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Hi everyone! We are relocating to Charlotte in a few weeks and trying to find the best neighborhoods/areas we should look at to rent a house. We would like to rent for a year before buying to learn the city better and which areas would be the best fit. My husband will be commuting to Uptown and I work from home. We are in our mid-30's with a 9 month old baby and one dog. We would prefer neighborhoods with families, activities, parks, etc. Just from what I have researched so far, I see a lot of recommendations for Ballantyne and Steele Creek/Lake Wylie area. I think we would like the Steele Creek/Lake Wylie area since it seems to have Master Planned Communities with newer homes, parks, pools, etc just not sure how many rentals there will be in that area to choose from. Are there any other similar areas that are worth checking out? We are making a visit later this week to hopefully check some places out and want to be able to look at all our options. Thanks for any help/advice!
Questions that will help people answer you better:
- Price range?
- Maximum commute time?
- Desired Rural/Suburban/Urban feel (most everything will still have a Target within a 10-15 minute drive)
- Schools? You have ~5 years, but do you want to rent in an area that you may end up buying, or do you mind being nearby in a less desirable school district while renting (thus, opening up more options)
- Does it matter if it's in North Carolina, or is being across the border in South Carolina ok?
- Does diversity matter? The southern wedge is most recommended, but it is whiter than average.
Questions that will help people answer you better:
- Price range?
- Maximum commute time?
- Desired Rural/Suburban/Urban feel (most everything will still have a Target within a 10-15 minute drive)
- Schools? You have ~5 years, but do you want to rent in an area that you may end up buying, or do you mind being nearby in a less desirable school district while renting (thus, opening up more options)
- Does it matter if it's in North Carolina, or is being across the border in South Carolina ok?
- Does diversity matter? The southern wedge is most recommended, but it is whiter than average.
Oh shoot, sorry I definitely forgot some details!
-Price range is around $2200-2300 or less.
-Would like the commute to Uptown to be around 30ish minutes (give or take).
-For schools, I think we are ok either way for now. It doesn't have to be the best school district while we are renting, we will just make sure to check out areas to buy with better districts if needed.
-We wouldn't mind being in SC but just not sure how long that would make the commute
-We are pretty open to areas that are more diverse as well. We have lived in a few big cities (Phoenix, Las Vegas and Houston) and have lived in a lot of different types of areas.
We are working with a realtor already but they aren't able to recommend or steer us away from certain areas unfortunately. I see a lot of nice homes for rent in the northern area too but seems like they aren't talked about as much. Thanks for your help!
-Price range is around $2200-2300 or less.
-Would like the commute to Uptown to be around 30ish minutes (give or take).
-For schools, I think we are ok either way for now. It doesn't have to be the best school district while we are renting, we will just make sure to check out areas to buy with better districts if needed.
-We wouldn't mind being in SC but just not sure how long that would make the commute
-We are pretty open to areas that are more diverse as well. We have lived in a few big cities (Phoenix, Las Vegas and Houston) and have lived in a lot of different types of areas.
We are working with a realtor already but they aren't able to recommend or steer us away from certain areas unfortunately. I see a lot of nice homes for rent in the northern area too but seems like they aren't talked about as much. Thanks for your help!
While it is true your realtor shouldn’t blatantly steer you away from certain areas or discuss certain protected subject matter with you, you should be able to share that information with them and they should be able to easily narrow some desirable areas down for your family that you can drive through on a Saturday and get a feel for and say “yay” or “nay” to narrow it down.
Just given what you’ve mentioned, I’d say SC is out of the question if you want less than a 40 minute commute.
I’d personally recommend looking around Ballantyne, Waverly, Matthews for the south, Birkdale, Prosperity, Highland Creek up north. In general, south Charlotte is more expensive than the northern parts of the city, so you’ll probably get a little more bang for your buck up north.
Last edited by MikeyRocksNC; 09-21-2021 at 09:34 AM..
Reason: spelling
I brought up the diversity angle moreso because POC sometimes feel uncomfortable in certain areas without the diversity. The better schools that people tend to recommend in Union County also come without much diversity. But if you're trying to stay within a 30-40 minute commute, that won't be a problem.
At least in South and East Charlotte that I'm more familiar with, you'll want to stick to homes inside the I-485 loop or else the commute will become too long. I'm not exactly sure what the rental market is right now, but you should be able to find a variety of homes in that price range.
If you want a bit more of a rural feel, check out the Mint Hill area...it still has a nice small downtown area. If you want something more established suburban, try Matthews. "new" Suburban would be Ballantyne. And for a bit more urban feel (not "city"...but "just outside city feel"), then you'll want to try the SouthPark area or anywhere off Park Road.
I'm know there's nice areas up North too...I'm just not familiar.
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