Raleigh North Carolina vs Florida Living! What You Should Know!

Raleigh North Carolina vs Florida Living! What You Should Know!

  Are you like me and you thought moving to Florida would be like living in paradise? Where there's constant sunshine and perfect weather and easy living and endless beach days? Living life like every day's a vacation? Then you move there, reality sunk in, and you realize This is totally not true. Now you're looking to relocate and maybe you're considering Raleigh, North Carolina.

Today we're going to be talking about some of the comparisons between Raleigh, North Carolina to Florida and why so many Floridians are leaving. For those of you that don't know me, I love Florida and I have family and many friends who live in Florida. And yes, I even vacationed in Florida. And I absolutely love Cuban food.

So it definitely has a special place in my

Hey y'all, welcome to the channel or welcome back. I'm Brandy Nemergut, a local real estate agent right here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Your connection to all things real estate and all things Raleigh. If you haven't already subscribed to the channel yet, please click the button below and tap that little bell and you'll be notified every time we drop a new video.

Not only do I love making these videos to help y'all. I also love to help you with your real estate needs. So if you're looking to relocate to the Raleigh area or anywhere surrounding the Raleigh area, And looking to purchase a home, we would love to help. All you have to do is reach out to me. My number's right here on the screen.

Whether you want to give me a call, shoot me a text or send me an email. We would love to chat. Okay. Before we jump right on in, I just want to give y'all a quick disclosure. Now the things that I'm going to talk about today will be a combination of information from my clients. maybe to the internet, or even some of my friends and family who currently live there.

Again, I personally live here in Raleigh, North Carolina. So take everything that I'm going to say with a grain of salt. And if you have other information about Florida that you'd love to share with me, please drop it in the comments below. I would love to see it. So many people are making the move out of Florida and you might be wondering why.

In recent years, Florida has had a relatively strong economy and many people from other states have poured in, attracted to the lower taxes. And while Florida may have no state income tax, which can be appealing. It doesn't always translate into a lower cost of living. In fact, some areas have higher property taxes along with insurance costs and living expenses that can offset the tax savings.

In recent years, Floridians are facing challenges from rising auto insurance costs to many homeowners experiencing their home insurance policy premium skyrocketing and even being canceled. And many insurance companies are now requiring flood insurance. even if they aren't in a flood zone. And this has led many Floridians searching out other states, including, you guessed it, North Carolina.

Here in the Raleigh area, although we do have occasional tornado or hurricane warnings, we really haven't had any major issues in comparison to Florida. Typically we do experience rain, some wind, sometimes even some power outages, but we really don't have flooding here in this area. So the insurance policy coverage is a lot less expensive in this area.

Now I will say in the last six years that we've lived here, our home insurance premiums have increased slightly year over year, but not enough to make us flinch. And comparing our prices to those of our friends and family, and some of our clients that are coming from out of the area, Especially Florida, our insurance rates are still much lower.

And when it comes to food expenses, my husband frequently travels to Florida and he's always telling me just how expensive it is to eat out. For example, he can order a breakfast bagel. And he says it cost him 20. And even going to the gold arches is more expensive than here in North Carolina. And my parents also live in Florida and are always talking about how much more expensive food in general is there.

Another big difference here in North Carolina versus Florida It's going to be the culture. Now again, this will vary depending on the location, but just generally speaking, Florida is known for its diverse population with a large Hispanic and Latino influence. As well as a strong Caribbean and Cuban presence.

Florida has some great Cuban food and music. I love Versailles. They have some amazing guayaba bars and empanadas. And Florida also seems to have such fun and lively flair and music. Always filling the air. As well as a really nice vibrant nightlife. My husband says every time he gets there, he always feels like dancing.

Now, in comparison, in North Carolina, we have a rich Appalachian and African American culture with a strong emphasis on bluegrass music, traditional crafts, and southern comfort foods. Here in the South, we love our beer, our bourbon, our barbecue, sweet tea, biscuits, and shrimp and grits. Here in the South, you'll definitely get a good sense of what Southern hospitality is all about.

