Cary, North Carolina is a Great Place to Live

I moved down to the Raleigh area of NC based on a lot of good things I read on the Internet about the area. My intention was to move down south because I felt people would be nicer there and I felt the cost and quality of living would be better. I'm originally from South Carolina and went to a small hippie, artsy liberal arts college in NY. After college; I kept trying to find that environment of kindness and love and friendship that I'd had in college; but it was nowhere to be found in DC or the other places I looked.

I have to admit I made my decision to go back down south after watching and truly enjoying the "Friday Night Lights," TV series. The way people dealt with one another with kindness and respect just drew me in and the southern hospitality just oozed off the screen. I realized then that the reason college had effected me so much was that--though I moved to the DC area when I was--I was raised by southern parents and a southern family. And the kindness that I'd mistakenly thought only came in a hippie type environment had actually been just the kindness I'd remembered from childhood and had gotten from my own family members and their friends from SC.

So I looked around online for the best southern places to live. I did a lot of looking in Texas because I really enjoyed watching old reruns of "Dallas," on SoapNet a year or two back. But, Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin were a very far drive away and I'd have had to stay in hotels along the way which would've been expensive as well. So I decided to pick a southern destination on the East Coast. I decided on Raleigh over Nashville and Virginia Beach.

Now when I first came down here; I had to stay in Cary, NC which is like a suburb of Raleigh because that's where I got the cheapest hotel rate. I really enjoyed it. People from here jokingly call Cary the Central-Area-for-Relocated-Yankees. And, to some extent I think it's kind of true. While making friends; going in stores and running many of my daily errands; many of the people I've met here in Cary are from somewhere else. DC, MD, VA, MA, NY, NJ and on and on. In fact I'd say about 40% so far. And I'd say 35% moved down here from up north for the same reasons I did (southern hospitality, cost of living, quality of living.)

Now Cary is a little bit more expensive then Raleigh; but I've found it to be much friendlier then Raleigh. So far Raleigh to me seems too much like a city. Like it seems to be going in the direction of the places I left. Though I must admit that I still have a lot more of Raleigh to explore; I have found much of the same coldness and disinterest I've found in many cities and have put exploring it on the back burner thus far. So at this point I actually prefer Cary over the place I intended to come to.

As far as the quality of living go; I would say that in Cary, the people are generally nice; cordial and community oriented. You will go to a store and find people that are outgoing and friendly as well. The area is very clean and very nice and it's as if the recession missed it. There are tons of stores and well kept nice middle and upper middle class houses all around. It really is just a nice place to live. I'm not sure if this is exactly where I'm going to stay. But, if you're looking for a nice place to live and raise your kids. I would highly recommend Cary, NC. Heck, I might still be here when you get here.