north carolina housing questions

[ncbound]

i know this isn’t a relo forum, but i’ve noticed many posts from out of san diego…

i’m bound for north carolina. my wife is an exec with BofA and she’s accepted a transfer to charlotte. I can work anywhere.

does anyone here know about schools and neighborhoods there? we have been to the southern districts, to piper glen and surroundings, but are not impressed by the mcmansions in country clubs. what about more established but good neighborhoods.

thanks for any help!

[DCRogers]

I have a sister who lives there, and the locals talk up an area called Myers Park… older homes, nearer to downtown. That said, there’s a lot of newer high-end development going on, also, which is likely where the newer money is going.

As for downtown, if you visit, make sure you take a ride on the world’s slowest and most useless trolley car. Since they didn’t have the road crossing guards installed at the time, at every stop, a person had to run off the trolley and block off the street, wait for the trolley to pass, stop, wait for them to jump back on, then it roared off at 5mph to the next corner. Good aerobic exercise for someone, I guess…

[Cow_tipping]

I live in Charlotte and work and BofA.
The McMansions in the south are BS. Ballantyne and Pineville. Total bogus over priced and over built.
I would rather buy 5 acres of land in SC and build myself a modular or a steel framed house over that.
I am partial to Lincoln county, and I also like cabarrus county, and I really like the university area. There is a decent Hovninian development off eastfield road and prosperity church. Let me see if I can dig up a link. Here.

http://khov.com/Home/NC/AC1/_Properties_AUTH.htm?Region=NCCHRL&Brand=KHV&Search_Type=Communities&State=NC&PerPage=25

In charlotte Beazer just earned themselves a bad rap. Centex in spite of my complaints are good and have been JDpowered to #1 5 years running.
A 3000 sqft house with a 2 car gar will cost you 200K brand new, and ~10% less if its under 5 years old. Pay any more than that and you risk losing a lot more if it crashes.
The Myers park and old charlotte area have good schools, but have recently been exposed for kicking out bad students and calling them transfered to improve their results.
Centex has some good priced developments too (McIntyre, larkhaven, etc) basically 200K for a tract built 3000 sqft, or 300K for your own design on your own 2 acre property in the county. Primo Land costs under 40,000 an acre.
If you want more detail ask, I like charlotte but I think that south area is primed for a crash, and uptown condo’s have already had lots of walk out’s as per the word on the street.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.

[Anonymous]

Beware if you hear dueling banjos playing. Never admit that you live in SoCal.

[ncbound]

juice……………………….
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forgive me, i don’t get the southern allusion there. Could you explain, please?

[ncbound]

thanks for the cow-tips! ……………
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the ballantyne/southern area seem to have excellent schools. so those tract homes may have been bought up by professionals who care about education…
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i dont think we would fit into SC, at least from first and second impressions, due to nemerous cultural reasons.
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i would love to have acreage with room for horses etc – my kids would flip at the thought – but can we get this is NC, around charlotte, with good schools to boot?
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when you say the university area – that seems quite large. is this the davidson area? no da? i have kids – so a primary objective is safety and a good education.
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why do you think the southern area are crash-sensitive? is it just because they are newly built, or is there some other reason? my quick forays have revealed that other areas you suggest, like myers park are more expensive, with people abandoning public schools for the private kind. am i wrong?
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i cannot live uptown and condos of any type are out – we have kids and a bevy of animals. its a house for us, for sure.
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ideally, i’d love to build my own architectural home. do they have areas that have modern customs(as opposed to tract housing)? i’m sure there are building codes aplenty.
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i see a lot of open land – charlotte seems sprawling – but i dont see too much open space set aside, preserved and managed for public use. do you think charlotte is headed the way of LA, untrammelled growth with nary a thought for open shared space?
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when i visited, i was surprised by the lack of public transit. maybe it was just the weekend, yes?

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thanks so much for the help!

[CostaMesa]

Nary a thought, indeed.

I agree with the advice – don’t let out that you’re from California, whatever you do. Don’t speak like a ‘yankee’ and don’t criticize ANYTHING.

A lot of people there don’t take kindly to ferriners – that’s anyone who isn’t southern, btw.

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

Dont worry about where your going to live, just find out who has the best biscuits, and red-eye gravy.

