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Also came to add that I commute to East Durham to work each day! Going from an 8 minute commute to a 48 minute commute is TOUGH but not impossible lol! To me, it IS worth it for the amount of house I was able to afford. Lot's of young people/families are not in the financial position to live where they work and are moving outside the city. Also, being that I still work in Durham, I can shop at the stores in the Triangle I've always shopped at, eat at the restaurants I've always ate at - I've been able to keep my same dentist, doctor & gym and then I just drive the 48 minutes back home when I'm done! It's worked out!
Since you mentioned Holly Springs in your post, check out 12 Oaks. Lots of young families, close to 540 to hop on to get to Duke, pools,clubhouse, golf course,tennis, pickle ball, and a very active Boomer Group for the in laws if they decide to move, too. There are a couple of newer sections where there may be some homes in your price category, but I don't know if everything is pre sold. Along with the rest of the triangle market, resell houses sell almost overnight or even before they get listed in 12 Oaks so it helps to get a good realtor involved. Also, lots of New York and other Northeastern transplants here.
Several people mentioned the parking at Duke Hospital being quite far away. Now i am going back many, many years, so things may have changed, but night shift used to be able to park in the close by parking decks-has that changed?
Wow, that is a diverse amount of commuting! Rocky Mount and Fayetteville are more than I would want my wife to ever travel. What do these people say about the commute? Did you feel like your neighbors were far superior to you because they didn't travel as much?
Yeah, again this is a compilation of the past 7 years of people I knew who made long commutes their daily reality. I agree that I would never want to travel TWICE a DAY from Rocky Mount or Fayetteville. That's just way too much. I'm with everyone else that says you shouldn't trap yourself with such a monstrous drive, but I am saying I don't think it's that rare. I'm not sure what your bolded sentence means or is implying, but I've never felt that anyone is superior to me ever, much less because they have a shorter commute. I've only had a long commute to the Triangle when I lived in Sanford for ~6 months and worked in Morrisville (RTP). It took 45-55 minutes. Now that I commute from Durham (RTP) to midtown Raleigh, it takes me 25-30 mins with light traffic or 40-60 mins with regular rush hour traffic.
I don't think the point people are trying to make is that people are going to laugh and point at you....I think the point people are trying to make is people are going to be like "you work where?". And it's the little things here. If you live in a pool neighborhood, there's likely going to be a swim team. It's a social thing as much if not more than an athletic thing. Tuesdays are meet nights. The pool is a social hub - "let's meet at the pool for happy hour while the kids swim". And so on. And as others have made the point - day cares don't cater to the 2 hour commute. Neither does after care when your kids are in school.
Sounds like you'll have a flexible schedule? At any rate if you take the advice of everyone here - including realtors who only make money by selling houses - and rent for a year, you'll get the sense of what kind of life you want to live here. Then you can buy accordingly.
OP, I can’t say specifically about a Clayton to Durham commute 3 times a week at off hours because I don’t know where most people in Clayton work, but I can say with absolute certainty there’s is nothing unusual or weird about having a longer commute around here, especially if it’s not daily. I’ve lived in the Triangle most of my life, and this thread is the first place I’ve seen people say things like it’s not something people do here or your neighbors will think it’s odd. The only people I image could say that are people that live in prime areas close to where many jobs are because they could afford it and/or because it was important to them. People in those neighborhoods paid a premium to live close, so it would indeed be unusual if anyone lived there that worked far away.
All that said, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Clayton to Durham, but if it’s only 3 times a week against traffic for your wife who is used to commuting and you’re going to be working in the Raleigh area, I certainly wouldn’t rule it out if it meets all your other needs and you like it. Again, I’m inclined to recommend Wake Forest for your circumstances (price point, home size, amenities, schools, parents, commute time, etc), but there are certainly areas closer to Duke hospital if you are willing to bend on some of the criteria. Also, the Brightleaf neighborhood TarHeelNick recommended was another thought although I haven’t checked prices there in awhile. Good luck!
I only see this opinion online on C-D. I'm still new to the Triangle - I've only been here for 7 years. But I've worked at 3 different professional life science organizations in RTP during that time. In all 3 organizations and all 5 departments I've worked at, I've worked directly with coworkers who commute from places like the Triad or from Fayetteville. Currently in my department of 15 people, I have 3 coworkers (including my manager) who commute daily from Elon and Burlington and 1 more who commuted from Fayetteville for over 2 years but did finally move to Durham. 1 more commutes from Rocky Mount. My last job was the same - we even had a few Greensboro residents in our department (well, 2). At my first job, LabCorp, it was about half and half in my department of 40 people - half lived in the Triad and half in the Triangle. It really isn't that unique in my experience for people to commute for 45+ mins. And honestly....pre-covid, living 20 miles away from work, in Raleigh, it would take me longer to get home than it took me to commute to Sanford. Not that it's necessary to do here, it really isn't necessary to have such a commute....but IME, it also isn't unique in the least.
It's not unique, but most people don't need to drive much more than 15-30 minutes to get anywhere in the Triangle. I've worked with people in RTP who commuted from Wilson every day (over 60 miles) a few people from Clayton (generally around 40 miles) and scattered locations outside of the Triangle proper, but none of them acted like it was no big deal. They all acknowledged that they had to time their daily commute to avoid heavy traffic, needed to factor in the drivetime when planning for doctors appointments or child-related events, and none of them acted like it was no big deal. But what was amazing to me is that those who I knew best weren't even living in houses or communities that were particularly more affordable or unique, it's just where they landed years ago when settling into the area and at that time was close to their jobs. They freely admitted that their commute was a drag but moving would be even worse.
