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Thank You All for your comments! It's so helpful to hear from people who live there to help make this decision. I did get a chance to tour Wake Forest 2 weeks ago and it does have a lot to do and is a pretty town with all the historic buildings everywhere. We did not, however, get time to tour Clayton. My husband would like to actually live outside the city, maybe even have some land. I'm wondering if Clayton may be better suited for that type of lifestyle? We live in the city now and are ready to not be in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of city life. I will be working in healthcare and my husband is a truck driver so I'm assuming we will be both driving to work everyday in the city but 30 mins is nothing for us as I already have had to have a commute of 45-60 mins every day to school here.
Any more comments would be greatly appreciated!
Where I am from, WF is a town, I wouldn't consider it a city at all. It is a town that has a great sense of pride. I am also on another community board for WF (not on here) and the sense of pride, the generosity of the residents, is not something I have ever seen in NYC. That's not to say their aren't nice people where I am from, just not many and they certainly don't say hello, or ask if you are okay! We have 8+ million people here, WF is most definitely a beautiful small town.
Clayton appeared more rural, further away from things! You mentioned you wanted opportunities for your children, so really factor in how far away everything will be for them when they are younge adults or teenagers especially! How far are the malls? The movie theater? Also keep in mind, in Wake Forest, you do not have to live in city limits! You can live outside of city limits, have more land and cheaper taxes and still be close to amenities (locals, please help me out here!).
Hi there!!! I didnt look at the date on this threat and havent been on the forums in a bit, but your question got me because we were coming from WI and planned on moving to Wake Forest and changed at the last minute and are in Clayton.We didnt want to deal with the Wake schools because the year we were moving, they had open choice enrollment and we were moving after the enrollment period, so we were told we could have kids is 3 different schools on 3 different tracks-that did not appeal to me.
SInce we are here, we will stay until the two older ones are done with school. they had a really hard adjustment period being in 5th and 7th grade when we moved. Then I'd like to be closer to civilization. We have to go to Garner, Knightdale, or Raleigh for Target, the movies, etc. Not much to do here, which is hard coming from a big city. We dont do much anyhow, but I'm just not feeling it here.
I'm very disappointed in the schools. I taught in Wake Co last year and while they have issues, at least they adhere to the curriculum. The school my kids are at is called a school of excellence, but I dont know how. test scores are not good, teachers are not very good, and there is a lot of wasted time. My 8th grader has seen more videos-many Magic School bus-than she saw EVER in school. Since the start of May, no more teaching. they are all doing worksheets teachers are calling EOG review. There is no way they are finished with the common core, so to waste 6 weeks on worksheets of past material is wasting their education. That is 2 kids, different grades, total of 12 teachers, so not just one bad apple.
Hi there!!! I didnt look at the date on this threat and havent been on the forums in a bit, but your question got me because we were coming from WI and planned on moving to Wake Forest and changed at the last minute and are in Clayton.We didnt want to deal with the Wake schools because the year we were moving, they had open choice enrollment and we were moving after the enrollment period, so we were told we could have kids is 3 different schools on 3 different tracks-that did not appeal to me.
SInce we are here, we will stay until the two older ones are done with school. they had a really hard adjustment period being in 5th and 7th grade when we moved. Then I'd like to be closer to civilization. We have to go to Garner, Knightdale, or Raleigh for Target, the movies, etc. Not much to do here, which is hard coming from a big city. We dont do much anyhow, but I'm just not feeling it here.
I'm very disappointed in the schools. I taught in Wake Co last year and while they have issues, at least they adhere to the curriculum. The school my kids are at is called a school of excellence, but I dont know how. test scores are not good, teachers are not very good, and there is a lot of wasted time. My 8th grader has seen more videos-many Magic School bus-than she saw EVER in school. Since the start of May, no more teaching. they are all doing worksheets teachers are calling EOG review. There is no way they are finished with the common core, so to waste 6 weeks on worksheets of past material is wasting their education. That is 2 kids, different grades, total of 12 teachers, so not just one bad apple.
You nailed it. That's the reason we left because our younger one still had a few years to go and didn't want it wasted in the Clayton school system. My older guy came here in 10th grade and he was depressed because of non-challenging courses even the Honors Classes were a sham. My younger guy hated Clayton schools and still wasn't very impressed with Wake school either though a bit better. Glad they are grown because if we had to start now from elementary we would have gone back to our old town where we're from.
You nailed it. That's the reason we left because our younger one still had a few years to go and didn't want it wasted in the Clayton school system. My older guy came here in 10th grade and he was depressed because of non-challenging courses even the Honors Classes were a sham. My younger guy hated Clayton schools and still wasn't very impressed with Wake school either though a bit better. Glad they are grown because if we had to start now from elementary we would have gone back to our old town where we're from.
