Cost of Living in Raleigh

To add to the last statement Rick made below about locals not liking outsiders, that's anywhere! The great California migration has turned quiet little hidden "gem of a city" type places into overpopulated "Anywhere, USA" type cities. No longer anything special. Traffic is starting to get worse, more housing developments are going up and driving down older property values, jobs are becoming fewer and more competitive, making it harder for grad students or entry level employees to find stable gainful employment. Rent increases, supply and demand for natural resources increases, thus increasing monthly rates. Supply and demand for gasoline and groceries goes up, thus do the prices. The need for big box and chain stores increases, putting long standing family owned shops and stores out of business. Pollution increases. Sometimes bad elements come along with these new transplants and crime rates increase. Things start to change all around, and most people don't do well with change. It's not like us Californian's are widely known for our charm, kindness, hospitality, and generosity. To the rest of the USA, we're all a bunch of self-absorbed, inconsiderate, rude, pushy, demanding Hollywood/Silicon Valley/Consumerist types looking to consume everyone else's slice of heaven, chew it up, spit it out, and leave things worse than when we came. We're a plague to places that don't live a fast paced lifestyle, a threat to their peace and serenity of the calm and mellowed down way of life. Little do they know outside of TV and social media, there's A LOT of us who are not like that and we don't all come from cities and hectic or privileged lifestyles. Some of us do live in the country, are God fearing, hard working, loving, charitable, live in tight-nit rural communities, and aren't at all Hollywood or Techy, rich snobs looking to gentrify their hometowns into the next uber vegan mecca. We just want to live in a better place away from all the vanity, the materialism, the narcissism, and the disproportionate wage to cost ratio that has nearly every resident living just above, at, or below state poverty levels. We're not all a-holes looking to trash your town or run everyone out of it. We just can't live in our crappy state anymore. It's always on fire and we have no water. Might as well accept it now, because eventually CA is going to become uninhabitable and we're ALL gonna have to migrate someplace eastward.

I've lived in various parts of the metro area for 20 years now. Work brought me. I keep having to move farther out to afford housing, and have to drive everywhere, because busing is great inside the city, but not to the connecting towns. West side is most expensive b/c of RTP. Some sections welcome immigrants, others do not. Some areas are really racist period, and others are not. Cost of living keeps going up because it is growing so quickly and trying to attract people from areas with a higher cost of living. Many small businesses also haven't thrived in the last decade because of the housing bust. The bit about property taxes on pets and such...nonsense, but yes, cars, boats, and other big vehicles are definitely taxed once a year. The school system is insane if you want to make choices instead of staying at your base schools. Childcare is expensive! Pay doesn't always keep up with inflation. Healthcare keeps going up at an astonishing rate, which might have to do with all of the med schools in the area. It's a sprawl outside of downtown itself, and the city keeps eating up more of the county each year. Strangely though, after living in rural and suburban areas in several states growing up, I still like this area despite all of its challenges. And yes, the prices are pretty accurate.

Raleigh not so good, like it was in 2012-17. Joe, if you have good job everything will be great, otherwise you will fight with hordes of cheap labor(students, latinos, asians) for really small job pool and salaries. Prices goes up 35-40% in last few years, but salaries no.

Raleigh is a big-big village, locals really ignorant liers, and silently blame immigrants or newcomers. I'm immigrant from Germany with CS degree and 2 years experience in web development field. No job if you don't have local certificate or experience. Great Raleigh area mostly with low salaries and surviving life style for people. Raleigh maybe good for pensioners. I had also survived after one year been there (computer sales assistant with salary $12-15/h) and move to Chicago where I feel much better now.