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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.
1. A neighborhood our kids can safely play and ride bikes around
That pretty much narrows it down to most of them. Anything more specifically you're looking for in a neighborhood? Price?
As for walking to "town" give us a sense of what kinds of amenities you'd want to have within walking distance. Some large planned communities might meet your criteria, but I'm not clear on what exactly you're looking for.
Perhaps in some lower-growth parts of the Triangle. But in Wake County, the class sizes have increased recently, and the legislature partially removed the class size restrictions.
You might check out the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Schools for class sizes at the NC Report Card site.
How old are you guys and what do you like doing? I'm a single male in his 20s trying hard to move to CA. I find this area to be a bit boring and has sorta crummy weather. Theres also NOTHING here that compares culturally to San Francisco. Also you're not by the beach or mountains really.
If you want a quiet place to raise your kids, would love the suburban life, and have a sizable down payment on a house this is a good place for you. Just keep in mind regarding cost of living that only housing is cheaper. Groceries are actually more, utilities are more (maybe less per unit but extreme heat and cold keeps those bills up). Income tax is a flat 5.75%, doesn't allow child deductions, and you pay a yearly car tax, so your state tax rate is similar in the end to CA (unless your household income is very high and hitting the upper rungs of CAs progressive taxation rate). Wages are also much lower in this union free ex-slave state as well and health insurance plans offered by employers tend to be significantly inferior. I recently interviewed out there and they were quoting salary ranges that were over 30k above my current salary here. I calculated if I dedicated an extra 10-15k a year to housing then I'd cover the housing premium, and still come out ahead.
If you already have significant equity in a home out there and can sell it and buy one here for cash (or close to it), this move might be worthwhile. However if you're renting it likely wont be due to likely significant pay cuts.
On the flip side, there's a sizable asian population which means great food. In addition, downtown Raleigh is pretty nice and does have some good local music and museums (not like the bay area but still good). Moreover, the beaches 2-2.5 hours away have very warm ocean water in the summer and are lovely. The surfing isn't as good at the southeastern beaches but if you can drive 3-4 hours out to Cape Hatteras you can find some superb surfing (on par with much of the weat coast). And while the skiing isn't as good as the Sierras, there is some, and there is also some lovely moutains to hike in 3-4 hours west.
We are both in our late 30's. Our kids are both 9 years old (twins). Things we love to do out here, often center around what's available (which is a lot in the bay area). We love to hike, play tennis, hear live music, and eat out for date nights. Bonus if we can walk to town from home, but not required.
We're looking to rent for now ($2,500 and under for 3-4 bedroom). We'd really like a neighborhood and town our kids can safely walk around in, without our supervision. As they get older, we want them to have some autonomy. We'd also like to live in a neighborhood with plenty of other families that have similar aged kids. Since we'd be going from a vast urban environment (we live in Oakland) to something more suburban, it'd be nice if there was some diversity. I've seen some schools that are a bit more homogenous and some that are quite diverse
We moved here last April, prior to that we lived in the East Bay, Walnut Creek area as well as Scottsdale in AZ. We currently live in Holly Springs which is a little further out than Apex, I can honestly say as far as raising a family you cannot beat this area. It's true that if you are looking for endless entertainment and dining options the Bay Area and Scottsdale would win hands down, however with that comes endless traffic, high pollution and unaffordable housing.
The scenery here is beautiful trees everywhere, big blue sky's. Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill all have great areas for food/music as well as great college atmospheres. The beach is close enough to do a day/weekend trip as well as the mountains. People here actually want to get to know their neighbors, honestly cant say enough positives about this area.
There are plenty of options that would fit your needs in both Chapel Hill and Cary/Apex. Since your husband's job is in Cary I would recommend focusing there because I would hate to commute on I40 to/from Chapel Hill.
Great feedback!! Yes, please tell me about the traffic. How is traffic from Holly Springs to Cary?
One reason we'd also focused on Chapel hill, was if in 1-2 years he switches job, he could end up working in Raliegh or Durham...my understanding is most tech jobs are there.
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)
Last edited by drrckmtthws; 02-13-2015 at 11:38 PM..
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