Wife and I - Moving to Raleigh to Start Family from Massachusetts (need your advice) (Durham: hotels, home)

[Desdemona123]

Originally Posted by NCHomeFinder

You can also look in northern Wake County, around hwy 98, to get more land. These areas are technically Wake Forest. Do you have an idea yet where in Raleigh you'll be commuting? I would recommend looking at both areas if you have time!

Please remember to that Hwy 98 is getting croweded in the mornings as well. (I've driven it over 3 years and I can't believe how much more traffic there is now then in the begining.) It turns into stop and roll traffic almost the entire way at least one day a week now. (Lot's of school buses as well.)

There isn't much room to widen it in spots either...so I don't forsee that happening anytime soon either.

[NCHomeFinder]

Originally Posted by Desdemona123

Please remember to that Hwy 98 is getting croweded in the mornings as well. (I've driven it over 3 years and I can't believe how much more traffic there is now then in the begining.) It turns into stop and roll traffic almost the entire way at least one day a week now. (Lot's of school buses as well.)

There isn't much room to widen it in spots either...so I don't forsee that happening anytime soon either.

Very good point. The only time I'm up around 98 is usually with clients, and that's not during rush hour - probably the people you're in traffic with! Do you take 98 the whole way in to Durham, or do you head south at some point and pick up 540?

[Bear717]

Originally Posted by NCHomeFinder

30 minutes from Clayton is a stretch, especially if you're driving during peak times. There are back roads you can use to avoid 70, but it'll still be closer to 40 minutes or more unless you're on the far east end of Clayton. That said, there are beautiful neighborhoods with more land, a terrific downtown, and you can do most of your day to day living/shopping in Clayton, yet still be close enough to Raleigh for a trip to the mall. I'm working with clients now from the DC area who think the commute is a breeze from Clayton!

You can also look in northern Wake County, around hwy 98, to get more land. These areas are technically Wake Forest. Do you have an idea yet where in Raleigh you'll be commuting? I would recommend looking at both areas if you have time!

yeah i was browsing the site you set up for me, around clayton and wake forest its awesome -
(great plug for rebeka moorehead for realtor!!)

i dont have an idea yet where in raleigh ill be commuting to, but looking forward to working with you - we are coming down late march / early april

ive heard wake forest is more land for the buck too. its good to hear clayton is a good town as well. guess we'll have to come down and see in person

[NCHomeFinder]

Originally Posted by Bear717

yeah i was browsing the site you set up for me, around clayton and wake forest its awesome -
(great plug for rebeka moorehead for realtor!!)

i dont have an idea yet where in raleigh ill be commuting to, but looking forward to working with you - we are coming down late march / early april

ive heard wake forest is more land for the buck too. its good to hear clayton is a good town as well. guess we'll have to come down and see in person

Thanks so much! I'm looking forward to giving you the "grand tour", this area has so much to offer. Talk to you soon!

[Bear717]

well people, its decided, we're coming down from Boston the week of

Sat. March 31 - Sat. April 7

its the only time both the wife and i could get off together without looking too inconspicuous

Looking forward to meeting with Rebekah.....

anything going on down there this week?? what should we check out besides houses and the general area... we DO need a week of vacation too...(havent had a week off since July - you know these Yankees up here.....)

where should one stay?? we're looking at the Holly Springs, Apex, Wake Forest areas, should we stay in downtown Raleigh or should we vie for something cheaper....

any deals??

wow, this week just got sprung on us from both of our bosses, we were planning on coming sometime in April... just not the first week, with only 2 weeks notice, yikes! we'll be there this time in 2 weeks!!

we so excited - and nervous !!!!!!!

[werker]

Originally Posted by abdnva

People who live 'inside the beltline' are all elitist snobs who desire nothing more than achieving 'historical recognition' for the old houses they have rehabbed, so that they can make a fortune off re-selling them. People in Cary are all yankees who want everything to be as Stepford/homogenized as possible. people in Chapel Hill are all tree-hugging communistic liberals. People in Clayton are all rednecks or yankees who mistakenly thought they were moving to the 'cheap' part of the Triangle, only to deal with L.A.-type traffic jams on I-40 heading to work. People in NoRa (North Raleigh) are all IBM kids who hate the 'newcomers', despite having once been newcomers themselves. People in Durham refuse to acknowledge they live in a southern version of Detroit. People in Knightdale & all points east are the only remaining rednecks who watch Andy Griffith every night, and curse the fact that Knightdale Seafood & barbecue moved into a 'fancy' new location. They also all miss the old Winn Dixie.

This is pretty much dead on. Going to comment on some other things in these posts, being a house seeker

Apartment:
I would strongly suggest getting an apartment first that gives you quick access to anything. North Raleigh is good, you will find that most of the real estate north of Millbrook is dedicated to apartments, old ones, that are cheap but safe. Most importantly, they love young professionals and will give you month to month contracts. I have a 2000 s/f apartment for less than 1k which gives me plenty of room to store all the boxes from our past house. Unless the idea of living in suburban-track-housing-Homogeny is your idea of "living" then it will take you awhile to find something.

Diversity:
The statistics that were posted are not nearly micro-level enough. Socio-economic and racial lines are very, very localized. Since I am in NR right now, I can tell you that the dot.com-money McMansions and tear-downs are fast coming north. I have found pockets of Eastern European immigrants, and even a homeless family living behind my local suburban strip mall.

Raleigh is known as the "the city without a soul." Google it and and you will find some articles. They have a PR firm working on ways to convince artists to move here. But heck, hop in the car and head up to Asheville for the weekend.

