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A few miscellaneous questions about Cary and/or Apex and/or Holly Springs, as we're considering moving to there.
* Can you park your cars on the street or is it driveway-only?
* Pets require license tags, but do they have to actually wear the tags if they are indoor-only cats?
* Anecdotes re: relative speed between Bellsouth DSL Extreme 6.0 and Roadrunner?
* I see that a lot of houses listed in Apex for sale in our hoped-for price range ($150,000-200,000) are built <10 years ago and on small lots. Are these McMansions or just recent construction, but not from cookie-cutter developers but actually solidly built?
Thank you for your cooperation. I may have more questions later.
You can park on the street in a legal manner except in instances where your HOA (if you have one) owns the streets and has a no street parking rule.
I don't think the license tag police will hunt your cat down. None of pets wear their tags (dogs and a cat) when home, inside and/or in our fenced yard. Namely that's because they all chew their collars off each other and I get sick of replacing them. But most likely, no one would even care to notice.
I have roadrunner and I love it. Had a bad experience with bellsouth DSL in NY. I have never looked back.
The houses you see in that price range are NOT mcmansions. Prices here are cheap but not that cheap. With Apex being a pricey area (just behind Cary price-wise) and over $100 per square foot, they are most likely small starter homes in cookie-cutter neighborhoods. An Apex "McMansion" is easily still going to run you 350K and up. Well, assume a 3000 sq ft home would be AT LEAST that much. You probably won't be too impressed with the homes in Apex for less than 200K.
Another question -- I heard about Clayton being a nice place to live, and not quite as pricey. However, I probably will be working either in Raleigh or the Triangle. What's the commute from Clayton like? (For that matter, what's the commute from Apex/Cary like?)
Edit: n/m half that question, found the thread about commuting from Clayton. *shudders*. Sounds long. What's the Apex/Cary commute like?
Another question -- I heard about Clayton being a nice place to live, and not quite as pricey. However, I probably will be working either in Raleigh or the Triangle. What's the commute from Clayton like? (For that matter, what's the commute from Apex/Cary like?)
Edit: n/m half that question, found the thread about commuting from Clayton. *shudders*. Sounds long. What's the Apex/Cary commute like?
Chuck,
When you say, "Raleigh or the Triangle," should I assume you mean the RTP, Research Triangle Park?
The entire region is called the Triangle, and includes Clayton/Johnston
County.
Regarding commuting from Cary/Apex:
Cary has a large footprint, and it can take 40 minutes to drive from one end of the town to the other during drivetime.
And Raleigh has a HUGE footprint, so the length of commute can be very easy, or a little difficult.
But generally, commuting to Raleigh from either Apex or Cary is not a bad drive.
Commuting from much of Cary to the RTP is easy, getting harder from far in SE Cary. Some areas of Apex are an easier commute to RTP than some areas of Cary.
Mike, as usual, makes some good points. If you look at a map, there are points where Raleigh, Cary, Apex and Holly Springs all meet out around Holly Springs Rd and Penny Road area. When we were last looking at homes we found an incredible home for an attractive price, but it was just much longer of a commute than we comfortable with to RTP.
Before that, we lived in old downtown Apex. It was a great compromise location. When we started living there, I was working at Centennial Campus (NC State, near downtown Raleigh) and the commute was only about 15-20 minutes (down US1 to I-440 to Gorman Street). Then I changed jobs to Morrisville off Airport Blvd. Commute was about 20-25 minutes. RTP would have been another 10 minutes or so.
Apex has changed a whole, whole lot since 2000. When we first arrived, there was an aging Food Lion as the main grocery option (wife usually just drove into Cary). Now there are Lowes Foods and Harris Teeters. Lowes/Home Depot were 10-15 minutes away at Crossroads in Cary. Same for a Borders books or a movie theater. Now Beaver Creek has all that stuff.
We live in SW Cary -- close to the RTP, and we enjoy easy access to the Research Triangle, Apex, RDU airport, and the like. We have our pick of grocery stores and services like dry cleaners, and there are medical groups and dentists now opening offices.
Traffic can be heavy, but not bad, and it moves.
There are all sorts of neighborhoods in different price ranges springing-up around us, and roads are being addressed, as well as schools, and additional shopping centers. SW Cary, and much of the area for that matter, I would describe as the "best of suburban living." It makes me think this is exactly what developers had in mind years ago when the suburb-concept was initiated, and people began moving from the cities.
Pets require license tags, but do they have to actually wear the tags if they are indoor-only cats?
I'm not completely sure how licensing works...is that sort of included in the rabies vaccination fees? Anyway.... there is no way on earth my cats (I have 4 indoors but doesn't matter even if they were outdoors) are wearing collars at all. I find them very dangerous for cats because they love getting into stuff and hinders their natural inclinations. Of course I'm a firm believer in micro-chipping. I wouldn't worry about it.
Your DSL speed can vary depending how close you are the the phone company's "hub." I believe Roadrunner is around 5.0 meg with the Bellsouth DSL Extreme is 6.0 meg.
Your speed will slow a bit during busy times of the day. My connection typically runs between 4-6 megs. Although I frequently get readings above 6 and have been as high as 6.4.
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