- [Briggs] Thinking about moving to North Carolina
wanna call the tar hill state home?
Today, I'm gonna give you 10 things you should know about
before you make that move or even start thinking about it.
North Carolina is a great Southern state with mountains
great cities and 300 miles of amazing Atlantic coastline.
They're known for having great food, drink and people.
In the last 20 years, North Carolina has gained
a lot of popularity.
Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham and Asheville
kinda leading the charge in their popularity.
And that's where most of the people are moving to.
What you're gonna get
in this video is things you should know
before you make that move.
Both good and bad things.
At the end of the video, leave me a comment.
Let me know if anything stuck out
to you that might make you change your mind
about North Carolina
or if you're from the tar heel state,
let me know if I missed any
or there's anything you'd like to add to it.
Got it, get it, good.
Let's take a look.
Number 10, the transplants.
North Carolina has sort of turned
into a tech job hotspot area.
This has led to a steady stream
of out of state millennials showing up
in the tar hill state looking for better opportunities.
And it's not just like in Charlotte.
Most of their bigger cities have started attracting
tech companies and tech workers in recent years.
They're doing much better
than a lot of other states in this department.
If you're in this situation,
there's a couple reasons you should choose North Carolina
over some of these other states.
Number one, the locals aren't too upset about it.
I mean, I'm sure you're gonna find
some that have an ax to grind
with people moving to their state.
There's always that 10%, but what I've seen
from North Carolinas, they're not like that.
This is the south.
Being nice and decent to people is kind of in their blood.
The second thing is buying a house.
If you're coming from someplace
like New York, D.C., California,
the prices in North Carolina
even in their big cities is relatively low compared
to a lot of other states.
Are they the cheapest?
No.
Are they almost half priced of California
New York and Washington D.C.
Absolutely they are.
Number nine,
the healthcare.
If you're in poor health
or maybe a little bit older
and have some issues you may need help with,
this is one of the best states to choose.
Also, if you work in healthcare
North Carolina is a great state.
They have many great hospitals and facilities,
but two of their main ones
are Duke University Hospital in Durham.
It's considered one of the highest performing facilities
in the nation providing nine different procedures
and is nationally ranked
in 10 pediatric specialties and various adult specialties.
Then you have the University of North Carolina
in Chapel hill.
That's ranked number two in the state
and it provides pretty much the same stuff.
Just not as many pediatric or adult specialties.
Yeah, so if you're retired in poor health
there's a lot worse states you could move to.
Number eight, a reasonable cost of living.
North Carolina is not that expensive,
especially when you consider
it's a very attractive state to move to.
I mean, it's got coastlines, it's got beautiful mountains
beautiful land, thriving cities.
It's a good place to live and it's still not
terribly expensive.
Like I said in the last video,
I could give you all the numbers.
You know, how much the average energy bill is.
And it's just all over the map and things are changing
rapidly right now because of the economy we're in currently.
So I'm not gonna get all into it, but I'll tell you this.
They are ranked 12th or 14th
depending on how you look at it,
when it comes to cost of living.
Different organizations have
different ranking systems.
But compared to the average, let's say a $100,
in North Carolina to buy a $100 worth of stuff,
it costs you $90.60 cents.
That's very much a broad brush way of looking at it,
but just know that the cost of living
in North Carolina is a lot cheaper
than most states.
When it comes to long term fiscal stability,
the state itself is ranked fifth in the nation.
If you wanna live in a cheaper state than North Carolina,
you gotta move to places like Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama.
Georgia is a little bit cheaper.
Nebraska, Ohio and Arkansas are a little bit cheaper.
Everyone else is right
around the same thing or a lot more expensive.
Number seven, public transportation sucks.
Now we just talked about this one in Arizona.
Arizona's very much a car type state.
North Carolina's pretty close to the same thing.
Outside of their major Metro areas,
and normally it's just downtown,
their public transportation offerings are very limited.
And Charlotte's their best city
when it comes to public transportation.
If you look at the 25 major metro areas
in the United States and rank them
by their public transportation, Charlotte is 24th.
So you're gonna need a car just
about any place you move to in North Carolina.
For some of you, that's great, that's not a big deal.
Some people don't wanna use public transportation.
If you're one of those people that rely
on public transportation
don't expect much from North Carolina.
Number six, Fayetteville sucks.
Yeah, there's no getting around it.
Fayetteville just blows.
It's a horrible place to live.
Horrible place to visit.
Fayetteville has a crime rate that is 87%
above the national average
and their violent crime rate is 152%
above the national average.
The median household income in Fayetteville is $43,882.
That was at the end of 2021.
That was the average.
That's 21% lower than the national average.
The good news is they got a pretty low cost of living
and their median home value is 31% lower
than the national average.
Fayetteville is right outside the main gate of Fort Bragg
North Carolina, which yeah, been there too many times.
If you do wanna move to a metro area
in North Carolina, avoid Fayetteville.
Number five
plenty of golf courses and other sporting events.
North Carolina is a very sports orientated state.
