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I find the quaint areas in Raleigh with older homes are actually overpriced IMHO. Not much lower than what I paid for in a larger city. I also noticed these houses are sitting for a long time before they sell once you get in the $1 million plus area. Maybe that will change as this area grows a bit more.
Living in Cary on the other hand, things are way cheaper than what we are used to. I am slowly getting acclimated to the extra driving, not that big of a deal. I do wish there were more modern houses out here though, I'm sure that will get here eventually. I can see nice row houses getting built downtown now that better restaurants and bars are popping up.
Thanks, these are the concerns I'm thinking about. Before I get into thinking about Raleigh neighborhoods and what I hope to find, a bit more on our current situation. My wife and I are both from the Midwest but went to school here and have stayed ever since (15+ years). Our house payment is close to $9k here and I pay $1k+ for one car (lease+insurance+garage). Our local taxes consume about 13% of our gross pay and now the new rules will cap that deduction at $10k, so that translates to an additional $15-20k in federal taxes we're going to owe each year. Yuck.
The job seems to be an excellent one in downtown Raleigh and the pay is similar to what I earn here, so that's good to me. I think I can bring the house payment down by a lot (would love to get it around $4-5k). My wife hates to drive and we want to live somewhere walk-able, but I'm sure we'd have to get a second car. I'm not looking to replicate Manhattan, to be sure.
However, it's only partially a cost-motivated move for us--it's also space motivated. Love a lot of things about the city but we've indulged in Broadway, too much fine dining and great museums/cultural events for years. I just can't get over the space problem. My kids want a dog and my sons want to play basketball without making a special trip to the park or gym.
Instead of moving far away, we're also thinking about buying a weekend place and maintaining two places (and two payments--yikes) and then just gritting our teeth through the traffic every weekend to get the kids more space. But with private school bills, high school bills looming, and then (surely) expensive college, we need to bring our expenses down.
So! My grand solution has been to explore opportunities in areas of the country that are a bit cheaper to live yet high quality, where we can both ski and go to the beach. Raleigh seems to fit this bill. I'm looking for a nice neighborhood where perhaps the kids can walk to a good public school and my wife can walk to the local stores/shops etc.
To be honest, I think it's hard to find exactly what you're looking for downtown. We bought a house in North Hills, because it's within distance of the North Hills Shopping Center. It's not an authentic downtown feel. It's one of those modern outdoor shopping centers with a fake town center, but it does seem to have everything I need (Starbucks, Target, fitness centers, clothing stores, movie theater, weekend farmers market, etc.) I can walk there from my house in about 20 min. The schools are pretty good too.
Cameron Village is probably the closest thing downtown.
Given your budget, I think you should be able to live a pretty comfortable life down here. You'll likely be able to buy a 3,000-4,000 sq ft new construction home if that's what you want.
Just keep in mind that the skiing is about 4 hours away, and the beach is at least two hours.
If you can afford $9K a month in housing costs (plus private school tuition and all the associated costs of NYC living) you will be wealthy here if your income stays remotely similar. Anyone who says otherwise is completely off their rocker.
Raleigh is very suburban though. Probably more similar to what you were used to in midwest cities. There is a very small urban-ish core ...I mean there are roads in the city limits with cows and goats grazing on the side of the road Everything is a trade-off though.
Good luck with your decision, you should come visit and see what you think. I think you might need more time to digest the differences than moving this summer would allow, but who knows.
I don't think Raleigh is really that walk-able. You pretty much need to drive everywhere.
You will probably find after being here for a bit that you will not have a good public school in walking distance, and you very may well decide to continue private education. The good news is you could get the in state rate on some very good colleges here.
Skiing is not that close, it will take some effort and planning to hit the slopes. Same with the beach, bit at least that is slightly closer.
Really miss good rapid transit here. Raleigh is a city in name only.
We took the D or A train right to the beach.
Your wife might not enjoy driving with the lousy, unlighted roads and the rotten drivers now infesting the area.
Go over both financials and happiness before you decide.
Yeah this area needs to get its act together and put in light rail to accommodate growth and remain an attractive place to live. That is going to take 5-10 years to build out so they better get cracking.
So D goes to Coney Island. Where does the A go, Rockaway Beach?
We moved from NYC about two years ago. It's definitely been an adjustment, and overall I would describe Raleigh as very suburban, although it does have a downtown. I would also say that the cost of living isn't as cheap as you might think. It will be less expensive than New York, but with the added cost of cars and other expenses, I find we spend about as much as we did in NYC. I guess I lived really frugally in NYC? Anyways, definitely bring your family down to visit to see if it would be a good fit.
If you like modernist houses, there are quite a few in the triangle area, but I'm not sure on the pricing. They don't come up very often. For Victorian houses, the Oakwood neighborhood definitely comes to mind.
You're spending as much living here as in NYC? How? I mean, if I tried I could probably get close (buy one of the silly expensive new construction homes within Raleigh city limits, buy my groceries only at Whole Foods, drive expensive cars, etc.), but my cost of living is still roughly 35-40% lower than when I left Long Island.
But in an apples-to-apples comparison (e.g., similar style home in a similar type of neighborhood, driving the same type of cars, using the same amount of electricity/gas and gasoline) there's no way the cost isn't measurably lower.
Yeah this area needs to get its act together and put in light rail to accommodate growth and remain an attractive place to live. That is going to take 5-10 years to build out so they better get cracking.
So D goes to Coney Island. Where does the A go, Rockaway Beach?
Where would this light rail go and who would use it?
And the "A" train goes from Rockaway Beach all the way up to Harlem. I believe it's the longest line in the subway system.
Where would this light rail go and who would use it?
And the "A" train goes from Rockaway Beach all the way up to Harlem. I believe it's the longest line in the subway system.
I'm not familiar with the area enough to know how it would be laid out but worse case they can tunnel underground and at least make a short route from a populated area to a neighboring suburb I would think.
All the people moving here from larger cities would certainly use it. I wish I didn't need a car here personally. I think this area will get so congested people will be screaming for it at some point, better stay ahead of the curve.
Thanks for info on the A train. Never rode that one.
Great info to read through. Nice to see it's at least in planning stages.
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Everything is a trade-off though. 
