TallFlyer

West side of Lake Norman is where I would look, but I'm also inclined towards water activities generally. If you don't mind a 90 min drive and want a more rural feel I agree that there are a lot of different opportunities. If you open that up to your current 2.5 hours there's even more than that, to include some decent mountain towns with skiing close by.

Ok, well the east coast concept of skating on skiis down manufacutured snow that's 100 ft wide.....

AirBear

Keep in mind NC has a 5% flat rate state income tax vs. zero for TX. Property taxes aren't that bad although I haven't had much to compare them with. My house in the Southwest corner of Charlotte/Mecklenburg county is tax appraisded at $433K and property tax is $3300. That's for a 33 year old 2648sq ft home sitting on .82 acres. That size lot is very rare this close into the city. It's 20-30 minute drive to the CLT employee lot. There is a personal property tax for vehicles, boats, and airplanes. My 2019 and 2021 cars run about $600/year

As others have said when you move out into the 60-90 minute driving range that opens up almost countless possibilites. I would get on a website like Zillow.com and use the map feature that shows estimated home values and start checking out various areas. Decide it you want to be closer to the mountains or the beach. From inside Charlotte it's about 3-4 hours for either.

Tattooedaviator

Thanks for all of the input, guys! I appreciate it! Is South Carolina worth considering as an option?

Name User

SC has a higher income tax rate but lower property taxes, and I don't think they tax personal property there. Inside Mecklenburg the property tax rate is quite high (CLT area) but outside it can be reasonable. SC income tax rate is around 6.5%, where as NC will be slowly dropping to 4% over the next few years. 2.5% delta on $400k (CA pay) is an extra $10k a year in income taxes between NC and SC. My wife works too, we paid almost 40k in NC income tax alone.

SC over near Greenville however has some really nice areas and lakes. Western SC is very pretty (look up lake jocassee) but central SC is...not great (my family owns farmland in central SC).

With no kids in school consider a condo in Dallas and just buy a "summer home" in Charlotte area. Keep residence in Dallas. Best of both worlds IMO.

Winter in NC sucks IMO (it can be cold) but spring/summer/fall it's great. A few weeks during peak summer it does get hot and sticky but in general it cools off at night (unlike Dallas).

v22guy

Opinions on west of Norman vs East of I-85 towards the Stanfield/Mt Pleasant/Rockwell area vs stateline by Crowders and Kings Mountain? Wife and I are eyeballing land to build on and those areas are where we can afford. Anything between 77 and 85 is too much.

FlyyGuyy

Not exactly where you're looking, but clover is very nice.
We have been there about 8 years. Text me about 35-40 minutes to the parking lot. Plenty of land available to build.

R57 relay

Take a look at traffic on the west side of Lake Norman. It's getting bad as the apartments and subdivsions are proliferating in Denver/Sherrills Ford.

TallFlyer

Maybe...... but all things being equal I'd take Hwy 16 over 77 any day of the week and twice on weekdays.

Pilot X

why do you want us to text you?

AFTrainerGuy

I would have agreed until the toll road opened. Sure it’s expensive, but I only use it once a week and now consider it just another bill. Commute is back to 30 min instead of 90 with traffic. Best $20 I spend going to/from work.