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I've heard this from a few people. Is that really the case? I have a hard time picturing Chapel Hill being more expensive than some of the prestigious areas of Charlotte. And if it's not the expensive state-wide, it surely takes the cake for priciest in the Triangle? I'm also wondering what exactly would make Chapel Hill that expensive. I haven't noticed a huge increase in the housing rentals I've been looking at compared to other areas in the Triangle.
Location: Sodo Sopa at The Villas above Kenny' s House.
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Taxes..... Less inventory of homes means higher prices for the ones there. Chapel Hill is the Berkley of the South much more prestigious and has more history then Charlotte neighborhoods IMO. Close to great schools and medical facilities. Working there tmrw and can't wait to see the beautiful house I'm doing and a little sight seeing before I head home.
I don't know your complete answer but I do know a few years back that Franklin Street in particular was the highest per square foot cost for commercial properties in N.C. ... Not sure if still true, but was at least recently.
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. (?)
I'm sure that is looking at the town as a whole, although I'm sure the prestigious parts of chapel hill give the prestigious parts of any town a run for their money on a price per square foot basis.
You combine the highest rated school district in the state (tm) with restrictions on growth and sprawl, and you get a place where lots of people want to move to without lots of properties on the market. This drives up existing home prices, and you'll be hard pressed to find new construction of homes going for under $600K. Its not expensive because it is fancy, it is expensive because tons of people want to live there.
There is a comparison of cost of living of cities on City-Data. When you look up a city it is usually the last line before the blue "forum" box. This will help in comparing the cost of living in any city in question. I chose Weddington because I would have thought the cost if living was higher there. I was wrong.
I don't think it's something that people just toss around. Chapel Hill is definitely "up there" in terms of cost of living in the state, even if it's not exactly top. Your first link shows county housing prices, which shows the average listing price in Orange County to be third after Carrituck and Dare. But first, list price is almost meaningless - how much a home sells for is much more meaningful. Second, this shows county rather than city. Third, it only shows housing prices - doesn't include cost of living for other things like taxes, utilities, food, entertainment, etc (OP didn't just ask about housing). The second column shows median sales price which shows Orange County second to Watauga County. But again, this is just for housing and it's for the whole county, and it's just for a period of 2-3 months. So I don't think that link proves anything.
Your second link shows that Chapel Hill has the third most expensive housing market after Ocean Isle and Sunset Beach, respectively. Again, this just takes into account housing, but not other cost of living expenses.
Using the cost of living calculator on C-D, Chapel Hill has a higher cost of living than both Ocean Isle and Sunset Beach (a person making $50K in CH would only need to make $46K in Ocean Isle and $45K in Sunset Beach).
I didn't test out each city compared to CH, but I imagine CH is one of the most expesnive towns in the whole state, if not the most expensive overall in terms of cost of living.
Well, y'all got me curious so I geeked out here on City-Data, taking my cue from NCN's suggestion of looking at the cost of living. For each town, City-Data lists the cost of living index using 2013 data. It's below the map and the pie chart of racial make-up here: http://www.city-data.com/city/Chapel...-Carolina.html . Chapel Hill is below US average Cost of Living. It has only a very slightly higher cost of living index at 97 (100 is the US average) than the rest of the Triangle, which ranges from 94.4 in Durham and Knightdale to 97.4 in Carrboro. Cary is 95.7, Apex is 95.6 as is Morrisville. Raleigh is 95.5. As for housing costs, as I've said before, Chapel Hill's got it all from trailer parks to multi-million dollar estates.
Boone is above US average at 108.6, as is Wrightsville Beach at 109.3 . (College towns across the US seem to have a higher COI, btw.) Ocean Isle has a COI of 104.1; Sunset Beach has a COI of 96.2, probably because the Sunset Beach town limits extend well onto the mainland and Ocean Isle is just the island.
Here are some of the other numbers for NC towns that I found.
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.
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