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I am a fairly new member to this site and was thinking of relocating my family from upstate NY to Maryland. After reading these boards, my husband and I decided against moving to Maryland. We are now looking to move into Durham. I know that I run the risk of sounding like a tape recorder but....how is it living in Durham? At this point, I saw beautiful homes for rent in North durham and southwest durham. Are these good development areas? Is there high crime? Here are a few factors that we are looking for in a community.
- We want to live in the suburbs, but have access to the shopping centers and what not.
- We have 4 small children ages 2-7 and want to be in an area with GREAT public schools.
- Does anyone know of good day cares in the area?
- We would also like to put our four year old daughter into a dance class....any schools out there? Any and all feedback is appreciated.
I am a fairly new member to this site and was thinking of relocating my family from upstate NY to Maryland. After reading these boards, my husband and I decided against moving to Maryland. We are now looking to move into Durham. I know that I run the risk of sounding like a tape recorder but....how is it living in Durham? At this point, I saw beautiful homes for rent in North durham and southwest durham. Are these good development areas? Is there high crime? Here are a few factors that we are looking for in a community.
- We want to live in the suburbs, but have access to the shopping centers and what not.
- We have 4 small children ages 2-7 and want to be in an area with GREAT public schools.
- Does anyone know of good day cares in the area?
- We would also like to put our four year old daughter into a dance class....any schools out there? Any and all feedback is appreciated.
Thank you
Durham is not 100% bad, but it does have some very poor, crime-ridden areas. Additionally, the public school choices there are not the best. Oh, and they are running out of water faster than neighboring communities because the people there were not very proactive about conserving when our drought got so bad. In comparison nearby Cary has like a years supply of water in reserve due to their very conscientious elected officials and the folks living there. I'm not saying don't go to Durham, I'm saying find out as much as you can about it and go with your eyes wide open. Best of luck!
Last edited by lovesMountains; 01-09-2008 at 07:33 PM..
There are a handful of people on the Triangle board who live in north Durham and southwestern Durham. Many of them have school aged children, so hopefully they can give you the story on the schools based on their personal experiences. I don't have children myself, but I've heard good things about some of the schools in both of those areas. I'll leave it to people with children to give the specifics.
My husband and I live in southwest Durham and we really love it here. We live in one of the "older" neighborhoods (20 years old) and love the mature landscaping that comes with that, but there are many new neighborhoods in the area if you're looking for new construction. Southwestern Durham is a very central location in the Triangle and, thanks to the I-40, it's very easy to get wherever you want in the Triangle from here. It's also extremely close to the airport (probably a 15 minute drive for most people) and Research Triangle Park (10 minutes). This part of Durham is also great if you like shopping, thanks to Southpoint Mall and all of the other shopping centers around it. I find that I rarely have to drive more than 2 miles away from home because everything I could possibly need is so close to home.
Northern Durham is different than southwestern Durham in that it isn't as built up. There are not as many stores and, obviously, the location isn't as central. However, there are some beautiful neighborhoods springing up in that area. Many of them border Eno River State Park. It's a great location for nature lovers.
As for the comments made by LovesMountains, it's true that there is a part of Durham that is poorer and more crime-ridden (generally speaking, it's in the east-central part of town), but that can be said of any city. As for the water situation, it's fairly well known around here that the lake that Cary uses as its water source is larger than Durham's water source (and larger than Raleigh's water source, too), so that is one reason why Cary has more water than Durham. It's true that the city did not impose restrictions as quickly as they should have, but frankly I think the same could be said about many communities in the state. This drought has hit us all harder - and longer - than we could have imagined. Now we all just need to work together to get through it.
I live in SW Durham (Fairfield Subdivision) and I love it. Although we do not have children yet, we do plan on starting a family here in Durham. We chose to find a house in the Creekside Elementary School District.
There are a ton of search sites, but I prefer this one where you can easily input the school:
Moderator cut: removed
Unfortunately I cannot speak for North Durham as I have just recently moved to Durham. I loved in Cary for 6 years prior to moving to Durham so most of my time was spent in Cary of Raleigh...
Enjoy and Good Luck in your home search...
Matt
Last edited by autumngal; 01-19-2008 at 08:27 PM..
Reason: dm link please
As far as the North part of Durham is concerned, I would look into areas that are serviced by Easley Elementary or Little River. Also, Hillandale Elementary is a great school. We just moved to North Durham and really love it. Much quieter than I'm used to, but it's a good thing I think. Good luck.
Thank you, Mrs. STeel for your reply. I appreciate it. Is the drought still going on?
Yes, the drought continues. It's the worst drought the state has seen in recorded history, so it's probably going to take a long time to recover. Maybe a year from now we'll be back to normal. One can only hope!
Hi I have four small children in almost exactly your age range and we are really enjoying living in SW Durham It is very suburban and contains what most seem to consider their favorite mall in the Triangle area We have all the big box shopping within a few miles. We consider our public school great, and several of us in my neighborhood are in the PTA or volunteer in some way or another.
I hope you won't mind if I copy the following links from another thread Good luck with your potential move!
My husband and I have four small children, one in Elementary school, and thoroughly researched the area before deciding SW Durham was exactly where we wanted to be Here is a thread I started specifically in response to the frustration we all feel when people malign Durham. It has some really great links, including a school comparison put out by the city of Durham. Getting tired of Durham being dismissed out of hand
And here's a great video about life in Durham made by someone at Duke Law: Decidedly Durham
Also check out the photo thread stickied to the top of the forum where there are many links to photos of Durham
Quote:
Originally Posted by msloanofficer
I am a fairly new member to this site and was thinking of relocating my family from upstate NY to Maryland. After reading these boards, my husband and I decided against moving to Maryland. We are now looking to move into Durham. I know that I run the risk of sounding like a tape recorder but....how is it living in Durham? At this point, I saw beautiful homes for rent in North durham and southwest durham. Are these good development areas? Is there high crime? Here are a few factors that we are looking for in a community.
- We want to live in the suburbs, but have access to the shopping centers and what not.
- We have 4 small children ages 2-7 and want to be in an area with GREAT public schools.
- Does anyone know of good day cares in the area?
- We would also like to put our four year old daughter into a dance class....any schools out there? Any and all feedback is appreciated.
Thank you
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SW Durham
