North Carolina in the News
The national press has leaked the secret: the North Carolina Triangle is an amazing place to live.
The Mile High Swinging Bridge at Grandfather Mountain
Sitting right between beautiful beaches to the east and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west, the Triangle has always had ready access to some of the best parts of life in the tarheel state. Add to the lifestyle advantages brought about by business developments in recent decades, and the region rivals the country's urban centers, without the big city price tag.
The Raleigh/Durham area took second place in this year's US News & World Report list of the best places to live in the United States. The report notes that plans by the likes of Apple and Google for major corporate campuses, as well as longstanding strongholds of academic excellence, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Duke University, make for an enticing job market. In 2019, 52,300 people from other countries moved to North Carolina, according to the Carolina Population Center at UNC. The growing international community drawn in by the enticing job market, makes for a diverse, educated population that drives demand for cultural outlets that can hold their own on the national level.
The American Tobacco Campus in Durham
Not one to be scooped, The New York Times recently ran an article on how to spend a weekend in the third point on the Triangle, Chapel Hill, or the Southern Part of Heaven, as locals like to remind people the town is known. Chapel Hill combines small town southern charm with serious history and cultural relevance. The campus of the country's oldest public university - UNC Chapel Hill - blends seamlessly into the town, bringing with it that unique collegiate mix of intellectual headiness and gritty social discourse. As the Times notes, Mildred "Mama" Dip may have been the perfect symbol of that mash-up. The matriarch of the Chapel Hill restaurant institution, Mama Dip's, who passed away in 2018, was as well known for her chicken and biscuits as she was for her correspondence with the Obamas.
What's the effect of all this good press on the real estate landscape? Throw in a pandemic and mass exodus from the nation's cities and it's a seller's market. But the good news for buyers left duking it out for the most desirable properties is that you get what you pay for living in the Triangle, and then some.