Relocating for retirement

egsiegel

Ed
Senior User
Hello,
Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Ed Siegel.
My wife and I are starting to look for retirement properties, focusing in NC.
We are currently in Syracuse, NY (can stand the cold).

We've visited the Greensboro area (relatives), Raleigh area, and Charlotte of course. and liked the areas.
Some old friends (know them a long time...they are not old) just moved to New Bern...and all of the information they have sent us about their new community looks really interesting. Will probably visit in the spring. Fairfield Harbor community.

We have some requirements....
Considering a community (55+ ?) that has activities and amenities.....good way to meet people since we don't really know anyone down there.
Not in the middle of no place (my wife likes to be near shopping)
We both need space for our hobbies (she does lots of crafts....beading, sewing, and ALL the others....so she needs a room (or two)
I, of course, need a shop. I'm basically a turner (bayberrycrafts.com) but would like a full shop now that I won't have to waste my time going to an office. (in NY we have basements....where do you put your shop?)
A woodworking or woodturning club in the area would be nice.

So....my question is...where should we be looking? Any communities that fit our needs? Any insight would be helpful.

hopefully I'll get to meet some of you when I get down their.

Ed
 

Raymond

Raymond
Staff member
Corporate Member
First, welcome aboard, Ed. You have come to the right web site.

Second, most people either build a dedicated shop or use their garage (be forewarned - southern builders can't do basements correctly and the soil in most areas is not ideal). There are many local clubs depending on where you decide to settle; so once you have selected your area then conduct a search for a local club.
 

Rob in NC

Rob
Senior User
First, welcome aboard, Ed. You have come to the right web site.

Second, most people either build a dedicated shop or use their garage (be forewarned - southern builders can't do basements correctly and the soil in most areas is not ideal). There are many local clubs depending on where you decide to settle; so once you have selected your area then conduct a search for a local club.
Soil? I only have red clay mud here :D

and to the OP, welcome. I cant help you in your quest for a place. I am in the middle of nowhere and wouldnt have it any other way. Mr. Raymond is correct though that most down here have a dedicated shop or use their garage. The type place you seem to be considering may have a HOA, so may want to inquire about that before signing the dotted line if you want to put up a shop. A community like you are talking about will likely have others like you who have moved here.
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
I live in Lexington, SC but they let me post here. Lexington is outside Columbia, right in the middle of the state of South Carolina. On the west side of Columbia the soil is clay, as you go east it gets increasingly sandy. We lived in Kansas City, Omaha, and Pittsburgh PA before coming to SC and always had a basement. We had our first home here built by a builder that grew up in North Dakota. He knew how to build with a basement and my shop was in an extra garage in the basement. Worked great. My current shop is in a slightly oversize one car garage (14x24) I had built after buying the house. The only kind of basement you will find in the south is a walkout basement. They essentially do not do what my relator called "hole in the ground basements". The frost line is so shallow there is no need for the excavation you have to do in the north. On a sloped lot, instead of building with a basement to give you usable space they will build a tall crawlspace with posts every 10 feet or so. Big waste in my mind. But it's all most builders know how to do.

You might also want to look in the Asheville area. It's pretty there, I go once a year "leaf peeping" but I don't know much about living there. Another area you didn't mention is Wilmington or other coastal areas. They aren't my cup of tea but many really like being close to the shore. I bought on a large lake (Lake Murray) for my retirement place.
 

cyclopentadiene

Update your profile with your name
User
The key questions for NC are:
1)Beach, Mountains, Between the two?
2) Do you prefer living near a sizable city or are you happy away from civilization?
3 Do you want to be near a major airport?
4) Do you want to be near major interstate highways?

The answers to these should narrow the choices significantly.
 

McRabbet

Rob
Corporate Member
Welcome to the forum and welcome to a great state for your retirement. I'll put a good word in for the mountainous western part of the state; I retired to Hendersonville, about 15 miles south of Asheville. We have E-W and N-S interstate routes (I-40 and I-26), good medical and shopping and restaurants, three good woodworking clubs in the area (including the largest AAW woodturning club in the country -- the Carolina Mountain Woodturners, plus my club, the Western NC Woodworkers Association). We have a great woodworking store (Klingspor's Woodworking Shop, in Fletcher) and several good wood suppliers in the area. Mild climate (when compared to Syracuse -- I know because I'm from Rochester!) and loads of cultural attractions from Biltmore House to the Flat Rock Playhouse. And we have basements, too!
 

Hmerkle

Board of Directors, Development Director
Hank
Staff member
Corporate Member
Welcome Ed,
We are glad you found us.

All good questions. My guess is you will likely need to build a "purpose-built" shop or find a property with multiple garages.
(You might enlist your realtor to search for properties with a shop, but beware, some people's idea of a shop can vary wildly.)

You site and work are REALLY nice - a talented turner!

We choose Greenville SC when we moved from Illinois. It seemed more welcoming that other places we visited (some in NC) but in 1996 the biggest pull was how much cheaper SC was at the time.

Please don't be a stranger, all are welcome here to "talk shop" when we are not in our shops.
 

cyclopentadiene

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User
Mcrabbet mentioned healthcare facilities. North Carolina is one of the best states in the USA in terms of healthcare. Duke, UNC and Wake Forest medical centers are all in the top 10 medical schools and facilities in the country. No matter where you are in the State, you are essentially no more than 1 hour by helicopter to any one of these top quality facilities.
These three universities manage a very high percentage of the hospitals in the state.
 

ScottM

Scott
Staff member
Corporate Member
Welcome from another NY transplant. I made the move 30 years ago from the Poughkeepsie area. I now live on the NC/VA border which is an hour and twenty minutes from RDU airport. Consider living in or just outside the Triangle, formed but Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill. As others said, basements are not common place so a garage shop or dedicated out building is the way to go.
 

