People are Fleeing the Worst Cities in North Carolina

Which cities are the worst cities in North Carolina?

You are going to be shocked at the one place in North Carolina that people are desperate to get away from and which places people love living in. 

As prices have continued to stay higher than most people are happy about, Americans have continued to search for homes outside of their current hometown. Redfin tracks the percentage of people in each city who are searching outside of that city for their new home.

Every city in North Carolina performed below the national average, with fewer people looking to move to different cities, except one which had 32% more people looking to leave that city than the national average.

In this article we’re going to take a look at which cities are retaining residents and which cities are losing them and where they’re going instead.

Fleeing Greensboro 

23.5% of Greensboro home searchers want to leave their city.  That makes Greensboro the second highest on this list. 

Greensboro Lifestyle + Economy

Greensboro used to be known as a textile town and was full of mills, factories and blue collar workers. The local economy went downhill when a lot of these manufacturing jobs left.  But things have really started to change.

Greensboro is home to more than 200 international based firms, including Hondajet, Volvo, Toyota’s new battery plant and Boom Supersonic who began construction on their new plant in Greensboro in January of this year. The trend is moving toward advanced manufacturing, which employs higher skilled workers, increasing the overall salaries of the area. 

So, its past was in manufacturing, and it looks like its future is too, just a different kind of manufacturing.

Greensboro also offers an incredible lifestyle and the city is working hard to improve that lifestyle to attract higher end companies. Greensboro has become known as a tournament town. They’ve hosted the men’s and women’s ACC basketball tournaments, the PGA Wyndham Championship and the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

For a small city, Greensboro has a thriving arts scene. The recently opened Tanger Center for the performing arts, which is a similar size and quality to DPAC in the Triangle, which ranked one of the top theaters in the US. Greensboro is also brimming with beautiful parks and gardens… And Greensboro is home to the Greensboro Science Center which has a zoo, an aquarium, a penguin feeding experience and zipline park. 

Greensboro historical trends of relocations 

So why are people leaving Greensboro? The national average for people searching for homes outside their current city is 25%. So there are actually fewer people leaving Greensboro than most cities.

The majority who do leave are choosing to move to Washington DC, Myrtle Beach, SC, Atlanta GA, Los Angeles CA, and Miami. They either want the beach or a bigger city.

But here’s the kicker…. If you look at the historical trends. You can see the incredible shift in what is happening in Greensboro. It makes way more sense when you see how Greensboro is really growing into a dynamic city.

Look at the incredible growth of people wanting to stay in Greensboro compared to 2017. 5 years ago, nobody wanted to live in Greensboro. Look at it now. Although, it might not yet be the time to buy in Greensboro. Even though so many people are looking to move here, Greensboro made the list of top 40 US cities that are about to crash. There were actually 4 in North Carolina that made the list.

Anyway, when we look at Charlotte next, you’ll see how truly significant this is that there is such a growing number of people who want to move here. 

Fleeing Charlotte 

In Charlotte 22% of house hunters are looking to relocate.  That puts them third on our list, but Still below that national norm. 

Charlotte Lifestyle and Economy

Charlotte is the second largest financial hub in the United States behind New York City, being the headquarters for Bank of America and Truist Financial as well as housing the East Coast headquarters and largest employment hub of Wells Fargo. Other Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the metro area include Brighthouse Financial, Duke Energy, Honeywell, Lowe’s, and Nucor. It’s the only city in North Carolina with a mass transit system. Charlotte is a fun and vibrant city with lots to do. It is home to Carowinds and Great Wolf Lodge, the sea life aquarium with North Carolina’s only ocean tunnel, and multiple professional sports teams including the Carolina Panthers, Charlotte Hornets, Charlotte Knights and of course, the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Charlotte Data

Now let’s look back at that Greensboro chart of people looking to move to Greensboro and put it into context a little bit. The net inflow to Greensboro is 1439 people. In Charlotte, the net inflow is 2357. Charlotte’s net inflow is 1.6 times Greensboro’s. But Charlotte’s population is 3x Greensboro’s population. So even though Greensboro’s net inflow is numerically lower, the ratio of people moving in compared to the current population is higher. Which means the ratio of homes available for sale per buyer is likely going down. Pro tip… Greensboro might be a really good place to get into the market if you’re looking to see some home appreciation.

