Well, it depends on what you’re looking for (I actually just moved from NC but LOVE it and MISS it all the time)... if you have an online type job and can live ANYwhere, consider cost of living, your lifestyle (liberal or conservative, hippie, intellectual bookworm, etc)... one thing that is almost universally true is that it’s hard to get around NC without a CAR… keep that in mind. Charlotte is so so and Chapel Hill, too, because of the colleges, and Amtrak is good for flitting around the state, but really, I would never want to live in Charlotte (industrial, the least friendly, most crime-ridden, also the only somewhat icky/filthy place with distinctly terrible neighborhoods in NC-yeah, we have POOR neighborhoods here and there, but some places in CLT are a bit ROUGH, like Atlanta, and racism is a bit more hostile… like ATL, too, whereas the rest of the Piedmont is the hub of the International Truth and Reconciliation Movement!)

The main spots to consider are kind of grouped by region…

Mountains: Asheville is our hippie city, organic, local arts thriving, inviting, obviously great if you love to hike, to swim in rivers, that kind of thing, but not a great choice if you dislike winter weather-they get a fair amount… Boone is even MORE winter weather filled and smaller, more conservative, ski resort abundant…

Piedmont Triad area: Greensboro is also very art-centered, a mix of liberal and conservative, a place you “never meet a stranger” unless the person isn’t a local… easy to quickly dive in and get involved in anything from volunteering to nature groups… you can show up at a random party, know no one, and leave with friends… feels like a small town (esp. compared to Atlanta), but the area of Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point (with all the little towns between the 3 “hubs” is just over a million in population. Greensboro definitely has the most “night life” of the triad and also has great live music (ie Eastern Music Festival, good bands coming in even though people seem pretty unaware)... also, as is true with Winston Salem, some amazing food to be had. I loved it, and THE PIEDMONT FARMER’S MARKET WOW WOW is awesome. HUGE and you NEVER need to get produce from anywhere else, honestly, though EARTH FARE in Greensboro is also a phenomenal store-Whole Foods quality, cheaper than Harris Teeter prices.

Winston Salem itself… smaller culturally and population wise than Greensboro, GREAT hospital (Wake Forest), Old Salem, the best tea shop in America (Angelina’s) for buying every tea under the sun, a great effort to transform downtown from the old tobacco town into the new art and coffee zone… my docs were there, so I was there from time to time since I had to have monthly followups for some pretty severe injuries… Places like Midtown and River Birch restaurants (those 2 are partnered, Midtown for the best sweet potato pancakes known to man and River Birch for the best duck ever cooked!) make it a must-go-to from time to time. I love Old Salem, too… captured history, remains as was in Colonial America times…

High Point… getting towards the small town feel, good place to live with family or to lessen your cost if you don’t need to commute far… living near the Farmer’s Market itself is a good decision for getting THE best food (if you can imagine a Super Wal Mart Parking Lot totally filled with fresh picked berries, beans, squash, tomatoes 8 months of the year, local apples, peaches, the works… that’s what it is… then a permanent open 364 days a year building that keeps a steady supply of quality, mostly inexpensive goods during the few cold months when nothing is growing locally. Also the place to go for THE BEST honey-Honeybee Harvest-and milk-Maple View Farms-in the state!) High Point is literally, with 2/3 of the world’s total furniture production and a 2xs/year showroom buyer’s marketplace of 12 milllllion square feet of current-season furnishings, the furniture capital of the world. It’s in its 100th year :) High point will feel VERY small if you’re coming from Atlanta-could be good or bad, all things depending on you.

Now onto the TRIANGLE… Raleigh (state capital with NCSU), Durham (Duke University home), Chapel Hill (my fave of the 3 culturally and oldest of them-home of UNC)... small towns like Morrisville, Apex, Carrboro, and others make it more financially livable, but it’s by far the most costly place with the highest % of renters (not just students, mind you-career folk too)... Still, some consider that well worth it to be near things like sports (huuuge competition in this ACC hub!), night life (more intense than the Piedmont), and events aplenty (esp. at the universities). I absolutely loved going to Chapel Hill growing up and still love it, though Seattle ended up trumping Chapel Hill for the long run of where to live-mostly a matter of mass transit being standard here instead of “one of the options.”

The beach… Wilmington is the main city, and the rest are pretty darn small… in the sandhills, mind you, there’s a military base @ Fayetteville (Fort Bragg) but much of the between land is farms farms and more farms (nothing to complain about-food is great in NC)... and much of the northern beach areas are either federally protected because of the unique species of plants and animals alike that are endangered (as is most of our mountain territory!) or not so great for building a house on. Wilmington itself is a bit of a party city because of UNCW and its other college(s). I personally like SC’s Myrtle Beach (north for relaxing, south for activities) a bit more than Wilmington or Wrightsville Beach, partly because they are a bit cleaner-you know what college students are capable of, especially with a high fraternity presence! It’s still small, though, and I’m not familiar enough with it to make commentary other than knowing my friends who have lived there for any number of years-2 to 20-have preferred other spots for long term life. Why 20 years, then? Work, of course.

I think that’s about as extensive an answer as I can muster… hopefully you’ll get an idea of the lay of the land I called home most of my 30 years-even just looking at the map and thinking “hippie land here… art hub here… sports central here… party hardy here… farm lands here, here, here, and here and… here, too… oh, those are the outer banks, kind of not so livable if I want groceries and such… alright!” :) No offense meant to Charlotte… it’s trying very hard, and its downtown is beautiful, but its downtown is also filthy rich and the poor are displaced a lot-something I prided Greensboro in refusing to allow! Same with Asheboro, just south of GSO, the home of the NC Zoo, which happens to be the largest natural habitat one, some 500+ developed acres and another 500 in development… I appreciate animals not being caged, though, for our amusement or “educational purposes,” so hey, to each his own.

definitely the triangle area, especially raleigh/cary… fast growing, lots of events, cultural resources, jobs, couple hours from the beach, sports…

the triad would be my second choice… if you go there make sure you stop into lexington and try authentic lexington-style barbecue

Raleigh is an excellent place to live. I lived there for 17 years and loved it. Greensboro is also great. I lived there for 4 years and miss it dearly. Asheville is gorgeous if you like the mountains and Wilmington is also great if you like the beach. There are lots of choices!

I’m with Nallukka: depends. If you are a beach/ocean person, you have the barrier islands and Willimington, you can go for the mountains and places like Ashville, you can go “big” city like Charlotte, or college town like Raleigh-Durham. NC definetily has a gammet of different lifestyles it can accomodate.

Ez answer. Lexington is best place in NC. Your half way between anything you want, be it the mountains, beach, Tenn, SC, or VA.
And the best BBQ in the world.

Definetly NOT the FAYETTEVILLE/SPRINGLAKE area. My fiance was stationed at FT.Bragg. This is one of the yuckiest places Ive EVER lived! And I have lived just about everywhere! lol