Family friendly places in NC? (Charlotte, Raleigh: 2011, HOA fees, condos)

[curious1104]

My family and I are looking to relocate to NC. We are looking for a place with a small town feel but relatively close to a larger city where there are things to do. We have three kids under 6 with another on the way so we are looking for a nice family friendly area that has good schools, safe neighborhoods, with parks and also indoor things for the kids to do. Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated. Thanks!

[NCgirl]

a nice family friendly area that has good schools, safe neighborhoods, with parks and also indoor things for the kids to do

NC is a big state this describes many areas. If you can give us more information, we can help you better.

Population wise, what is a larger city? Our three metro areas are the Charlotte Metro, The Triad (Winston-Salem, High Point, Greensboro and surrounding towns) and The Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and surrounding towns).

How close do you want to be? A 10 minute drive? An hour away?

What is your price range? Ideal square footage? Lot size? Do you have a list of "must have" amenities for your home, neighborhood or town.

[curious1104]

We would like to be within a half hour of a metro area. Ideally we would like to stay around $170,000 for a 4bd/2bth home but I don't know if that is feasible in NC. As far as neighborhood goes, we would really just like somewhere that has low crime, good schools, and other kids around. We would prefer not to pay HOA fees but again it seems most neighborhoods have them now. I would love to have at least half an acre but if there were parks near by then a smaller yard would do. We would like a place that has the quaint downtown where you can walk around and go to shops and restaurants. A place that does things like Christmas parades and tree lightings and has family days and festivals. Hope that is a better description of what we are looking for. Again I appreciate any input.

[curious1104]

Even if we were within an hour of a metro area that would be fine!

[Mgyeldell]

Fayetteville North Carolina the best place in the world. I grew up there the schools are great and there is never any traffic. The population is about 200,000 it is about a hour from the beach straight down 87 a hour from raleigh which has horrible traffic but is a really lovely city. 3 hours from Charlotte which is one of the prettiest drives you will see in North Carolina especially going through the forest past the old mountain range. The schools are great I did 4th through 11th in fayetteville and loved school there so much the teachers there genuienly cared about the students. The neigborhoods are great (I will warn you about the areas around and in Westover and E.E. Smith/Murchison Rd and Spring Lake areas those are more sketchy areas) a really good area to think about if you do choose Fayetteville is the Grays Creek in the southern portion or Northern Fayetteville north of Methodist college(Where I grew up at)

Fayetteville is hardly ever on the news for murders and violent crimes like raleigh greensboro or charlotte. it is also a military city so people are very patriotic in the city

Fayetteville is a great place

[al_roethlisberger]

If you like the Triangle/Triad area, and you are looking for land, open space, affordability, and more of a small/mid sized town feel, you might consider Sanford.

We are almost smack-dab in the middle of the state, and practically equidistant from Greensboro, Raleigh/Durham/Cary, and Fayetteville. So we have easy ~30min access to any of those metro areas, and are equally 2-3 hours from beach or mountains.

Sanford has everything you need, being a mid-sized city of around 30k population, but still has a mayor that will wave to you and probably know you by name. And if there is something you "want" that Sanford doesn't have, again, the larger cities are just 30 minutes away.

We moved here, by way of a quick 1yr in Cary, from San Jose CA and have been very pleased. In the short 3 years we've been here, we've made more friends and gotten more involved in local government, community, etc than we were able to during a decade in the "big city". It really seems like you can make a difference and see progress in these smaller communities.

Being relatively small, Sanford has a variety of housing, everything from rural farms, historic housing, new condos, to golf/gated communities... all within minutes of each other.

We've also got several new schools in Lee County, and we've found the school system to be great.

And with the BRAC program, the area around Ft. Bragg is expecting up to 30k new senior military and skilled population growth, almost 10k of which is expected in Lee County by 2011/12. So we should see some great investment in the area even considering the current economy.

Also with the local military family population(as well as other residents), we have many young families in the area.

City of Sanford, North Carolina | Official Government Website

Sanford Area Chamber of Commerce

Downtown Sanford, INC. | Sanford, North Carolina


Here are some maps showing Sanford's relative position in the state:

Live Well Centered.


Good luck!
Al

[JasonFant]

If you're looking for good schools, small town atmosphere and good proximity to employment centers in the area, check out Holly Springs and it's surrounding areas of Apex, Fuquay-Varina and Cary. While Cary is a large suburban area, the parts which border Holly Springs are more spread out without all the commercial development. This is a great place to live (but I may be biased). My family and I absolutely love it here.

The area combines classic southern small town charm, with great schools, shopping, good commuter routes and it's all within 20-25 minutes of downtown Raleigh. Check out some of these sites to get a feel for the area:

Town of Holly Springs, NC
Southwest Wake News | Community
http://www.city-data.com/city/Holly-...-Carolina.html
Good luck in your search, we'd love to have you in the area!

-- Jason Fant

[trese]

I think the following towns on the outskirts of W/S are nice: Wallburg, Thomasville, Welcome, King, Mt. Airy (abt an hr). They all have small towns you can walk and do the little parades for every change of season it seems-lol.

We live between Welcome and Thomasville and we have slightly over an acre with a 3 bd/ 2.5 ba house-no HOA's out here-but we aren't in a subdivision. We bought our land in 2000 and build a modular on it for $132,000. (Davidson Co)

I think it depends on where you want to be-closer to mountains or beach and also perhaps types of jobs?