College and university towns are increasingly popular places to relocate or retire to and that’s particularly true if you’re thinking of moving to North Carolina.
North Carolina has over 60 four-year public and private universities and 58 two-year community colleges in communities ranging from major cities to small towns in rural areas.
In fact, when we talk about North Carolina college and universtiy towns, we usually are describing either one of two things. A town where the local college or university is the town’s main center of economic and social activity, like Boone, NC or a much larger urban area not dependent economically or socially on a college or university but home to a major public or private institution, for instance Charlotte, NC.
Whether young or old, new student, young family or retiree looking to relocate, college or university living in North Carolina may be just the thing for you.
Among the many reasons people list for looking at retiring or relocating to a college or university town is that these towns have a younger population and there is vibrancy to the local social and economic scene.
College and university towns also tend to have cheaper housing options than most other places. Moreover, college and university towns have populations that are much better educated and since these schools draw people from all over the region and nation, the communities are much more cosmopolitan.
This often means younger families can expect strong commitments to education and local schools, but also that you’re liable to find community with people just like yourselves who’ve made the move to North Carolina.
And let’s not forget culture and entertainment opportunities second to none. Check out a campus museum or art gallery, attend an orchestra concert or enjoy a popular national or local touring band. North Carolina is known for its competitive collegiate sports, especially basketball, and you can’t help but get caught up in NCAA basketball when the UNC Tar Heels and Duke Blue Devils go head to head for local bragging rights.
Another popular feature of many North Carolina college and university towns is continuing educational opportunities especially for retirees. The North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement (NCCCR) at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke University are particularly popular continuing education programs.
Another thing not often recognized about college and university towns is that they are fantastic places to either start a new business or a new career. This is especially true in North Carolina where several major universities and the graduates they produce sowed the seeds for a booming tech industry in the Raleigh /Durham/ Chapel Hill area. Known as the Research Triangle, entrepreneurial businessmen and major corporations have flocked to North Carolina over the last couple decades to take advantage of high quality college graduates and local institutions.
If you’re looking for a job or simply looking for new challenges, college and university towns in North Carolina are great places to get your foot in the door with some very dynamic companies.
Also if you have money to invest, college and university towns are great places to buy and rent real estate given the transient nature of their student populations.
Be sure to read more about the 5 Best College Towns in North Carolina.
About the Author
Bob Bencivenga is a professional site locator and location anyalyst for major corporations and been researching the growth of NC and SC to find those areas which are affordable. Visit his blog and signup free to get blog updates by email, along with free advice on how to relocate or retire in the Carolinas, additional resources, and a lot more! Go now to www.placesofvalue.com. Bob does not sell real estate.
Can I reprint your article or blog posts?
What’s so great about Asheville, NC?
- Top Ten Best Metro Places for business and careers
- Best Southern Town
- Number One place to live in 2007
- Top 20 Best Places to retire
- One of National Geographic’s ten great adventure towns
- One of the Top 15 Best Places to reinvent your life
What do these accolades all have in common? They’re all referring to Asheville, North Carolina, one of my best places to retire and relocate in North Carolina.
And one of my favorite places for my own retirement!
Obviously Asheville, NC contains a lot of wonderful features that over the last few years has made it one of the number one places to retire or relocate to in North Carolina, and the southeastern United States.
For me, one of the Most Important things to look for in any area you are considering to relocate or retire to must be the area's interest to preserve the character and lifestyle of the area, while allowing for "planned" growth!
Asheville has that quality.
Let’s look at what people really like about Asheville.
Location, location, and location.
Asheville’s location near the convergence of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains gives it many advantages over other places in the southeast. First of all, as our North Carolina Mountains Climate page notes, Asheville enjoys a pleasantly moderate climate particularly of interest to those hoping to avoid more hot and muggy climates. In fact, people have been vacationing in Asheville, NC since the late 1700’s for that very same reason.
Needless to say, if enjoying the outdoors is your thing, then the breathtaking mountain vistas and intricately beautiful natural environment provide tons of outdoor recreation activities, especially hiking, rafting, and fishing.
