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Unlike the other poster, I am looking to move to the boonies. I will be working at a pharma company in RTP. Where should I move that is within 1 hour of RTP and the houses actually have land? If I could get at least 10 to 20 acres, I would be happy. Moderator cut: oops~ not a good idea to post personal info
Last edited by autumngal; 12-19-2007 at 04:54 PM..
Reason: personal info
Northern Durham County, Orange County and Chatham county all have larger parcels of land that can had for 10-30K an acre. At least a dozen houses on the TriangleMLS with 10+ acres for under 400K within 15-45 min of RTP as well, with Durham, Bahama, Hillsborough, Mebane, and Pittsboro adresses.
There's a small cul-de-sac neighborhood in North Durham off of Guess Rd just before you get into Orange County called Brightwater. The road is Brightwater Ln, and there are about 7-10 10+ acre lots. Only 2 homes there right now, but the lots were fairly reasonable last time I checked.
You have a number of choices, depending on the commute you prefer.
I know of several folks who have good size acreage in Orange County (10 acres-70 acres) who commute to RTP. Look for more rural areas that are convenient to an I-40 exit (ex. Efland, Mebane, Hillsborough).
I think northern Durham County is a worse commute, although one could find acreage if you go far enough north.
Chatham has gone up quite a lot in price, but is also an option. Look around Pittsboro.
A triangle MLS search of Orange, Durham, Chatham counties within your price range + acreage of 10+ will not yield a huge list----see if anything hits your interest.
We enjoy living on acreage in Orange County---and still being within an easy commute of cities/universities. It is still possible to enjoy both here (at least with a decent salary!). If you are up for a longer commute, you might also consider eastern Alamance County, where prices are lower.
If you're looking for more of a community feel, you might want to check out Cedar Grove in Chatham County. Some of the pieces there are fairly good sized (I think 7-8 acres) - but home prices are in the 400s-500s.
If you're looking to buy the piece of land first, ask if it's been inspected by the county and approved for a septic. In some places the soil doesn't work right, and a system can cost upwards of $10K or even much much more. It's called "perking". If the soil "perks", it's good for septics, if it doesn't, it's expensive. And if it's been tested and does perk, find out how many bedrooms it's been tested for.
But I've seen quite a few larger pieces listed in the Silk Hope area north of Pittsboro - some already have mobile homes or small homes on them that you might be able to replace with a newer home. It's fairly rural, so that might be what you're looking for - lots of trees, some farms, a few widely scattered developments with 1+ acre lot sizes, nothing that looks really city.
I've seen some very nice acreage in western Orange, eastern Alamance, northern Durham and southern Person Counties. I've also heard some great things about the area around Saxapahaw, but have not seen it first-hand. Chatham County still has some nice acreage, but the price point has gotten pretty high compared to some of the other areas mentioned previously.
Ditto on the Saxapahaw/Graham area. It think it is a worse commute (54 to 40), but it is a very pretty area with a nice feel to it. Saxapahaw is an old milll town that is in transition and may become e a bit of an artist's/healing practitioners town. There is also a nice summer music festival + market.
If you're closer to Graham and I-85, the commute would speed up quite a bit.
Snow Camp in Alamance has some very nice rural properties for reasonable prices. I love the rolling piedmont in this area!
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