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I was wondering if anybody living in the Asheville & Mountain area of NC could give me some advice on good places to live? I'm looking for an area that has a lot of wide open space, my husband and myself moved from Sunapee, NH to Summerville, SC just under 2 years ago and we hate it here.... We miss the fall foliage, seasons actually changing, and the beautiful scenery that mountains provide. We are looking for a medium sized town, I don't want to have to drive a half an hour to get milk and eggs I'd love to find an area that does get some snow but not enough to have to constantly be out there shoveling! I know this all sounds picky but I would really love to not have to move again after this time, I want to finally find our perfect spot to call home... We would be renting at first so we would want someplace that has decent rental properties for fair prices.. My husband is a welder so an area that has a need for them would be fantastic too! I've never done this before.. I've read many threads and found them quite usefull in the past, so I thought I would give it a go, at the end of the day the best people to ask about an area are the ones that live there, so any advice you have is appreciated!! We're in the 25-35 age group and just basically country people that want a quiet scenic place to call our home... Thanks for reading and all the best
I like Waynesville area allright. Though you mentioned snow, there was a very good amount of snow this last cold season over in the Waynesville area.
As for his work. I live in Clyde, and I work in Arden, which is actually slightly south of Asheville. Me and another guy commute pretty regularly. It takes us about 35-40 mins. to get to work.
I really like the area north of Exit 24 on I-40, and I don't think it would be too far for me to live up there and frequent Waynesville. There is some other nice areas to the southeast of waynesville that people might mention to you. I just like the waynesville area.
Are you only considering mountain communities? Cause what you are describing fits well for communities that are in the foothills of NC/SC. Just throwing this out there in case you haven't considered areas that are in the rolling hills "down the mountain" from Asheville.
Please forgive me for being offtrack if you are not interested in anything but higher elevation property.
We moved to the country west of West Marion and we really like it. There are some nice mountain views, Lake James is close by and the homes are not as expensive as Asheville and Black Mountain. We are about 30 miles east on I-40 from Asheville. There are markets close by and various sized home lots intermingled for a "country feel". There is some snow, beautiful fall colors and a wide price range for purchasing homes. If you do not want to live in a area that has a variety of homes (small, large, manufactured and mobile), you will want to live in a subdivision since McDowell County does not have zoning laws. Good luck.
I'm partial to Macon County, and the town of Franklin. More than half of Macon County is the Nantahala Forest, and there are mountains in almost every direction. It's gorgeous.
You don't have to live directly in Franklin, there are many "communities" encircling Franklin that are country but it'd be a quick trip for groceries, post office, errands in general. You'll get 4 seasons, each be-yoo-ti-full. Not so much snow, Franklin is like a saucer - there are mountains around it and much stormy weather breaks up as it passes over the mountains. When Waynesville gets a lot of snow, Franklin gets pretty snow, and then the next day or two it goes away. :-) We never ever had to shovel!
We rented a 3 bedroom house there, on a hillside, with a little yard and a huge basement where my husband had his workshop. It went for $700 a month back in 2007/2008. Not sure about welding demand ... but I do know that many people in WNC commute to their jobs. You might live in Franklin and work in Waynesville, or Murphy, or even down in Georgia. I have friends who live in west Asheville who commute to Franklin for work!! Jobs are sparse is what I'm sayin'.
There are good doctors and dentists in Franklin, a hospital, the schools are good.
We appreciated being not too far from Asheville, and we also found the drive down to Atlanta to be easy so we'd head there for MAJOR shopping (IKEA, etc.) There's also Gainesville, GA for shopping, not as far as Atlanta.
We would still be in Franklin if we could have supported ourselves - my husband banged his head against the wall for a year looking everywhere for work to no avail. I worked 2 1/2 jobs ... and when an offer for a job in Charlotte fell in my lap that was in my field (training and development) at a salary that exceeded the 2 1/2 jobs - I had to go for it!
Are you only considering mountain communities? Cause what you are describing fits well for communities that are in the foothills of NC/SC. Just throwing this out there in case you haven't considered areas that are in the rolling hills "down the mountain" from Asheville.
Please forgive me for being offtrack if you are not interested in anything but higher elevation property.
I am open to any idea's you might have to throw at me I don't know much about that area and I'm so homesick for mountainous terrain that I automatically went for that area, but if another area suites than I would be more than happy to hear your ideas!! Thank you!
