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The drive from Clayton into the 440 beltline is very heavy. Traffic crawling as early as 7 AM. I have many coworkers who come in from 40/42 and beyond, and traffic has really escalated in the last 5 years or so. Completion of the widening of I-40 (also known as the "Fortify" project) will happen in the next few months, but I don't see it really improving the drive by a whole lot.
WRAL is the local TV station with the best network of traffic cameras. Log on to their website one morning and take a look at the traffic cams out East of Raleigh.
Johnston County taxes are 78 cents per $100 of valuation-that is a county only figure. Based on county only, taxes on a 230K property will run $1,794 per year. Town of Clayton taxes are 55 cents per $100. A home within Clayton limits valued at $230K will have annual taxes of $3,059.
I could get by for a while having the attached 2 car garage totally to my self... but that leaves nowhere for my wife's stuff. If we stay here and I take over the two car garage that comes with whatever house we buy, that means STILL loading kids in and out of cars in 30MPH wind while its below 0f out. Not fun. Doesn't matter that we have a garage now as its detached and has my hotrod in it. Good to know a pole barn is still doable. Are bugs and critters a major issue? the crazy cold here (weeks and weeks below freezing at a time) kills (or rather, prevents) everything harmful, including termites.
What is a CCR? And out of curiosity, is pole construction different there, given that there isn't a 42" frost line
What could make clayton a bad commute? I'm glad you mentioned that because i figured it was 25 minutes. I would probably get a job similar to the one I have now (technical sales, kind of. less selling, more design/technical) to use as a vehicle to get down there, and then venture into my next chapter, as its coming either way. just curious to know what would make Clayton inconvenient, because I can see Raleigh being my career center for man years
I appreciate the responses
Bugs and critters being an issue is entirely dependent upon your expectation. Does the cat occasionally bring a friendly lizard or small snake in the house? Yup. I personally don't find the biting insects as bad as you'd see in the Maine woods in July for instance, but some people freak out every time they see an ant, so it's subjective.
CCR = Codes, Convenants and Restrictions. If you buy into a subdivision, that will define what you can and can't do on your property. The further you live out in the country, the less of any issue this becomes. This is on top of the local codes, zoning ordinances from the AHJ, which could be a city or the county if you live in outside of any city jurisdiction, which is pretty common here.
A 25 minute commute to a tech job from the country is going to be a REAL struggle in my opinion. Sure you can make the east side of Raleigh from Clayton in 25 minutes at 2 in the afternoon, good luck even making the east side of Raleigh in 25 at 7:30 AM, you'll never make the RTP area in anything close to that. This isn't Western NY, drive time is entirely dependent on traffic, not distance.
A pole barn is a pole barn everywhere (and it's clear by the question that you understand a pole barn and a "shed" are two entirely different things). You don't see many of them closer to the city, but certainly I see both both pole barns, and pre-fab metal buildings for shops when you leave the suburbs. The main difference would be less frost depth, and less snow load factored into the roof design than you have there. Other than that, construction of a pole barn is pretty typical everywhere.
It sounds like your wife has too much stuff, moving will help that :-) Lots of creative garage storage ideas out there. We have 13' garage ceilings, which opens up all kinds of over-head storage options.
I'm not that familiar with Clayton but I'm not sure the property tax expectation is realistic.
You're looking at living in a non-HOA neighborhood (CCRs are the restrictive covenants that proscribe what you can and can't do with your home, in some cases right down to the mailbox....which really offends some people!). You sound like you'll be ok with that.
I think if you come with reasonable expectations you can get most of what you want. Rarely can you get everything you want.
We have great storage in our garage, we have a 3rd floor and we have a ton of closet space. Do not miss the basement at all.
The idea that you need a garage for the winter here is silly. Most kids don't even have a winter coat, getting by with heavy sweatshirts and fleeces.
Wow that's a LOT of info. I am VERY glad I came here with my questions. I found, before i read it from you all, that $0.965 per $100 of home value is about what i'd pay, so more like $2k plus. That's still a 1/5th of here, but it sounds like i will deal with insane traffic and have a hard time finding a house. We were thinking of grabbing a 3 bedroom apartment there for a year. The equity (not much.... 35,000 maybe) from here would be in the bank for when home buying time comes. It seems like you all don't have "county" close to your "city" but i could be misreading. Here, you can have cows and a barn (the REAL kind from the 1800's) but be city center in 15 minutes. Problem is, said property is $300,000 with $12,000 taxes and the city that you get to in 15 minutes sucks. Looking at Cleveland or pittsburg... similar size and both only 4 hours away, both are exponentially better.
