Moving from Bay Area to Chapel Hill, Cary, or Apex...HELP! (Durham: cul-de-sac, houses)

[DebbieF]

Originally Posted by drrckmtthws

If your job is in Cary, there is no reason not to just live in Cary or in Morrisville, and it is a better middle ground, in regards to the triangle depending on where you live you can get to downtown Raleigh in probably 10 minutes, and maybe 15 to get to Durham, add another 5 to get to Chapel Hill.

If you live and work in Cary traffic will not be much of a issue since it's not like you are going to have to hop on the interstate to get to work, this place is pretty much a family oriented place, and a lot of the neighborhoods have some type of community pool, and connect to the greenway system which connects to xyz park.

Also another option would be the Brier Creek area in Raleigh near the Brier Creek community center, bunch of families there, near the the airport, not far from Cary, Community center is right there for your kids to play with other kids and close to shops.

A place to check out in Chapel Hill would be the Southern Village area probably be a 25 minute commute to work though (I live in Cary and used to work in Chapel Hill, sometimes my commute would be under 20 mins, and sometimes tad bit more, all depends on what time you go and what time you're getting off)



Southern Village, North Carolina - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I love the Southern Village Area. There is alot to offer there. My daughter lives there and loves it. Perfect area if you like walking to things.

[RedZin]

Originally Posted by Bellabaroo

Hi there...our family is very likely moving to the Chapel Hill, Cary, or Apex area. My husband's job will be in Cary, so that's high on the list of cities to focus on. However, if 1-2 years from now he would like to switch jobs in the area, it could be nice to live in a city that fits our overall lifestyle. In other words, we don't have to live next to the job. We're more concerned with finding a town that's a good fit overall. We are in our late 30's, my husband is an engineer and I'm a stay at home mom, but would look for part time work in special education. Our kids are 9 year old, boy-girl twins.

Here are our priorities:

1. A neighborhood our kids can safely play and ride bikes around, hopefully as they get older we'd like them to have the freedom to walk to town on their own

2. Good schools...they don't have to be rated a 10, in fact we're cool with a 7 or 8 if that means there's more diversity in the student body and smaller class size. Here the class size is 28-30 students in elementary school. Are there schools more around 20-22?


Other questions:

1. Please help me with understand the youth soccer clubs. During a quick search it looks like there are several clubs/leagues. Our son plays at the U10 competitive level out here and we'd like him to tryout for a team out there. What clubs do you suggest?

2. Our daughter is an artist and we'd love to be close to art classes, music, and good theatre programs whether in the schools or through the city.

Thank you!

You can find all that in Cary, and Cary is very central. Close to the airport (though you don't have to hear planes really, if you choose the right development) and close to RTP, so if your husband switches jobs, he'd still likely be close to work. If he's working in Cary? Move to Cary. It's a good area, with quick access to Raleigh, Durham, AND Chapel Hill.

[Meraki]

We relocated here and moved to Chapel Hill. We also rent, and rentals are available all over in your price range for a 3BR.

My husband works in Cary and commutes there from Chapel Hill on I-40. It's roughly 25 minutes each way, which is not a problem for us since we were used to much longer. People who grew up here think those commutes are long though, so it depends on your perception.

We LOVE Chapel Hill. Cary is also a great place. We did not love Apex or Morrisville when we looked there, but it's personal preference. You will experience diversity and a lot of friendliness in any of these communities, as transplants here are seemingly very common.

Since you have boys who are twins, you will be dealing with trying to get two kids into the same grade into the same school. You will really want to explore the areas you are considering, and match them up to the school assignments on the Wake County Web site. There is a lot of movement with school assignments, and a lot of overcrowding. Were it not for that, we would have looked at settling in Cary more closely. So we chose Chapel Hill. If you would like more information on our personal experience, please feel free to send me a DM. Someone here did that for me and I was very grateful for all the additional information she provided.

For the Wake County schools (Cary, Apex area) - refer to this Web site: Student Assignment / Overview

For Chapel Hill - School Assignments

We really enjoy the community here. We are within a half hour of Raleigh and the Crabtree mall, and t's about 15-20 minutes to Durham's SouthPoint Mall. Within about 15 minutes, we have Trader Jos, Whole Foods (they are essentially five minutes apart), Target, WalMart, Home Depot and lots of other shops. It's pretty easy to get around here. Cary has Duck Donuts though....yum.

