More recently, financial firms Fidelity and Credit Suisse are transferring employees from New York and Boston.

But there is an increasing portion of the newcomer population arriving first and worrying about work later.

New Yorker Rupert Bryan was a software programmer who visited this area and fell in love with the weather, the lower cost of living, the schools and the green space. After doing some research online, he and his wife, Dephine, decided to chuck it all. They moved here in June 2006.

"We both had college degrees, we had money in the bank, and I didn't want to be stuck going to where the job was," said Bryan, who switched careers and is now selling houses. "I wanted to choose my own destiny."

This region is drawing more affluent nomads, experts say. The trend is fueled partly by tax law changes and booming housing markets in other parts of the country that allow people to cash out and move where homes and taxes are cheaper. Steady job creation in a solid economy also contributes.

One big factor that wasn't a force 10 years ago is the Internet.

Web surfers searching for "best places" to live and work quickly find lists featuring Raleigh, Cary and Durham.

Forbes magazine this month crowned Raleigh as the country's top place for business and careers; Durham came in at No. 7.

Scott Schlageter began noticing the new residents about three years ago. As division president for Pulte Homes, one of the Triangle's largest home builders, he sells about four dozen houses a year to them.

"It raised our eyebrows when we saw people on applications who paid cash," Schlageter said. "Whether they read about [the area] in Money magazine or they have friends who moved here, it gets to be a kind of buzz."

While the growth benefits home builders and other businesses, it creates challenges.

Worst case, the new additions could dull the attractive quality of life that brought them here in the first place. Besides adding to the Triangle's increasingly strained roads and schools, newcomers add to the fierce competition for many jobs -- pressure that is likely to worsen.

More than 600 people inquired about one sales position at a Cingular wireless store in Raleigh last month. Though a sign on the door now reads "not hiring," the store still gets three or four inquiries a day.

Single mother Ramonda Coleman learned firsthand in 2005 that getting a job here isn't a cinch.

Living in a 960-square-foot home in Fredericksburg, Va., she wanted more room for herself and three children but couldn't afford a larger house.

Searching online, she found a 2,200-square-foot home in Angier. She had paid $133,000 for her Virginia home in 2003 and sold it for $255,000 two years later. She used the profit to make a down payment on the Angier home, priced at $149,900.

When savings ran low, she began looking for a job. "It was very scary," Coleman said.

After a nearly two-month search, she found a position monitoring inventory for Morrisville circuit board maker Catalyst.

"I prayed a lot," said Coleman, 36, now a receptionist at Catalyst and happy about the move. "I just did it because I fell in love with the house."

Although no one knows how many of the new transplants there are, everyone seems to have met someone who fills the bill.

What's indisputable is that the Triangle's population continues to soar. Last year, 42,742 people moved to the Raleigh-Cary area, which includes Wake, Johnston and Franklin counties. Durham got another 4,542 residents. The numbers are expected to increase.

Obviously, not all of those people came here without work. Some move for a specific job. A few could work anywhere, again, largely because of the Internet and its link to a global economy. Others start businesses. Retirees arrive and might do consulting or part-time work.

Gene Norton, manager of the state Employment Security Commission's Wake County office, said areas such as the Triangle, with its low 3.6 percent unemployment rate, traditionally have attracted unskilled and semiskilled workers. And a steady stream of skilled workers has long been attracted by university and high-tech jobs.

Diversity of applicants

Norton gets three or four e-mail queries a week from skilled workers attracted, at least partly, by the quality of life; many plan to move without jobs.

"We're actually seeing professional people come in with degrees, people with work histories that include management," Norton said. "In 2003, we didn't see as much of it."

Other cities with lower taxes and home prices, such as Charlotte and Richmond, Va., are enjoying the same trend, said Ray Owens, senior economist for the Federal Reserve Bank in Richmond.

"People no longer feel they have to hang on to that job or live in an area they become disenchanted with, because relocating now is less costly," Owens said.

People once were forced to stay where there was work, because there wasn't consistent job creation, and workers had to congregate in the pockets where jobs were, Owens said.

But that changed with decades of prosperity and accompanying job growth, along with soaring home appreciation and favorable tax laws. Since 1998, laws have allowed couples to keep gains of up to $500,000 tax-free after selling a primary residence where they have lived two of the previous five years.

In addition, soaring home values in markets such as California, Florida or the Northeast have allowed transplants to sell their homes at a profit and move to the Triangle, where home prices are lower.

With money in the bank, they can take time to find a job.

A slumping national housing market could slow the trend, but the migration isn't likely to stop.

"They are taking more control of their lives," Owens said. "Societies generally do that when they become richer and can afford to do that. I think the phenomenon is increasing."

When Bryan sold his house in Queens and moved to North Raleigh last year, he briefly looked for a programming job.

Bryan had owned duplexes in Newark and enjoyed dabbling in real estate, so he decided to switch careers as well.

He enrolled in the J.Y. Monk real estate school, got his license and went to work selling houses for Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston in January.

"It's much more than I thought it would be," he said. "The people are nicer. We just had a winter, and I didn't even need a hat."

There's one drawback. The Bryans miss relatives in New York. One brother refuses to visit. He "thinks it's total country down here, and they feed chickens in the backyard," Bryan said.