As for the stuff, we aren't packrats, just into hobbies. Wife makes things... people as far as Australia like it enough to buy. We flip antiques together. Would plan to trailer home "stock" when we come here to visit.
And me, i like cars. I only have the '50 chevy, but our daily driver '02 lexus and '09 Honda van need plenty of work, and it'll be a cold day in the bad place before someone tells me I cant fix one of those in the driveway... yikes! i am glad you all warned me of the CCR and HOA thing. Just last week I had 12+ hours over 3 days and jackstands fixing that van. I wouldn't have been to happy if someone knocked and said I couldn't, but out of respect for my neighbors, the work area was spotless. My home's driveway runs along side of it and to the back, where the detached garage is, its almost directly behind, rather than beside, our home...
So if the attic type spaces that are "off the side" of the second floor are abundant, that will fulfil the storage need... but now i am very concerned about congestion, and even finding a home. am i correct to assume 40+ minutes from Clayton to Raleigh?
looking at a house like that, we know the taxes will be like $3000 (they would be $10,000 here) what will insurance and utilities be like?
I really appreciate this, all.
That house looks like it's in a decent location (but you'd have to look at the covenants about what you can do in your own driveway), and someone else can speak to the traffic from there (I didn't live in Clayton), but you should be aware that that is clearly a foreclosure. Might not be a bad deal, but you could be looking at expenses north of what you're thinking you're saving in taxes that first year ($7K). Often, homes like that need one or more repairs immediately - like mold remediation, HVAC replacement, appliance replacement (looks like the refrigerator at minimum is missing), and if the house has sat vacant for a year+ during the foreclosure process, it likely has bugs (termites, maybe more). I'm speaking from experience as someone who bought a foreclosure in NC. Again, perhaps not a huge deal as long as you understand you likely would initially be putting more money into it than the purchase price. I would just be cautious of thinking of that as typical/readily available move-in-ready pricing in that location.
Also, not sure what you'd include in utilities but I don't think it would be much less than $250/month. But perhaps not much more, at least for electricity, gas, and garbage pickup service. And as far as home insurance, I definitely don't know that but our home was smaller than that and it was about $500/year, cheapest I could find, with a huge deductible (having received several quotes well over 1K, we chose to get basically disaster-level insurance). NC is hurricane-vulnerable (which I'm sure you're used to, having lived in Florida), so home insurance won't be dirt cheap.
Clayton seems to be exactly what we want... on the correct side of town for a quick trip to Wilmington for some beach time... a bit more "rural" so getting that 1+ acre wont be too hard.
Others have given you good advice. I'd just suggest looking further away than Clayton. Chatham, Harnett or Franklin Counties for example. You could go to the Wilmington beaches along I-40. You might have a longer commute into Raleigh, but more likelihood of finding a place with storage for the hobbies and crafts.
And me, i like cars. I only have the '50 chevy, but our daily driver '02 lexus and '09 Honda van need plenty of work, and it'll be a cold day in the bad place before someone tells me I cant fix one of those in the driveway... yikes! i am glad you all warned me of the CCR and HOA thing. Just last week I had 12+ hours over 3 days and jackstands fixing that van. I wouldn't have been to happy if someone knocked and said I couldn't, but out of respect for my neighbors, the work area was spotless. My home's driveway runs along side of it and to the back, where the detached garage is, its almost directly behind, rather than beside, our home...
It's definitely not impossible to be a car guy in an HOA, but common sense needs to prevail. I've owned in fairly relaxed HOAs, and HOAs where I swear they had people out measuring the grass. Never had a complaint about any of my car projects, and I've drug home parts cars, had a formula race car, etc. I wouldn't do an engine swap in the drive-way, or leave a rusted out POS on blocks in the driveway either, nor would the wife let me anyway. I'm not going to run an impact or a die grinder at 1 AM either. HOAs are there to protect home values. No-one wants to pay $500k for a house, and have the neighbor bring home 5 parts cars, only to see their $500k house worth $350k in resale due to living next to a junk-yard. Be a good neighbor, and the odds of someone narcing on you for changing the brakes at the end of your drive-way in front of your garage is pretty slim.
If your not already, stop by garagejournal.com. Its the place for all things garage related.
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