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Hi Lamela,
You need to visit a couple of times before making a decision. However, my viewpoint on this issue - quarter of an acre lot is not small - it's actually 3 times the regular lot in NYC, which is decent and acceptable I think. I moved from Staten Island about 6 months ago and chose not to live in a subdivision as I personally don't like being confined to certain HOA rules and so forth (although others may like it). The second factor was getting a large lot and mine is .60 which is a little more than half an acre (luckily I have another half an acre in my backyard, which nobody can claim and nobody can build on it so it feels like having my own private small park). The house is about 2900 sq ft, 10 yrs old. We closed on this house last dec and paid $280K. I live closer to Kildaire Farm Rd, which is about 10 min walk to old Cary downtown area. I love it here because I can walk everywhere to schools, shops, mall, restaurant, cafes etc. Everything is close by and even if I did not have a car I could survive. There is also public transportation which is 2 min from my house. I feel like living in a mini-NYC everything being so accessible, except that it's much quiter and cleaner.
As far as expenses go, my taxes are the same $2,400 annually for 2,900 sq. ft. half an acre in Cary and $2400 annually for 1,900 sq. ft. .08 lot in Staten Island. Food is more or less the same - however I used to buy my vegetables in Brooklyn and they are much cheaper than the Farmer's Market here as prices here I believe are regulated by the Dept. of Agriculture. But Supermarkets have the same prices as in NYC. Clothing, furniture is the same. Gas is slightly less about 10 cents per gallon less. Insurances are much cheaper here than in NYC. It's definitely less stress around here and that's why I love the most. Health is more important than everything else right :-)
I think you should read many postings that are on this site and understand what others are trying to tell you and get your own assessment. Also if you have a chance try to come once and visit to see what's best for you. I dared and closed on a house without even knowing its exact location. It's a high risk, but I was lucky and now am very happy with it that I made the right decision :-)
That is funny, I grew up in Huntington and now settled into Setauket...obviously not far at all from Port Jefferson.
I want to thank everyone for their posts...I am reading them all and making mental notes. One thing my wife and I are definately going to do is come down for a week in October. See a football game, go to a few restaurants, drive through a couple of communities, stop into a few real estate offices....
There are several new neighborhoods out in West Cary area that are simply beautiful. Many new ones are under development just west of 55, or that run just along that area. I was out that way the other day touring some of them and was very impressed.
Check out Morrisville while you're in town. We drove through Cary into Morrisville and basically saw that Morrisville is a soon-to-be Cary (as others have mentioned on this board). It's nice b/c the housing will cost less right now in Morrisville, yet you're assured that it's a good investment, like Cary. We loved how close both Cary and Morrisville are to RTP.
Have fun. If you're anything like us, you will fall in love with the area (and the people immediately).
I like some of the subdivisions going up in W. Cary. The main issue that keeps coming up is airplane noise. I was in Cameron Pond the other day and I thought that a jet was going to land in the neighborhood.
I grew up in Long Island (Port Washington). My husband and 2 boys relocated from NJ 3 years ago. We too saw/read all the good things about Cary and we moved to Cary to rent for several months. We felt renting,even though it was a hassle to move again, would give us more information on where we should move.
We spent every weekend driving to different towns and neighborhoods. It wasn't until we had it narrowed down to our favorite town that we found a realtor local to that town. The triangle is a BIG place, no one realtor can really know the entire area - the back roads, the tips, the history, etc. Just my take on it, no offense meant to realtors here (as I highly respect them) but there are others out there that are not as respectful of your wants/needs.
We thought we'd be moving to a house in Cary and then later were interested in Holly Springs and Wake Forest. We ended up in Clayton, which is in Johnston County. It is much further out and depending on where you work can be a commute. The RTP is about 45 minutes from us (though there are places in Clayton that are 10-15 min closer). Parts of Raleigh are 20 min. The school system is fabulous and currently it is a traditional calendar.
We really liked Cary but we weren't finding the homes we had hoped there on the lots we wanted. You def get more bang for your buck here but you have to balance that with your feelings on commute. Its also not as built up as the other areas mentioned ...much more rural...but we like that.
Did anyone mention South Cary? You have some great choices there...The Park At West Lake and Sunset Oaks and Sunset Ridge, come to mind. The Park At West Lake gives you a bit more land...The Woodlands section is l/3 of an acre with beautiful custom built homes. So many choices...
What I have found is that you never really can know an area until you live here for a while. You only get a glimpse of how things are online. We were convinced we were going to live in Holly Springs. HS is nice, but once we found out where we would be looking for work and where everything was that we had interest in, we scrapped HS. We ended up buying in Southwest Durham, which I feel is a great location to learn the area from. Then we spent quite some time living here and learning the area. The more we learned about Cary and the more we explored Cary, we found that everything negative said about it was wrong. Once we actually met the people, drove up and down all the roads, found the parks, shops and restaurants, we fell in love with Cary. I have found it to be the best place I have ever lived. For me, it blows away North Raleigh or anywhere in Raleigh for that matter, Chapel Hill and Durham. It is by far the most well kept and beautiful town.
Cary has a incredible variety of homes, both in style and color, regardless of the false beige claim.
Cary has beautiful parks.
Cary has great roads - traffic is a piece of cake, other than downtown which they are going to redo.
Cary has great schools.
Cary is a great investment value.
Cary has managed growth tremendously well.
Cary has a ton of outdoor activities.
Cary is incredibly safe.
Cary is family friendly.
Cary has low property taxes.
Cary has an incredibly high quality of life.
Cary has a high percentage of highly educated people.
Cary simply has it all.
Most of Cary's attributes are noted in national publications, so a lot of this will not surprise you. What always surprised me and now I think is completely laughable is how people will cut up Cary with false statements about only beige homes or how Cary runs the HOA's or how Cary is boring (which if all one wants to do is bar hop, I guess it is) or how traffic is horrible here. It is endless, yet the people that are complaining about Cary (I am not saying here, just in general) are the ones that either really know nothing about it or are just upset that it is priced higher than other towns because of its popularity.
In long, Cary is the best town I have ever lived in or seen in my entire life and I cannot imagine ever moving away. It is simply incredible.
SP2SV/Up-Church came back AGAIN!? Wow i missed a lot in a 2 month hiatus from city-data...anyways, all crazy over-zealous Cary booster's comments aside. We personally prefered Apex better than Cary after living in Cary for 5 years and then Apex for 2 (moved back to NY last year for family/prsonal reasons). It has to do with what you prefer and think of each area after visiting. We lived in Lochmere which is the "south cary" most people on this thread seem to be telling you to avoid, and i'd have to agree. Lochmere is a beautiful and established area of Cary, but for an upscale development, has some not-so good schools its assigned to. We also lived in N Raleigh back in the mid 90's in Dominion Park which is RIGHT in the RDU flightpath, so airplane noise was an everday occurance we weren't too happy with back then either. Apex has a very charming walkable small downtown on Salem Street that is very well preserved from the early 20th century and the town as a whole still has somewhat of a small town feel (atleast it did a while ago, I know it was changing A LOT when we left last August and I'd imagine has changed more since).
Last edited by just_sayin'; 09-07-2008 at 10:35 PM..
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