Wake Forest/Rolesville - overbuilt? (Raleigh, Washington: real estate, travel, work)

[weluvwakeforest]

A local real estate agent told our friends Wake Forest and Rolesville are overbuilt and folks are looking to stay/mover closer in to be closer to work, etc. They were also told the Raleigh market will always "make money" vs. Northern wake county. I was wondering if any agents could comment. Thanks.

[underPSI]

I would definitely say it depends on what area of Northern Wake County you are implying. I think the Wake Forest/Rolesville area is booming however it's true that it can only hold so much. I don't think it's a bad investment to buy in this area but I do think there are better ones in Wake County. Now in reference to "Northern Wake County", I don't think anyone could go wrong with buying a house in the Stony Hill area or anywhere in between New Light Rd. and Thompson Mill Rd. around Purnell Rd. if you can afford it. There are some might fine pieces of real estate in that area of northern Wake county.

[600monday]

I agree with underPSI. There are areas around and north of Falls Lake that have appreciated very well. Also, the density is much less than Raleigh, and it is a very peaceful area. I especially appreciate that fact when I have been stuck in an office all day and can return to a quiet, more relaxed area.

When you talk about being "closer in" there are areas on the West of Wake Forest that are a very easy commute to RTP and North Raleigh. I live there now and previously in North Raleigh, and my commute time to RTP has not changed, Downtown Raleigh is a bit further.

I have debated that when I retire I may move back to North Raleigh, but it is a trade-off between peace / quiet / nature, and being able to be at Starbucks or the Grocery in less than 5 minutes. My guess is that when I retire I will prefer the former.

[Gabagole]

Wake Forest and Rolesville overbuilt? They got a long, long way to go before I would ever even consider calling them overbuilt. Actually, I would say they are both sleepy towns, especially Rolesville. I think they are both nice places to live but for some reason I tend to lean more to Rolesville. I like the fact that there is still a lot of countryside there.

[Raleigh Parent]

We technically live in Raleigh just north of 540 off Capital but yet Wake Forest is right down the road. Our children go to school in Wake Forest but traffic is a nightmare sometimes for this sleepy little town. I am glad we have a Raleigh address as I think it will appreciate better over the long term but Wake Forest has some very nice neighborhoods and Rolesville is just starting to boom.

[Waterboy526]

Originally Posted by Mudpaws02

Wake Forest and Rolesville overbuilt? They got a long, long way to go before I would ever even consider calling them overbuilt. Actually, I would say they are both sleepy towns, especially Rolesville. I think they are both nice places to live but for some reason I tend to lean more to Rolesville. I like the fact that there is still a lot of countryside there.

Overbuilt is a relative term and I totally agree with you here. They might be considered overbuilt from where they used to be, but just flat out overbuilt?...Not even close! Look at Long Island to see what overbuilt suburbs look like.

[dansdrive]

Wake Forest...Rolesville.....over built. I am trying not to over think my answer or over qualify my perceptions of the two. I truly believe they have both grown a 'fair' amount. Fair is one of those subjective words so in the context of big and not large, both areas are big-ger. I still see large areas in both that are currently wood like, dense and sparse but both contain such areas. I see large patches in both that appear to be or at one time were farms with a house and maybe a barn or two. The next farm house is a shout and a half yell away so that is possibly turn of the century over built possibly but in this 21 st century that is kind of cool IMO.

No market will always appreciate. Inside the belt line Raleigh does well and Wake Forest does 'OK'. Word key: Well is better than OK on average unless you compare their medians. At that point I'm split between the two.

Obviously both Wake Forest and Rolesville have much more potential to grow in size than say Raleigh. The distance people have to travel to make a living may factor more in the future than say in the recent past. So area closer to say RTP may grow faster than say WF or Rolesville or as the question stated northern Wake County.

Now for those in retail and the restaurant business than WF and Rolesville with their growth in those areas will provide plenty of growth potential to at some point allow both areas to be over built. But I wouldn't bank on over built any time soon, maybe if your talking in terms of the time to accumulate your 401k time frame both WF and Rolessville will be over built.

[Waterboy526]

Originally Posted by dansdrive

Wake Forest...Rolesville.....over built. I am trying not to over think my answer or over qualify my perceptions of the two. I truly believe they have both grown a 'fair' amount. Fair is one of those subjective words so in the context of big and not large, both areas are big-ger. I still see large areas in both that are currently wood like, dense and sparse but both contain such areas. I see large patches in both that appear to be or at one time were farms with a house and maybe a barn or two. The next farm house is a shout and a half yell away so that is possibly turn of the century over built possibly but in this 21 st century that is kind of cool IMO.

No market will always appreciate. Inside the belt line Raleigh does well and Wake Forest does 'OK'. Word key: Well is better than OK on average unless you compare their medians. At that point I'm split between the two.

Obviously both Wake Forest and Rolesville have much more potential to grow in size than say Raleigh. The distance people have to travel to make a living may factor more in the future than say in the recent past. So area closer to say RTP may grow faster than say WF or Rolesville or as the question stated northern Wake County.

Now for those in retail and the restaurant business than WF and Rolesville with their growth in those areas will provide plenty of growth potential to at some point allow both areas to be over built. But I wouldn't bank on over built any time soon, maybe if your talking in terms of the time to accumulate your 401k time frame both WF and Rolessville will be over built.

Good post! Another point I'd like to make is that one shouldn't underestimate these towns. If we could go into the future say 30 years, then these areas will no doubt be real suburbs and not just exurbs or small towns. It's happened in other areas. For example I last lived in Leesburg, VA which is about 35 miles northwest of Washington D.C. The town had a population of about 6-8k people for pretty much the whole 20th century, until about the 1980's when it began to grow slowly. It started to explode with growth in the 90's and now into the 2000's and it's population is up to 40,000 people. I talked with some people that lived in Closer in Northern VA for a long time, and they said that Leesburg was a small town on a distant horizon...that you'd have to be crazy to live that far out. Of Course now it's considered a nice location for commuters and "far out" has moved into the Eastern panhandle of West Virginia.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that these towns will grow and really start to become a part of the Triangle before you really know it. The negatives are the traffic (no escaping that anywhere in the DC area) and that the Leesburg housing values have gone down the drain from where they were a few years ago, while closer in suburbs are not hit quite as hard. I'm telling you guys, that in 30-40 years there will be constant suburbs/development all the way to Rolesville, which some people will call progress and other people probably won't be so happy about it. Rolesville and towns like Creedmoor will undoubtedly be a real part of the triangle in the coming years that will be indistinguishable from other triangle communities.

[piratelife]

Waterboy_ I agree with ya. I last lived in Chicago in the early 90's and the burb i live in now was farm land. They keep wrapping Chicago with suburbs and they will do so until they hit Iowa. These areas will grow and i doubt they are overdeveloped. Then again that is a subjective term. I love the community i live in now. We are involved, I coach 3 sports and sit on 2 boards. However, I also refer to it as suburbia hell. Traffic stinks and we have the same junk that is in every other suburban area. Towns tend to lose their identity if the growth isn't planned and controlled.

I see a lot of comparison's on the board; Cali or NC, Chicago vs. NC, so on. The thing that people often miss is that the triangle shouldn't be Chicago, it should be the triangle. I have visited and it is some of the most beautiful country outside of the northwest. Please don't lose that beauty in the desire to have a Walgreen's on every corner.

There are plenty of options for people that want suburbia hell and big city life, sometimes less is more. I look forward to soaking up everything the area has to offer, I just hope there is some left when we get there.