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Our family will be relocating to the Triangle area in the next few months. My husband's work is at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham. I am looking for information on family friendly areas to move to that would keep his commute time to 25 minutes or less. We don't have family in the area, so we are looking for neighborhoods that are friendly and have younger families. I have researched the schools in Wake County and they all seem to be well rated. Our twins are not in school yet, so that is not currently a major concern. Our budget for housing is around $350,000. We currently live in the Midwest, so driving to get to stores, parks, etc. is already our norm, although the idea of being able to walk to amenities is appealing. We would prefer a neighborhood that had some space between houses, trees and some yard (doesn't have to be an acre). We would like a safe area that does not have questionable areas to and from the major thoroughfares. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Live in Durham. It is by far the best city in the triangle (no it isn't just my opinion). We have 2 small kids and have been here 8 years. I went to school in chapel hill but you couldn't pay me to live there.
Thank you for the quick response.
What makes Durham the best city? Our concern with Durham is the school system. Do your kids attend the public schools in Durham?
Even though our children are several years out from school, we want to be in an area with a good public school system. We were thinking of keeping to the Wake County area for that reason. From the research I have done, Chapel Hill appears to be out of our price range.
Thank you for the quick response.
What makes Durham the best city? Our concern with Durham is the school system. Do your kids attend the public schools in Durham?
Even though our children are several years out from school, we want to be in an area with a good public school system. We were thinking of keeping to the Wake County area for that reason. From the research I have done, Chapel Hill appears to be out of our price range.
I live in walking distance to American Tobacco (and work there too).
On my street in Trinity Park, we have numerous kids attending multiple elementary, middle and high schools throughout Durham, including Watts Montessori, DSA, Riverside, Brogden and others. Think there are some kids at Morehead Montessori Middle, too.
These kids including the children of PhD's, scientists, university faculty and at least one tech firm CEO.
There is this myth that the schools in Durham are "bad." There are some poor-achieving students in Durham schools and in Wake schools, too. While there is a disproportionate number in Durham schools, the system does a good job of maintaining challenging programs (magnet, AP, IB) for high-achieving kids.
My own BIL sends his son to Riverside because of their challenging engineering program. He commutes an hour each day -- driving past Cary, Apex and Holly Springs in the process -- because he likes his Durham high school and doesn't want to take him out of it.
Greatschools.org is a number, that does not reflect the reality of people who actually live in and love Durham.
I am looking for information on family friendly areas to move to that would keep his commute time to 25 minutes or less.
If the commute time is a major concern, that might rule out most of Wake County. Right now, you could live in parts of Wake County and still be able to commute to downtown Durham in slightly under 25 minutes, but rush hour traffic along that route has become significantly worse in the last couple of years (from my perspective). A 25-minute commute from Wake County might increase to 45 minutes relatively soon. Durham, Chapel Hill, and Hillsborough/Orange County seem like safer relocation options for avoiding a killer work commute in the near future.
I will also recommend Durham and Durham Public Schools. We love northern Durham b/c we are only 10-15 minutes from downtown but feel like we live in a somewhat rural area. Our neighborhood has tons of kids and nearby neighborhoods also have a lot of kids, many of whom attend public schools with our kids. These are often children of people with masters and doctorate degrees from excellent universities (i.e. Brown, Harvard, NC State, Duke, etc...). We can walk to Eno River State Park directly from our neighborhood and the two supermarkets are just over a mile away.
Take a look at River's Edge, Marywood, Fieldstone, Buckwater Creek, Eno Forest, etc...
I agree that you should definitely check out Durham and see if it feels right for you. It's a very vibrant city and I have lots of friends with kids who love living there. The ATC is a fantastic place, btw.
If Durham doesn't have the right feel, I'd next check out Chapel Hill. There are homes in a wide variety of price ranges. Personally, I wouldn't want to commute from Raleigh/Cary to Durham. It's a pretty easy hop from Chapel Hill to Durham. We go down to the ATC area and downtown Durham fairly frequently. It's maybe 20-25 min from heart of Chapel Hill. If you lived on the east side of town you could probably shave off 10 minutes.
Are you looking for new construction or are you open to an older home? For the most part, you'll get a bigger lot with an older home, and more younger families in new construction, although plenty of young families are recolonizing older 60s & 70s built neighborhoods, too. I know several families that live in Colony Woods and Ridgefield in Chapel Hill, which are older neighborhoods right at the county line (actually goes through Colony Woods). Meadowmont is a newer (1990-2000s) village style neighborhood w/ school, pool, shops, restaurants, etc.
