Real advice for apartments in Chapel Hill - Carrboro (Raleigh: for rent, homes)

[Recarla]

Hi Everyone,

I know you guys hear this all the time but I just wanted to tell you all that I think this forum is extremely helpful! Thanks to all of you who give such good advice on so many different topics.
Ok, here is my situation: my husband and I are very seriously considering moving out to the Raleigh area next spring. He is in IT and I am in healthcare so all roads kind of lead to the RTP.
And no, we do not have jobs yet but we are going to start actively looking in a few months when our timeline gets more precise.
We are coming out to visit soon as neither one of us has ever been there and based on what we have read and heard, it looks like the Chapel Hill / Carrboro area is our scene.

We are going to stay in an apartment for a while until we figure out where we want to settle. I have seen some really nice apartments ($800 - 1000 a month for a 1bd and 1ba) to some apts which are a little... well, less nice.
Can anyone drop a few names of some decent places in areas where we could possibly walk or short drive to somewhere downtown or at least to some nightlife? I like what I have seen and heard about Chapel Hill but I understand that it is very expensive. On the other hand Carrboro seems to have a nice vibe to it too that could be our scene also.
As we are in I guess what you would call the "young professionals" category, I would like to rent in a complex without students (I don't want the noise) but not over the top expensive. I have seen some gorgeous places with the massive pools and state of the art gyms but I am afraid many of those are just too much for us. Our monthly rent budget is no more than 800 a month max.
I am also more than open to check out places in Raleigh and Durham or wherever.
I would like to have a short list of places to visit so that I am not running around wasting my time visiting complexes that are way out of my budget or more suited towards the student life.

I understand that I am being picky but I am really just more confused than anything.

Thanks again for any advice.

[peperoberto]

There are lots of complexes in Durham that could meet your needs. In no particular order, some suggestions could be:

American Tobacco Campus (Old Bull Apartments and some others)
Golden Belt (only about 15 units and they typically have a long wait list)
West Village
Station 9

All of these complexes are less than a block to tons of nightlife, etc. There's also a lot of homes to be found for rent in Durham's urban neighborhoods. A couple of the larger property management firms include Bob Schmitz and Apple Realty.

[Recarla]

Thank you very much for this - it is really helpful.
Also, I see that I had put up another similar post so I apologize for that. It is my first time on this forum and I wasn't sure if it had gone through.

Thanks again! I appreciate all the advice I can get!