People here are just warm and welcoming. It's really easy to make friends here and don't be surprised if you even get invited to a neighbor's barbecue. People in the South are just downright sweet. Maybe just as sweet as our sweet tea. And let me tell y'all, that's pretty darn sweet. I will say that's one thing I never get tired of here is how nice everybody is.

Now, when it comes to schools, I've heard very different things. Some people think the schools in Florida are great, while others think they're terrible. And interestingly enough, that's exactly what you're going to find here as well. depending on who you talk to. Now, personally speaking, it depends on the area that you're in and that also goes for Raleigh.

North Carolina as a whole is ranked 32nd out of the country for best public schools, while Florida is 9th according to wallet hub. com. So technically on paper, the schools in Florida are better. However, if we take a closer look at the details of each school in the regions, you're gonna find a completely different picture.

Now, in North Carolina and the surrounding towns, say Cary, Apex, Holly Springs and even Chapel Hill, specifically have some pretty high rated schools. In fact, they're coming out on the top of the charts for the entire state of North Carolina. So that means the higher concentration of better schools are going to be around the Raleigh Chapel Hill area.

Now, if we break that down from a state level to a local level, our area here has six counties ranking as the top best school districts in the Raleigh area. One of the challenges we do have here in Raleigh is that some of the schools can be cacked. So if you are zoned for a particular school district, it does not necessarily mean you can get your kids in right away.

It may take a year or two to get them into that school. Now, in addition to that, you're probably going to find some of the schools that are dense smack in the middle of Raleigh aren't as highly rated, nor are the ones to the east or south of Raleigh. Slightly to the north. Northwest is where you're going to find the highest concentration of highly ranked schools.

And more to a school than just a score that you see online. So definitely do your homework before you move and buy a phone. And if you'd like more information on schoolings to research yourself, feel free to reach out to me and I can definitely help. When it comes to population, this one really surprises me.

Especially when you're looking at population density and how many people are moving to the area. Starting with Florida, there's about 417 people per square mile holistically. Now when you consider some specific areas like Miami, which is going to be more highly populated, higher density area, but for the entire state per square mile of 417 people.

Now here's the insane part to me. Per day, can you guess how many people move to Florida? Nope, not even close. There's 1, 218 people moving to Florida every single day. Woo! How do you like those oranges? Now in comparison, North Carolina has about 220 people per square mile. For a population that's half the actual population density of Florida and only around 257 people per day moving to North Carolina versus 1, 218 people moving to Florida.

Now when you consider Florida already has a higher population density and still has around six times the amount of people moving there, that's huge. Now from July 2021 to July 2022, we saw a big influx of people who relocated to North Carolina, which was one of the largest in the nation with the exception of two states.

Can you guess what states those were? The first one was Texas and the other, you guessed it, it was Florida. Now locally here in Raleigh, we're seeing about 70 people per day coming into the area. And the Charlotte area is around 100 people per day. The good news here, we still have plenty of space to grow.

And when you compare the traffic, you'll find we pale in comparison and have a pretty easy flow on our highways and we don't have all those tons of toll roads to pay for driving everywhere. When it comes to housing, if you live in Florida, there's still low inventory there with low days on the market and homes are still selling for record high prices.

So if you own a home and plan to sell, that's definitely good news for you. Now coming to North Carolina, You'll find things have definitely changed in our market with property values skyrocketing in the past few years. We may have slightly higher inventory here along with days on market with the home selling at or around list price.

Now, depending on the area, prime locations and communities within the triangle areas are still experiencing multiple offers and over asking prices. Due to the low inventory, we've also seen an increase of four to 6 percent in the actual market value or sales prices over the last year, depending upon where you are in the Raleigh market.

And while our local market is stable, it has shifted overall to a buyer's market. And we are seeing more negotiations being made and sellers even giving concessions to go towards closing costs or rate buy downs. Along with new construction builders offering more incentives, anything from blinds to fridges, washers, dryers, we're even seeing anywhere from 10, or 30, 000 in closing costs and rate buy downs if you use their preferred lenders.