To Do:
1) Chick-Fil-A. It is the town square, especially for stay-at-home moms. In fact, if you could open one here, you would make millions. And A Dave-and -Buster's would make even more... darn those non-franchises.

2) College sports. The end-all be-all pastime of residents here. You better study up on State, Duke, and Chapel Hill and expect to partake in esoteric hour long rants on coaching techniques . Close proximity to the mountains, beach, and rivers will make up for it. You should hit Asheville and Wilmington, just spend a day looking for apartments and go have fun.

3) First Friday in downtown Raleigh, although, it isn't really much of an arts scene. But at least they are trying.

4) Elvis Fest was a few months ago. Musically, Chapel Hill and Raleigh used to have a famous punk/cyberpunk/hacker scene back in the 80s, but that is long gone. But I suppose if you wanted that you would move to Austin. Rockabilly seems to be the prevailing weekend music diversion.


200-250k:
I can actually spend much more on a house and I have narrowed down to a few houses that are less than 230k (my fave is 140k) in some secret spots (not trendy Watts or Five Points, you can forget urban Chapel Hill) and I can walk or ride my bike to my high tech office park.

I honestly cannot stand most of the housing options in the upper end of the market which seems to put an emphasis on formality (china cabinents and formal dining rooms??????). I have had the luxury of several weeks to look at every little town within 50 miles, even Wilmington (actually its all interstate) But just so you know, I have coworkers that make decent money that are looking or bought outside of 30 miles from downtown Raleigh. Dunn, Mebane, and even further. Be careful, Oxford looks like it has a crime rate on the level of East St. Louis. I even looked around Lynchburg VA (half-kidding), and this cool little town on the VA border. There are strict building codes in the cities, no flat roofs etc. so don't expect to get a cheap piece of land and throw up an affordable Dwell type house. The 3 new neighborhoods (rural Hillsborough, rural Pittsboro, a condo in Chapel Hill) doing green/modern are 500k+. But you can get 20 acres and a decent rural house for the same cost as a "falling into the ground" 400k 1400 s/f ranch house inside the beltline. Really, there isn't anything in downtown Raleigh that warrants that kind of location spike even though the houses are historic. Cameron Village is a nasty strip mall, really, why didn't they do the parking lot inversion that urban renewal types scream about? Was there even an architect involved?

They have a quasi-urban area on the edge of Carrborro thats kind of cool, but I haven't found anything affordable there. Coworkers regret moving to Holly Springs and apparently Garner is to be "avoided".

Jobs:
Raleigh was just ranked number one in the country to find a job by Forbes magazine.

[ejmatl]

Originally Posted by Bear717

where should one stay?? we're looking at the Holly Springs, Apex, Wake Forest areas, should we stay in downtown Raleigh or should we vie for something cheaper....

any deals??

I've stayed at the Candlewood Suites on Lead Mine Road twice now (soon to be three times) and have been very pleased. It's in a great "get to everything" location, the staff is wonderful - and it's not too expensive.

eileen

[hi2nc]

Originally Posted by Bear717

well people, its decided, we're coming down from Boston the week of

Sat. March 31 - Sat. April 7

its the only time both the wife and i could get off together without looking too inconspicuous

Looking forward to meeting with Rebekah.....

anything going on down there this week?? what should we check out besides houses and the general area... we DO need a week of vacation too...(havent had a week off since July - you know these Yankees up here.....)

where should one stay?? we're looking at the Holly Springs, Apex, Wake Forest areas, should we stay in downtown Raleigh or should we vie for something cheaper....

any deals??

wow, this week just got sprung on us from both of our bosses, we were planning on coming sometime in April... just not the first week, with only 2 weeks notice, yikes! we'll be there this time in 2 weeks!!

we so excited - and nervous !!!!!!!

Thanks so much for starting up this thread. This one was REALLY long, but it has been the most useful one I've come across in this forum. All the in-depth, honest posts from the locals really helped to paint a MUCH clearer picture in my mind of what the area is like. I'm so glad that I came across it, and took the time to read all the informative posts. Some of your are funny..I thought a fight was gonna break out!

I'm still torn between North Raleigh, Cary and Durham, so I guess I'll just have to wait until we go and visit for ourselves. We'll be there from April 13 - 17 (for our 1st visit). Maybe then I can decide whether I like green or beige...

Please be sure to put up a post and share your experience, and your "ah-ha" moments. I'll bet you'll have a bunch.

Oh yeah...one more thing!
You're all invited (once we make the move), to a good 'ol fashioned Hawaiian-style BBQ/B-B-Que/Bar-B-Que. I'll throw on a bunch of chicken, fish and steak on the fire...maybe even a rack or two of baby back pork ribs. But they're gonna have my Hawaiian style sauce...absolutely NO vinegar! You'll LOVE it!

[lovemyguys]

just took our weekly ride to Dunkin Donuts in Fuquay and saw what looks like a nice neighborhood off of Sunset Lake called "Carrington Estates". Sign says prices start at $260K

[FTwannabee]

We moved to the Wake Forest area about 4 years ago and love it. It is still has a bit of the country atmosphere, but is close to everything. My husband commutes to RTP and I commute to Raleigh and it is NOTHING like the big-city commutes we were accustomed to. We actually have our house on the market (MLS: 915861), just in case it would suit your needs. In any case, welcome to North Carolina. I've lived in MI, TX, CA, WA, MD and IL and North Carolina is the BEST!