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Old 05-07-2012, 09:26 AM
 
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Hello all,

I've been browsing city-data for a while and decided to just join the site. My husband, baby, and I have just moved to the Triangle area and are in an apt. while we look for a house. We're looking for a neighborhood-y feel with other families in our situation (young professionals with children), but without the cookie cutter feel, with clear-cut trees and houses that look the same and feel like the Twilight Zone. We'd also like to be within striking distance of Durham since most people we know live in Durham.

Can anyone provide insight into Falconbridge, Garrett Farms, or Hope Valley Farms, or any other neighborhood that might be appropriate? Is Falconbridge a haul to get to Durham? Or if we lived there, would it make more sense to just spend free time in CH? What is there to do there?

Also, there seem to be a lot more high-voltage power lines around here than I recall in my old neighborhood in Washington. Does that affect home resale value? Are people here spooked about it or no?

Thanks very much!
Lisa
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Old 05-07-2012, 09:44 AM
 
Location: Chapelboro
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I knew folks who used to live in Falconbridge (they liked it, just moved to the country). I don't think I would recommend it for your situation. It's in Chapel Hill, but not Chapel Hill schools so the impression I got was not a tremendous amount of folks with kids live there. Most of the folks with kids who live in Chapel Hill actively want to be in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro school district. It's a fine neighborhood, but the impression I got from visiting was that there were quite a number of older couples there. I'm sure there are some kids, too, but it's not teeming with them or anything. Yes, I think Falconbridge folks usually spend time in Chapel Hill. I'm sure some spend time in Durham too, but it's not really a Durham neighborhood. It's a Durham county, town of Chapel Hill neighborhood so great for folks who want to be close to Chapel Hill but don't want to pay the CH taxes.

Have you considered Woodcroft for Durham? Lots of kids there. Is it too cookie cutter?

I know Durham families with younger kids who live in the Watts-Hillandale (http://www.whhna.org/) area, too, who love it. Older homes with a lot of character. I think they have a pretty active neighborhood. I occasionally get forwarded emails from their neighborhood loop about some event going on.

Good luck with your search!

Last edited by poppydog; 05-07-2012 at 10:41 AM..
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Old 05-07-2012, 10:35 AM
 
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Falconbridge attracts a lot of older close to retirement or retired folks. We have some friends that live there and they said some new families with very young children are starting to move in but it's not the typical young family mix of most subdivisions in SW Durham. You might be a pioneer in the young family movement there. As another poster pointed out they pay Chapel Hill city taxes and Durham County taxes so their tax rate is highest in Durham and I think their rate is the 2nd highest in the Triangle (right behind Ch/ Carborro schools). But your kids will go to Durham Public Schools because it's Durham Co.

Other n'hoods you might want to consider are the subdivisions off of Herndon Rd. and South of Barbee: Fairfield, Lakehurst, Oakhurst, Oakhaven. They all have lots of young families. Fairfield and Lakehurst are early to mid 90s subdivisions so lots of mature trees and less cookie cutter. (Southhampton is very cookie cutter... avoid that one.)

Some people like Chancelors Ridge but I find most of those houses are too close for my liking. As I find that Hope Vally Farms varies greatly by the section you are in. Some of those homes were not very well built. And some are very close to together, few mature trees etc. HVF feels very cookie cutter to me. But again it does vary a little from the section you are in. Keep in mind 1/2 of HVF is zoned for Jordan and 1/2 for Hillside.

Grandale is nice. Young families. I'm not thrilled with the schools they are zoned for.
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Old 05-07-2012, 11:11 AM
 
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Thanks poppydog and PDXmom. That's great info. When we drove through Falconbridge I did see that there were some older folks walking around, but I also saw in another city-data thread from a few years back that it might be turning over a bit, so I've been wondering if that's still the case. It sounds like it could still be an option for us, as the feel of the neighborhood was really nice.

Woodcroft looks nice - but there aren't a ton of homes for sale there now, as far as I can tell, or at least they're not showing up in our searches. We were initially pretty interested in south of 40 near Southpoint, but then it started to seem a bit far from the "action" in Durham...am I mistaken about that?

Any input on the high voltage power lines issue?

Thanks again!!
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Old 05-07-2012, 12:27 PM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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I am not familiar enough with any neighborhoods to give advice as I just moved here. But I wanted to say that I live in Chapel Hill (southern end - toward Chatham County line), and I spend a fair amount of time in Durham. Traffic here is pretty tame (especially if you are coming from Washington, DC or Seattle - not clear from your post). It only takes me about 20-30 minutes to drive from my end of Chapel Hill into Durham. We are there about 2-3 times per week. From Falconbridge or Hope Valley Farms area, I cannot imagine it would take very long at all to get into the city.
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Old 05-07-2012, 12:45 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lisalisa123 View Post
Thanks poppydog and PDXmom. That's great info. When we drove through Falconbridge I did see that there were some older folks walking around, but I also saw in another city-data thread from a few years back that it might be turning over a bit, so I've been wondering if that's still the case. It sounds like it could still be an option for us, as the feel of the neighborhood was really nice.