If you choose to get away for the weekend, Asheville is located near a number of state and interstate highways, including the Blue Ridge Parkway, and is also the home to a busy regional airport.
Then there’s the town itself.
Asheville, NC’s downtown is truly a unique, some would say, classic place to be. If you walk around the heart of downtown Asheville, NC from cafes to art galleries to music clubs, you’ll notice a cosmopolitan atmosphere that seems at odds with your typical North Carolina Mountain town. Asheville is not only a center for culture and the arts in the southeast, but it contains a lot of history as seen in the fact that it has one of the largest historical districts in the National register. And if you enjoy classic architecture, next to Miami, Asheville, NC has the largest number of art deco style buildings in the southeast. And where else in the country can you hop in the car and visit the largest privately owned home in the US, the Biltmore Estate.
Asheville, NC also sports a vibrant and diversified business, educational and housing environment. From high tech firms to major healthcare service centers down to the funkiest little shops downtown, Asheville has a variety of business and career opportunities for everyone.
Solid public and private schools and a commitment to education as seen in the number of local colleges and universities, particularly the UNC Asheville campus, definitely are a major draw.
While the real estate market is a little pricier than the rest of the state, it is in line with other cities of similar size in the southeast and includes numerous rental, buying, and retirement opportunities. Furthermore, the number of smaller local towns surrounding Asheville, NC, like Black Mountain, Waynesville, and Hendersonvile, which are some of our best places to live in North Carolina, make finding affordable housing even easier.
Asheville, North Carolina offers a high quality of life, glorious weather, ample business and career opportunities, tolerance of diverse types of people and lifestyles, an exciting, stimulating environment, a historical setting, and breathtaking natural surroundings.
I should have our video of Asheville in our Video Library this month.
Check back for it!
About the Author
Bob Bencivenga is a professional site locator and location anyalyst for major corporations and been researching the growth of NC and SC to find those areas which are affordable. Visit his blog and signup free to get blog updates by email, along with free advice on how to relocate or retire in the Carolinas, additional resources, and a lot more! Go now to www.placesofvalue.com. Bob does not sell real estate.
A couple of weeks ago, I was describing how Greenville, South Carolina’s solid business and real estate climate make it a best place to retire or relocate to in South Carolina. Clean streets, beautiful downtown, diverse neighborhoods, vibrant businesses, both large and small, and plenty of employment opportunities are all well and good, but what other things does Greenville, South Carolina have to offer?
Well, if you’re looking for plenty of culture, entertainment, recreation and a host of other things that contribute to your quality of life, then Greenville, South Carolina has it in spades.
Whenever I visit Greenville, I am struck by all of the places to go to see the arts and live entertainment. Right downtown is the 16,000 seat Bi-Lo Center that hosts everything from concerts to professional hockey and arena football. If the symphony, ballet or theater is more your cup of tea then just five or six blocks away is the Peace Center for the Performing Arts.
The nearby Greenville County Art Museum has a nationally recognized collection and the Bob Jones Art Gallery and Museum has one of the strongest religious art collections in the country.
If you aren’t interested in being cooped up inside then throughout the year, Greenville has outdoor jazz concerts and Moonlight Movies at the Peace Center outdoor amphitheater.
And if you love the outdoors, did you know Greenville has over 450 acres of city parks and recreational facilities? Playgrounds, bike and jogging trails, tennis courts, ball fields, shuffleboard courts and just about anything you’d want. Furthermore, plenty of golf courses surround the city and if you want to get further out there are abundant hiking and camping opportunities in the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains. Go boating on Lake Keeowee, fly fishing in nearby streams or if you’re really adventurous check out the whitewater rafting on the nearby Chattooga River.
Greenville SC offers plenty to nourish the mind and spirit as well. People with young families will be happy to know Greenville has an award-winning public school system and the largest public school district in South Carolina.
