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Prior to moving to Raleigh/Cary I used City-Data Forum as a planning tool with much success and without asking already posted questions as good manners would dictate. I just finished searching the forums for an answer to my biggest question and can’t find anything specific to my situation in spite of using several different search terms. Here are some quick facts as background:
Wife and I are mid-60’s living on retirement/investment income, but are anxious to get back to work before actually “retiring”.
We sold house in South Florida and moved to “Luxury Apartment Community” located on Southeast Raleigh/Cary city line (2BR/2BA) in the general vicinity of Lake Johnson Park. Signed a 6 month lease with intentions of either buying “down-sized” housing or renting for a longer term until we could decide the most suitable area and options.
We have been largely satisfied with the housing facility and site-management, but the one thing we discovered quickly (especially with the June/July increase in rental activity) was the high percentage of student/recently graduated student renters. Unfortunately, too many of them are determined to create as much of a “campus/fraternity” environment as they can and it doesn’t take many individuals to accomplish that whether it disturbs other tenants or not.
When using Apartment Finder, Apartments ForRent, and other resources it has become surprisingly clear that a large segment of the rental market in this general area fits the “student” category even if they are not actual students. Trying to find predominately mature “adult” rental housing options is becoming an exhaustive process with seemingly not much hope for success. The horrible ApartmentRatings website reviews, even if taken lightly makes the process even more challenging.
What I’d like to know is whether there is a geographic area that is more likely to have a more mature adult housing environment WITHOUT being in the senior citizen category (unless that is the only option available). I was going to start focusing on the Northern Raleigh area, but before doing so any help or reference to specific apartment/townhome communities would be greatly appreciated.
Might be time to contact a realtor, to help you sort through all that is available. You could also search patio homes in Wake County...they're smaller and often your lawncare/amenities are included in your HOA dues. Several neighbhorhoods mix patio homes with larger single family homes, so it's not like an entire "retirement community", but you'll have less of a student "party" atmosphere.
If you're looking for more urban fare, there are some nice condos on Oberlin Rd. near Wade Avenue. That puts you at Cameron Village, with easy access to the beltline and I-40. I'm not sure of your price range or what you're looking for exactly, so again, a realtor might be a good idea. Good luck!
If you're looking for more urban fare, there are some nice condos on Oberlin Rd. near Wade Avenue. That puts you at Cameron Village, with easy access to the beltline and I-40. I'm not sure of your price range or what you're looking for exactly, so again, a realtor might be a good idea. Good luck!
College students/young professionals like this area too. Its easy walking distance to the buses and downtown.
Any areas from around Lake Johnson through Avent Ferry/Gorman/Western Ave down through Tryon and Lake Wheeler is college living. Along with the neighborhoods behind Hillsborough St. and down and around Cameron Village.
I'd suggest N. Raleigh, or even Holly Springs/Apex and that side of Cary. Because we have a number of colleges in the city, most of the apartments are geared toward them, and it can be dfficult to find one that's not. You might be better finding a townhome for rent - and you can search for rentals on www.realtor.com
I know of a great community in West Cary called Amberly.
We just vacated our rental house and loved our landlord.
If you're interested, PM me and I'll give you the details.
College students/young professionals like this area too. Its easy walking distance to the buses and downtown.
I realize that. I gathered from the OP's post that they weren't looking for assisted living, and thought those condos might offer diversity for them, without the "animal house" feel that they live with now.
I know of a great community in West Cary called Amberly.
We just vacated our rental house and loved our landlord.
If you're interested, PM me and I'll give you the details.
Good luck to you.
This is a nice area and would be very nice for "adults".
Are you interested at all in single family rental houses or are you more interested in multiple dwelling communities because of the other ammenities and social outlets?
THANKS for the info Lamishra! I checked the Amberly website and without confirming it, speculated that the rental for housing in that community would probably be over $1000 a month (over our short-term budget).
As a side commentary and at the risk of "whining" about our dilemma, I read a recent article in the Work & Money section of the News & Observer entitled, "Golden Oldies", "Retirees are as good as gold for many sectors of NC's economy". Regardless of your age, you might find it an interesting article because at some point it will apply to you and your age group regardless of what that is. Without making an in-depth commentary on the state of our national economy and the impact on border-line retirees and those that already fall in the "retired" category, I'll mention two points: 1. the shortage of jobs for those pre-retiree's and much younger workers is partly due to older workers hanging on to their job longer than they anticipated, resulting in fewer "golden oldies" contributing to the economy and at the same time creating more job openings for those without jobs.
Think of it as a job throughput problem backing up the whole job turnover process. It wasn't that long ago that articles’ were written about the impending SHORTAGE of workers rather than the shortage of jobs due to the exodus of the baby-boom generation from the workplace. 2. The article refers to "affluent" retirees with money to spend on the local economy and makes no mention of potential retirees that fall in the "working class" category (that far out number those in the "affluent" category).
It doesn't take much research on the local area to find little to no housing ownership opportunities for those less than affluent retirees. Developers intent on making maximum profits have focused on the "high end" market and that is OK except that it results in those above the subsidized/income restricted level (which has long waiting lists) and below the "affluent" level, being caught in the middle with renting as the only option.
We are not sure yet if we can stay in the Triangle area through a "needle in the haystack" purchase or finding a "needle in the haystack" rental option geared toward adult living criteria. The jury is still out on that, but in the short term we have reached the conclusion that one if not both of us will have to obtain employment at even a minimal level to find out. Again, in stead of being a full fledged retiree contributing to the economy we hope to become employed (even if not at our previous professional level) and filling jobs that someone unemployed and supporting a family would be happy to have (not a good feeling, but no other option at least not around here).
Having said more than I intended and with a lot more that I could say that should be of interest and affects everyone living in the Triangle to some extent (even the "affluent"), the net of it is our inclination to stay put where we are in Raleigh/Cary borderline and let our job hunting success or failure determine if we can continue here or not. Adding another 6 months to a year to our current 6 month lease in housing that many others would more than appreciate having, will give us 6-18 months of our best shot at becoming contributing members of the community in one form or another.
Hopefully this will not sound like we're "whining” and we clearly and fully appreciate and are thankful that our dilemma is much less than compared to what many, many people are faced with today. We sincerely hope that their circumstances will improve as soon as possible and if we become settled members of the community we will do our best to find something we can do to help in that regard.
We rented a house there for 2 years and loved it. You can walk to Five Points and enjoy a coffee or pizza. Check out some antiques. You're also a 5 minute drive to downtown or you can walk/bike it depending on your level of outdoorsy.
All the homes have so much character in Five Points and the neighbors were all wonderful. Neighborhood is a mix of families, young professionals, and some college kids here/there, but the college kids that do live there are scattered and aren't the kind that throw keggers.
You can check Craigslist, but I like the realtor suggestion someone else made. Honestly it cuts out a lot of time when wading through the crap listings. Some people for example will say that their location is in one location but they are really well off the beaten path but on a technicality of a block/two able to say they are somewhere. I used a realtor just this past month Moderator cut: no real estate recommendations allowed, per the TOS to find a new place. They were wonderful in taking care of me.
Last edited by Green Irish Eyes; 08-14-2010 at 03:17 PM..
My mother has been living at Summermill at Falls River for four years now, and has been happy there.
Oh, and if you read reviews that mention the smell of the landfill, ignore them. The landfill is now a park.
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Re-thinking Housing Dilemma