Dee2

Board of Directors, Vice President
Gene
Staff member
Corporate Member
I lived in ENC for ~15 years. Great medical services in Greenville with Brody School of Medicine and hospital. Never could get used to the hurricanes, however. YMMV. Moved to a small airport in SC (near the GA border) and have a house and hanger. Great medical services but older, crowded facilities in Augusta GA. No plane, but I've finally got a shop bigger than a garage.
 

NYTransplant

Tim
Corporate Member
Welcome Ed. As my screen name indicates, I moved from NY as well... the Poughkeepsie area like @ScottM. My parents were born and raised in the Syracuse area. My dad was born in Cato and mom in Oswego. My mom just moved down from Clay about 6 years ago to the Charlotte area. Like @Hmerkle, when we first moved down, my wife and I settled in Greenville SC. We absolutely fell in love with Greenville and spent 14 years there. My company moved us to Charlotte (I actually live just over the border in Lake Wylie, SC) and I've since retired. I'd move back to Greenville in a heartbeat, but we spent so much time designing and building the house to suit our (my) needs, we'd never find anything like what we have without starting over.

To answer your question about the shop, we built on a full basement, so I have my shop there. I'm also a car guy, so I have a second garage down there too.

Welcome to the forum!
 

Jerry C

Jerry
Senior User
I lived in New Bern for 6 years and it is a really good place to live. In Eastern NC look at locations that are out of the hurricane flood zone. The Trent Woods area in New Bern would be my pick there. New Bern has good medical, golf, water sports, culture and a short drive to the ocean. Greenville NC is a short drive to East Carolina University and great medical services. Wherever you go I would make sure you can have a workshop. A lot of home owner associations are very difficult to deal with. In Eastern NC hardwood is more difficult to find for woodworking. I was able to get wood when I traveled to western NC and found wood at only a few places around New Bern. Hardwood is a lot easier to find west of Raleigh.
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
Most of NC is nice. One thing to remember, is to check on services, especially medical. Generally, NC has some great medical services. Just do your homework if you buy more rural than metropolitan.
 

AllanD

Allan
Corporate Member
NC has more geographical variation than most states. Sea level to the highest point east of the Rockies. I would decide what extremes of climate bothers you the most. I am fortunate to have a place at 700 ft elevation and another at almost 5000ft. If I were picking a place for year-round I would go for around 2500 to 3000 ft. elevation. But that is because I hate hot/humid summers more than cold winters.
 

Gotcha6

Dennis
Staff member
Corporate Member
As a native Carolinian, I will welcome you to our area, but please, please, please, leave this yankee cold air up north! :eek: You will find any variety of climates from which to choose (and avoid) here, so just pick out what features you like and start looking.
 

tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
When you retire, you have TWO absolute requirements. Close to your doctors, and close to a super walmart. Everything else is optional. :)

We moved to Hillsborough from Maryland. Love it. Only thing I miss from other places is the Rockies ( Lived in Boulder) but as we are much older now, we don't climb, ski, hike, spelunk anymore anyway. I do not miss shoveling 4 feet of snow. There are only a few bad hot and sticky days here, where in Md, it was most of the summer. It only gets really cold ( -5 right now) once a year maybe. We have our windows open probably 5 months of the year.

For some strange ( great) reason bad weather splits around our area. Do note, county taxes differ greatly. I am in Orange ( Expensive) . I like being close enough, but out of the Triangle.

We wanted a little more land but everything we found was across from a pig or chicken farm. Google maps is your best friend! Sure is pretty a little further West though. I am not a coast person, and the knats in the sandhills are not fun IMHO. Traffic in Charlotte is horrible. Getting bad in R-D-C but not like the DC metro area. Now if you are a beer lover, hard to beat Ashville.

Being a couple miles off the highway, we don't have the din of trucks all night. Occasionally on a back road we hear a jake break, but not like it was in Md. At night, with the windows open the noise is bugs, owls, frogs, and occasional coyote's. he only wildlife we had trouble with is copperheads. My yard was not well maintained for a while and they moved in. Cleaned up and last summed did not see one. ( 5th summer)

The one thing Hillsborough does not have is a family Irish pub, good beer, good food and close. I do miss the Bowie Town Grill. No stake house either.

Do look for a one-story as with time, it may keep you in your house longer.

The biggest thing I noticed coming this way is just south of Richmond, when folks wave to you, they use all five fingers. Do watch your speed on 85 through Va. They make a lot of money there. 80 in a 70 is a return to court.
 

teesquare

T
Senior User
Asheville - while attractive topographically - is THE most expensive place in the state of NC. Unbridled growth and issues of aging infrastructure have not helped. Were I to make the decision to relocate, but stay in this part of the region....I would give strong consideration to Johnson City TN. No state tax, cheapest fuel/grocery prices and mountain scenery. Close enough to Asheville, and to Knoxville. Other than that - Greeneville SC would be hard to beat for cost of living and plenty of shopping ( READ: TRAFFIC):D.
 

ErnieM

Ernie
Corporate Member
Welcome Ed,

We just returned home from Fayetteville, NY - your current stomping grounds. That's the coldest we've been in a long time, but my daughter and her family love it there.

We're in Chocowinity, NC. which is 18 miles from Greenville NC. and 30 miles north of New Bern.We moved here from downstate NY 19 years ago and we love it. I think our development, Cypress Landing, is ideally located in Eastern North Carolina. Great medical services in Greenville. Taxes are far, far less than what you're used to in NY. and we have all the amenities (golf club, swimming pool, health club etc.) than you can possibly want. I can't figure out how to leave a link to the Cypress Landing website, but you can Google "Cypress Landing North Carolina" and it will come up. I think you'd like it here.

Ernie Miller
 

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