Affordable Housing? (Raleigh, Durham, Cary: apartment, chapel, daycare)

[Tar Heel Smitty]

It seems everything is located in SE or N Raleigh. Is there anything anywhere else???

My wife and I both work at UNC, so living on the east side of Raleigh is certainly a long haul.

We are an average family with a combined income of about 80K.

Ideas? Thanks, in advance!

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by Tar Heel Smitty

It seems everything is located in SE or N Raleigh. Is there anything anywhere else???

My wife and I both work at UNC, so living on the east side of Raleigh is certainly a long haul.

We are an average family with a combined income of about 80K.

Ideas? Thanks, in advance!

Depends on what you need. I assume you want something detached.
You can get "cluster homes" in Morrisville at under $200,000. Basically a townhome, connected by storage shed to the neighboring home.
Durham can offer some alternatives, too.
In Chapel Hill you will be looking at higher costs for less SF, but there is inventory. New construction in Chapel Hill is pricey, though.

Cary is a longer drive, but there should be something you can afford.

And, what schools do you need? ES. MS, HS?

[rcarrillo]

Have you tried looking to the South or West of Chapel Hill? Its a little less "metro" than Raleigh, but there are some nice, affordable cities to live in both directions.

[findinghope]

go west past hillsborough...mebane is a nice town--and still affordable

[Tar Heel Smitty]

Thanks for all the input!

[saturnfan]

Try an apartment. Might work well for your budget.

[Tar Heel Smitty]

Well, we are buying a townhome now and want to sell and move into a detached home, but we might have to just go into another townhome. I have done the apartment things for almost 10 years, had enough of that.

[mellie06]

Have you looked in SW Durham?
My husband and I live in Hope Valley Farms and everyone we have met on our street works at UNC (including my hubby). There is really not much of a commute and there are many different neighborhoods within HVF...so you can find something to fit any budget.
We found a great starter home priced 20k less than what we thought we would have spent.
Another plus, HVF is conveniently located to Southpoint!

[VickiR]

Originally Posted by Tar Heel Smitty

It seems everything is located in SE or N Raleigh. Is there anything anywhere else???

My wife and I both work at UNC, so living on the east side of Raleigh is certainly a long haul.

We are an average family with a combined income of about 80K.

Ideas? Thanks, in advance!

How much do you want to spend for a new home? How much do you want your new payments to be? That info. will narrow things down amazingly. If we know how much you'd like to spend, that will give us different areas that have that price range and then we'll be able to tell you the best area for your money.

Vicki

[Tar Heel Smitty]

Well, we are looking up to about 160K. We have 2 kids and the daycare is absolutely killing us, now if we had that money we could easily affored a 2K a month payment. We would love a payment under 1250. I know I may be dreaming here....