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My wife and I spent about 4 days this past weekend visiting the Triangle area. We made the trip from Pittsburgh. She had an interview on Friday (she did get an offer) and I spent most of my time driving around exploring.
Here are a few of my first impressions. We are a couple in our late 20's with no children or no immediate plans to have any.
Keep in mind these are first impressions and somewhat generalizations, so don't get your feathers too ruffled!
Durham - Downtown Durham definitely has some unique character, but I was a little put off by how you can drive through a couple blocks of very nice houses, then two blocks later drive by crackhouses, and so on. It seemed to be really hit or miss. We had a Durham resident (family member) driving us around so he knew the area well.
I did like some of the housing outside of downtown Durham, especially liked Woodcroft.
We spent some time at SouthPoint which was nice. There was definitely a diverse mixture of people there (White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, etc), which doesn't bother us at all.
I wasn't as impressed with visiting Duke as I thought I would be. The campus is very pretty but seemed a little stuffy for my taste. Maybe the 50K per year tuition has something to do with that.
Chapel Hill - We absolutely LOVED this area! I am a Penn State alum and Chapel Hill has a lot of similiarities to Penn State and State College. Franklin St. was very cool and we had a nice dinner/drinks there. I can see why housing is a little more pricey there.
Cary/Apex - I drove through these areas and while there were some areas I liked, the majority of what I saw lacked any sigficant character. Miles of cookie cutter housing developments and plazas aren't really my cup of tea. I drove up highway 55 on Saturday and it was extremely congested (not fun). I would need to see more of it and some serious selling to look into living there.
Raleigh - We spent Saturday night in the Glenwood South area which I found to be a really, really cool place. Had dinner and visited a couple pubs there. We liked the laid back yet urban feel of that area. Downtown Raleigh also was pretty neat and it seems like there are some good development efforts going on there.
The one area I didn't get to see was North Raleigh above the outer Beltline. Maybe next time.
I came away from the area thinking that there are definitely ALL KINDS of different places to live and it seems like if you look around enough, there is something for everyone! If we move we plan on renting for a year or two to really get a feel for where to buy a home.
I came away from the area thinking that there are definitely ALL KINDS of different places to live and it seems like if you look around enough, there is something for everyone! If we move we plan on renting for a year or two to really get a feel for where to buy a home.
Smart idea! Too many people get on this board and say "Help! Moving to the Triangle. Me, hubby, 2.3 kids, etc. Please tell us where to live!". My wife and I rented for 9 months and I still think we could have explored more, but there were 3 of us + 2 dogs and the apartment was getting cramped.
Definately check out N Raleigh next time. It's a great area! It's definately the suburbs. You might want to move there. Tell your wife congrats and good luck! Keep us informed.
We spent some time at SouthPoint which was nice. There was definitely a diverse mixture of people there (White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, etc), which doesn't bother us at all.
Overall sounds like a pretty fair representation. I found the above statement rather odd though--why WOULD being around Asians, hispanics, whites, etc. bother you (or anyone)?
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But I'll bet if you post this question as a new thread you'll probably get an answer.
