4 ms·

I moved from the bay area to Charlotte NC this year, and it's fantastic. A big brand new apartment in a walkable area downtown is $1200. I'm making the same sal

I moved from the bay area to Charlotte NC this year, and it's fantastic. A big brand new apartment in a walkable area downtown is $1200. I'm making the same salary and brand new houses can be had for $300k in a nice neighborhood. It's the number 2 banking capital in the US after New York, so there's endless growth potential for someone interested in fintech. We're on the same line of latitude as San Francisco so there's plenty of sun and the winters are extremely mild with little to no snow. I really can't think of any reason other than chasing FAANG positions why anyone would stay in the bay at this point.

scarmig 7y ago
See, that's the type of thing that's intriguing! And it seems like it should be possible to capture in the statistics (at least so that Charlotte appears above Jacksonville), but it seems like this report is more about advertising for Emsi to try to make potential clients (municipal governments in currently unpopular places to live) feel like there's hope if they just hire the company to consult with them.
sudosteph 7y ago
Charlotte is my hometown. I actually considered moving back after 5 years in Seattle doing the FAANG thing, but it's not really comparable to other big cities in some ways. It's still a great place for the right type of person, but I wouldn't have been happy there. I ended up taking my remote job with a Seattle-salary to Raleigh instead, and am really digging it. The main issues I had with Charlotte are: - The banker culture downtown is too formal - The live music scene is in a bad spot (the gentrification of the southend area + NoDa killed off the best venues) - Calling any neighborhood "Walkable" is kind of a stretch. It would be hard to live in Charlotte without a car. Even downtown is littered with huge blocks of parking lots. It really kind of terrible to walk down those blocks in the summer due to the heat and lack of shade. But it's still a pretty solid place with lots of opportunity, even if it's not everyone's scene. Also, the light rail has been a great addition to the city and the walkability issue around rail stations is definitely improving.
- BoorishBears 7y ago
  I moved to Durham last year, which outsiders consider to be part of Raleigh-Durham (despite them being separated by almost 2hrs of traffic at peaks). I hate the Triangle and am already leaving. A particularly nasty type of sprawl here, out of control real-estate market, serious crime problems, no proper "downtown" where you can live and walk to everything you need, hours away from mountains or beaches. The crime is what really angers me, maybe Raleigh is better off, but both Durham and Charlotte manage to be less safe than the worst parts of most cities, which is incredible to me considering just how many people seem to be selling the area as great for families and "settling down". I actually considered Charlotte for having more of a "downtown", but decided to leave the South. The weather is marginally better than where I came the Northeast, the heat is worse and I feel more oppressive. And sure my tax burden is reduced... but so is my salary. There's tons of traffic in both places, but in CT a lot of my daily traffic was to one of the most incredible cities in the world, and here it's traffic between multiple clusters of suburban sprawl caused by underinvestment in infrastructure. The culture outside the triangle is lukewarm at best, I'm black and enjoy visiting the mountains, but the number of confederate flags seems to have a very strong correlation to the elevation I'm at... I don't know, maybe I'm just salty I fell for the hype, but I really see no redeeming value for coming to this part of the country.
  - selimthegrim 7y ago
    Did you give NOLA a second look? You might be surprised these days...
    - non-entity 7y ago
      Doesnt NOLA have an insanely high crime rate itself?
      - selimthegrim 7y ago
        See his remarks about cultural richness.
  - 7y ago

scarmig 7y ago

See, that's the type of thing that's intriguing! And it seems like it should be possible to capture in the statistics (at least so that Charlotte appears above Jacksonville), but it seems like this report is more about advertising for Emsi to try to make potential clients (municipal governments in currently unpopular places to live) feel like there's hope if they just hire the company to consult with them.

sudosteph 7y ago

Charlotte is my hometown. I actually considered moving back after 5 years in Seattle doing the FAANG thing, but it's not really comparable to other big cities in some ways. It's still a great place for the right type of person, but I wouldn't have been happy there. I ended up taking my remote job with a Seattle-salary to Raleigh instead, and am really digging it. The main issues I had with Charlotte are: - The banker culture downtown is too formal - The live music scene is in a bad spot (the gentrification of the southend area + NoDa killed off the best venues) - Calling any neighborhood "Walkable" is kind of a stretch. It would be hard to live in Charlotte without a car. Even downtown is littered with huge blocks of parking lots. It really kind of terrible to walk down those blocks in the summer due to the heat and lack of shade. But it's still a pretty solid place with lots of opportunity, even if it's not everyone's scene. Also, the light rail has been a great addition to the city and the walkability issue around rail stations is definitely improving.

BoorishBears 7y ago
I moved to Durham last year, which outsiders consider to be part of Raleigh-Durham (despite them being separated by almost 2hrs of traffic at peaks). I hate the Triangle and am already leaving. A particularly nasty type of sprawl here, out of control real-estate market, serious crime problems, no proper "downtown" where you can live and walk to everything you need, hours away from mountains or beaches. The crime is what really angers me, maybe Raleigh is better off, but both Durham and Charlotte manage to be less safe than the worst parts of most cities, which is incredible to me considering just how many people seem to be selling the area as great for families and "settling down". I actually considered Charlotte for having more of a "downtown", but decided to leave the South. The weather is marginally better than where I came the Northeast, the heat is worse and I feel more oppressive. And sure my tax burden is reduced... but so is my salary. There's tons of traffic in both places, but in CT a lot of my daily traffic was to one of the most incredible cities in the world, and here it's traffic between multiple clusters of suburban sprawl caused by underinvestment in infrastructure. The culture outside the triangle is lukewarm at best, I'm black and enjoy visiting the mountains, but the number of confederate flags seems to have a very strong correlation to the elevation I'm at... I don't know, maybe I'm just salty I fell for the hype, but I really see no redeeming value for coming to this part of the country.
- selimthegrim 7y ago
  Did you give NOLA a second look? You might be surprised these days...
  - non-entity 7y ago
    Doesnt NOLA have an insanely high crime rate itself?
    - selimthegrim 7y ago
      See his remarks about cultural richness.
- 7y ago