Moving to Raleigh Area from Boston (Cary, Apex: relocate, real estate, foreclosure)

[nickandy]

Hello All,
We are planning to move to Raleigh area from Boston this summer. We have been planning this move (mostly contemplating the move) for the pats 3-4 years. Wish I sold the house here 3 years ago (before it fell and before Raleigh house prices went up). Now it is double whammy for me.

Anyways, I have a few questions and would appreciate some insight from people moved to Raleigh area.
1. In our search we looked at Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, North Raleigh, Wake Forest, Faqua Varina. After spending few days we are interested in Cary, Morrisville, Apex areas. From what saw we think the following:

North Raleigh - Too crowded.
Wake Forest - Too far out but has some beautiful homes with 1/2 acre of more which are resonably priced.
Cary - Close to my work place in RTP but very expensive
Holly springs - far out for us and still developing
Apex and Morrisville - Seem to fit the bill. Still value priced homes. Still developing. Belong to Wake County. Not as pricey or crowded as Cary. Closer to our work places. Shares the same school system as Cary/ Wake Forest.

So we are essentially looking in Apex and Morrisville. Again this is based on our one week visit. Can someone comment on whether our observation is somewhat accurate or we totally off the mark.

2. We looked into lot of new house construction. It is little confusion with too many builders. I know of the Parade of Houses (or something like that) but those builders seem to price it up fully if they win that award. Any particular suggestions on the builders (more importantly who should I stay miles away from). For example, around boston area, Toll Brothers and Pulte dont have a good reputation. Some of my friends bought houses thru them and problems never seem to end. There are some local builders who build much better quality houses at much better prices. So any recommendation on builders (I care more for quality and reasonably prices houses than national brand recognition).

3. Also being from Boston any house that is less than 10 years old is considered brand new (and golden). But down in Raleigh area I find that the new houses offered by builders are somewhat higher priced than the houses that are 1-5 years old. So I am thinking seriously looking into the houses that are under 5 years or under (Built after 2002). Any gotchas. In my opinion if there was something that needs to break down it would have broken down already. Any particular areas I need to avoid or things I should consider. Rotten houses in certain area due to flooding, built on clay,etc kinda things.

4. We bought the house we are living in from our friends when they moved to Atlanta so never needed to use a realtor. If we were to use a realtor down in raleigh area what value would they add when I considered brand new constrcution from builders. Would it be better for me to buy direct from builder so it will be cheaper (as they is no realtor commission inolved)?.

5. What value do they add if you are buying from a Sale By Owner properties. Do they help negotiate the prices in any way or you are not getting much out of this.

6. I hear that houses are starting to sit more time in the Market in Raleigh area. Is this true (It is atleast true here in boston area. I am worried how I can sell my house in time for the move . If they are sitting are they starting to fall in selling prices or is Raleigh holding up.

Thanks for your help. Hope to see you all there soon.

Thanks
With Regards
Andy

[saturnfan]

Building codes are a joke.

Much land is clay trash that causes foundation failure and consequent damage.

Get a good inspector. The new stuff may be the worst.

[jnj873]

Congrats on your decision to move! We just moved here from Boston in October and we are loving it! Best move we could have made, especially with the winter you are having up there! I would suggest renting before you buy down here so that you can get a better feel for the area and the market. We rented in Cary so that we would be centrally located when it came time to house and job hunt, and we totally think it was the best idea!! Since we have not started the house hunt yet, I am not able to help with the other questions, but once you get here and get to meet people at your job, they should be able to help you out with lots of these questions. That is the approach that we are planning to take! If you have any specific questions about the move, since we just did it, please PM me. Best of luck on your move and welcome to the area!

[I'minformed2]

Boston is so nice!!!! Such a great city! If I grew up in Boston I couldn't imagine wanting to move to NC......But I can see that it's expensive (though Raleigh is getting more and more expensive too). We just recently moved back to upstate NY from NC after living all over wake county for almost 13 years. The last place we lived, and by far the best, was Apex. I would strongly suggest you forget about new construction and look in the "newish" resale...which is probably 80% of the real estate in apex anyways (most houses you'll see listed are built in the late 90's/early 2000's). If we had stayed in Apex, which up until about a year and a half ago we had planned on doing, we would have bought in the Walden Creek subdivision. Its the only neighborhood that is perfectly convenient to both highways 55 and 64, and has a nice established vibe. Most houses in Walden Creek were built in the late 90's, with some in 2000/2001. Price range anywhere from the mid 200's to upper 300's.

[NC from MA]

What part of Boston are you moving from??? Are you originally from here?? Also, how did you choose the Raleigh area as a place to relocate? We visited the area last year...spent the week in Cary...thought it was beautiful. We, too wish we had made the move years ago before the housing market slowed down! Good luck with your move!

[NewUser]

Originally Posted by nickandy

After spending few days we are interested in Cary, Morrisville, Apex areas. From what saw we think the following:

Cary - Close to my work place in RTP but very expensive
Apex and Morrisville - Seem to fit the bill. Still value priced homes. Still developing. Belong to Wake County. Not as pricey or crowded as Cary. Closer to our work places. Shares the same school system as Cary/ Wake Forest.

Can someone comment on whether our observation is somewhat accurate or we totally off the mark.

I am thinking seriously looking into the houses that are under 5 years or under (Built after 2002).

