Holly Springs
History & Demographics:
I've lived in Holly Springs since 1997. I'm in the middle of town, surrounded N, S, E, W by black neighborhoods, so it doesn't seem to me in town here entirely "homogenous". Sure, the surrounding areas have grown and with a larger white population coming in than the native 900 ppl who lived here in the 80s who were mostly black. But then again, go back in time, it used to be a very white town until the GI bill in the 40's incentivized "white flight" to the cities where the college jobs were, and yet the town not only managed well, but during the 1970s they started an infrastructure campaign that set the seed for such a voluminous growth in the 90s by having a very modern waste water treatment plant. They really planned ahead knowing Cary would push through and connect Apex to Fuquay. The main park near town and community center is named after an African American, Parrish Womble who served as town council member for most of the time I've lived here. Hispanics play soccer there on weekends and after work when the community soccer season isn't hogging all the goals. HS also has a higher asian community than other towns/cities nearby. We have the best Tai restaurant IMO, a few good Mexican places (the new one Mi Cancun being very good), Greek Basma which is really Moroccan, a sub place that last I knew was owned by Palestinians, Korean dryer, Indian doctors (My wife's doctor is African American here), Niche is half owned by an Albanian with a huge Italian background, etc, so it seems rather 'ethnic' to me in terms of business owners and service having come from NYC. Well, the food is generally better here at any rate. I personally wish there was more of a hispanic presence, whom I typically only see for lawn maintenance, construction, cooking, and services, but that's more because I love pickup soccer games. So I travel 35m every week since 2000 to Chatham county to get my soccer fix.
It's Caucasian stats are similar to Apex, and mostly due to the large influx of new people, who are mostly Caucasian, so this is happening in a lot of the area all over. And since I spend a huge part of my time at work, there is a definite multi-ethnic workforce in the area.
Community:
I have the overall sense of it being, as I half jokingly called it, "breederville", as it really is a community for raising your 1-3+ kids and doesn't have a sense of community for most because of that growth and family-centric narcissism that the under 40 seem to possess. But there is a community here, you just have to hit the center town bars (My Way Tavern & Niche) to learn about them and their long history, but they tent to be "tight" since they are small numbers. Same with Fuquay.
Housing:
I think the larger housing that does exist in some parts (famously Sunset) have more to due with Northern and Western cost of living being higher. I think a lot of this money is from selling houses in such places of higher standard of living or just inheritance so that their personal salaries only have to pay the property taxes (and higher utility costs) I say this because, well, not everyone is a doctor, veterinarian, dentist or lawyer with their own practice. The median income in town is in the mid $65k or so and in the richer neighborhoods about $95k. And even "richer" places like Sunset have smaller Charleston styled housing and townhouse styles homes. Plus there are newer apartment complexes going in to allow for a more proportional socio-ecomonic demographic, but it's all going to be "new", not established.
Most of the homes I see in the area are 3 bedroom 2 bath, even large ones, and because the home ownership is so high currently (88%), I think this has a lot to do with the relatively low crime rate.
If I put my house on the market, it would be sold before it hit the market by word of mouth through realtors. And people would be clamoring me to pay more than I asked for to outbid each other. Before this latest population rush, most houses took 1-3 months to sell, even in the worst of the housing market post 2007. The town also was in the black through that period investing in further growth to handle the projected new population.
Property owners who rent have no trouble renting and keeping renters. The number of places vacant has stayed about 5% for a number of years and I think thats just a turnover number like for employment.
Commute:
I'm used to 25m traveling to work in Raleigh these days, and it beats the 75m drive I had in NYC or any of the 1 hour subway/train commutes I used to have. Sure it would be great to live 12m from my job, but then my spouse would be 25m. So being married always has the compromise, as does job hopping. It's best to try and situate yourself in the "center" to handle these changes and Cary would technically be that center, but Holly Springs is becoming one too (due to 540, and the cost of the toll road, tho entirely unfair, is nothing like that of other cities.
Haunts:
I say this to just make a point. You can walk between 3 bars and 2 wine lounges, and even drink at Lowes, so it's not exactly Coats, NC here. But you'll likely have to drive to the movie theatre. That said, this place was WAY popular before 540 ever dropped a shovel nearby. HS was the largest growing town in America throughout much of the 2000s.
What I like about HS is you can do a lot here now, or just go elsewhere for entertainment to do things and Uber back back to a relatively sleepy, safe, good looking, and peaceful place.
Awards & Accolades:
This looks too good to be true, but it's not, it's actually true:
Town of Holly Springs Awards and Accolades | Holly Springs, NC - Official Website
Summary:
You just about can't find a better place to live and raise a family in America (or the world) than Holly Springs, and people know it.
About the only things I don't like are true of much of the region: Allergies, heat, and growing traffic!
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