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Mtn. property is pretty expensive too. Asheville is more expensive than many of the beach areas. Of course, it all depends on how close to the beach you are.
ITB is probably a bit more pricey than Chapel Hill.
I think it comes back to if the OP is just referring to home price or cost of living. Taxes in Chapel Hill are high and that does make it an expensive place to live.
Beach property is pretty expensive, so I'm not surprised it is the "most expensive". Still, the links provided lump each tow/city into a common group (Charlotte, Raleigh, etc.), which doesn't provide a lot of insight into the specific markets within those areas.
If you go to the map that NCN linked to here, http://www.city-data.com/city/North-Carolina.html , you can zoom in on individual neighborhoods and use the drop down menu that has "median household income" as the first option and you can pull down to find out stats on all kinds of stuff, mean value of detached homes, age of home, median monthly housing costs, race, children below poverty level, ancestries reported, etc. I guess it's pretty much whatever questions the census asks and you can take it down to the granular level.
Can someone enlighten me as to why houses cost more (sometimes much more per sq ft and even older) in Chapel Hill than say Raleigh or Cary? Raleigh/Cary also has great school systems, real malls/shopping, and vibrant larger downtowns.
Can someone enlighten me as to why houses cost more (sometimes much more per sq ft and even older) in Chapel Hill than say Raleigh or Cary? Raleigh/Cary also has great school systems, real malls/shopping, and vibrant larger downtowns.
Like somebody mentioned before, it's not just the schools. Chapel Hill has a strong handle on growth meaning there isn't a lot of new construction entering the market. The supply of housing inst increasing much which drives demand way up and prices with it. Other areas in Raleigh and Cary which may be served by excellent schools have a lot more potential for continued growth (whether you like growth or not) which means more supply of housing and lower demand/prices.
That's not to say there still aren't expensive places to live in Raleigh and Cary. At the end of the day you can choose to spend just as much in just about any town in the Triangle. A $600k dollar home is a $600k dollar home everywhere and there are plenty going for that and more all over the Triangle.
I think it comes back to if the OP is just referring to home price or cost of living. Taxes in Chapel Hill are high and that does make it an expensive place to live.
Both, really. I'm considering living near Chapel Hill and I just haven't seen a big difference in the rental prices there compared to other places in the Triangle. I'm not in a position to buy property, but I did notice that home prices were higher. So I was wondering what, if anything, would make CH more expensive than say Raleigh/Durham as far as general COL goes. I don't want to be hit with any surprises.
A bunch of things listed in here that I never would have thought of.
Both, really. I'm considering living near Chapel Hill and I just haven't seen a big difference in the rental prices there compared to other places in the Triangle. I'm not in a position to buy property, but I did notice that home prices were higher. So I was wondering what, if anything, would make CH more expensive than say Raleigh/Durham as far as general COL goes. I don't want to be hit with any surprises.
A bunch of things listed in here that I never would have thought of.
If I were to try and buy a home comparable to mine in Chapel Hill it would cost about 10% more than what it would in Cary and that is because as others have mentioned there is less inventory in Chapel Hill, it is smaller and growth is tightly controlled. The other major difference is the taxes. I recently looked at homes for sale in Chapel Hill and viewed the taxes and was surprised that was seeing numbers more than double what I am paying. For ME, it would be more expensive to live in Chapel Hill vs living in Cary.
Also Chapel Hill's 'smart growth' plan (slow growth) along with the set rural buffers have caused prices to increase rapidly. Taxes thru the roof as well. I thought I read property taxes were either highest or second highest in the state. (?)
Lots of places have higher basic property taxes than CH, but the addition of the school district tax probably does make it the highest:
If I were to try and buy a home comparable to mine in Chapel Hill it would cost about 10% more than what it would in Cary and that is because as others have mentioned there is less inventory in Chapel Hill, it is smaller and growth is tightly controlled. The other major difference is the taxes. I recently looked at homes for sale in Chapel Hill and viewed the taxes and was surprised that was seeing numbers more than double what I am paying. For ME, it would be more expensive to live in Chapel Hill vs living in Cary.
That makes sense. I was actually going to bring up Cary for comparison purposes, but wasn't sure if I'd be off base or not. I guess unless a family really wants to live in Chapel Hill, then they get better value elsewhere.
I'm zeroing in on living in Carrboro. I believe some statistics posted earlier in this thread said it was slightly more expensive than Chapel Hill. But I guess if I'm not buying property at the moment, then it doesn't really make a difference. The prices I'm seeing aren't really jumping out at me as outrageously expensive. The only problem I'd have is my commute, which has nothing to do with the COL.
I believe Durham's taxes are also on the high side, but housing prices are generally lower there (of course it depends on the specific house).
Carrboro is great PDF. We live super close to Carrboro and go out to eat, go to school, shop, and generally just hang out in Carrboro all the time. Chapel Hill is great too. When you get in the middle like we are there's really not much difference between the two. It's definitely NOT outrageously expensive. You can spend lotsa money in Chapelboro if you want to, but this area is definitely not an enclave for the wealthy. I think the most common car I see around town has got to be a Prius. This is definitely a Prius kinda town.
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