laid back, small town feel on beach? (Wilmington, Oak Island: houses, to buy)
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Oak Island might be a possibility. You can get a small house for $200,000 a few blocks from the beach. There is a local arts scene and a farmer's market but it definitely isn't hippy and grungy.
Agreed. From Google street-view, the Ocean Beach, San Diego community housing reminded me of Oak Island. However, prices on houses start at $800,000 and go up to over a million.
And I had to look up "street art", meaning paintings and grafitti on buildings. It just would not happen or be tolerated here. Oak Island housing may be simple, but it is very clean.
Here are a few more difference between California and North Carolina worth thinking about.
1. Economy- NC beaches have a much more seasonal economy. It may be easy to find a job in summer, but much harder to find a year-round job. With the virus, some seasonal restaurants may be in trouble already.
2. Weather- NC is not a moderate as San Diego. It has cold winters and hot, humid summers. Hurricanes and flooding are real risks along the coast. You would need both hurricane and flood insurance, but I have noted that somes place are not insurable because the risk is too high.
3. Tolerance for drugs. NC does not allow medical marijuana, and it may be years before it does.
4. Tolerance for alternative life-styles- NC does not allow gay marriage, and it got in big trouble with a bathroom bill which did not respect transgenders.
5. Politics- NC is technically a purple state, but most citizens support gun rights and oppose illegal immigrants.
6. Budget for housing- Has the OP allowed for higher insurance costs? Even with a mobile home costing $70K, there could be lot rental of $600-1000 per month. If the mobile home lot is leased, the owner could still sell the land out from under the resident. The land is worth millions.
On the whole, I would suggest that the OP consider renting for a year while establishing an income and figuring out whether she really likes North Carolina.
This is a good summation and I would take goldenage1's advice to heart. As others have said, the $200K won't even come close to touching a single-family dwelling or even a building lot right on the beach, but maybe a condo as long as you realize you will have pretty pricey HOA fees and insurance could be had for that. I would suggest looking at a site like realtor.com or zillow.com and just browsing around NC's beach areas to get a feel for what real estate on the market right now costs in different areas. You can also do this for checking out rentals.
As far as your desire to find a place that's artsy and "grungy" (that visual makes me chuckle when I think of most of the beaches in NC which conjures up the image of conservative retirees who play golf), probably the best you would do in North Carolina is to focus on New Hanover County. Still, I wouldn't expect California because it's going to be different here (although my impression of San Diego is it's on the more conservative side of CA, so it wouldn't be as much of a culture shock as moving from San Francisco, for example).
Carolina Beach will have real estate prices that are relatively more affordable (much more so than Wrightsville Beach), and while the town itself is pretty conservative, you're not so far from Wilmington. It's still a little more conservative than liberal but not to an extreme (I would best characterize it is "light red"), and has a bit of an artsy kind of scene with a younger population, UNC Wilmington, etc., lots of transplants who are from outside NC, and a cute downtown area and waterfront. You could live there, but you wouldn't be right on the beach (just 10-20-ish minutes though).
Agreed. From Google street-view, the Ocean Beach, San Diego community housing reminded me of Oak Island. However, prices on houses start at $800,000 and go up to over a million.
And I had to look up "street art", meaning paintings and grafitti on buildings. It just would not happen or be tolerated here. Oak Island housing may be simple, but it is very clean.
Thank you all for these insightful replies. I have spent time on Zillow and that is why I thought there would be a chance I could find property on the southeast coast for approx $200k. I see several great fixer uppers on the beach in the outer banks area for 200k. But, I've never been and worry about hurricanes and also cold winters.
The panhandle or certain areas of Florida may be my best bet. I think the panhandle due to the slight change in seasons vs lower florida.
The Charleston, SC area would probably have great access to jobs but all the coastal properties are 500k and above it seems, and I'm not sure it will have anything close to that surfer, hippie, grungey vibe.
My favorite city in the USA is Savannah, GA but idk if summers are too hot there, or its affordability.
I dont need the grunge or street art so much as I like the small town, farmers market, community feel. But retirees playing golf is not really the community I jive with... I'm only 30!
More research must be done! I could increase my budget by 100k if needed to help with finding a suitable home, and I will likely find a remote/work from home job, so being located close to business may not be an issue. I am too restless to settle down somewhere forever, at least until I find the place that feels like HOME, so it's necessary for my next job to allow me to move around without having to quit. In our changing work landscape due to the virus, many companies are going to be a lot more open to hiring people working remote, I sure hope!
For now, I think taking a year to explore other areas is the best thing I can do in order to find the next place to live!
Life is such an adventure, isn't it?
Does any other place come to mind for anyone to add to my list to explore?
