivisions on Lk Norman and you will get tons of info. From there you can go to any realtor site and see what is for sale and what the cost is. Again you should make a few trips down and explore but I think you will love the area. We cant wait to make the move, in fact we are going down tomorrow till New Years day to look around again, probably out 10th trip down so far and we never like coming back.. Hope that helps
donx, we are retiring to Lk Norman in a couple of years from NJ. I would suggest doing what we did, follow these forums, make some trips down there for long weekends and explore. You will find just about any housing type you like. There are many subdivisions that are on the lake and have boat slips although the house itself might be water view or no view at all. The community is on the lake. Best of both worlds. There are condos around as well. Lots of shopping all around. As far as friendly, that is what really impressed us the most. Everyone we talked with while visiting there was open to conversation and friendly as you could want. A lot of people from NY, NJ metro area. Taxes are much lower there especially property tax. There are county taxes though and registering your car will cost more along with a boat if you have one, but you will still save big when compared to NY or NJ. I would suggest by going to whatever search engine you have and type in subdivisions on Lk Norman and you will get tons of info. From there you can go to any realtor site and see what is for sale and what the cost is. Again you should make a few trips down and explore but I think you will love the area. We cant wait to make the move, in fact we are going down tomorrow till New Years day to look around again, probably out 10th trip down so far and we never like coming back.. Hope that helps
Great info. Though we're at different stages of our lives, I think the goal is the same. We're not struggling here right now, but it's getting harder and harder to grin and bear it. I just refuse to drop over half a million dollars on a fixer upper.
I think we're going to do just that over the span of the next few years. Where do you typically stay? Would love to drive down, meet some people, look around, maybe rent a boat for a day.
Both Davidson and Mooresville have "main streets," with Davidson's being more active and I think bigger, but I'm not sure if either is to the same extent as you'd find in the northeast. Huntersville has Birkdale Village which is supposed to be a newer version. In Cornelius there are a few bars/restaurants along Catawba Ave. but they're mostly of the strip mall variety.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
