charlotte neighborhoods

[brookescott88]

hello!
we are a homeschooling family considering a relocation to charlotte.
my husband would be working in enderly park area. we would like to rent a home for under $1000 and would like to keep to one car. if we lived nearish he could bicycle we are thinking. is this feasible? we are used to cold weather so whatever your winter in wouldn't be too much!

are there better neighborhoods for homeschooling?

tia!
brooke

[WuWei]

There are 19,000 homeschoolers in the Charlotte region. However, I'm not familiar with the Enderly Park area. From the location on the map, it isn't, how shall I say it, a likely area for homeschooling families, imo. The more urban areas are much more likely to be densely populated and schooling traditionally in public institutions.


We are in south Charlotte and there are hundreds of homeschoolers. The philosophies of homeschooling families range from fundamental Christian to unschooling. More toward the former than the latter. Charlotte is not a very bike-friendly town, I would guess, as it is so spread apart. There are pockets of urban walking neighborhoods. But, they are extraordinarily expensive, and smaller, older areas.

That said, we LOVE Charlotte and have been here since 1987 and hope to live here forever. There are many homeschool support resources around the region and tons of social outings, events, activities, etc. Many businesses cater to the large homeschool population with discounted offers. Charlotte has a huge community of homeschoolers.

Plus we are three hours to the beach or to the mountains. And we have arts, sports, entertainment, education, international airport, etc.

HTH, Pat

[brookescott88]

thanks!

that is all very helpful.
i have a friend in cary nc and she said about the same thing.

best,
brooke

[Yaliina]

Not to steal your thread, but I was just about to post the same thread- "what are good neighborhoods in Charlotte?" DH has an interview this week (pray/send vibes, please), and if it goes well, he'd start in late March. I'll have to stay here (in Hampton, VA) until our house sells, and to keep from screwing my coworkers.

I'm starting to look now so we have an idea of what DH's commute will be, how much house we can get without increasing our mortgage, and of course, what areas will be conducive to pleasant community living, homeschooling, and some shopping options. We need to know as much about the move as we can so DH can negotiate more effectively if they extend an offer. You know- how much do we need to get a nice house, pay for gas, etc.

The firm is located smack dab in the middle of uptown Charlotte, so it looks like we could pretty much live anywhere (N,S,E, or W) and commute about the same- anybody know any different (like one road sucks during rush hour, etc)? So I've heard a lot of good things about South Charlotte, but my parents live in Greensboro, which is northeast, so there would be some perks to that side if it's nice to live. We want to keep DH's commute to as short as possible- less than 30 minutes would be great. I want names of areas to plug into real estate websites, as well as some "crunchy mom" info would be GREAT!! Oh, and our price range is around $200k- we're going to try to keep it as low as possible, since I'll be quitting my job to stay home.

TIA!

[WuWei]

I-485 allows you to get to I-85 easily from anywhere to go to Greensboro. So, I wouldn't worry about that. Dh's commute would be the biggest issue, in that price range. A thirty minute commute is about minimum going into town with traffic, I'd guess. Probably more like 40 minutes, from a subdivision.

If that seems unreasonable, there are areas closer in town, but it will be much harder to know about the surrounding neighborhood safety, etc. There is a site- not sure this is it, but it has neighborhood safety data: http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/nc/charlotte/crime/ There are others like it, if you search. You can find pockets of older (50+ year old houses) neighborhoods, closer in. But, it is a bit trickier.

Newer construction (within past 10 years), Indian Trail (SE) or University area (NE) are affordable, safer and decent commute (40 minutes into town).

We have a local holistic moms group: http://xploringholisticalternatives.ning.com/
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group...cAlternatives/

You all are welcome to join and ask there also. You could post neighborhoods you find and we could say yay or nay, perhaps? It is probably easiest, (sorta not, with kids...) to rent and search for what *feels* best to you. Charlotte is huge and each area has a personality. Some could like one area, another could hate the same area.

If you want close access to a lot of homeschoolers, the southeast is the most active. But, there are tons of events all over the city! I'd say one car would be very limiting to a homeschooler, unless near the Light rail line, on the west side of town. Which is not the safest area of the city, generally, unless you are farther out from the light rail, lol.

We love southeast Charlotte. We are in Weddington, Union Co, with much lower taxes.


Pat

[Yaliina]

Thanks, WuWei!! That is very helpful info. The one car thing won't be an issue for us- we have two. So are decent houses (not huge- like 2k sq' or so, less than 20 years old) really far above the $200k range? We thought Charlotte would be much cheaper than where we live for housing, but it's sounding like that might not be the case. We were hoping to be able to use the profit from the sale of our house to pay off a credit card and still put a down payment on a house and keep the same mortgage ($1300 or so). But I'm pretty sure taxes are cheaper in NC than in VA, so maybe that will make a big enough difference?

Ugh!! Thanks again. I did sign up for that holistic group. But I fell asleep last night before checking it out. I'll look at it when we get back from visiting my sister this afternoon.

[WuWei]

Check Allentate.com and CarolinaHome.com. You can select different housing parameters and it will show you what is available currently. There will be a dynamic supply of homes and there are many options at the moment!


Pat

[Veritas Vitae]