This includes the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, the Roper Mountain Science Center, and a number of magnet schools with specialized curriculums. Not to be outdone, Greenville also boasts over 65 private schools many of which are also highly accredited.
For those looking to exercise their continuing education legs then you’re close to a number of local colleges and universities including Bob Jones University, Clemson, Furman, and the Greenville Technical College and The University Center of Greenville, a consortium of seven state colleges and universities, offers over 600 classes and 76 different degree programs. You don’t have to sit in a classroom to learn, so you may want to check out Greenville’s top-notch public library system.
If you’re serious about relocating or retiring to one of the best places to live in South Carolina, I know you’ll enjoy all the wonderful quality of life enhancing features of Greenville, South Carolina.
About the Author
Bob Bencivenga is a professional site locator and location anyalyst for major corporations and been researching the growth of NC and SC to find those areas which are affordable. Visit his blog and signup free to get blog updates by email, along with free advice on how to relocate or retire in the Carolinas, additional resources, and a lot more! Go now to www.placesofvalue.com. Bob does not sell real estate.
While once a place where only the wealthier citizens of Charleston kept summer homes, Mount Pleasant has grown considerably over the years to become the fifth largest municipality in South Carolina. In fact, over the last fifteen to twenty years Mount Pleasant has been one of the fastest growing towns in South Carolina during which time its population has doubled to almost 65,000 people.
Mount Pleasant is an increasingly popular tourist destination as well for relocation and retirement. Boasting beautiful natural settings, a number of historical landmarks and access to local beaches and islands, Mount Pleasant offers a host of activities with low country charm to spare.
An expansive beach front and numerous outdoor facilities offer a variety of activities including golfing, tennis, boating, deep-sea fishing and nature tourism. Furthermore Mount Pleasant is situated very close to popular beach destinations and offers quick access to Sullivan’s Island and the Isle of Palm. If local history and culture are of interest then Mount Pleasant is home to the Boone Hall Plantation and Charles Pinckney National Historic site as well the Patriot Point Naval and Maritime Museum, home of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.
When I pulled into Greenville on my recent trip, I couldn't believe my eyes!
The very first thing I saw right in the middle of the City were lush green parks and waterfalls… right smack downtown! Clean, well maintained, and beautiful.
It was an incredible site!
It's clearly evident Greenville is paying attention to creating a place that's attractive to visitors, retirees, and people considering relocating to the Carolinas.
The City was clean and vibrant. From the brick pavers in the streets, to the quaint small shops, busy restaurants, and cultural events.
What I really liked was the availability of a wide variety of residential properties right downtown. There's new construction taking place, which is a good sign especially in this economy, and Marriott is building a beautifully designed, mixed use, complex downtown.
An indication someone is watching the store in Greenville is evidenced by the fact that Marriott is developing a building in keeping with the human scale of the area! They weren't allowed to come in and build a 50' tower in the middle of the City.
Hats off to the Greenville planners!
Greenville's location substantiates my feeling it has a promising future. It's part of the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson growth corridor along Interstate 85 from Charlotte to Atlanta, in the southwest part of South Carolina.
Spartanburg and Anderson are two smaller cities also trying to create an atmosphere to encourage visitors, and attract people wanting to relocate or retire to the Carolinas, and are just east of Greenville. The proximity of these three cities to each other creates an opportunity for future growth.
And don't forget Clemson is also located in this area…home of the reknown Clemson University!
Greenville has a population of 60,000 in the City, and 400,000 in the County. Spartanburg has a population of 40,000 in the City, with 260,000 in the County. Anderson has a population of 25,000 in the City, and 170,000 in the County.
And what about jobs? Entrepreneur magazine named the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson area as the 8th best mid-sized area for small business. Greenville was ranked #22 in Forbes, "Best Cities for Jobs in 2008". At last count, there were 80 international firms representing 18 countries, in this area!
Greenville is a small city with big appeal in many different ways, and a bright future!
If you're serious about relocating or retiring to a place in the Carolinas that offers value, affordability, and a quality lifestyle, you must visit Greenville, South Carolina.
