Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Charlotte
DH and I are looking to relocate to NC and he has 2 job interviews in Charlotte next week. There seems to be a decent market for his field in Charlotte and he's applied to about 15 jobs so far so we think that is where we will end up.
We currently own a home and work in VA so there will be a transition period selling our house and job hunting for me if he is actually offered one of these positions.
We are looking to get an inexpensive, short-term apartment while our house is on the market and then purchasing a home once our house sells. Does anyone have advice or resources as to what areas we should or should not be looking in? What are the "bad" areas that we should try to avoid? We just want to get a basic idea of costs and areas since we wont have much time to look if he is offered a job.
Thanks!
Re: Charlotte
I don't know the bad areas, but I can tell you about some good areas.
Anywhere near South Park mall is incredible, but also incredibly expensive. That's right downtown, so you get the best mix of stores, cafes, skyscrapers, etc. If you want to be more in the suburbs then the North Hills (Huntersville) area is nice. I would avoid Concord because even though it's a growing area the traffic will be crazy commuting in and out of Charlotte.
We rent our apartment (in Raleigh) through Camden, and I know there are also several Camden apartment complexes in Charlotte. They are super new, not too pricey, and you can move anywhere in the USA that's owned by Camden at any time in your lease without penalty.
Good luck! DH and I are extremely happy that we moved to NC a few years ago.
Thank you! We are really excited. He has applied to jobs in the Raleigh/Durham area but we havent heard anything from them yet.
I enjoy the areas in South Charlotte (near Ballantyne & Blakeney) & South Park (as the previous poster mentioned).
I commute up to Mooresville from S Charlotte, so I agree that Huntersville is also a nice area. Mooresville is nice but getting very overcrowded in my opinion (although, where isn't these days?). Davidson and Cornelius are also nice.
If your husband will be working in the city, there will be traffic no matter which way he drives home (i.e. going North from the city towards Lake Norman goes from 4 to 2 lanes on the interstate, going South from the city towards South Charlotte goes from 3 lanes to 2 on the interstate. Both bottleneck pretty bad at rush hour. Back roads will usually take just as long too, so I've learned patience). However, even with the traffic, I still love this city!
Happy apartment hunting!
The zip code where he is interviewing tomorrow is 28217.
We live in Matthews and it's pretty nice here. Calm and comfortable with just about everything nearby. East Independence Blvd. in Southeastern Charlotte has a LOT of shopping/restaurants.
I wouldn't recommend living north of Charlotte if your DH plans to be working anywhere middle to south of the city. Traffic is bad everywhere during rush hour but it's absolutely horrible on 77. My DH works in South Charlotte and before we moved here, stayed with family north of the city near Mooresville. His commute was over an hour! Now it takes 20 mins.
I've heard great things about Pineville and Ballantyne but whenever I go somewhere in Ballantyne, I see $$$. Mercedes, BMW and Porsche surrounding me and some of the moms in that area look like they belong on an episode of Real Housewives of Charlotte, complete with bolt-ons and botox. I'm sure that's not representative of everyone there, but that's been my exposure thus far. It's better than the alternative, I suppose, which you will find pretty easily in many areas of Charlotte. Both Pineville (southwest Charlotte) and Matthews (southeast Charlotte) seem to be a happy medium.
BTW: You'll have to check out the shopping at Blakeney Village from spring through fall. There are lots of great stores/eateries and they have bands play on Friday and Saturday nights. It's a great time for the whole family. It was one of the first things we did when we moved here from New England and it made us totally fall in love with NC!
GOOD LUCK!
I live in the Mallard Creek/Univ City area but if/when we move, I want to live in Sedgefield or closer to Myers Park and Dilworth. I'd consider Plaza Midwood as well, there are some gorgeous older homes in those areas.
I spend alot of time off of East Blvd or near South Park in my free time, and in NoDa.
If I can't live there, we are going to move up north to Huntersville/Cornelius/Davidson. I love Davidson, such a cute town.
H works in Concord and I work off Harris Blvd, so our current place is perfect for us. We plan to move in about 2 years.
Yay for an MM nestie in Charlotte!
We're looking to move out of Concord and into the University area (Mallard Creek like OP). Both of our jobs are in CLT and while I like Concord, we're wanting to move for personal reasons. I disagree though w/ living north of the city and traffic... traffic is going to be traffic anywhere. I've done rush hour both north and south of the city and honestly, there aren't any differences. There are lots of cars, lots of morons, and some accidents. It happens.
If I had a choice and could afford it, I'd go to Myers Park.
Just to give an update:
DH was offered a job and is starting on Jan. 31st. We really had to scramble to make arrangements since we don't even live in NC but we found something and signed a 9-month lease. At least we can get to know the area and move if we like something better. Thanks for the input!