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I am looking into moving to the triangle area from Colorado Springs. I am interested in a subburb that has a small town feel, affordable housing and good schools. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks
Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools are top ranked in the state but they aren't especially affordable, though that depends upon your definition. Mebane might be a better option if you find Chapel Hill or Carrboro too expensive. The schools still tend to be very good on average. Are you buying or renting?
Hi! You will receive better feedback from other posters if you could provide more specifics: what grades your children are in, whether you wish to rent or buy, where you will be working (city?), whats your budget for housing, etc. The area has a very suburban nature and feel almost everywhere.
So, the most we could afford for a home would be 500,000. Our son is soon to be in 7th grade. We need to be in the triangle area in regards to the job opportunities. My husband currently has a remote job, but if he were laid off, we would need a home that doesn't have a long commute.
I would like a town that isn't over developed. Colorado Springs has a townhouse on every corner. It's just getting so big.
There aren't a lot of places in the Triangle area that would qualify as having a "small town feel". My first thoughts are Fuquay-Varina and Hillsborough, both of which are going to be 30-45 minutes drive each way depending on the work location. Fuquay-Varina is in Wake County, and the Wake County school district (it is county-wide) is one of the better around. Hillsborough is in Orange County, and I don't know a lot about the schools in that area. But outside of the downtown areas, I find that suburbs are suburbs regardless of where they are located.
Keep in mind that the Triangle area is growing, so just because something has that "small town" feel today doesn't mean it will tomorrow.
If only you could have moved to the triangle 25+ years ago.
The problem with having a place with decent weather, friendly people, and lots of good jobs for the educated and/or experienced and willing worker, is that both hiring-companies and people needing housing have kept increasing in our population.
Yet it is still worth it, despite the increasing loss of the small town feel. But that has happened all over it seems. Only truly rural communities are somewhat immune. So look on the outskirts of Raleigh/Durham/Cary/Apex/Chapel Hill realizing that those towns will lose their small town vibe 10 years from now if growth keeps coming.
Right now, some fringe areas are Wendel, Zebulon, Angier, Pittsboro, and even the northern end of Sanford.
I would like a town that isn't over developed. Colorado Springs has a townhouse on every corner. It's just getting so big.
You may be disappointed with crowding and the size of The Triangle if you think Colorado Spring's is too big. The Colorado Springs metro area only has 775,000 people versus 2.1 million in The Triangle, so you'd be moving to an area over twice as populated / big as Colorado Springs. The Triangle is also growing at a faster rate in population so expect even more development.
Maybe you would like Northwest Arkansas? Decent economy and some big employers, but with only 550,000 people there is quick access to small towns / low traffic.
Any place you find with a small town feel will not stay that way very long. They are literally building townhouses on every corner.
While this is true; I would say "small town vibes" aren't completely vanished even from booming areas.
I would say Apex "inside the Peakway" (which sounds silly to say; but is a real place haha); while yes; mostly surrounded by booming suburbia and new townhome devlopments....that core area is still a charming small-town area. You have Salem Street, Hunter Street park, charming pre WWII homes on a grid (NOT cheap) and then yes some "older suburban" (By Triangle standards) neighborhoods built up mostly from the 1970s-1990s. SFH can be had for around $500k there and not as much construction as is being seen down the Olive Chapel corridor and points south in Apex.
I'm not as familiar with Wake Forest but get the sense in my visits up that way that there is a similar dynamic on a somewhat smaller (and much more affordable) scale.
Chapel Hill, despite what many who've never lived there may believe, also surprisingly retains a fairly small-town feel in most neighborhoods. The smaller school district and relative lack of new construction I think adds to it.
To be sure....an evening spent on Salem Street in dt Apex for a family with kids is going to be quite different than an evening spent on Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill (though the latter isn't as exclusively collegy as one may believe)
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