North Carolina Featured Real Estate Market Areas and Agents
Located on the Atlantic coast in the southeastern part of the country, North Carolina was one of the original 13 colonies, then known simply as “Carolina.” It borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. The state is split into 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh and the largest city is Charlotte, followed by Greensboro, Durham, Winston-Salem and Fayetteville. The state is home to a population of around 9 million residents, and recognizes eight American Indian tribes, claiming the largest population of Native Americans east of the Mississippi River. The state has various regions, with the eastern coastal plains, the Appalachian Mountains, and the Outer Banks, a string of islands that are a popular tourist destination. North Carolina is the leading producer of tobacco and the largest textile employer in the country. Its other agricultural products include poultry and eggs, tobacco, hogs, milk, cattle, sweet potatoes and soybeans. Charlotte is the country’s second largest banking city, after New York, and is home to Bank of America and Wachovia, which was acquired by Wells Fargo in 2008. The city also hosts five other Fortune 500 companies.
North Carolina is home to the country’s first public university, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which opened in 1795. Today the state’s public university system includes 16 public schools, like North Carolina State University, East Carolina University, Western Carolina University, UNC Charlotte, UNC Greensboro and Appalachian State University. There are also 58 public community colleges and a number of notable private colleges such as Duke University, Wake Forest University and Elon University. The state is the center of the American auto industry, with more than 80% of Nascar teams and industries located here. Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord hosts three major races annually, and Charlotte has plans to open the Nascar Hall of Fame in 2010. Fort Bragg near Fayetteville is the largest and most comprehensive military base in the United State, and there are several other military bases in the state, primarily in the coastal regions, giving the area the largest concentration of sailors and Marines in the U.S.
