Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Let me first start off by saying thank you for reading my post. My wife and I are looking to relocate to either the Charlotte area or the Raleigh Durham area from Lexington, Ky. We have some knowledge of NC as we have visited the area a couple times. A little about my wife and I and what we are looking for in our new location. My wife is a Medical Assistant who will be looking for a job, she has the ability to work in a Hospital, Doctors Office or Lab. Myself I just got out of the Army and am in the process of trying to apply to school to get myself back in the grove of schooling. I plan on attending a Community College while trying to find a job as a firefighter and earning my degree. We are a young couple, both 25, with no children at this moment. We are however planning to start a family with in the next 5 years. So what we are looking for is a small suburb of the the major city, maybe with in a 45 minute radius of the "downtown" area. This will benefit both of us with both work and entertainment opportunities. We would also like to have that "small town" feel where the schools are good, there are many community activities for youths, and reasonably priced homes. At this current moment we are not looking to buy a home, but plan to buy with in the next couple of years, after we have become more stable professionally. So somewhere that has a stable or up and coming housing market would be preferred. We are open to many different options but are looking for a safe, clean, and attractive place to start our family and call home. Any suggestions would be great, and again I appreciate you taking the time to read and reply to this post.
cdulski10, there are actually a number of towns around Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill that would fit your criteria, since everything's fairly close together (at least close enough to be within a 45 minute drive), and a lot of the outer semi-suburban towns still have a lot of the small town character you described. That includes Hillsborough, Pittsboro, Apex, Holly Springs, Angier, Clayton, Wendell (one of my favorite towns), Zebulon, Rolesville, Youngsville, Franklinton, Creedmoor, and maybe others. You could be happy in any of those places, and all are worth looking at.
But the one that came immediately to mind is Fuquay-Varina. It's a town about 15 miles south of downtown Raleigh, and it's become increasingly suburban in recent years. But it still feels mostly like a small North Carolina town, except that it's a lot more vibrant than your average rural town in NC, and has a very nice little downtown. The people there are still a decent mix of old, native Southerners and recent transplants from elsewhere, and the housing, too, ranges from older and inexpensive to new and fairly upscale. Best of all, it's just a couple miles down the road from the main campus of Wake Tech, which is the largest community college in the area. So that would be good.
We would agree with tompope. F-V is a very nice town. It has grown and once the economy gets straightened out, it will probably grow even more. It has a great downtown (for a small town) and easy access to Wake Tech and later to NC State or other 4 year schools if you want to continue after Wake Tech.
A little farther south is Angier. A smaller town, but very nice.
Clayton is an excellent area. But you would have to drive to Wake Tech or Johnston Community College in Smithfield.
Zebulon / Wendell / Rolesville / Youngsville / Franklinton / Creedmoor may be a bit farther out than most people like. However, besides being down the raod from Lizard Lick Towing, Zebulon is a quick drive to Knightdale which has all the feel of a big town with most of the franchise / chain stores and eateries. Nash Community College is just down US 64 from Zebulon.
When you say "entertainment opportunities" do you mean things like shopping and movies or bars and clubbing? (No judgement either way, just trying to help you narrow it down a bit)
I can say, I grew up in the Charlotte Area, went to NC State, stayed there for 14 years. Thought would give Charlotte a try, been here for almost 3 years and are moving back to the Raleigh area! If that tells you anything!
Let me just say thank you for all the tips from everyone. From what Im gathering it seems like focusing on the south side of Raleigh is the spot to be. We have been heavily researching FV. As far as entertainment opportunities, we like museums, athletics, parks, theaters, music venues.... a couple nice bars wouldn't be bad either every once in a while haha. Again any more information would be great, and thank you so far for the tips
I wouldn't necessarily say that focusing on the south side of Raleigh is the spot to be, exactly. Frankly, Raleigh is blessed with nice countryside (tends to be hilly and forested north and west of Raleigh, and flatter and more agricultural south and east) and nice satellite towns in all four directions, and the ones to the south aren't as a group better than any others. My main reason for recommending Fuquay-Varina is that it happens to be very close to Wake Tech's main campus, which is the largest and most comprehensive community college in the area. Other than that, it may not have clear advantages over some of the other towns mentioned, but it is a very nice town in its own right.
As for proximity to amenities, F-V and the other towns in question all have pretty decent park or parks, but the other attractions may require more of a drive. It's a trade-off, of course. If you want something affordable and with a small-town feel, those places most often won't be super-close to museums and nightlife. But the whole area is small enough that it's not too hard to get anywhere, so no place is totally out of reach of the amenities. From Fuquay-Varina, it generally takes 15-30 minutes to get to downtown Raleigh, which has some decent attractions. Probably 30-45 minutes to the area around the State Fairgrounds, the RBC Center (Hurricanes hockey & N.C. State basketball) and Carter-Finley Stadium (N.C. State football). A little longer than that to get to the many attractions in Durham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro. So, is that too far? I guess that's up to you.
The older, downtown areas of Apex, Cary, Garner, and Wake Forest are a bit more centrally located, farther from Wake Tech but still accessible, and surprisingly small-towny in feel. They're also more expensive, though, and they're no longer true small towns as much as Fuquay is, since they're thoroughly swallowed up by suburbia.
Don't forget that Wake Tech has a Northern Campus on US 1 North off Capital in NE Raleigh near Triangle Town Ctr. Someone mentioned Rolesville. It is a nice small, quiet, reasonably priced family town and near to the northern campus. And then there is Knightdale and Wendell. Both great options and close enough to downtown Raleigh via the 64 bypass etc..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
