As long as you stay away from the larger urban areas in NC, the house prices are really reasonable. That is why a lot of the retirees who move from up North to Florida then come about halfway back, to North Carolina or Virginia. In fact, the term for them is halfbacks. As for finding a job, though Hickory is in the middle of the furniture making area of North Carolina, there are jobs to be had. The main block to finding a job is passing the drug test. A friend was the manager of a food plant and it was a rare week that they could hire 1/4 of the people they needed, because so many still had dope in their systems. So, if you are not a dope head, you can come up here and find a job, and you may just run into some of your old neighbors, too.