If you enjoy fitness, there are lots of places and specialty fitness centers all over - Yoga, (I like Triangle Yoga in Chapel Hill, as well as Pure Barre), Crossfit, YMCA, Orange Theory, etc...We found a great pediatrician that we love in Chapel Hill also.

I agree that the Southern Village housing is a good place to start.

[RedZin]

Originally Posted by Meraki

We relocated here and moved to Chapel Hill. We also rent, and rentals are available all over in your price range for a 3BR.

My husband works in Cary and commutes there from Chapel Hill on I-40. It's roughly 25 minutes each way, which is not a problem for us since we were used to much longer. People who grew up here think those commutes are long though, so it depends on your perception.

We LOVE Chapel Hill. Cary is also a great place. We did not love Apex or Morrisville when we looked there, but it's personal preference. You will experience diversity and a lot of friendliness in any of these communities, as transplants here are seemingly very common.

Since you have boys who are twins, you will be dealing with trying to get two kids into the same grade into the same school. You will really want to explore the areas you are considering, and match them up to the school assignments on the Wake County Web site. There is a lot of movement with school assignments, and a lot of overcrowding. Were it not for that, we would have looked at settling in Cary more closely. So we chose Chapel Hill. If you would like more information on our personal experience, please feel free to send me a DM. Someone here did that for me and I was very grateful for all the additional information she provided.

For the Wake County schools (Cary, Apex area) - refer to this Web site: Student Assignment / Overview

For Chapel Hill - School Assignments

For the record? I have 3 kids who all made their way through the Wake County School system thus far without ever being reassigned. One is 24, one is 17 (graduating next year) and the other is 14.

I attended WCPSS and I was also never reassigned.

The key is avoiding areas with constant reassignment/overcrowding issues. In Cary, that mostly means avoiding the far reaches of West Cary.

The rest of it? All fine.

The commute from Cary to CH isn't bad NOW. That's sort of the issue. That same commute that takes your husband 25 minutes now used to be around 20 or a little under about 10 years ago. So, who knows what it'll be in 10 more years, if he's still making it? It could be 45 minutes. Or more. This area is expanding rapidly.

That's why I'm so fond of living close to the area in which you work and/or are likely to work. Less cars clogging up the roads; shorter commutes for everyone.

[Meraki]

RedZin, yep I've heard that a lot about the commutes. But, we're used to an hour to two hours whenever it snowed in MN, so...that's a lot of time on the road about six months of the year. I worked at MOA - it took me 25 minutes to PARK on a Saturday once I actually got there. So like I said, it's perception. We don't really mind commutes but we've never had easy commutes, so that's what I mean by perception.

We hired an agent who showed us multiple homes in about three days over in Cary, Apex and Morrisville. We explored Chapel Hill on our own. Not a single property we saw in Cary had a school assignment for our kids that wasn't capped. So, that was an immediate turnoff. EVERY school we looked at was capped when we found properties we liked. And even in Chapel Hill, my oldest is at a different middle school because his base school is capped. He is facing another school change next year. But it was less of a problem here and we really loved the feel of Chapel Hill and found our favorite rental housing here too.

The other thing I forgot to mention is the school calendars. That was also a factor for us. Chapel Hill is a traditional calendar year with summers off, but many Wake County Schools are year-round. We really couldn't deal with the unknown in that situation - not knowing which school they would attend, which calendar model it would be, etc. So again, why we chose what we chose. I'm not knocking Cary, but it just wasn't a good fit for our needs. Plus, we moved here after school started in September, so we didn't have many options.

[RedZin]

Originally Posted by Meraki

RedZin, yep I've heard that a lot about the commutes. But, we're used to an hour to two hours whenever it snowed in MN, so...that's a lot of time on the road about six months of the year. I worked at MOA - it took me 25 minutes to PARK on a Saturday once I actually got there. So like I said, it's perception. We don't really mind commutes but we've never had easy commutes, so that's what I mean by perception.

We hired an agent who showed us multiple homes in about three days over in Cary, Apex and Morrisville. We explored Chapel Hill on our own. Not a single property we saw in Cary had a school assignment for our kids that wasn't capped. So, that was an immediate turnoff. EVERY school we looked at was capped when we found properties we liked. And even in Chapel Hill, my oldest is at a different middle school because his base school is capped. He is facing another school change next year. But it was less of a problem here and we really loved the feel of Chapel Hill and found our favorite rental housing here too.