Thank You.
SpyBoy

[Cow_tipping]

NC is pretty friendly to people from CA and to forigners. I am both. They may not like yank’s … but dunno. Never been one.
Now to answer your questions from the top.
1. NC schools are bad. Ballantyne (providence high) and myers park cooked their books to make themselves 1 and 2 is the recent murmur. professionals may ahve bought there, but the informal survey I did, seems to point to the fact that they bought for “appreciation”. Here is the kicker, The area in the north side, near the new 485 is going the same way now. Long story, but I think the over 400K for tract built is BS. 400K is your custom log home on 5 acres territory in NC.
2. No idea about you and SC. But they have strict rules sorta anti Home schooling. Anyway …
3. Acreage and horses. Try lincoln county. Allentate.com and seatch for lots and land in lincoln county (area 14) I know every inch of that place, stay in east lincoln, preferably in the 73/16 corridor.
4. University area is the area north of Harris blvd, between I77 and NC27. Davidson while a beautiful town isn’t quite included, neither is huntersville. Parts of cabarrus county is though.
5. Southern area has recently run up in $$. In 2 years they went from 250K average to 450K, and they all sold very very fast, with houses getting put up express speed. Now its happening in the north. I’d say 3000 sqft for 350K is BS in Charlotte. 200K is a stretch.
6. Screw condos. This aint New York.
7. Custom home builders. I know a plenty. Modular or stick built ??? any preference. Both can be beautiful, I’d say if you want 1 story, do modular, 2 story site built.
8. Definetly, we are trampling the entire environment, and worse, we’re not building roads either. They will grant permits to build 3000 houses, 15 miles up a 1 lane road, no problem. heck they did it in weddington. And not just 3000, more like 15,000. Commute from hell.
9. Nope, we dont have public transhit. South side (ballantyne) is getting a light rail, been happening for 5 years, and 1 year after its done, the LR will come to Huntersville and gastonia. Why ??? the railway lines are already there in that part. And this is why they are getting a light rail. So that other people can use it and they can drive on the empty 485 and 77. Its for other people to use. Get it. Yea.

In your position – I’d do lincoln county all the way, but just for giggles, rent somehting in Ballantyne. You’d get a 500,000 house for 2,000 a month (OK fine, bubble hasn’t hit charlotte. Next year I think) We need serious 12% interest rates, cos it was a small bubble.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.

[Anonymous]

What are your thoughts on the Concord Historic area? Is it considered a desireable town? Are homes overpriced?

[Cow_tipping]

Most places outside of the south of charlotte aren’t overpriced IMHO. Ballantyne and weddington is the only region I’d say is over blown as a sorta rule. However D/T concord is very very hispanic and light industrial in nature. My mechanic, welder, as well as several other shops are there. Great place to get your car fixed for next to nothing, but I’d not neccesarily live there. Commute from there to charlotte isn’t too bad yet though. I’d pick say harrisburg over concord, but then again, I dont like old houses, the lead paint and asbestos are bad for my son. Land is nice, but you can get land a 100 ways around here.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.

[SD Realtor]

Cow_tipping –

My client who moved to NC said the people were very friendly to him and he is a socal.

SD Realtor

[DCRogers]

Not completely on your topic, but this was an interesting article on the rise of foreclosures in the starter-home market in Charlotte:

http://www.charlotte.com/523/story/58198.html

Great interactive maps also:

http://enterprise.star-telegram.com/ARCIms/Maps/clt/FC300.asp

http://enterprise.star-telegram.com/ARCIms/Maps/clt/sc_2.asp

[Cow_tipping]

SDR: Right, they like CA and in fact they like total foreigners. Maybe true northerners they may hate. But no idea.
DCR: Isn’t that insane. Charlotte never had a bubble but looks like one is popping. Thanks to beazer in part. But get this though, I was looking for foreclosures a few years ago, 02-03 in fact. And I must ahve seen 50 of them, if not in person, on paper/GIS etc. And 1 of those was worth making an offer on just based on 1 fact. It wasn’t under power lines. I dunno, maybe 20% of developments are under power lines … but 90% of foreclosures are under power lines. Now in 2003 I went to 13 beazer developments. Except 3 all were under power lines. Somehow builders can build and sell under power lines, and no one that buys one is able to. These beazer ones that have been named are all under power lines.
Now here is what people haven’t realised. If you start seeing this in the entry level market, guess what, its going to kill the move up, and eventually kill the entire market. They like to point and laugh and say we live in this 400K shea Piece of crap, we are above that. we’ll never get affected. BS.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.

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