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My wife and I are looking to move from DC Metro to Raleigh/Durham and wanted to reach out to anyone who has relocated from DC Metro to Raleigh/Durham to see how the area compares.
We are most concerned with commute times.
For example:
Does anyone know the rush hour commute times from?
Carey – Downtown Raleigh
Carey – Research Triangle Park
Apex - Downtown Raleigh
Apex - Research Triangle Park
DH and I relocated from Alexandria to Raleigh in March. Though I am currently working from home so I don't know about commuting times, DH would drive from Cameron Village (sort of near downtown Raleigh) out to Durham around 7 am and it would only take him about a half an hour to get out there.
I'm sure others can comment specifically on the drive times you're interested in learning more about... but I feel pretty confident telling you that no matter how difficult the commute may seem to people living in the Triangle, it won't be anywhere near as bad as commutes in/around DC.
DH and I also relocated from Alexandria, and what ctribucher says is so true - traffic is a breeze compared to DC, it's amazing. In general, everything is much less crowded down here.
We live in Cary, so I can't speak for Apex. But Cary is huge, and so is RTP - so it really depends what part of Cary you're coming from, and what part of RTP you're going to. We're in NW Cary, and about 5-8 minutes from Cisco on the edge of RTP. For 3 days (school was not in session) I commuted to NC State (Redhat HQ) during rush hour, and it took me about 30 mins - that's as close to downtown Raleigh I've come during rush hour, someone else may be able to give a better estimate for downtown.
Other parts of Cary would give a short commute into Raleigh, and a longer commute to RTP.
Good luck, let me know if you have any other questions about our move!
iam also in the dc area and WAS thinking about moving to Raleigh....i want you to check out a neighborhood called BEDFORD, its in wake county off Durant Road and Falls of Neuse its a really nice community that I personally liked. As for me , iam staying here. Do you have kids in school ? The school system down there is a mess due to growing pains, they have year round schools that have a track in and track out system and because of the over-crowding chances are your kids will actually be attending some classes in a trailer.
iam also in the dc area and WAS thinking about moving to Raleigh....i want you to check out a neighborhood called BEDFORD, its in wake county off Durant Road and Falls of Neuse its a really nice community that I personally liked. As for me , iam staying here. Do you have kids in school ? The school system down there is a mess due to growing pains, they have year round schools that have a track in and track out system and because of the over-crowding chances are your kids will actually be attending some classes in a trailer.
Our schools to have growing pains...they are not 'a mess'...and the trailers are very nice classrooms, often perfered by both teachers and students then older, smaller classrooms. Many parents and kids also like the year round schedule as well.
You are certainly welcome to you opinion, but others are going to present theirs as well.
I atteneded grade school and high school in Fairfax County and we had PLENTY of trailers their too. Northern Virginia school systems have their fair share of trailers too. Fairfax is not growing out like they used to because the whole county is literlly filled up at this point (only room to grow UP). Wake county has twice the land area of Fairfax so we should be growing OUT for a long while now.
I live in North West Raleigh off Leesville Rd. and I love it here. Traffic is only a problem at very specific areas and it only last for an hour or so (can you actually believe that rush hour is actually just an HOUR!). I leave for work at 6:30am in the morning going against traffic on 70 East to the Inner Beltline and there is hardly any cars going the same way I am. The other way is not that bad at all either. Traffic at 6:30am anywhere in NOVA is usually bumper to bumper. I commute 19 miles and it takes me anywhere from 22 to 25 minutes...gotta love that!
my sister has lived in NOVA for 10 plus years, and now lives in DC and I can tell you, our worst traffic day is nothing like what she seems to experience! She laughs when she is down here and someone talks about traffic (her point is the cars are actually moving, slowly, but they are moving).
And, based on the conversations I have with her when she is driving home from work, well, it cannot be that bad down here!
Laneone, I just moved from Chantilly, VA to Wake Forest in May. We absolutely love it here so far. It feels like we have been here forever. The traffic is no where near what it was up in VA. Since I am on the other side of Raleigh I cannot comment on the commuting times in Cary/Apex. We decided to stay in the Northern Raleigh areas as opposed to Cary and Apex since we have a lot of family still in VA and didn't want to add more on the drive up North. In addition, we found a house we really loved in Heritage Wake Forest.
You will find this area has everything that the DC area has except everyone is a whole lot nicer down here.
I came from Loudoun County which was deemed the fastest growing county in the country. They had their share of growing pains in regards to schools but they still had a great school system. I have heard great things about the Wake County schools and am not worried at all. My kids will be attending a year-round school and I am looking forward to it as everyone I have talked to absolutely loves the schedule.
All in all, we are so happy with our decision to "get out" of the DC metro area. The quality of life is so much better down here and everyone is so welcoming.
"You will find this area has everything that the DC area has except everyone is a whole lot nicer down here."
I live in Northwest Raleigh and totally agree with this statement. It obvioulsy does not have all the stuff that DC offers, but it has pretty much everything Northern Virginia offers, just on a smaller scale.
I just turned 30 and my wife is 26 and we find that we have plenty of things to do in this area, so it's not as "boring" as some posters make it out to be. There are plenty of bars and nightclubs in the downtown areas of Raleigh and Durham. Glenwood south in Raleigh is excellent. You can find parking there literally everywhere and even on the busiest nights when you can't you can park close to the bars, you can park in a garage for $3 to $5 for the whole night and walk right across the street to where you want to go(try finding that kind of convenience in Adams Morgan, etc). Durham also has some good bars and clubs. There are also parks to go walking/hiking and take the dogs too. We love Umstead park (you can get lost in that place...and it's a good thing).
Traffic is a breeze for the most part. We live 12 miles from Downtown Raleigh, 12 miles from downtown Durham, 4 miles to the airport, and 4 miles from Umstead state park. We absolutely love where we live and getting to downtown areas is so easy and there is no stress involved in doing so. The only thing I miss is family. I have 10 brothers and sisters and they all live in NoVA (minus my oldest sis in Florida). The thing is, is that it's only a 4 hour drive home, so it's not bad at all. True that I do make less money then I did before, but my wife makes more, so our salary is exactly the same as what it was when we lived in Leesburg (grew up in Fairfax City). I'm going back to school (1 year left) and I can afford to do so because I don't need to make a lot of money right now and we had a good chunk of money left over from selling our townhouse. I wouldn't have been able to finish school if we stayed in NoVA and with traffic up there we still lived almost an hour from most of my family anyway (Leesburg to Fairfax). We've really settled in down here and we probably would never move back, unless we won the lottery...lol. With all of that said we did love NoVA too, but we couldn't be where we wanted to be if we stayed up there. Now we will eventually and are already closer to being where we want to be then when we lived in NoVA.
Last edited by Waterboy526; 07-11-2007 at 06:58 AM..
Thank you so much for the info! My wife and I are very excited on the prospect of live in the Raleight/Durham/Cary area and I welcome anymore recent transplants from DC to respond!
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