So sure, you can live in Wake Forest and drive to Duke Hospital every day and get accustomed to it, but you're going to be in the minority and likely eventually come to hate having to do it.
It's not unique, but most people don't need to drive much more than 15-30 minutes to get anywhere in the Triangle. I've worked with people in RTP who commuted from Wilson every day (over 60 miles) a few people from Clayton (generally around 40 miles) and scattered locations outside of the Triangle proper, but none of them acted like it was no big deal. They all acknowledged that they had to time their daily commute to avoid heavy traffic, needed to factor in the drivetime when planning for doctors appointments or child-related events, and none of them acted like it was no big deal. But what was amazing to me is that those who I knew best weren't even living in houses or communities that were particularly more affordable or unique, it's just where they landed years ago when settling into the area and at that time was close to their jobs. They freely admitted that their commute was a drag but moving would be even worse.
So sure, you can live in Wake Forest and drive to Duke Hospital every day and get accustomed to it, but you're going to be in the minority and likely eventually come to hate having to do it.
I think this kind of hits the nail on the head....on LI you're looking for a unique combination of tolerable commute, nice house, good school district. Most of this area is nice, the school district is county wide. There's no need to get stuck living somewhere 50 miles from where you live...especially when there's no real public transportation.
It's not unique, but most people don't need to drive much more than 15-30 minutes to get anywhere in the Triangle. I've worked with people in RTP who commuted from Wilson every day (over 60 miles) a few people from Clayton (generally around 40 miles) and scattered locations outside of the Triangle proper, but none of them acted like it was no big deal. They all acknowledged that they had to time their daily commute to avoid heavy traffic, needed to factor in the drivetime when planning for doctors appointments or child-related events, and none of them acted like it was no big deal. But what was amazing to me is that those who I knew best weren't even living in houses or communities that were particularly more affordable or unique, it's just where they landed years ago when settling into the area and at that time was close to their jobs. They freely admitted that their commute was a drag but moving would be even worse.
So sure, you can live in Wake Forest and drive to Duke Hospital every day and get accustomed to it, but you're going to be in the minority and likely eventually come to hate having to do it.
From the 50K foot level, basically my position as well.
The house we sold in MA was 48 Miles from downtown Boston (I worked in Southie). My commute was ~2hrs each way.
I didn't live that far away because I wanted that commute, or because the town we bought in had a great school district. We bought the house we did because it was the nicest house, in a town we could live with, that we could afford. Given the choice, I would have preferred a shorter commute...but I didn't have twice the down payment and twice the income to afford a home in a nearer in suburb.
This metropolitan area eliminates much of that; sure you can spend a Mil in Hasentree in WF or you could spend 900K plus in McGregor Downs in Cary...but most suburbs around The Triangle have options across the spectrum; i.e 350-500K can get you into WF, Cary, HS, FV, Clayton, Knightdale, Garner (even accounting for the insane market out there now).
I had to look ~50 miles from Boston because and towns inside that radius were out of my price range (in so much as what my money got I wasn't willing to go with). I could look within 20 miles of Raleigh in largely any direction and be in roughly the same cost range I was in there (realizing that every burb still has neighborhoods beyond my reach)
Having spent 4 years here now, I would not apply the same calculus (as it pertains to "willing commute") I did in MA that I would here. I accepted 1.5-2hrs there because I couldn't afford anything less. If I had to go to an office here, not sure I would accept anything over a half hour because "i can afford not to".
ETA - Like for like - We lived in a town equidistant from Boston as Henderson is from Raleigh. Simply no need apply the same mentality here.
OP, I can’t say specifically about a Clayton to Durham commute 3 times a week at off hours because I don’t know where most people in Clayton work, but I can say with absolute certainty there’s is nothing unusual or weird about having a longer commute around here, especially if it’s not daily. I’ve lived in the Triangle most of my life, and this thread is the first place I’ve seen people say things like it’s not something people do here or your neighbors will think it’s odd. The only people I image could say that are people that live in prime areas close to where many jobs are because they could afford it and/or because it was important to them. People in those neighborhoods paid a premium to live close, so it would indeed be unusual if anyone lived there that worked far away.
All that said, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Clayton to Durham, but if it’s only 3 times a week against traffic for your wife who is used to commuting and you’re going to be working in the Raleigh area, I certainly wouldn’t rule it out if it meets all your other needs and you like it. Again, I’m inclined to recommend Wake Forest for your circumstances (price point, home size, amenities, schools, parents, commute time, etc), but there are certainly areas closer to Duke hospital if you are willing to bend on some of the criteria. Also, the Brightleaf neighborhood TarHeelNick recommended was another thought although I haven’t checked prices there in awhile. Good luck!
They are definitely rising quickly (just like everywhere else) but 10 years or newer SFH can still be had comfortably in Brightleaf within OP's budget of under $410k....for now...
Quote:
Originally Posted by GVoR
ETA - Like for like - We lived in a town equidistant from Boston as Henderson is from Raleigh. Simply no need apply the same mentality here.
Yikes...that's a pearl-clutch-worthy comparison right there. Also I hope the town where you lived in MA had a little more to brag about than Hennisen does...
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