The other thing I forgot to mention is the school calendars. That was also a factor for us. Chapel Hill is a traditional calendar year with summers off, but many Wake County Schools are year-round. We really couldn't deal with the unknown in that situation - not knowing which school they would attend, which calendar model it would be, etc. So again, why we chose what we chose. I'm not knocking Cary, but it just wasn't a good fit for our needs. Plus, we moved here after school started in September, so we didn't have many options.

Oh, I think Chapel Hill is great. I just wouldn't move there solely for the schools. I'd move there because I liked Chapel Hill and the other amenities it has to offer. Having good schools is the tradeoff there for higher taxes. And it's nice, but as I said, not enough to make me move there or to make me suggest anyone take on a long commute to move there unless they just fall in love with the town itself.

CH and Cary are very different. Cary is mostly suburban. We live over by SAS, so (for us) we aren't dealing with the reassignment issues that people deal with over in West Cary and we have more trees, more mature landscaping, and we have an easy commute to DT Raleigh if we want to go there, as well as easy commutes to RTP and RDU.

It's all about priorities. Yours was making sure that you had schools that made you feel comfortable. You didn't care about how long a commute you had to make, so your choice was easy for you to make.

[CHTransplant]

Originally Posted by RedZin

Oh, I think Chapel Hill is great. I just wouldn't move there solely for the schools. I'd move there because I liked Chapel Hill and the other amenities it has to offer.

Spot on advice. Selecting Chapel Hill as a place to live involves a lot more than "good schools."

[mdenamen]

Can you please email me meraki



Can QUOTE=Meraki;38483121]We relocated here and moved to Chapel Hill. We also rent, and rentals are available all over in your price range for a 3BR.

My husband works in Cary and commutes there from Chapel Hill on I-40. It's roughly 25 minutes each way, which is not a problem for us since we were used to much longer. People who grew up here think those commutes are long though, so it depends on your perception.

We LOVE Chapel Hill. Cary is also a great place. We did not love Apex or Morrisville when we looked there, but it's personal preference. You will experience diversity and a lot of friendliness in any of these communities, as transplants here are seemingly very common.

Since you have boys who are twins, you will be dealing with trying to get two kids into the same grade into the same school. You will really want to explore the areas you are considering, and match them up to the school assignments on the Wake County Web site. There is a lot of movement with school assignments, and a lot of overcrowding. Were it not for that, we would have looked at settling in Cary more closely. So we chose Chapel Hill. If you would like more information on our personal experience, please feel free to send me a DM. Someone here did that for me and I was very grateful for all the additional information she provided.

For the Wake County schools (Cary, Apex area) - refer to this Web site: [url=http://www.wcpss.net/student-assignment]Student Assignment / Overview[/url]

For Chapel Hill - [URL="http://www.chccs.k12.nc.us/res_view_folder.aspx?id=e5e52467-0b6a-4cb2-b00e-aaa75adde513&userGroupId=298f907c-9666-4d6a-9114-c69928df13c0&userGroupType=G"]School Assignments[/URL]

We really enjoy the community here. We are within a half hour of Raleigh and the Crabtree mall, and t's about 15-20 minutes to Durham's SouthPoint Mall. Within about 15 minutes, we have Trader Jos, Whole Foods (they are essentially five minutes apart), Target, WalMart, Home Depot and lots of other shops. It's pretty easy to get around here. Cary has Duck Donuts though....yum.

If you enjoy fitness, there are lots of places and specialty fitness centers all over - Yoga, (I like Triangle Yoga in Chapel Hill, as well as Pure Barre), Crossfit, YMCA, Orange Theory, etc...We found a great pediatrician that we love in Chapel Hill also.

I agree that the Southern Village housing is a good place to start.[/quote]

[Bellabaroo]

Thanks so much for the feedback!

Can anyone speak about how much freedom kids have in CH and Cary? Meaning, we'd like to live in a neighborhood with LOTS of families, with elementary through HS aged kids. After living in such a crowded urban area, we really want our kids to be able to roam their neighborhood, play in the streets or ride bikes around, etc.

On a personal note - I love hiking, walking and outdoor exercise. Any differences in CH vs Cary in this regard?

[michgc]

I can only speak to Southern Village and EVERY KID roams the neighborhood - bikes, scooters, walking, playing in the woods, walking to school, etc. I sometimes think parents are too lax with how much freedom the kids have here.