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If you have any opinion on a Durham or nearby neighborhood here is the place to mention it!
I will potentially be moving down to the Durham area from Ohio to attend Duke for grad school. I have found that there are a lot of options for apartments and places to live and the different neighborhoods around town. If anyone could give me details about some different neighborhoods such as safety, things to do, if it's more nature or "shopping center" oriented, things like that. And if you know of any apartments that you know of that you would recommend that would get great too!
I will be moving with my girlfriend and looking for a 1 or 2 bedroom over 600 sq. ft. and preferably $700 or less, probably $800 max.
I have been looking mostly near campus, in south Durham in the Southpoint, South Square mall area, and between Durham and Chapel Hill because these seem like good places. A couple specific properties are 1520 Magnolia, Holly Hills, South Square Townhomes, Oak Creek Village, and a few Ticon properties. If you know anything about these places, Ticon Properties in general, or even any other properties I haven't mentioned please let me know!
Do not limit yourself to my specifications if you have any information you think is useful. If everyone gives a good evaluation this could be a good resource for information on the areas of Durham with some ideas for living. I have yet to find a place online that actually helps new people KNOW Durham. New people moving here could use this as a one stop shop for Durham moving info. Thanks for the help!
So, here's my take on living in Durham as a Duke grad student:
All of the apartment properties off of LaSalle and Morreene are full of grad students and Duke seniors. They can be a total mad house on a Friday or Saturday night. That's cool if you like that, but by the time I started grad school, I was done with the obnoxious all night keggers. There is a bus that runs down LaSalle and then around the science and medical research buildings. It runs every thirty minutes, and it's pretty full in the mornings and evenings. That makes the area pretty convenient for students.
There's several neighborhoods that have quick access to Duke. Quick access to East Campus is had from Old West Durham, Watts Hospital Hillandale, Walltown, Trinity Park, Burch Avenue, and the West End. Old West, Burch, West End, Watts-Hillandale, and LaSalle Street also have pretty easy access to West Campus. All of these are within walking distance to a Duke bus stop.
The apartments downtown are pretty hard to afford on a stipend. A one bedroom at West Village will run you around $1,000 or $1,100. Same thing at American Tobacco.
If you want to live in a house, and do it cheaply, you can check out neighborhoods like Burch Avenue and the West End. If you don't mind biking or getting a parking permit, then I know quite a few folks that like to bike in from East Durham, Cleveland-Holloway in particular.
You mentioned safety. A lot of muggings, petty theft, and burglaries happen around LaSalle St. It's simply a by-product of the number of apartments around. Nobody knows their neighbor, so nothing seems suspicious until it's too late. Overall, Durham's crime rate is below average for cities its size. I haven't looked at the numbers for 2010, but in 2009 it was actually in the lowest quartile when you looked at county-wide rates vs rates in similar sized cities. Yes, the crime rate is higher than Chapel Hill or Raleigh, but it's low in comparison to most cities.
Ticon properties is a good management company. Check out the apartments/townhomes of theirs called Lenox East and West off Neal Road. Very close to campus & convenient to shopping. There's also a nice complex in the midst of the Duke forest called Deerfield at Colonial Village. Close to campus, and in a very nice setting. Across the street is another apt complex called The Forest. Lived there for 3 rys in the early 2000s. Was a nice place then but the apts might be getting older at this point.
There's also a nice complex in the midst of the Duke forest called Deerfield at Colonial Village. Close to campus, and in a very nice setting...Was a nice place then but the apts might be getting older at this point.
That's where we lived when we moved down here in 1999. Full of students IIRC and very peaceful but it's been a long time for us too.
I am a resident at UNC hospitals that moved to this area last year. Audubon Park in Durham (near Southpoint Mall) has been a great neighborhood for me and my family, as well as many other residents at both UNC and Duke. It's close to both Chapel Hill, Duke, as well as Raleigh. I don't know if you have children or not, but it also has a great pool/playground.
Most of the homes are 3 BR, 2.5 bath, priced between $200,000 and $230,000. If I had to move to this area all over again, I'd probably choose the same neighborhood again!
Thank you all for the quick and detailed responses. They are very helpful. I will be down there visiting Duke this weekend and am hoping to get a list of 3 or 4 apartments to visit during my short stay. A lot of the Ticon properties look very nice, Lenox seemed to get the worst reviews of them all though. Deerfield is one of the complexes I was hoping to visit while I'm down there, I have heard a lot of good things.
If it helps, I am 23, graduating in May, not married, no kids, no pets, and my girlfriend is 22 and working as a CNA.
Keep the responses coming! And again, even if it's not specific to my situation any information you have could be helpful for the next person.
Hello, fellow Ohioian! My husband is currently a graduate student at Duke, he is in his first year, but we have lived here for five years. The first year we rented, sight basically unseen, a duplex on W Knox Street. The landlord was shady and the water and electric kept getting turned off (we had a newborn baby at the time) so we moved to Beech Lake Apartments and have been here for four years. This is on University Drive, which is basically middle Durham but technically South Durham. We have enjoyed living here and would recommend it. No noise, safe for the kids. They have some one bedrooms in your price range (one is even 1015 sq ft) that you might want to look at. If you aren't bothered about driving to school (you can't walk around here), then I recommend. There are several different complexes on this road, but I can only speak about Beech Lake. We would probably stay, but we are moving to be closer to where my son got in to Kindergarten. If you want, talk to Michelle in the office, she is the property manager and she lives directly below me!
If you give me more of an idea about what you are looking for in terms of location, I can give you some good suggestions. And, as a fellow Ohioian, I can say you will LOVE the weather down here, except for July/August - too hot for people from Ohio!
We are moving to Ticon Properties near Southpoint.I have heard bad things about their one bedrooms (too noisy) but good things about the townhomes (where we are moving). I will let you know.
That is nice to hear about Ticon, I have heard a lot of good things and am leaning towards a few of their properties now. Interesting about the 1 bedrooms being noisy, but that makes sense compared to the townhomes.
And it's also nice to see some other Clevelanders on here!
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