Yes, I am worried about the rest of their education, that's for sure. My neighbor is pleased with the new high school. She has a freshman and senior there and no complaints, so we'll see.
My kids certainly had a more rigorous education up north.
Would love some advice from anybody who lives in these areas. My husband and I are planning to relocate to North Carolina from Ohio in the next year or so. We have researched many areas and have kind of zoned in on the Raleigh area because we want to be near a big city so our children can have opportunities for jobs, entertainment, shopping, etc. close to home....But we do not want to live in the city! We are moving to North Carolina because we have been vacationing at Holden Beach for over 10 years now and have feel in love with the idea of being closer to the ocean so that we can go to the beach more than once a year. So staying as close to the east coast as possible is a must!! We seem to be torn at the moment between Wake Forest and Clayton so any advice would be greatly appreciated!
I have many many clients that live in Wake Forest and many many clients that live in Clayton.
My WF clients chose that area due to having a small town feel. Many of them work in areas like RTP, Rocky Mount and Wilson. Some have families and some are empty nesters. Some complain about the traffic on Capital Blvd. and some find different routes to use. Homes are nice but land is expensive so most end up in n'hoods with l/4 to l/3 acre. A few have found homes they purchased closer to Hwy. 98 and have an acre lot but those tend to be over $350K.
My Clayton clients chose that area mostly due to less expensive homes and larger lots. Most of those lots are l/2 to an acre. Clayton has a rural feel although it has grown tremendously in the last few years. There was one year that it grew over 400%! Johnston County schools have a great reputation but I have no personal experience with them.
My mom and sister live in Clayton. My husband works in Clayton and most of his employees live in Clayton. Husband would move there in an instant if I agreed! I'm very happy in North Raleigh and my office is a 5 min. drive from home so that ain't happening!
Why does one family choose one location over another? It all comes down to finding what they want. Finding housing, shopping, entertainment, etc. varies from one to another.
Once you come down to start shopping for your new home, it will become clear to you where YOU want to be. You will delete areas that you don't like and in about 3 days, you will know where YOU want to be.
Wake Forest is a great town....we moved there from Northern Ohio 12 years ago. Varity of price points, schools that are much more stable then many other areas of Wake. Great place to raise kids....downtown is growing....plenty of non-chain options, while still having plenty of options (Super Target etc etc).
Have you considered Knightdale? It is inbetween and the commute is so much more convenient! Wake Forest is a lovely town, but very hard to commut in peak times (Bumper to Bumper) sometimes. Hop on 540 or 264 and Knightdale is a stones throw away from Clayton and close to Rollesville.
This has been very helpful to read all the comments everybody has posted. Please keep them coming! The more I hear from people who actually live there the better!! We plan to visit the area in the next few months to tour around and see what we think. Can anyone recommend a realtor in the Clayton area to show us a few houses while we are there? I'm starting to think that may be the place for us just because we are wanting the more rural lifestyle. Most of our kids have their licenses so they can drive to entertainment and shopping while my husband and I enjoy not having neighbors right on top of us like we do now. I definitely enjoy the thought of more house and land for the money! The picture is beginning to become clearer!!
Thanks so much everyone!!!
This has been very helpful to read all the comments everybody has posted. Please keep them coming! The more I hear from people who actually live there the better!! We plan to visit the area in the next few months to tour around and see what we think. Can anyone recommend a realtor in the Clayton area to show us a few houses while we are there? I'm starting to think that may be the place for us just because we are wanting the more rural lifestyle. Most of our kids have their licenses so they can drive to entertainment and shopping while my husband and I enjoy not having neighbors right on top of us like we do now. I definitely enjoy the thought of more house and land for the money! The picture is beginning to become clearer!!
Thanks so much everyone!!!
Oh you can get rural with Clayton alright but don't think all of Clayton has big lots because many of the newer developments from like 2005 forward don't offer the .5 acre or greater lot size. There are some but not tons. However, if you want 1 acre plus lots you may find yourself going further out to like Selma or Benson. Just check out the typical sites like zillow, trulia, realtor.com and query your preference. Keep in mind though that you'll be spending considerable amount of gas just to get to entertainment.
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Would love some advice from anybody who lives in these areas. My husband and I are planning to relocate to North Carolina from Ohio in the next year or so. We have researched many areas and have kind of zoned in on the Raleigh area because we want to be near a big city so our children can have opportunities for jobs, entertainment, shopping, etc. close to home....But we do not want to live in the city! We are moving to North Carolina because we have been vacationing at Holden Beach for over 10 years now and have feel in love with the idea of being closer to the ocean so that we can go to the beach more than once a year. So staying as close to the east coast as possible is a must!! We seem to be torn at the moment between Wake Forest and Clayton so any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Knightdale