Woodcroft looks nice - but there aren't a ton of homes for sale there now, as far as I can tell, or at least they're not showing up in our searches. We were initially pretty interested in south of 40 near Southpoint, but then it started to seem a bit far from the "action" in Durham...am I mistaken about that?

Any input on the high voltage power lines issue?

Thanks again!!
I think it depends on what sort of "action" you are looking for. LOL. That did not sound quite like how I mean it. What sort of things are you interested in? There is a ton of stuff to do in Durham, all around Durham. And once your child gets to be that age where he or she is doing sports, dance, music, etc, I think you will find most of that is not located in the core of Durham. But there is plenty of that sort of stuff in the out lying areas. We live South of Southpoint and the thing I love about the location is it feel very central. We spend time in Durham, Chapel Hill, Chatham Co., Raleigh, Cary, and Apex doing stuff with the kids and as a couple. The area South of Southpoint is at most 2-3 miles from i-40 which dumps you pretty much anywhere you want to go.

So what is your question regarding the high voltage power lines? They do run along the Tobacco Trail in South Durham because the Tobacco Trail Land and the Army Corp of Engineer land were/ are some how related. ?? Having access to the ATT (American Tobacco Trail) is consider a desirable amenity by many. So I don't see the power lines being an issue. However, I will say I've heard that several people do not like South Hampton because they really do sit on top of the power lines. And they cut ALL the trees, scraped the good dirt from the whole area, etc. It feels like electrified scorched earth to me.
But other n'hoods like Chelsea Meadows Chancelors Ridge, Huntington Ridge all have so many trees that even though they are on the ATT the power lines are noticeable.
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Old 05-07-2012, 01:39 PM
 
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My inlaws retired to Falconbridge a few years ago and love it. There are some kids here and there, but I'd look elsewhere if you want a lot of kids around. It's also more convenient to Chapel Hill shopping, etc compared to Durham IMO.

You might also look at American Village. Might be too far North for your needs, but I think it's perfectly centrally located to both North and South Durham, Downtow Durham, with easy access to the Durham Freeway, I-85, and Chapel Hill. There's an old section (mid to late 1980s) and newer sections (Greenway and The Colony). The Colony is just building out the last few lots. Not a whole lot of inventory in the neighborhood right now. American Village has a neighborhood park and tons of young kids.
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Old 05-07-2012, 01:56 PM
 
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Thanks michgc! That's good info.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PDXmom View Post
I think it depends on what sort of "action" you are looking for. LOL. That did not sound quite like how I mean it. What sort of things are you interested in? There is a ton of stuff to do in Durham, all around Durham. And once your child gets to be that age where he or she is doing sports, dance, music, etc, I think you will find most of that is not located in the core of Durham. But there is plenty of that sort of stuff in the out lying areas. We live South of Southpoint and the thing I love about the location is it feel very central. We spend time in Durham, Chapel Hill, Chatham Co., Raleigh, Cary, and Apex doing stuff with the kids and as a couple. The area South of Southpoint is at most 2-3 miles from i-40 which dumps you pretty much anywhere you want to go.
That's a good point. For the time being (our baby is only an infant), we are only thinking of the "action" as restaurants and unique things to do not found in other cities. But I see your point about other kids activities a few years down the line.

Quote:
So what is your question regarding the high voltage power lines? They do run along the Tobacco Trail in South Durham because the Tobacco Trail Land and the Army Corp of Engineer land were/ are some how related. ?? Having access to the ATT (American Tobacco Trail) is consider a desirable amenity by many. So I don't see the power lines being an issue. However, I will say I've heard that several people do not like South Hampton because they really do sit on top of the power lines. And they cut ALL the trees, scraped the good dirt from the whole area, etc. It feels like electrified scorched earth to me.
But other n'hoods like Chelsea Meadows Chancelors Ridge, Huntington Ridge all have so many trees that even though they are on the ATT the power lines are noticeable.
I guess I wonder if people get spooked about them. I guess not, since they're everywhere here, I didn't realize they actually run along the ATT. I would imagine they would hurt resale value but I guess maybe they don't here.

Thanks for everyone's replies!
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Old 05-07-2012, 11:08 PM
WDJ
 
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I'm a young professional (married w/toddler) and have been living in Falconbridge for the past couple years. Like you, we were also looking to move into a neighborhood that was mature and not cookie-cutter. The initial feeling we got from the neighborhood was that it had a bunch of older folks, but in the past couple of years, there's been an influx of young couples w/young children moving in. I think the last 3 houses that sold on my street in the past year or two were all bought by new families. At the neighborhood pool opening last year, we were surprised by the amount of kids that showed up. The schools we're zoned for are fine, so we're not worried about it.

I think the other neighborhoods we had been looking closely at were HVF, Woodcroft, Downing Creek, Five Oaks, and Chancellor's Ridge.

As for where we held to during our free time, we split most of our time between CH/Carrboro and Southpoint. We don't head to Downtown Durham that often, even though it's 15-20 mins out, because most of the people we know live out in Raleigh. I do drive by DT Durham on my way to work, and it's not a bad drive at all to get there.
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Old 05-09-2012, 12:25 PM
 
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WDJ, that's good to know, thank you.
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