Fleeing Raleigh 

The last two cities are the ones with the least number of people leaving and the highest number of people leaving. Raleigh is definitely not one of the worst cities in North Carolina. It’s the opposite. Raleigh, North Carolina, only had 20.5% of searchers looking in cities outside of the Raleigh area, which again, is the lowest in the area. It’s also one of the lowest in the country. Out of the 106 metro ares tracked by Redfin, Raleigh ranked #19 least likely to relocate. People generally come here and love it.

Raleigh lifestyle and Economy

Raleigh is known for it’s vibrant cultural scene and thriving economy, stunning parks like Umstead State Park, and a diverse job market in industries like technology, research, education, healthcare, and finance. A lot of people who move to Raleigh tell me that they are coming for a more relaxed lifestyle.  The fact that it isn’t really a big city is part of the draw for many. 

Raleigh Data 

What is interesting about the relocation data though is that when you look at the flow of all people looking for homes in Raleigh, it’s just about the same per capita as Greensboro, and you can see the same pandemic boom and then drop off as we saw in Charlotte, which is honestly probably pretty common around the country. There are just fewer people searching for homes now. No big surprise. But that’s also what makes the spike in searches in Greensboro so interesting. It’s like Greensboro has all of a sudden become the popular kid. 

Asheville was a GEM!

And finally Asheville. Asheville has always been the gem of North Carolina. Now it’s one of the worst cities in North Carolina. It sits right next to the great smoky mountains with incredible hiking and natural beauty. And the Biltmore Estate brings in people from all over the country who want a glimpse of what true wealth looks like. Many say the music scene looks like the early days of Austin or Nashville. With its delicious food and quirky vibe, it’s not surprising that Asheville has always been popular. But that has taken a sudden shift.

But not anymore!

There is a record number of people trying to leave Asheville!!

The number of people looking for a home outside of the city is 32%, 30% higher than the national average.

What on earth is happening in Asheville that is causing people to move away? There are two distinct issues that are impacting people’s choice to move away from Asheville.

Problem #1: Asheville’s Real Estate Prices

The first issue is the price of real estate.  And that is happening all over the place, which is why it’s not surprising at all and why the new normal is that 25% of people looking for a home are looking to purchase it in a different city. The average price for a home in Asheville right now is 449,000.

Just to put it into context, Raleigh’s median home price is only 421,000 but the median household income is 15,000 higher in Raleigh than in Asheville, even though Raleigh’s home prices are lower. So there is definitely a disconnect happening in pricing. Ashville doesn’t have the industry that any of the other cities on this list have, so the higher prices are really driving away locals who work there. 

Also there is a nearby town very similar to Asheville that is astoundingly cheaper that is drawing people away. And we’ll discuss that in just a minute. But first let’s look at why 30% more people are looking to leave Asheville than the national average. 

Problem #2: Crime

In 2020, Asheville was one of the hardest hit cities for loss of police officers, losing almost 30% of it’s police force. From 2021 to 2022, Asheville saw a 21.8% increase in aggravated assaults. And the problem isn’t going away. Just one month into 2023 Asheville breakins have surged more than 200%!

And people are feeling it… downtown business owners are feeling the need to arm themselves to work in the downtown district. More than a dozen business owners spoke before a packed city council meeting, detailing their experiences. One employer said: 

“I was scared for the safety of my employees, I was scared to come to work downtown, and we were all frightened to walk to our cars at night.” Amanda Ball said she’s personally bought a knife, pepper spray and a small taser. There is definitely impetus for getting out of dodge… But where are people going. There happens to be another town very nearby with all of the pros and none of the cons. 23% of people trying to leave Asheville are going to one place. Greenville South Carolina. 

Greenville is just over an hour south of Asheville. The median home price is $289,000, 64% of Asheville’s median price but listen to this… the median household income in Greenville is $7000 higher than Asheville’s median income. Greenville also has a vibrant downtown, a charming southern feel and beautiful mountain views, and less crime. I know where I would live if given the choice.