I've lived in 20 states and paid taxes in 10. The absence of cap gains taxes is very helpful for me in NH at the moment. But since my retirement was unplanned and incidental, I don't think I will die in NH.
I lived in several places in Durham, Cary, Raleigh, Winston and a few other towns in NC, so I learned the state fairly well. If price is no object, care at Duke and UNC is excellent, just as folks observed. The higher end of the market is well served, world class. As is the small subsidized free portion at the very bottom. It is the ever increasing gap between the two that NC health care has problems with cost and service.
I have always run hot, so the winter is not much of an impairment for me, and I enjoy snowboarding. Also, northern winters are sunnier than the fiercest day at the beach, which I prefer to carolina gloom. It is odd for the sun to rise at 9 and die at 3, but as retired human I get to see the sun instead of commute in the dark.
It is the small isolated mediocre college towns that I see suffering and contracting with their single source of funding. The students at UNC-CH are incidental to the great business in government research/contracting. Tuition is less of a factor than grants and contracts. The kids are irrelevant to the mission.
I had flat tires in Durham from needles and ammunition, saw entire neighborhoods stripped of their wheels and tires, had a bum die in the common basement of Duke sociopath founder residence converted to apartments, had cop shot in face on property. The natives refer to Duke as 'the plantation', largely due to the way NY/NJ students treat the staff. It is much improved from the 90's, but had a long way to go. I spent a year or two bribing Duke custodians so that I could directly access the internet at night as it was being formed. Good times.
The accidental use of hydraulic fluid as surgical cleaner stands out in my memory of Duke hospital, as does frequent losing of patients in rats maze of older buildings.
I do miss the wide range of food options, new england is stunted in comparison. And I miss the culture of growth and change that folks in NC subscribe to. New England leans hard toward whale oil and 1920 lifestyle. Uninsulated in NC was bad enough, up here it is more common and insanely expensive. Yet common. Sigh.
