Anyone on here live in or around the Wilmington area?

My wife wants me to consider relocating to the area...her brother lives there and she loves it when she goes to visit (been going there since she was a little kid i guess). Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make the trip yet.

What are the people like? Laid back? Friendly? Hillbilly-ish? Most importantly, do things evolve there...haha.

We live in Pittsburgh right now and nothing ever changes...its really weird, hard to explain. It's like living among the dead though. Always gray and raining. Just a depressing city overall.

What's the job market like down there? I can continue my consulting business, do some photography on the side, but she will need something steady.

I've been looking at real estate...and it looks like you get much more house for the dollar down there, compared to here. I am down for the move if its a somewhat progressive place to live.

Any comments are welcome. Thanks guys.

It's a very progressive city. As far as film and TV goes, Wilmington has been dubbed the "Hollywood of the East." Two things that come to mind that have been filmed there are "Dawson's Creek" and "The Crow" with Brandon Lee. An assload of other things....just don't know anymore right off the top of my head. I don't follow that stuff too much.

Hill-billy-ish? Um....not in the least, really. You'll have your rednecks, as you do in Pittsburgh, but Wilmington is a city awash in new media and technology and the culture, as well as that which surrounds the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, is representative of that. Now, you can run into some interesting people by heading inland a few miles....the area between Wilmington and the Raleigh-Durham/Research Triangle Park area is still a rather agrigarion culture....farming and the like.

Perhaps other NC members will chime in and offer their impressions of the Wilmington area, but I say that a move there would be a very good, colorful change of pace in relation to the gray-ness as you described Pittsburgh. Plus the Xterra club in the area is pretty cool.

I have lived in the Raleigh area for about 12 years now. Origionally from Allentown, PA. I know what you mean about how things never change up there. I was just in A'town over the weekend and seems like change is very, very slow up there. And to think the yankee's call southerners slow. I honestly think there's more redneck's up north than in the south. I think you would really like the Wilmington area. It's very nice. You have a little bit of everything, from the historical area's to the newly devoloped area's. I believe Brad covered most of what I know about the area as well. If ya decide to move down hook up with us and we'll do our best to show ya around.

I live in the Raleigh area as well. I love Wilmington. The best way I could discribe it is, "Wilmington is a small town with all the comforts of a big town". The beaches down there are awesome. The people are great. There is lots to do and see.

One movie Brad didn't mention that was made in Wilmington is "Maximum Overdrive".. GREAT MOVIE!!

I would seriously consider moving down there myself.

Good Luck, and please let us know what you decide.

Thanks guys...

RedX:
Yea, we have hillbillies here. Its a weird mix tho. I think the Pittsburgh "yinzer" accent is the worst accent i have ever heard in my life. It just sounds so unintelligent. I have nothing against hillbillies...but when i went to visit my sis in SC...whoa....haha...although the southern girl charm was quite nice.

rednec:
exactly. every one i know (and their parents and friends etc) is doing the same thing they did 10 years ago. no progression. pittsburgh has the second highest population of old people next to ft. lauderdale (i believe). thats why things dont evolve here, well that and the steel town mentality. i have friends that are in their mid 30's that have never left the state!!! never seen an ocean in person. their idea of a trip is to go to lake erie. ugh. wtf is up with that.

Ollie :
MO? The one where the trucks and machines come to life? that movie is awesome..haha

they film a lot of movies here as well. i think an average of 2-4 per year. jean claude van damnit yelled at me and my friends for making fun of him while they were filming that stupid movie where he has to save the civic arena from blowing up. another day we were skating to one of our spots and saw two guys fighting on top of a bridge, we were like holy crap..what the hell. found out it was the inspector gadget project, haha. the giant claw should have given it away film crew was no where to be seen. i guess they were behind the supports or something.

well, hopefully we can make the trip down soon to check it out. she just got back from there a week ago. i am super busy with work and we leave for kona, hi in august so i am not sure when we can make it down. with any luck we'll just stay in kona...haha

thanks again...