Wilmington NC/please help
 

I really want to move to Wilmington NC. I have never been, but I am hoping to make it my next stop. Its close to water/beach and is hopefully a big enough city/area to be able to receive nursing care for my daughter.I have a speacial needs child and where we live is a very small town that does not have the resourses for home health nursing. I have looked through all sorts of articles and web sites....the big question is .....Is there work there? I work in a Liquor store now....so I'am not looking to be a Doctor or lawyer. I have heard that the pay is allot less down there. I just need to try and find out if I think I could make it financially. This is where I need your help!

Thanks in advance
cancuntam

I considered moving to Wilmington a couple of years ago. Although I decided on a different town, Wilmington is a nice place, with a lot to offer. I'd be surprised if you couldn't find work there. You didn't say where you would be moving from, but the cost of living might be less depending on where you are coming from.

I love southeastern North Carolina and plan to move there someday myself. Wilmington has experienced tremendous growth in the last twenty years and actually has pretty severe suburban sprawl in places. The area between Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach is especially high in traffic and sprawl. Housing is pretty cheap in the Wilmington area if you're not on the beach itself but wages are not high if you are not a business owner. Actually, I am considering opening or buying a Wilmington area business sometime in the future and would like to find out more about Wilmington's economy myself.

cancuntam, Home Healthcare is extremely expensive. Can you pay for that on a minimum wage salary? Forgive me if I'm assuming but from your post, it doesn't sound like you are seeking a professional occupation. Not that there is anything wrong with minimum wage.

Wages are not very high but neither is the cost of living. I would not move before I had a job.

You'll find many jobs are seasonal and revolve around the tourist season which is Memorial Day to Labor Day.

My suggestion would be to take a full time job with benefits and to waitress as many nights a week as you can during the season to sock away money. You can waitress at an all you can eat seafood buffet from 5-10PM and bring home $150+ dollars a night. These jobs only make money June, July, and August so let it be your backup.

Forgive me everyone, I am a newbe(?) I have never got onto a web site and talked back and forth. I am very happy that people have responded. Let me give you a little more info. First off I live in Maryland, about a hour south of Washington D.C. My daughter who is 20yrs old is On SSI which is some form of disability/Supplemental Security Income. That automatically gives her Maryland Medicare health insurance...which pays 100%. She is Mentally and Physically handicapped. So that is what I was going to pay for the nursing care with... Assuming that North Carolina has somewhat of the same program. A 2 bedroom apartment here where I live is over a thousand dollars a month. I really want to move...the research I have done is that Wilmington has allot to offer in the medical field....hopefully home shift nursing care as well. I am in need of "Shift Nursing", down here they offer nurses to come in your home and do procedures but not to stay for 8 hour shifts. I have taken care of my daughter on my own...and my family... for 20 years. I am tired and need to live a little. I love the ocean it's soothing to me, I love the pretty flowers, and laid back people. I will only be about 7 hours from my family who reside here in Maryland. I just want the balls to do it. If all works out just think of the future my daughter and I could have together! So with all that babbling the most important thing is what do they start out pay wise? Even at a Walmart. (Do they have Walmarts down there?) I would scrub toilets, shovel horse poop, do just about anything for a better shot at life!!
anyway thanks for the information/feedback thus far.
cancuntam

You might want to get a three month subscription from the Wilmington Star-News to get a feel for Wilmington and its vicinity. Rents. Home prices. Neighborhoods. Jobs and wages. Actually, you might be able to rent a small home off-beach but near enough to be able to walk to the beach. Most of the Wilmington area beaches are pretty liberal in beach access.

Thank's Shane! I have tried to look at the classifieds on that paper...but really it has not gone to well. When I switch to look at jobs...it feeds me into job search, job finders etc..... So maybe a subscription would be a great solution. I would assume I could do that on line?
thanks,
cancuntam

Okay, folks, this is a person with serious, real needs and I think she needs more help than we can probably give from the point of tourism. If any Wilmington resident actually has specific knowledge, of course, that would be helpful and maybe he/she'd be willing to be contacted directly.

Cancuntam, I'd start by calling the New Hanover County dept. of Social Services, (910) 341-4700, and ask them some of your questions about home health services. Even if they won't be directly involved in your situation, they certainly should know what the resources in Wilmington are.

As for employment, Wilmington is neither more nor less likely to have employment than most of the rest of the country at this time -- the economy is uneven and some people aren't doing well, while others aren't noticing the crunch.

It is something of a tourist destination, which means some work is seasonal, although the season is longer than in many parts of the country. But there is also a University and some growing small industries, not to mention some film companies that occasionally use Wilmington for location shots (Dawson's Creek, for one).

You're right, the pay won't be as good as in a larger and/or northern city, but housing will cost less, too.

Good luck to you.

