North and South Carolina Residents

[storzo]

Hi.

I am thinking about relocating to North or South Carolina and would like some info from people who live there. Mainly about taxes, school systems and general cost of living. I would like to be near the ocean so any tips on a good city/town to look at would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[dejr_8]

Hi.

I am thinking about relocating to North Carolina and would like some info from people who live there. Mainly about taxes, school systems and general cost of living. I would like to be near the ocean so any tips on a good city/town to look at would be appreciated.

Thanks!

We moved from MA to NC 6 years ago. Some things we discovered

1) The State Income Tax burden is the same in NC as it was in MA
2) Our property taxes are considerable lower only because we live in Chatham County. If we lived in Chapel Hill proper they would be as high if not higher
3) There is sales tax on virtually everything including food and clothes
4) We feel that the cost of food is higher
5) The cost of car insurance in NC is the same as it was in MA
6) NC has the highest gas tax in the South East.

The only thing that is lower is the cost of a home. We made the mistake of moving to a larger house with the same mortgage payment as what we had in MA. We should have moved to a similarly sized house and significantly reduced our mortgage payment.

But with all that said we could not image moving. We think people in NC are generally more friendly and happy (mainly due to the good weather). Our schools are great and I think this a more family atmosphere.

 

[Jennasis]

Depends on where you go. There are places on the coast that are VERY expensive.

 

[storzo]

Thanks. Jersey is soooo expensive, I figured anywhere would be cheaper. Maybe I should be looking further south. I'm going to add SC to this.

 

[kwelch10377]

My best friend and her family moved from PA to SC a few years ago. They lived in Columbia and generally loved living there mostly because of the weather. I will say she got a job doing the same exact thing she was doing in PA and the salary was half of what she was making in PA. The only thing she really found to be cheaper down there was her apt. and day care was a little cheaper, but not much.

 

[dejr_8]

Thanks. Jersey is soooo expensive, I figured anywhere would be cheaper. Maybe I should be looking further south. I'm going to add SC to this.

Why are you looking to relocate?

 

[storzo]

Why are you looking to relocate?

My husband is getting ready to retire but I am young and will probably be looking for work. We just would never be able to afford to stay in Jersey on a pension.

I thought the south was cheaper. Like here we have a 35 x 100 lot and we pay just under $9,000 in property taxes and that's rumored to be going up another 8%. We pay $1,900 in car insurance. $1,200 in home owners insurance.

I figured food and things like that would be the same but I thought housing, insurance, and taxes would be less.

 

[Karalea]

I relocated to South Carolina a little over 4 years ago. I live in Bluffton about 10 miles from the beach (Hilton Head Island). I find the cost of living here to be very reasonable. However, I moved here specifically for a job in Bluffton that paid much more than my job in Charlotte. There isn't much industry here outside of tourism so not a lot of jobs and most of my neighbors commute to Savannah, up to 1 hour each way or are in the military stationed in Beaufort.

We recently purchased a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1700 sq ft. home in a nice, family neighborhood for under $150,000. Our property taxes are about $1000a year. We do not pay school taxes. My car insurance is about $800 year and home owners' insurance is another $1000. Electric usually runs about $150-175 per month and water is $80.

We love living here. We can be in Savannah in under an hour, Charleston in less than 2, and on a good day, on the beach in 20 minutes. You just have to be willing to put up with all the tourist traffic on the weekends

 

[storzo]

We recently purchased a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1700 sq ft. home in a nice, family neighborhood for under $150,000. Our property taxes are about $1000a year. We do not pay school taxes. My car insurance is about $800 year and home owners' insurance is another $1000. Electric usually runs about $150-175 per month and water is $80.
:

This sounds good...what I'm looking for! We could never buy a house for that price, up here it would be $300,000 and up. Gas and electric here are about $400 a month.

The schools are good?

 

[dejr_8]

My husband is getting ready to retire but I am young and will probably be looking for work. We just would never be able to afford to stay in Jersey on a pension.

I thought the south was cheaper. Like here we have a 35 x 100 lot and we pay just under $9,000 in property taxes and that's rumored to be going up another 8%. We pay $1,900 in car insurance. $1,200 in home owners insurance.

I figured food and things like that would be the same but I thought housing, insurance, and taxes would be less.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/27312/price-100000-500000

Houses for sale in Pittsboro NC.