So if you're looking to relocate from Florida to Raleigh, North Carolina, there are definitely some good home opportunities here. Now an interesting fact, not all HOAs are created equal. You can love them or hate them, but one thing that I found interesting in some parts of Florida, homeowner associations require every member that's going to live in the home to apply to the HOA.

Then they'll actually review the financials, do a background check to make sure you're not a offender list, which I do think that's definitely a good thing that we can all appreciate. But the biggest thing is even though you're buying a home, you still have to apply to the HOA. And you might not even get approved.

That part definitely seems crazy to me. When I had a client ask me all these HOA questions and say they didn't want an HOA, I was like, what do you mean I do not understand? But once she explained to me where she was moving from and what the situation was, I got it. Here in North Carolina, in the Raleigh area, we do not have that HOA process.

If a home is in an HOA community, you are part of that HOA, period. There's no special applications, no special background checks, no financial checks. Once you buy the home, you're in. So if that's something you're coming from in Florida, no worries. Our process here is pretty straightforward and simple.

When it comes to jobs, there are growing job sectors in Florida. Especially in certain sections like tourism and hospitality. While in North Carolina and the Raleigh area in particular continues to attract major players in the banking, health, education, and tech worlds with many high paying jobs. We have our top rated colleges here, like Duke, NC State, UNC Chapel Hill, and more.

Along with a lot of top companies housed in the Research Triangle Park, Also known as the RTP. which houses over 365 companies and employs over 65, 000 people on a 7, 000 acre space. It houses companies like IBM, SAS, Cisco, Lenovo, Apple, and more. Now when it comes to weather, I think it's to say, there are some major differences between North Carolina and Florida.

First of all, For everyone who thinks summers are hot in the south, they definitely haven't been to Florida. Because, personally, I think it's hot as 80s there. When I'm there, I feel like my makeup is just melting off. Now, when my sister got married, in the middle of summer, in Florida, I remember we had to make a mad dash into the chapel, and we were praying our curls and our hair stayed in and didn't go straight.

And also that our makeup wouldn't melt off our faces. And I'm the one that easily turns red. And I was like, please don't let me, let me be a hot mess. Now, even in the winters, I think it could be hot and humid there. And as we say in the South, bless y'all's heart. Now don't get too excited because you're not going to get away from the humidity moving to North Carolina.

But since we aren't surrounded by all that water that Florida has, we do have less bugs here in Raleigh. And I have yet to see an alligator here, which for me, it's just fine. Another good thing about Raleigh is we experience four seasons here. So while we do have hot and humid summers, They only last a couple of months with temperatures averaging around 80s to 90s.

And we also get to experience beautiful springs minus the three week pollen, which is when your allergies are going to go absolutely crazy. And our fall weather feels amazing. There's beautiful color changing leaves. Personally, I think it's like a Hallmark movie and we do get a lot of rain here. On average, we get about 47 inches.

Now, in comparison to Florida, y'all are at 54 inches and our winters, they're pretty mild. Our temperatures range anywhere from 30 to 50 degrees on average, but there is a running joke here that you can experience all four seasons in one week or even a day. Now we really don't get much snow within the Raleigh area.

On average, we have about one to two chances of getting snow. And personally speaking, in the last six years that we've lived here, it's only snowed two times that it actually stopped. Now a few things that stand out to a lot of my clients as to why Raleigh might be a better choice than where they currently are right now is the fact that we don't get hit by hurricanes and floods and tornadoes like Floridians do.

If you're looking for a happy medium when it comes to weather, this might be the place for you. If you found this information helpful, please click the like button below so others like you can find this information as well. And if you're considering relocating to the Raleigh area or anywhere surrounding the Raleigh area and looking to purchase a home, we would love to help.

All you have to do is reach out to us. My number is right here on the screen. Whether you want to give me a call, shoot me a text, or send me an email, we would love to chat. Till next time, we'll see y'all later.