River Road Area (Raleigh, Wilmington: real estate, HOA, big home)

[suedonym]

Considering a move to Wilmington from Raleigh. One of the homes we found is on River Road. Lots of pluses... large enough for us and our kids and my grandparents (who will live with us when we move), lots of land, river front... but what are the negatives of this particular area? While we go to Wilmington fairly often, this area isn't an area we are overly familiar with.

one of the main pluses is that its NOT landfall.. which is where a lot of homes that are the size we need are located- we just are not fond of HOA neighborhoods... landfall seems to be a beautiful neighborhood... just not for us...

[movedtothecoast]

I'm with you on the no hoa, we faced the same thing moving here.

most areas of river road are beautiful , keep in mind that river road has a speed limit of 55 mph.

a lot of the bigger homes sit on smaller "islands" for lack of a better term , in the marshier areas.
it's a beautiful setting but I would feel slightly closed in by the river and the road. is this where you are talking about?
once you get closer towards wilmington , on river road , you have industrial areas with the city's water treatment plant, the port with lots of petrol storage tanks.

you will have a beautiful sunset every nite!

have you looked in the glenn meade area, forest hills ? big homes on big lots and was our preferred area but ended up further out 17'th on a couple of acres instead.
if you look at a map find live oak parkway and any area immdiately off there
will have bigger homes and it's a absolutely stunning area very close in town convenient to
downtown and beaches.

[suedonym]

Yes, that's the area where the home is located. One of the photos shows the sunset--- SO pretty!

We need to stay reasonably close to Wilmington for the medical facilities for grandparents, so don't want to go too far out.

[le roi]

Originally Posted by suedonym

Considering a move to Wilmington from Raleigh. One of the homes we found is on River Road. Lots of pluses... large enough for us and our kids and my grandparents (who will live with us when we move), lots of land, river front... but what are the negatives of this particular area? While we go to Wilmington fairly often, this area isn't an area we are overly familiar with.

one of the main pluses is that its NOT landfall.. which is where a lot of homes that are the size we need are located- we just are not fond of HOA neighborhoods... landfall seems to be a beautiful neighborhood... just not for us...

It depends where. A lot of that area is sugar sand. Grass barely grows, trees don't root well, houses have foundation problems. People always knew that -- downtown Wilmington's riverfront was built upon in 1740, and yet they only recently got around to developing this area south of town along the river, which is a mystery for otherwise prime riverfront real estate.

also, traffic is a problem. hardened veterans of river road take pride in their ability to take blind, poorly banked turns at 65mph while staying out of the bike lane, but i find it to be dangerous. also, the environment is not the best in that area. the cape fear river is an industrial pipeline of sorts. just immediately upstream, you have an asphalt plant, a gypsum plant, a sewage treatment plant, and a decent sized port. A good bit further, you have a paper mill, and the excrement of North Carolina's hog farms. NC has more hogs than people, by the way, so it is big business in eastern North Carolina. Thanks to tough Raleigh regulations, their excrement is mostly drained by the Cape Fear River, right past downtown Wilmington. Just start asking locals if they've ever been swimming in the Cape Fear River before.

so yes there's negatives to that area. having said that.. if you're talking about somewhere directly on the river.. like one of those little gated islands, and maybe a Ferrari... yeah, I'd definitely live there.