Thank you all for these insightful replies. I have spent time on Zillow and that is why I thought there would be a chance I could find property on the southeast coast for approx $200k. I see several great fixer uppers on the beach in the outer banks area for 200k. But, I've never been and worry about hurricanes and also cold winters.
The panhandle or certain areas of Florida may be my best bet. I think the panhandle due to the slight change in seasons vs lower florida.
The Charleston, SC area would probably have great access to jobs but all the coastal properties are 500k and above it seems, and I'm not sure it will have anything close to that surfer, hippie, grungey vibe.
My favorite city in the USA is Savannah, GA but idk if summers are too hot there, or its affordability.
I dont need the grunge or street art so much as I like the small town, farmers market, community feel. But retirees playing golf is not really the community I jive with... I'm only 30!
More research must be done! I could increase my budget by 100k if needed to help with finding a suitable home, and I will likely find a remote/work from home job, so being located close to business may not be an issue. I am too restless to settle down somewhere forever, at least until I find the place that feels like HOME, so it's necessary for my next job to allow me to move around without having to quit. In our changing work landscape due to the virus, many companies are going to be a lot more open to hiring people working remote, I sure hope!
For now, I think taking a year to explore other areas is the best thing I can do in order to find the next place to live!
Life is such an adventure, isn't it?
Does any other place come to mind for anyone to add to my list to explore?
Thank you all!
Florida will be as hot, or hotter, than Savannah.
Apalachicola or Matlacha in FL might be good places to look into...no idea about real estate costs.
Does any other place come to mind for anyone to add to my list to explore?
I would exclude the Outer Banks (or Manteo) from consideration, as is so seasonal. It would be deserted in winter and over-crowded in summer.
Another place to consider is Galveston Texas. I have only seen the HGTV show where the flippers buy a run-down Craftsman and fix it up. There seem to be lots of antique shops and craftspeople in Galveston, so I would call it part artsy, and part grungy. Of course it still has hurricanes and humidity. You can find many small, fully renovated places for under $250K.
Last edited by goldenage1; 05-10-2020 at 08:22 AM..
The OBX people will tell you it is not deserted in winter. I have not been there much in winter myself, but there definitely is a year round population even on Ocracoke.
Maybe check out Folly Beach SC? I think Tybee Island might be what you are looking for, too, but I am not sure of the affordability of either of those locations.
The OBX people will tell you it is not deserted in winter. I have not been there much in winter myself, but there definitely is a year round population even on Ocracoke.
Maybe check out Folly Beach SC? I think Tybee Island might be what you are looking for, too, but I am not sure of the affordability of either of those locations.
I'm not sure how I feel about OBX being seasonal (or not!), I'm undecided as to whether this would make or break an option in a new location for me. I lived in SD for 6 years and definitely got exposed to crowds in the summer, and my favorite time was always fall/winter. Gotta love those gorgeous winter sunsets and empty, chilly beaches.
Folly Beach and Tybee Island are both very lovely. I just don't know that I can afford either of those two places!
Maybe I have been misled on Zillow seeing all the beach houses on stilts, with a deck overlooking the beach for my price range in coastal NC. It's a little slice of heaven it looks like!!!
.....Maybe I have been misled on Zillow seeing all the beach houses on stilts, with a deck overlooking the beach for my price range in coastal NC. It's a little slice of heaven it looks like!!!
Understand. There are sandy beaches on the sound side of a barrier island and on creek and river-fronts, as well as ocean-front. Perhaps a photo showed the ocean, but the house was 6 blocks away from the ocean. The stilted houses are needed when the floods happen; it is not just picturesque. It is a good idea to do more research, prioritize your wishes and to visit your short-list of towns.
BTW, the majority of "small towns" will be inland of the barrier islands, eg Calabash, Southport, Beaufort, etc. The barrier islands where the ocean beaches are, these are almost exclusively recent beach houses. The farmers market are also in the inland towns; mainly because it is nearly impossible to grow crops on the ocean-side sandy soil.
San Diego is exceptional and very different from North Carolina, in that a large city is directly on the ocean. That means the beach communities are supported by the economy of a large city. NC's main cities with good jobs are inland.
Last edited by goldenage1; 05-11-2020 at 08:18 AM..
Maybe I have been misled on Zillow seeing all the beach houses on stilts, with a deck overlooking the beach for my price range in coastal NC.
We have had some bad hurricanes in recent years with major flooding. There is also erosion to worry about. If the houses are too close to the beach, chances are in a few years they will be in the ocean. Highway 12 on the Outer Banks regularly washes out and has to be rebuilt.
If you see a house for $200k research research research. For a single family home on a beach island (they are all islands because of the intracoastal waterway), I would expect to pay somewhere in the range of a minimum of $350k and that would be for an older home that needed a lot of updating and has a long walk to the beach (not ocean front). For an oceanfront home, I would expect to pay many millions of dollars, down to maybe $800k.
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