Suburban sprawl has hit Wilmington, too. It's getting so that Hampstead, twenty miles northeast on Route 17, has become something of a suburb. Wilmington has many of the chain restaurants, which are a big employer I am sure. Wilmington and vicinity is not only big on tourism but has become a retirement area. In comparison to Florida, Wilmington has a change of season.

You may want to try www.findyourspot.com to find what you desire.

Thanks friends! I have infact found some home nursing agencies today. I will be contacting them in the am(6pm here) figured they be gone. Again I am not too worried about jobs.I would only assume I could find something to survive on....really the focus is on my sweet girl! Keep your fingers crossed for the morning being a possitive phone conversation with the nursing agencies!

Thank you all for your help and encouragment! It will be so awesome if it really could work in our favor.
cancuntam

I grew up in SC and live in Charlotte, NC now. I have visited Wilmington. I would guess you may find a 2 br apt around $600-750 per month. I think you might find a retail job for about $7-8 per hour. I'm guessing on the job wages and comparing apts to Charlotte. Wilmington is much smaller and I would assume less expensive than Charlotte.

Good luck! I am planning on moving myself so have been looking at real estate sites. Here is a place that is pretty reasonably priced in Wilmington, they even have handicapped access. units:
http://www.rentnet.com/apartments/fy...2_A&_DAV=0

I know this email post is a few months dated, but if you are still looking to move to Wilmington NC, I believe I can be of help. I live in Wilmington and I can help you with the resources that you may need. This town once thrived only on tourism but the tourist started staying and this town and the surrounding areas are booming. It is true that wages are cheaper but so is the cost of living. I am a Realtor here and I can help you with getting info on any thing that you may need.
You can email me [email protected] or can call 910-798-0645.
I am Here to HELP.

I am a little bemused by your desire to move to a city you have never been to, given that Wilmington lacks the allure of, say, Paris or London. But I am sure you have your reasons.

I moved to Wilmington about 16 years ago - when it really was a good bargain to swap out California real estate on a piece of property in Wilmington.

Do not expect anything in Wilmington to be the equivalent of Charlotte, or even Raleigh. Those are our more cosmopolitan and connected cities. Until relatively recently, Wilmington was in the middle of a very rural area. Education and wages lagged far behind, and they still do to some degree, unless you get a job with a company which has its home base and its policy-makers elsewhere. There is a lot of service-work available, and white collar jobs are not too hard to obtain with good qualifications if you don't expect huge a huge salary. In fact, some of the more upscale national chains are finally coming into our area en masse, so slightly better paying service jobs may be opening up.

One writer indicates that a lot of work is seasonal. That is not as true as it once was. There are now more people staying on the beaches than used to in the off season. But businesses are (here as probably everywhere else) often trying to hire for less than full time positions so that you might not get a good benefit package.

It seems irrational and cruel, but things are not cheaper here than elsewhere as a general rule.

We also have to pay property tax on our pets and our cars, in addition to the usual annual license fees. That was new to me.

There is massive construction going in - a lot of it housing which may show some defects with our first large hurricane. A lot of golf course communities. It will be interesting to see how much of it is prone to flooding this year.

Don't get me wrong. I like the place and don't plan on moving, but I think the time when it was a real bargain has perhaps passed. Still, in my experience, when one person in a family moves into the area, sooner or later about half of their extended family follows, so things can't be too bad.

The realtor who just posted will be a good source on housing/rental prices.

About those beaches.... "The beach" (Wrightsville) is totally built up and generally for the well-to do, but there is so little sand that for those of us from places like California, it is a bit of a disappointment. And the other beach, the one with blue collar origins, Carolina Beach, has just made some major changes and is going to start building up very much like Wrightsville. There are beaches to the south, but I would imagine prices are climbing all the way down the coast. And don't forget that the beach areas are subject to erosion, hurricane damage and also to evacuation during hurricanes. That might be an inconvenience for you and your child. But you can still locate safely back off the beach area and have access.

There is heat and humidity, always awful in July and August and some years unpleasant from May through September. There are mosquitos. We were at one time the US city with the most fast food restaurants per capita.

I doubt that the quality of medical care here exactly shines - our "good" local hospital is the one that gave privileges to a rather problematic gastric bypass surgeon who made the national news a few months ago. If you have home health connections where you are now, perhaps they have some insight as to the quality of our local facilities. I believe the federal programs even publish ratings on some nursing homes, but I don't know if they do the samething for home health.

Oh, and we are an ABC store state, so we probably don't have the same liquor store job market that you are used to if you were thinking of making a direct job transfer. There really do not seem to be that many ABC stores, so your job experience may not be easily transferable.

Good luck with your plans. I don't mean to throw cold water on them -- after all, I am still here and working, although in a white collar job that would probably pay 25% more in Charlotte or Raleigh. I just thought I'd better give you an ant's eye view on a few things, to throw into the mix with everything else you are considering.