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My wife and I live in Asheville and we have been thinking about relocating to the Triangle to buy a house. The housing in Asheville is just too dang expensive unfortunately. We're looking for a more urban neighborhood in Raleigh, Durham, or Chapel Hill. Here' a few more details about us:
- Early 30's, dual income no kids
- Both work remote, but in the future I might be looking for new employment in the tech sector so might be good to get something near RTP
- Housing budget of $300k
- Not looking for a huge house, 1300 square feet is more than enough for us
- Walkability if possible (or at least some amenities close by driving), I don't mind taking buses to places either
- I enjoy craft beer, coffee, film. Wife is very crafty and would like find to find a place where people might be into sewing, cross stitch, volunteering etc.
We have visited the area before and stayed in downtown Durham, but we really don't know any of the neighborhoods in particular in any of the Triangle. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
My wife and I live in Asheville and we have been thinking about relocating to the Triangle to buy a house. The housing in Asheville is just too dang expensive unfortunately. We're looking for a more urban neighborhood in Raleigh, Durham, or Chapel Hill. Here' a few more details about us:
- Early 30's, dual income no kids
- Both work remote, but in the future I might be looking for new employment in the tech sector so might be good to get something near RTP
- Housing budget of $300k
- Not looking for a huge house, 1300 square feet is more than enough for us
- Walkability if possible (or at least some amenities close by driving), I don't mind taking buses to places either
- I enjoy craft beer, coffee, film. Wife is very crafty and would like find to find a place where people might be into sewing, cross stitch, volunteering etc.
We have visited the area before and stayed in downtown Durham, but we really don't know any of the neighborhoods in particular in any of the Triangle. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Any areas near downtown in any of the aforementioned will suit your needs, but you have to figure out how "crunchy" you are.
From greatest to least crunchy:
1. CH
2. Durham
3. Raleigh
Any of them will have the stuff you mentioned, but if you want bus service, you'll probably find CH more to your liking.
If near RTP is something you want, along with the urban vibe, DT Durham might be your best bet.
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Any areas near downtown in any of the aforementioned will suit your needs, but you have to figure out how "crunchy" you are.
From greatest to least crunchy:
1. CH
2. Durham
3. Raleigh
Any of them will have the stuff you mentioned, but if you want bus service, you'll probably find CH more to your liking.
If near RTP is something you want, along with the urban vibe, DT Durham might be your best bet.
Thanks for the reply! We're pretty flexible on the crunchiness and living preferences in general. Last time we were in town we visited all 3 (CH, Durham, Raleigh) and didn't rule any of them out. I think finding a neighborhood would be key.
The commute will be better to RTP from the CH/Durham side. The areas around downtown Raleigh are nice for transit/walkability but pushing your budget and the areas where you can afford to buy that size of house are still undergoing gentrification so maybe a little bit iffy depending what your safety/comfort level is.
so maybe a little bit iffy depending what your safety/comfort level is.
It depends really. I grew up in a different city where people were being murdered 1 block away and we had bars on all of our windows. I definitely don't want to go back to that lifestyle again but as long as it's not that bad and mostly reasonable I think we are pretty flexible.
Walkability + affordability (sub 300K for reasonable sized decent condition "older" houses on bigger lots with some character) + craft beer (Bond Brothers just named best new craft brewery in country Breweries: USA Today names Cary's Bond Brothers named best new craft beer brewery | News & Observer) + coffee (BREW coffee house) + film (Cary Theater offers art house and classic film showings) + crafts for wife (Cary Arts Center) + high rate of volunteerism and community involvement (Cary as a whole) + central location open to commuting possibilities to both employment centers of RTP and DT Raleigh = downtown Cary.
Safe, good schools, no HOAs and a fair amount of "free spiritedness".
Might be worth looking into.
Last edited by ncrunner77; 03-17-2017 at 03:52 PM..
Reason: Fix punctuation
Walkability + affordability (sub 300K for reasonable sized decent condition "older" houses on bigger lots with some character) + craft beer (Bond Brothers just names best new craft brewery in country Breweries: USA Today names Cary's Bond Brothers named best new craft beer brewery | News & Observer) + coffee (BREW coffee house) + film (Cary Theater offers art house and classic film showings) + crafts for wife (Cary Arts Center) + high rate of volunteerism and community involvement (Cary as a whole) + central location open to commuting possibilities to both employment centers of RTP and DT Raleigh = downtown Cary.
Safe, good schools, no HOAs and a fair amount of "free spiritedness"
Might be worth looking into.
I agree. There's a quilting place in DT Cary as well.
If you're looking for Walkability/Transit - check out the WalkScore website. It will give you a "Walk Score" and a "Transit Score" if you punch in an address saying how much stuff is within "walking distance" (this is NC so be aware that not all roads have sidewalks or crosswalks so do some research outside of that) or what access to transit looks like.
Is renting not an option for you? If I were in your shoes I'd rent in DT Durham such as West Village (just an example, there are many so called "luxury apartments" in downtown proper) for 6mo-1yr unless you have a large dog... While enjoying downtown living, explore many other parts of Triangle. Like others said, Durham came up as reading your post but you may end up liking CH/Carrboro, Cary, Hillsborough, etc. The area has so much to offer!
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