Woodcroft in Durham might appeal. Very family oriented with a great pool (great way to get to know the neighbors in the summer) and I think it feeds into well regarded schools. The SW Durham area, near Southpoint mall, has a number of newer developments and is convenient to most places in the Triangle.
For anyone, renting a while before you buy is advised. Then you can take your time getting a feel for the area rather than being at the mercy of Realtors (no offense to Realtors, I'm married to one!) or Internet boards Obviously there are more things you're looking for than just the 2 or 3 you mention here, and those come out when you really travel around and area and get to know it.
You might consider renting in Durham near your husband's work for now, then buying later after you've checked out the surrounding areas. It's true that in general, Durham schools are lower-rated than Wake or certainly Chapel Hill, but Duke is in Durham and those professors' kids go to school somewhere. There are some amazing, cool neighborhoods in the Duke area that I'd love to live in, and Durham is in a real "growth spurt" right now, probably more so than Raleigh.
You also might consider eastern Orange county that's close enough for a decent commute but in the Orange system.
Thank you all so much for the information! I will be visiting this week and this definitely gives me additional areas to check out. I hope I didn't offend anyone about the schools in Durham. When relocating from a distance, I only have forums and ratings to go off of for now till I visit. I appreciate the advice!
We currently live in a suburb and have to travel at least 10 minutes to get to the grocery store, 25 minutes or more the zoo, museums, etc.
How would you all describe Durham, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough? I know that Durham is a large area. I'm thinking of the area around Eno State Park.
My ideal would be a nice house (we don't mind if it is older), I don't want to be so close to my neighbors that we can play catch out our windows (so a little breathing room), trees would be nice, family friendly neighbors, no longer than a 10 minute drive to grocery stores, close to a park would be great, and additional kid friendly things nearby.
Thank you all so much for the information! I will be visiting this week and this definitely gives me additional areas to check out. I hope I didn't offend anyone about the schools in Durham. When relocating from a distance, I only have forums and ratings to go off of for now till I visit. I appreciate the advice!
We currently live in a suburb and have to travel at least 10 minutes to get to the grocery store, 25 minutes or more the zoo, museums, etc.
How would you all describe Durham, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough? I know that Durham is a large area. I'm thinking of the area around Eno State Park.
My ideal would be a nice house (we don't mind if it is older), I don't want to be so close to my neighbors that we can play catch out our windows (so a little breathing room), trees would be nice, family friendly neighbors, no longer than a 10 minute drive to grocery stores, close to a park would be great, and additional kid friendly things nearby.
No offense taken at all!
Many of us Durhamites jump to the chance to correct misassumptions on this, that usually come from two sources:
a) GreatSchools scores, which are all about the wealth/poverty of the school and not achievement, or,
b) Folks with old/outdated impressions of Durham who tend to tell new colleagues to live in Wake/Chapel Hill
The area around Eno State Park has lots of family-friendly areas. There are also areas with more workforce/affordable housing, particularly in the area bordered by Horton, Carver, Guess and Duke. North of Horton and west of Guess gets into some of the newer/more upscale neighborhoods, although even then there are pockets of workforce and affordable housing.
The only area of north Durham that I would really hesitate in is the Dearborn Dr./Old Oxford Hwy. area, which has had a persistent challenge with crime/poverty. Even then, there are some nice neighborhoods like Colonial Village and Northgate Park right near there.
Many of the houses in North Durham are older -- this was the area first suburbanized in the 50s/60s/70s, so think ranches and carports! -- and if that suits you, all the better. Those housing types don't always seem to sell as fast so there can be more to choose from. And, there are plenty of new construction/recent neighborhoods up there too.
Groceries: Harris Teeter and Kroger, along with Food Lion, can be found in North Durham. Plenty of parks, too. And, the Museum of Life and Science is in North Durham and is VERY popular. There is limited big-box shopping, though; you'll end up driving down 15-501 for Target, Best Buy, etc. in south or central Durham.
I live near downtown and am more familiar with that area, I have more limited North Durham knowledge.
One other part of town you *might* consider is the Duke Forest area west of US 15/501 off Erwin Rd. Much of this area is going to be above the price range you might want, but there are older houses mixed in there too.
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Obviously there are more things you're looking for than just the 2 or 3 you mention here, and those come out when you really travel around and area and get to know it. 
