Moving to Winston Salem Area (Winston-Salem, Lexington: low crime, daycares, houses)

[Steven2149]

We (myself, wife, 2 kids, one on the way) plan to move from Atlanta to Winston Salem early next year. We are looking into King, Davie County, and Southwest Forsyth (Clemmons, Lewisville). I grew up in Va, about an hour and a half from there, so I am fairly familiar with the area. I havent been there in several years though, so will be getting re-familiarized (is that a word?) Please give me some info. Particular interests are: Schools, good hole in the wall restaurants, outdoor activities, etc.

[Cassie]

Originally Posted by Steven2149

We (myself, wife, 2 kids, one on the way) plan to move from Atlanta to Winston Salem early next year. We are looking into King, Davie County, and Southwest Forsyth (Clemmons, Lewisville). I grew up in Va, about an hour and a half from there, so I am fairly familiar with the area. I havent been there in several years though, so will be getting re-familiarized (is that a word?) Please give me some info. Particular interests are: Schools, good hole in the wall restaurants, outdoor activities, etc.

Make sure you're not moving to one of the outlying areas that Winston-Salem recently annexed, ( some 20 miles worth) and where 21 months of back taxes will be due to the city.

I'm seeing houses *suddenly* go on the market in some of these areas, ( I don't know where all of them are ) and I'm not surprised. Do your research. Read the W-S Journal online for more information.

Best regards,

Cassie

[Steven2149]

Anyone with input.. anyone?

[kwguy]

Hi Steven,

I've lived in Davie County for six years now and have worked in both Clemmons and Lewisville.

As far as schools go, elementary and middle schools in Davie are great, but there's a big controversy over whether to build a second high school for the county (due to overcrowding and growth in northern Davie...Advance, Bermuda Run, Hillsdale...). The longtime residents of Davie County would not like the more suburban and more-upscale northern Davie get a new high school, as well as cause a division in the county and the current high school's football program. While a decent area, Clemmons is starting to get very crowded--it's slowly becoming less of a separate entity of W-S with all the rapid growth along 158 from the Hanes Mall on out Stratford Road. Still--many neighborhoods and many great people.

Lewisville seems much more family and community oriented. There's a big gazebo in the center of town where a local theatre company performs several musicals each summer, and there is also a large 4th of July party as well. The new Ronald Reagan High School recently opened for this area as well, since Clemmons/Lewisville at one time shared West Forsyth HS. As Cassie stated though, be on the lookout for annexation, as many areas of NW Forsyth County and up towards Pfafftown are included.

Hope this helps!

[enlightenme]

We ended up in North Davidson county right on the border of Forsyth County. We really like it here, we are about 15 minutes from Winston-Salem, yet we are out in the "country" with rolling hills, good schools, well maintained neighborhoods, low traffic, low crime and close to many little shopping centers. Our address is Lexington, but we do nothing in Lexington and actually feel closer to Winston. The houses are affordable out here and we just pay county tax. We didn't know anything about Winston-Salem when we were looking for houses, but luckily our realtor lives out this way and recommended looking in this area. I think the locals call it Midway.

[Steven2149]

Ahhh.. I didn't know anything about Ronald Reagan High School. SOunds like exactly the place I'd like to send my children. Haha, it beats everything being named after Democrats here. (Atlanta) We do have a Reagan Parkway, though. Those all sound like areas of interest to me. What are the rush hour drives like from those places... Davie, N. Davidson, King, etc. Cassie tells me that traffic is pretty bad, but I can't believe for a minute that it is any comparison to Metro Atlanta. My wife works in Downtown and we live about 30 miles away and the drive is usually between 90 minutes and 2 hours. I can't wait to escape. Something else I was wondering, does anyone have any recommendations of daycares? We have a 1 year old and another one due in May. What seems to be the going rate for childcare? Here it is about 150 a week. (full time) Something else that I would love to find out about would be youth baseball leagues. I have an 11 year old who plays on an outstanding team now and wants continue playing travelling baseball. That is very popular here, but I know nothing about good leagues up there. I know that may be a bit of a stretch to answer, but any input would be great. (Pardon any typo's, I did this in a hurry.)

[Cassie]

I think Lewisville is one of the annexed areas where homeowners owe 21 months worth of back taxes to the city of Winston-Salem. I haven't stayed current on when those are due-- there was some talk of stretching out the payments but apparently that plan had to be approved by the General Assembly. Be a good idea for anyone thinking about buying in Lewisville to check carefully into that. I don't know if Clemmons was annexed by W-S.

Regards,

Cassie

Originally Posted by kwguy

Hi Steven,

I've lived in Davie County for six years now and have worked in both Clemmons and Lewisville.

As far as schools go, elementary and middle schools in Davie are great, but there's a big controversy over whether to build a second high school for the county (due to overcrowding and growth in northern Davie...Advance, Bermuda Run, Hillsdale...). The longtime residents of Davie County would not like the more suburban and more-upscale northern Davie get a new high school, as well as cause a division in the county and the current high school's football program. While a decent area, Clemmons is starting to get very crowded--it's slowly becoming less of a separate entity of W-S with all the rapid growth along 158 from the Hanes Mall on out Stratford Road. Still--many neighborhoods and many great people.

Lewisville seems much more family and community oriented. There's a big gazebo in the center of town where a local theatre company performs several musicals each summer, and there is also a large 4th of July party as well. The new Ronald Reagan High School recently opened for this area as well, since Clemmons/Lewisville at one time shared West Forsyth HS. As Cassie stated though, be on the lookout for annexation, as many areas of NW Forsyth County and up towards Pfafftown are included.

Hope this helps!

[Steven2149]

I thought that Clemmons was already incorporated.

[kwguy]

Originally Posted by Steven2149

I thought that Clemmons was already incorporated.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Village of Clemmons was incorporated sometime around 1986. Lewisville is a town as well--it's just areas of NW Forsyth not incorporated that are undergoing the annexation, I think.

As far as a commute is concerned, it takes 20 mins or so to get to downtown W-S from where we live in northern Davie (about 18 miles, rough estimate). The area has grown A LOT in the past few years (not even close to Gwinnett or Cobb proportions, though, haha), so most of the traffic I've seen has been in the 2-3 miles it takes to get to I-40--after that it's a straight shot into town. The same goes for Clemmons--just an exit or two closer to Winston up I-40.

King traffic would probably come in on US 52--I don't drive it much, but I've never been fond of it during heavy traffic...

[Cassie]

Originally Posted by kwguy

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Village of Clemmons was incorporated sometime around 1986. Lewisville is a town as well--it's just areas of NW Forsyth not incorporated that are undergoing the annexation, I think....

Hey, ya'll

I'm not planning on moving there. I think (but am not positive) that Lewisville was one of the areas that was annexed. I remember that they were mentioned in Wikipedia. If Lewisville is an incorporated town, maybe they were trying to annex another unincorporated area. Maybe not. I don't have time to research it. Again, I'm not planning on moving there. I can't keep up with all the annexation that goes on. I already said that I honestly don't know about Clemmons.

It was a suggestion on my part that people who are thinking about moving to either place check into the annexation issue.

Regards,

Cassie