Eastern NC is great until you get a hurricane or it gets really hot. I’ve been looking at houses near Shallotte NC, mostly because they are near the beach and very cheap.
My understanding is that Asheville is an expensive place to live. I tried to get back to Boone to live but I couldn’t afford a house.
Oak Island (still known to old timers as Long Beach and Yaupon Beach) is very cheap compared to any other barrier island and it’s right there at Shallotte Inlet. My folks had a beach place, well more of a fishing shack, there for years when I was a kid until the point got wiped out by a hurricane. Oak Island gets snooted because it was sort of a blue collar place, slightly on the wild side but I frankly had a blast there as a kid. Everybody with a place down there had an old jalopy with the wheel wells cut out, doors taken off, huge tires, painted gaudy colors to match the house, called it a beach buggy and drove them all over, dunes included. No more, but great shelling if you’re into that.