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Personally I would want to live inside Beltline within 1-2 miles WALKING DISTANCE TO CAMERON VILLAGE, OR NORTH HILLS
Inside the Beltline's residents are mostly Raleigh natives who likely won't ever live outside the state.
Californians may not feel at home among the deep-rooted natives with old money and conservative leanings. They come off as arrogant and full of themselves with keep within closed circles of friends.
Ditto on ~$100-220k put towards a beach property, only 2-hour drive to Wrightsville, 3 hours to Atlantic Beach/ Emerald Isle. SoCal beaches' are technically a "marine desert" without the moist, salt spray-filled air or beach-y smell we experience over here.
You'll enjoy the warm ocean temps and semi-turquoise water during summer over here too.
Personally I would want to live inside Beltline within 1-2 miles WALKING DISTANCE TO CAMERON VILLAGE, OR NORTH HILLS
Inside the Beltline's residents are mostly Raleigh natives who likely won't ever live outside the state.
Californians may not feel at home among the deep-rooted natives with old money and conservative leanings. They come off as arrogant and full of themselves with keep within closed circles of friends.
Ditto on ~$100-220k put towards a beach property, only 2-hour drive to Wrightsville, 3 hours to Atlantic Beach/ Emerald Isle. SoCal beaches' are technically a "marine desert" without the moist, salt spray-filled air or beach-y smell we experience over here.
You'll enjoy the warm ocean temps and semi-turquoise water during summer over here too.
Was going to say the same thing....
ITB is great and would probably be on my shortlist in that budget looking for a family home....but really not friendly to outsiders.
Hell...I am native NCian but because I grew up in Cary/Apex.....I probably wouldn't even be "allowed" ITB. haha.
First, thank you for the fantastic responses! Lots of interesting information and I really appreciate it!
To UserNamesake: It probably seems a little crazy to not want a bunch of land for the price point, but I am worried about upkeep of land that we won't use. And also, I'm from L.A. where we measure land plots in sq ft. I guess it's just what I know! We actually really liked North Raleigh a lot, though. I wonder if it would be very isolating to live on an acre or so and perhaps rarely see your neighbors. Suits my husband and I but I wonder how it would be for kids. Also, schools not seem great up there. ??
To architect77: This sentiment about ITB mentality is sort of my worst fear about moving to NC. We are a not-so-conservative, mixed race (Asian-White) family from CA, so I'm hoping this "outsider" mentality is somewhat limited in the Triangle. This thread has sure made me feel like RDU is friendly, though!
The more I search, the more interested I become in W Cary schools. I have been cross referencing a lot of neighborhoods on the traffic noise contour map, making the search even harder.
I know a lot of people that live ITB and they are almost all very progressive people, many are very involved with local politics and/or the arts.
Same - there are certainly areas of ITB that are old-money, but there are places like Mordecai/Oakwood or areas around Hillsborough Street/NC State that are more progressive.
I'm Asian and from MA and live ITB and haven't had any problems personally. I love the neighborhood where I live.
Someone posted a precinct voting map a few weeks ago that showed a part of ITB that voted for Trump this past election but otherwise, tons of "purple" and blue areas as well. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...maps.html?_r=0
Instead of setting an 800K budget, why don't you look for your other criteria first. You may find that you can meet your needs for less than that.
There are many sections of Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Holly Springs (though on the outer edge of what I would consider a central location), and Chapel Hill where you can tick all of your boxes for less (in some cases substantially less) than 800K. There are also spots in most of those towns where 800K won't get it done.
Although things have changed pretty dramatically over the last couple of years, our market is really not an $800K market. A lot of people come here with a budget and base their research on the top end of what they can spend. I think that if you are coming from a pricier market that can be a big mistake.
First, thank you for the fantastic responses! Lots of interesting information and I really appreciate it!
To UserNamesake: It probably seems a little crazy to not want a bunch of land for the price point, but I am worried about upkeep of land that we won't use. And also, I'm from L.A. where we measure land plots in sq ft. I guess it's just what I know! We actually really liked North Raleigh a lot, though. I wonder if it would be very isolating to live on an acre or so and perhaps rarely see your neighbors. Suits my husband and I but I wonder how it would be for kids. Also, schools not seem great up there. ??
To architect77: This sentiment about ITB mentality is sort of my worst fear about moving to NC. We are a not-so-conservative, mixed race (Asian-White) family from CA, so I'm hoping this "outsider" mentality is somewhat limited in the Triangle. This thread has sure made me feel like RDU is friendly, though!
The more I search, the more interested I become in W Cary schools. I have been cross referencing a lot of neighborhoods on the traffic noise contour map, making the search even harder.
Gotcha... and don't let these people deter you. 60 percent of this site is doom and gloom. 30-35 percent are fairly reasonable...and 5-10 percent don't have a friggin' clue. You'd be fine ITB.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Funky Chicken
Instead of setting an 800K budget, why don't you look for your other criteria first. You may find that you can meet your needs for less than that.
There are many sections of Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Holly Springs (though on the outer edge of what I would consider a central location), and Chapel Hill where you can tick all of your boxes for less (in some cases substantially less) than 800K. There are also spots in most of those towns where 800K won't get it done.
Although things have changed pretty dramatically over the last couple of years, our market is really not an $800K market. A lot of people come here with a budget and base their research on the top end of what they can spend. I think that if you are coming from a pricier market that can be a big mistake.
I would look ITB, North Raleigh/North Hills or Chapel Hill, myself. While there is some of the "old money/Old Raleigh" type around, anecdotally in my experience there are far more Red Hat executive types, plenty of progressive types, etc. I wouldn't place too much emphasis on what greatschools says. It mainly tells you how many kids come from educated, invested parents, and doesn't say much about the quality of the school or staff.
West Cary is in high demand because of its proximity to RTP. You aren't likely to commute there if you're looking for work in the healthcare field (or no more likely there than anywhere else.) It certainly is nice but I wouldn't live there unless I had a commute to justify it.
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