A lot of these people lose their fricking mind
over college basketball here too.
And on top of that,
they got the Carolina Panthers and the NFL.
They got the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL.
They got the Charlotte Hornets and the NBA.
I don't follow the NBA, but it seems
like every time I turn around, some team has left the city.
So the Hornets could be gone in a year
or two for all I know.
I mean the current Charlotte Hornets started in 2014.
Now there was a Charlotte Hornets there
before from 1988 to 2002.
And then they moved like New Orleans and Oklahoma City.
At one point they were the Bobcats too, weird.
But back to golf
it is really hard to drive for like 20 minutes
without passing a golf course in North Carolina.
If you are big into golf, you'll be able to play year round.
If you're a retiree, this is big.
I mean, everyone likes golf.
Well, I shouldn't say everyone.
Most people like golf
and it seems to be something very popular when you retire.
And if that's your thing, North Carolina's
not a bad choice.
Beautiful and they got a lot of golf courses.
Number four, the weather.
North Carolina's a Southern state.
So you should expect some really hot humid summers.
I've been in the South far too much and they get rough.
They say you get acclimated to it or used to this weather.
I never did.
I normally stand around in the summer in the shade
having day dreams about AC and losing weight.
Now the mountain areas get some snow
like most mountain areas do in this country.
And the lower part of the state will get very little snow
with the occasional big snowstorm that comes through.
In January of 2014, they got hit really bad, but most years
unless you're moving to the mountains
you can forget about shoveling snow
or putting your snow tires on or chains.
You might as well sell that stuff
and use the proceeds to buy shorts and tank tops.
You'll need those every single year.
Maybe some Weight Watchers food.
You're not gonna need that extra insulation
most years here.
The good news is the weather before
and after summer is pretty mild,
until hurricane season hits, then it can get bad.
They've had some pretty bad hurricanes over the years.
I mean, Florida gets way worse than other states do.
But North Carolina has been hit pretty hard
with some serious hurricanes over the years,
hurricane Florence in September of 2018
Hurricane Floyd in September of 1999,
Hurricane Fran in 1996, Hurricane Donna in 1960,
all these things happen in September.
So plan your vacation around the early
to mid part of September.
And you might be able to Dodge a bullet there.
But if you ask anyone from North Carolina,
they'll tell you that the best season
in North Carolina is spring, maybe fall.
Winter gets a little crazy
and summer's just a little too hot.
Number three taxes.
North Carolina has a little bit higher taxes
than other states.
They're not the worst, but they're up there.
North Carolina is actually ranked
as the 19th most taxed state in the United States.
On average state and municipal taxes will cost you
about 9.8% of your yearly income.
North Carolina also has a good size sales tax.
Their combined rate is 6.97%.
The state tax rate is 4.75%.
Then the average local tax is 2.22%.
The good news is prescription medicine, groceries
and gasoline are all tax exempt in North Carolina.
Number two, not a great state to be an employee.
Every year, Oxfam does a study
where they rank all the states
best to worse for American workers.
And once again, North Carolina came in dead last.
The study kind of shows where they rank
for different categories.
The first one is wages.
What's their wage score.
They came in second from the bottom
on that one only being beat by South Carolina.
The next thing is the worker protection score
where they tied for the bottom of the barrel with Georgia.
And again, tying Georgia
for dead last with right to organize.
Basically what that says is they don't have
laws protecting union organization, things like that.
And they're ranked 12th when it comes
to worker safety.
That one's from another study
not the Oxfam one, but yeah,
the absolute worst places to be a worker when it comes
to worker safety is Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida
Arkansas and Alabama.
In those states, you could remove asbestos
with like a Halloween mask.
Alright, before we get to number one,
don't forget we have another channel called On This Day.
There's a link down below.
And don't forget to give this video big thumbs up.
Let me know what you thought
about the list in the comment section below.
Alright on to number one.
And number one, outdoors.
North Carolina has some
of the best outdoor activities you could do.
We talked about golf earlier, different festivals,
music festivals, drinking festivals.
Whatever you wanna do it's gonna be outdoors
along with hiking.
You got the outer banks, the ocean, the coastline.
It is amazing to be outdoors
in North Carolina most of the year.
And when you're outdoors,
most of the time in North Carolina, it includes a barbecue.
North Carolina is one
of the best states when it comes to barbecue.
I would say they're definitely in the top four.
The Appalachian mountains make
up a majority of North Carolina's territory.
And this gives you hundreds of miles
of hiking trails, mountain biking, horseback riding,
all the good stuff to do outdoors here.
North Carolina is a great state to get pictures
for your Instagram.
Probably one of the top five in that category too.
Honestly think North Carolina is often overlooked
in a lot of different categories.
I don't think people see it
as good of a state that it actually is.
What do you think about North Carolina?
Are you from there?
Have you visited?
What are your thoughts on North Carolina?
I'd love to hear it in the comment section below.
Alright, everyone.
That's today's video.
Have a great day.
Be nice to each other.