Relocating (Richmond, Salem, Chester: insurance, house, job market)

[rented mule]

I apologize if i'm beating a dead horse with this thread, but i'll take my chances. My wife and I have decided to relocate from Nassau County, Long Island. I work as a financial executive for a very large company on LI and my wife is an Occupational Therapist who does home care and works in schools. We were originally thinking about a 3-4 year time frame, but recently the woman we purchased our house from approached us and wants to buy the house back. This greatly accelerates our move.

Through all the research i've done, i've narrowed things down to Richmond, Raleigh and Charlotte (first time everyone is hearing that, i'm sure). I've almost ruled out Raleigh due to the constant re-zoning of schools that i've heard about. We have 6 year old and a 3 year old.

We are basically looking for a slower pace in life and the ability to work hard (but not nearly as hard as we are now) and still spend time with our kids while they are young. We are in a very good school district now and i'd like to be somewhere that has good public schools as well. My wife can likely get work, easily, wherever we go, but I need to be able to find a well-paying job in finance. We are looking to spend $275k-$350K on a home. We are hoping to find an area with a lot of families with kids the age of ours.

Are there any reasons I should not be strongly considering the Richmond area? Are there any particular areas that would be suited to what we are looking for? As I said, this move will likely happen this year, rather than 3 or 4 years from now as we thought.

Any help would be appreciated and i'm sorry for the length of the thread.

[average_joe]

Well my wife and I just relo'd to Richmond. Prior to that we were in Dallas for 7 years, and prior to that we were in North Carolina. Personally I like NC the best. I'd like to recommend that you check out Greensboro/Winston-Salem. We have some friends that live in between the two and they love it there. Don't get me wrong though, I like Richmond so far. But I just like NC a little bit more. If you do decide to go with Richmond I'd suggest the Chesterfield and Midlothian areas. We moved out by Swift creek reservoir and while the drive to work sucks, the area we live in is worth it. Hope you find what you're looking for. Oh, I was born in Long Beach. Still have lots of family around the area up there. I haven't lived there since I was about 4 years old though. A lot of my LI family have moved to FL, but still lots more in LI. Ok now I'm just rambling...
Joe

[richmondpics]

Check out the vast number of companies in the financial sector in the Richmond market. It's a considerable segment of the local economy. Here's something you might find worth a read:
http://www.grpva.com/New_pages/pubs/Finance_Insurance_Securities.pdf (broken link)
It also includes a list of larger companies in the industry which could give you a good place to start looking for a new job. One word of caution however. Through its merger with A.G. Edwards, Wachovia Securities is moving its HQ and the majority of its operations out of the Richmond area. Most of its employees (2,000 or so) have decided not to move to St. Louis. So while this is a great area for the financial sector, you may find a much more competitive environment given the growing pool of former WS employees in the job market.

The three cities you are looking at consistently rank high in business, quality of life, etc.

[Phebe]

Check out Powhatan County. The public school system can't be beat. However, the rate of growth out here is getting scary..so don't tell anyone!

[carissaann]

HI I just read your note and am wondering where you ended up relocating?