North Carolina Relocation Suggestions

We currently live in Connecticut, keep our Mainship 30 pilot II in Westerly, RI in a perfect place located 2 miles up a fresh water river so a nice low salinity flush is there every trip home.
We have had enough of taxation, crooked politicians, and Winters.
We have been considering North Carolina as a possible new home within 30-45 minutes to the coast with a similar homeport situation.
Another concern is that when the threat of hurricanes come up do the marinas down there haul and put the boats up on blocks or simply say you are on your own?
Thanks in advance for your replies.

We keep our boat in Washington, NC at the yacht club there. No problems with hurricanes. We have a boat yard next door with a travel lift if we need. We enjoy the pool and golf and currently have a covered slip until we put our hardtop on next year. It's about 60 NM to the coast so that may be a little too far inland. We picked b/c it's closer to our house just north of Raleigh. Connecticut used to be the place til a little after 91 when the taxes were put in place. No matter how much they take it's never enough.. Then they blame it on revenue not spending. Funny how that works. Still a beautiful place though!

We have had enough of taxation, crooked politicians, and Winters.

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You are not going to particularly escape any of those here, especially #2.

The river locations are going to be brackish to varying degrees. It depends what you want to with your boat beyond just store it somewhere. We choose to keep our boats, whetehr it be the Hatteras 56MY we used to live on, or our 13' Whaler, in Morehead City because we love taking the boat to one of the miles of undeveloped beautiful beaches, or the great anchorages (Cape Lookout Bight, South River, etc) year around. So a little more info on your nautical lifestyle would be helpful.
Marina policies on hurricane haul out vary. I used to have the Hatteras hauled myself, regardless of marina policy.

May have changed since I lived there, 20 years ago, but NC had an annual "personal property tax." That meant that you had to pay a percentage of the value of the boat to the tax-man every year. Way, WAAAAAY more expensive than the annual registration that I now pay in Florida.


Personally, if I was going to relocate, I would look for a state that does NOT have that sort of a tax.

denverd0n said:

May have changed since I lived there, 20 years ago, but NC had an annual "personal property tax." That meant that you had to pay a percentage of the value of the boat to the tax-man every year. Way, WAAAAAY more expensive than the annual registration that I now pay in Florida.


Personally, if I was going to relocate, I would look for a state that does NOT have that sort of a tax.

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Actually those taxes are assessed both by the city AND the county, and varies. Cars too. Documented boats still have to pay a registration "fee".
But generally, real property taxes tend to be low. I've lived in a variety of states and about every combination of tax structures and rates. I personally will never (and never have) make a decision on where to live based on taxes.

You might want to look at Horry County (Myrtle Beach). I know it is in South Carolina, but just over the border from NC. Horry County allows boats to stay for 180 days tax free.

The water is mostly fresh south of the Hwy 17 high bridge in Little River, and the Little River inlet (on the border between NC & SC) is an easy inlet, and only a couple of miles off the ICW

caltexflanc said:

I personally will never (and never have) make a decision on where to live based on taxes.

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Taxes wouldn't be my first criteria in choosing a place to live. Nor, probably, my second or third. But they're on the list. I would never pick a place to live without giving at least SOME consideration to the tax situation; it can have a huge impact on the standard of living that you can afford.

We lived in Oriental, NC for almost 5 years and did the opposite of what you plan- bought a summer place in NW Connecticut and a winter place in SW Florida.

First about hurricanes: Depending on track and wind strength I believe that virtually any place along the coast and sounds will flood up to 10'. Oriental and New Bern got that much from Florence. I think Washington NC got almost that much from Irene. The Oriental area building code increased floor elevation to about 11 feet for new homes built in the last ten years, but many are 8-9' and flooded in Florence.

Marinas in general do not move your boat for you when a hurricane threatens. Some marinas associated with a boat yard will for an annual fee, reserve a spot for you if a hurricane threatens but it is up to you to schedule a time and move your boat to their haulout slip so it can be hauled. But some of those yards are low and Irene and Florence floated a few.

Other options: move it to a narrow creek and cross tie to sides, move it to a protected anchorage, move it to a marina like River Dunes which has floating docks- good for about 11' surge but any higher.....

NC does have a personal property tax which applies to boats. It roughly costs 1% of market value each year, but market value is quite variable. Maybe the assessor uses NADA values .

Marinas are required to report all boats in their facility to the state as of January 1 of each year. The only way to skirt the property tax is to federally document your boat and keep it at a private slip. NC does not charge sales tax on used boats though.

So with that unpleasantness behind us, some nice water front towns in NC (from S to N) are: Wrightsville Beach, New Bern, Beaufort, Oriental, Ocracoke (but the only access is by ferry and private boat), Bath, Washington, Edenton and Elizabeth City.

I would return to Oriental and live there if my wife would, but I would want my home floor elevation to be at least 12', which very few are.

David

As far as I know, all of the rivers that flow into the sounds are brackish water, not fresh water. Maybe up near Edenton or Hertford flowing into the Albemarle, but the Pamilco and Neuse are definitely brackish.


Hurricanes are a gamble in NC. We get them often, it just depends on their strength, speed, wind speed, where they are coming in at or from (Micheal this year came from SW). Some marinas ask you to leave, most don't have adjacent boatyards....a couple do. But even those we consider "hurricane holes" have had problems too.



We hauled out in Oriental for Irene. The yard said six more inches she would have floated off. Florence scattered boats all over New Bern and the area.



We usually stay in the water, prep as much as we can and hold our breath. Do what you can and remember this is why we have insurance.



Oh, and last month we had 8 inches of snow near Raleigh, last New Years in Morehead City had snow....so winters are hit and miss too.

Besslb said:

As far as I know, all of the rivers that flow into the sounds are brackish water, not fresh water.

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I should clarify that my run back to home port is in brackish water with very low salinity as far in as we go. It is commonly referred to as "The Root Beer River" and certainly not clean fresh water.

Westerly Mainship said:

I should clarify that my run back to home port is in brackish water with very low salinity as far in as we go. It is commonly referred to as "The Root Beer River" and certainly not clean fresh water.

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That sounds about right! We call it "Neuse Juice" for the water or "Neuse Beard" when its stuck on the boat.

Cypress Landing Community on the Pamlico river will be your best place to move to. the best thing about our community beside Golf, Boating, very very very active social groups, we are 34 FT above sea level (means no flood insurance to pay). yes we do pay property tax on our boats , cars, motorcycles, but our real state tax is very low (my PA tax was $7600, NC tax is about $2200 for same house). check us out on line at https://cypresslanding.com/. resident for 3 years.

https://cypr
esslanding.com/

LOL!! I think you and I are neighbors.

Great to hear that as I am in the middle of surveying an MS390.
Come visit at the marina Wed or Fridays!
Driss,

Who are you Shrew?
(252) 721-4262

[QUOTEWe have had enough of taxation, crooked politicians, and Winters.][/QUOTE]

Congrats! We moved out of CT in 2016 and became Florida residents. We still summer aboard in Mystic.