You've left out one other choice. . . . . . buy a house that is not in a city at all. There is an area of Wake county that is south of Raleigh and Cary, east of Apex and Holly Springs, west of Garner, and north of Fuquay Varina that is unincorporated and does not belong to any city. This map shows it pretty good:

http://imaps.co.wake.nc.us/imaps/main.htm?msize=425

In this area there are no city taxes. Your normal city services (fire, police, etc) are provided Wake County and your utilities (water, sewage, garbage) are contracted out to private firms. The houses are on larger lots (1/2+ acres) because most of them have septic systems and possibly even private wells for water. You can still be within a short distance of the shopping and dining in Cary, Raleigh and Apex, as well as within 30 minute drive of the southern end of RTP.

These areas are in the same school district as Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, etc (Wake County school district), although the schools may not have the high test scores that Cary does.

[MAtoNC!]

Originally Posted by I'minformed2

Boston is so nice!!!! Such a great city! If I grew up in Boston I couldn't imagine wanting to move to NC......But I can see that it's expensive (though Raleigh is getting more and more expensive too). We just recently moved back to upstate NY from NC after living all over wake county for almost 13 years. The last place we lived, and by far the best, was Apex. I would strongly suggest you forget about new construction and look in the "newish" resale...which is probably 80% of the real estate in apex anyways (most houses you'll see listed are built in the late 90's/early 2000's). If we had stayed in Apex, which up until about a year and a half ago we had planned on doing, we would have bought in the Walden Creek subdivision. Its the only neighborhood that is perfectly convenient to both highways 55 and 64, and has a nice established vibe. Most houses in Walden Creek were built in the late 90's, with some in 2000/2001. Price range anywhere from the mid 200's to upper 300's.

I agree with everything except the 3rd sentence Boston is a great city to visit. I feel the Raleigh area has better quality of life. Apex was on our house hunting list along with Cary. My husband has a short commute, traffic is not that bad, we bought an affordable pre-foreclosure home in Cary that was built in '90 and my daughter goes to a great school. We couldn't have all those things that close to Boston even in a down market. And I don't think I could have survived another Boston winter. It was a chilly 28 degrees in Cary this morning. Later in the afternoon it was 52 degrees and sunny. There were people walking their dogs, kids riding the bikes and runners everywhere. It's been a great move!

[ljd1010]

Hi Andy,
My husband and I are also in the process of preparing to move to the Triangle area. We are from RI, I went to nursing school and grad school in Boston. We just returned from a trip to the triangle and did alot of exploring. Our children are grown so school systems are not an issue. Cary is great for many reasons but it is more expensive. We opted for Morrisville. There are several new affordable developments going up. I believe Morrisville will be similar to Cary in several years and that the housing will appreciate accordingly. Despite people telling us it was too close to the airport, we never encountered any problems with low flying planes or noise. The neighborhood we selected was Providence Place (hmmmm, maybe just a little pang of keeping some RI roots). We loved it....our house will be ready in 6 months. As soon as we sell our existing home, we will head down and rent until it is completed. Regarding builders, we googled all of them, Pulte, Toll Bros and Hovnanian...you will get mixed reviews on all. The only sure way to overcome that is to have a custom built home which is much more costly. Other great areas: Apex, Wake Forest. Good luck!!

[ME2NC]

Thanks so much for the great post. Originally from Greater Boston, we are looking to move from Maine to NC next year and this gives us a great place to start. Nice to see fellow Bostonians in this forum!

[nickandy]

Wow, that is a lot of information. Thanks a bunch guys. I will try to answer some of the questions raised.

1. I am moving to Raleigh as part of my job. I am in technical consulting/ sales/ architect role covering mid-atlantic role. One of the requirements of the job is to be located in the Mid-Atlantic area such as VA, NC, SC, or Atlanta,etc. After about over a year search we figured that Raleigh is the best place for both quality of life, affordability, (not to mention Money Mag places to live), kids school, college, warm weather, reasonably cheaper houses still. Raleigh came out on top in almost every category we were looking for. (Except came out last in air travel convenience - no big international airport and USAirways hub - I Hate USAirways). Other than that it came out on top.

2. Iminformed2 - As far as Bostonion's dont move south. Oh, well if you live here for some of these Noreasters then you would change your mind. The winter only 1/3 over and we already had about 50 inches of snow. Lousy roads, snobby drivers, bad weather, costly everything and lots of snow. Ya family kept me here for a long time but guess what it is time.

3. I am a big golfer. Guess where is better for golfing.

4. My wife is an RN. She gave me the list of cities that would be good for career and Raeligh (Duke and all) is in her top list for her career choice. Ofcourse right next to Boston but oh well.

5. JNJ - Appreciate your suggestion on renting. I was thinking along the same lines. But my concern was that as Raleigh continue to increase in price didnt want to miss the boat and buy the same house at a higher price year or so later. We did that mistake in Boston after waiting so long we upgraded the house and it is not good. But I see your point. It will be a very good idea to figure out where you want to live first than worry about house prices. Say how did you find a rental in Cary. Thru a realtor or web?

6. Iminformed2 - Thanks for the newish resale idea. I was thinking exactly the same. As a matter of fact Walden Creek is one of the sub-divisions that we looked at. Gorgeous, though we didnt look inside a specific house.

Appreciate all the comments. Keep them coming
Thanks
Andy