Does anybody know a good time to come for a visit in the fall when the leaves are at their most colorful? My husband and I are planning to come for a visit and really take a good look around at the area's you all have mentioned to me. I do have a question though, is there another town the size of Franklin in the Macon Co. area or is that pretty much the biggest town? I really like the sound of living in a county that is mostly forest, it sounds beautiful! Oh, who am I kidding, I want to live everywhere you guys have mentioned, it all sounds absolutely picturesque!! It will be hard to decide, I guess it will just come down to where the jobs are at.. and from what I'm hearing from other threads some ppl are saying not to even move to that area, as there are no jobs and the ones that do come up the ppl living there don't take kindly to having them given to "outsiders"... I'm quoting here.. so I guess my last question here would be, are ppl friendly to imports to the area?
We moved to the country west of West Marion and we really like it. There are some nice mountain views, Lake James is close by and the homes are not as expensive as Asheville and Black Mountain. We are about 30 miles east on I-40 from Asheville. There are markets close by and various sized home lots intermingled for a "country feel". There is some snow, beautiful fall colors and a wide price range for purchasing homes. If you do not want to live in a area that has a variety of homes (small, large, manufactured and mobile), you will want to live in a subdivision since McDowell County does not have zoning laws. Good luck.
Is Marion a good sized town? I absolutely do not want to live in a subdivision, we are living in one right now and I hate it.. I like wide open spaces around me.. I'm a country girl, originally raised on a farm and I feel claustrophobic living in a neighborhood that has row after row of cookie cutter houses.. Is there a lot of rentals on the outskirts of town?
ps. Thank you so much for taking the time to repy to my post, you've been very helpful
Close to airport, downtown Asheville, Brevard and Hendersonville.
I love that it feels like I live in the middle of the country and yet in less than 10 minutes I'm at Target and all that development along airport road.
Mid-October can be gorgeous - the higher elevations get their colors first. There are some web site that predict fall color - I'll try to find the ones I used to use & post them here. It's been a hot summer, with rain earlier in the season but drier the past month or so. (I think.)
Franklin is THE town in Macon County, next town of any size is Highlands, which is a resort area (ultra-wealthy folks like the Coca Cola heirs have summer homes up there.) Highlands can be interesting, and practically deserted by November. The road to Highlands from Franklin, up the Cullasaja Gorge on 64 is breathtaking - and hard on folks who are scared of heights!
Jobs are hard to come by - of course in our current economy that's true everywhere. I was surprised (because I was naive) at how much people commute for work in Western NC. I had a colleague who lived in Asheville, who drove to Franklin every day for his job. One of my other co-workers drove in from Blue Ridge, GA and another drove up from Lula, GA. Friends in Franklin would drive to Murphy to work, or Cashiers, and so on.
What do you do for a living? There is one big employer in Franklin - Drake Enterprises. They own Drake Software and a ton of other businesses.
Franklin is like anywhere else, some folks don't like newcomers, some don't care. And, like anywhere else, if you are positive and interested and want to learn about your new surrounds, you'll be welcomed. It was always nice to visit and note that so many people said hello and how are you doin' and so on. And when I lived there it was a pleasure to return the favor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by T77
Does anybody know a good time to come for a visit in the fall when the leaves are at their most colorful? My husband and I are planning to come for a visit and really take a good look around at the area's you all have mentioned to me. I do have a question though, is there another town the size of Franklin in the Macon Co. area or is that pretty much the biggest town? I really like the sound of living in a county that is mostly forest, it sounds beautiful! Oh, who am I kidding, I want to live everywhere you guys have mentioned, it all sounds absolutely picturesque!! It will be hard to decide, I guess it will just come down to where the jobs are at.. and from what I'm hearing from other threads some ppl are saying not to even move to that area, as there are no jobs and the ones that do come up the ppl living there don't take kindly to having them given to "outsiders"... I'm quoting here.. so I guess my last question here would be, are ppl friendly to imports to the area?
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We miss the fall foliage, seasons actually changing, and the beautiful scenery that mountains provide. We are looking for a medium sized town, I don't want to have to drive a half an hour to get milk and eggs
I'd love to find an area that does get some snow but not enough to have to constantly be out there shoveling! I know this all sounds picky but I would really love to not have to move again after this time, I want to finally find our perfect spot to call home... We would be renting at first so we would want someplace that has decent rental properties for fair prices.. My husband is a welder so an area that has a need for them would be fantastic too! I've never done this before.. I've read many threads and found them quite usefull in the past, so I thought I would give it a go, at the end of the day the best people to ask about an area are the ones that live there, so any advice you have is appreciated!! We're in the 25-35 age group and just basically country people that want a quiet scenic place to call our home... Thanks for reading and all the best
Western NC
