North Carolina

[Simply_Seema]

Re: North Carolina

@X2

Good universities but not quite the calibre of what you will find in NYC, Boston, Chicago, LA, SF, Philly, DC etc. The greenery, bazaars, clean places. Not really much different than what you will see in the nicer burbs of large cities. Cultural diversity is limited, and same goes for local options for dining and entertainment.

Cost of living is low indeed, and the hassle factor is low, commute wise, but then again if you are working in an industrial park in the burbs and live in the burbs of a major city, you will feel no difference.

My sister lived in NC for a number of years and visited me kinda surprised saying that I did not realize Chicago had such places. People think of major cities and compare their total urban and downtown experience to a suburban experience of a smaller city, versus comparing it to the burbs of the city. So when you see the good burbsof DC, Dallas, Chicago, SF, Philly etc… Then you have a better gauge. As I said, the key is lifestyle. For many that lifestyle is okay or more than okay.

RTP is one of the better smaller metropolitan areas in the country though. Has some pros and has most of the cons of any small city.

The weather at east coast is itself a big factor to move out to another region, what will dining and entertainment options do if you don’t even feel like getting out of your house half of the year. Add to that expenses for severe weather (including preparation and events like Sandy), energy costs, expenses related to health issues related to the weather. I know so many people who were living in suburbs and commuting to cities for work. 3-4 hrs commute daily (taking in factor rush hours) will kill it for me at least. You can’t expect the person to be able to do much else even on weekends as mostly they just want to stay in doors travelling to the city the whole week.

Again it depends on personal preferences whether you want quality of life or higher income or career opportunities or being near to city life etc. Also depends on what stage of life you are. When I was single and had a very active social life living in a city made more sense to me being able to hang out with friends after work and enjoy to the max what city has to offer.

For us NC made sense as it’s kind of low key having a sense of community so great place to raise a family. Then it has some very good Islamic schools that not only offer Islamic education but provide a range of youth activities. Nothing is more then 30 min drive away. The real estate prices are so low that I can buy 3 houses for how much I paid for my apartment in NYC. The RTP area is also couple of hour drives away from the tri-state area so we are still near to the metropolitan cities (By plane it’s 50 min to NYC). So we just hop on the plane when ever we are missing the big city.