 

[kristilew]

Come on down! We have whole neighborhoods full of people from New Jersey! They love to tell us how much better things are done up north.

just kidding....There are a lot of beach towns in NC that aren't too expensive, because they are small. However, insurance will surprise you. In addition to regular homeowners insurance, you will be required to get a separate "wind and hail" policy to cover hurricanes. Ours is more than double our regular homeowner's policy cost.

If you are willing to do a little bit of driving to get to the beaches, mid state is a great place to look. There are a lot of jobs in the Raliegh/Durham/Chapel Hill area, and you are only a couple of hours from either the coast or the mountains.

SC coastal areas are also great.

 

[Karalea]

This sounds good...what I'm looking for! We could never buy a house for that price, up here it would be $300,000 and up. Gas and electric here are about $400 a month.

The schools are good?

I don't have kids so I can't speak from personal experience. We are in Beaufort County SC. I am sure if you googled it, you could get an idea.

I do know they have recently built several new schools to help reduce overcrowding and the use of so many portable classrooms. A co workers wife is a teacher's aide and she says the biggest problem facing them in the elementary school is the huge number of children coming in who don't speak English.

 

[storzo]

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/27312/price-100000-500000

Houses for sale in Pittsboro NC.

Can you tell me what part of the state this? Too lazy to look up a map, LOL.

 

[storzo]

Come on down! We have whole neighborhoods full of people from New Jersey! They love to tell us how much better things are done up north.

just kidding....There are a lot of beach towns in NC that aren't too expensive, because they are small. However, insurance will surprise you. In addition to regular homeowners insurance, you will be required to get a separate "wind and hail" policy to cover hurricanes. Ours is more than double our regular homeowner's policy cost.

If you are willing to do a little bit of driving to get to the beaches, mid state is a great place to look. There are a lot of jobs in the Raliegh/Durham/Chapel Hill area, and you are only a couple of hours from either the coast or the mountains.

SC coastal areas are also great.

OMG that would so not be us. We know how messed up it it up north, that's why we want to get out.

I will definitely look into those areas. I told DH that hurricane stuff would kill us. lol

 

[dejr_8]

Pittsboro is near the middle of the state. We are about 2.5 hours from the beach, 2.5 hours from the mountains and 9 hours from WDW.

 

[Angelhalo]

We find the cost of living to be great here in NC.

I don't know if further south is the answer OP unless you just want to live further south. We've also lived in FL, and the only real difference we see is no income taxes in FL.

We LOVE the Charlotte area. We're actually out in Union County which is the next county over from Mecklenburg where Charlotte is. The taxes in Mecklenburg county are high, but the taxes in Union county are very low. Union County also has some great schools. Mecklenburg has some awesome areas and some not so awesome areas just like any major city.

 

[GJM]

Moved from NJ to Myrtle Beach SC (Carolina Forest Area) a little over 3 years ago. Honestly if I could move back to NJ I would, my DH loves it here!

If you don't have to worry about schools that is a huge thing. I have a DS 10 and I am just not happy with the schools at all, plus they are very overcrowded. I never realized how different schools could be, but they are - I really feel like his is missing out in school here.

Food is more expensive here, plus you will not find good bread! I miss Shop Rite very much - Our taxes on our home are much less, car insurance is about the same, maybe a little less. Home Ins. is much more, in NJ we were only paying about $600 per year, here we are paying double that.

In my neighbor everyone is from NJ, NY, PA -

I miss a lot in NJ - we lived about 20 minutes from the city, I miss just being able to do things like that. I also hate paying tax on clothes, when I do go up to NJ I try and get shopping in!

I will say in the area that I am in there are no jobs - I worked for 26 years in NJ and coming here, there are no jobs and if there are they have a ton of people applying.

There are things I do like such as the weather and being about 10 minutes from the beach - plus we live in a brand new house, we would never have been able to have that living up in NJ - and I have made some wonderful friends.

 

[maddiemom]

We moved to the Charleston SC area 5+ years ago. Then housing was a little more inflated...now not so much (of course that is everywhere!). Though from what I understand housing is much more affordable here than in the northeast.

Our real estate taxes are half of what we paid in IL but we make up some of it in vehicle tax which can be high when a car is new and decreases the longer you have a car (last years tax on a 2004 Mazda 3 was 116.00, but now we have a new car and anticipate at least double the tax for a while).

Some grocery items seem to be more pricey and I haven't really been able to figure that out. I pay a lot more to get my hair done than I did in IL.

I suppose you could say the electric bill in the summer is higher with the heat but that does equal out a bit with the milder winters.

All in all we like it here very much. Come on down!!