Graham, Mebane or Clayton? (Raleigh, Cary: relocating, hotel, trip)

[ljmg47]

First, thanks to everyone who has given us information and suggestions about relocating to NC. With the help of the internet, we have been narrowing our choices to Graham, Mebane, Clayton areas. We will both be retired in December, currently live in a small town in RI, have a dog and a grown daughter in Raleigh but prefer friendly small town life where everyone knows each other. Pros and cons of these areas if you were choosing where to live today?

[findinghope]

we live in Mebane and love it.
graham is ok and you can find beautiful homes there, but from what i have seen, it doesnt really have a downtown--i could be wrong. it is also not as pretty as mebane.
clayton is also very nice, lots of beautiful homes, but again no downtown.
mebane has a pretty downtown, lots of community activity etc.

[Catrick]

My husband and I live in Graham and we love it. It does have a small quaint downtown area that is very nice. Here you are close to Burlington and Mebane and can go anywhere in a short time. Mebane is very nice and we looked there first but when we were buying they didn't have what we wanted. (We are in a new development.) Mebane is growing quickly though with everyone moving there to escape the higher taxes to the east.

We also looked at Clayton and that was great too but what worried us was the fact that it was just exploding and we were concerned about taxes going up to keep up with the population growth, new schools and other improvements.

All three places are nice. We just happened to find what we were looking for in Graham and are very happy in our nice quiet neighborhood.

Good luck.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Heading East on 70 out of downtown (tis a small joke there, yes, Mebane does have a small downtown area, and it really is small, a few banks, a drugstore, an upscale small market, a bakery and several antique shops) the tribal headquarters of the Okaneechee (sp?) band of the Saponi Nation is situated downtown, they hold an annual powwow on the banks of the Eno River in Hillsborough each year. Most of Mebane is in Alamance County, ergo, reasonable tax rates. Part of Mebane, East of the town limits on US 70, just barely out of town is Orange County ( so is Chapel Hill, Cary, Hillsborough and a higher tax rate.) The town holds various musical things each year, has an amateur theatrical group, a quite small historical museum (some claim it as an Hysterical museum) If you go into the Ace Hardware more than three times, they will probably call you by name, same goes for the Southern States, the best place to get plants, seeds, fertilizer, pet supplies et al and the expertise on when and how to plant or use same. I bought a 75 Gallon Cattle trough from them, a wading pool for my German Shepherd. The town is quite friendly. Graham has more shopping opportunities, this may change in the near future, Graham is also an easy commute. Not being native to this area, I am somewhat unsure where Graham ends and Burlington starts, I think it is Burlington that has the Hospital, although a new Emergency Room, part of Alamance Regional Hospital, has opened in Mebane as well. Mebane also offers a variety of street fairs during the fair weather months (most of the year, after all this is N.C. and we do not get a real winter) Most of the events are family oriented and fairly well attended. Mebane also has the best Mexican Restaurant in this part of the state, or , so say a lot of my Hispanic friends, I tend to agree with them.

[ljmg47]

Thanks everyone. We are visiting NC in late August and will visit all these areas as well as our daughter in Raleigh. So far we are leaning towards a single floor townhome in Mebane or Graham but are open to other ideas. It all depends on when we can sell our home up north and the market is very slow.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Originally Posted by ljmg47

Thanks everyone. We are visiting NC in late August and will visit all these areas as well as our daughter in Raleigh. So far we are leaning towards a single floor townhome in Mebane or Graham but are open to other ideas. It all depends on when we can sell our home up north and the market is very slow.

Oh wow, August.....let me look into my crystal ball....I see....I see.... it may be somewhat warm, or, from your frame of reference, coming from Rhode Island, the third level of Hell may be a bit cooler, tis why air conditioning (actually, a heat pump works better) was invented. Those things you do outdoors, try to have them done by 10:30 a.m., the north does it's heavy reading during the winter months, the south does theirs in summer.

[ljmg47]

Thanks for warning us - we know about the heat first hand. This will be our fourth trip to North Carolina in August. We visit our daughter each year when the summer reading program ends. I am a children's librarian and summer is our busiest season. You're right though it was extremely hot the first year we came. Our poor dog didn't want to put her feet on the blacktop parking lot of the hotel.
It does get in the high nineties here too but only for a few days. We learned to to go out early and later in the evenings.