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we're from sayreville/south bound brook (neither of which do I like!)
buttttt... in our hearts, we'll always be from new brunswick. we lived at the melody, my hubby's been in the ska scene here for years (inspecter 7)...etc.
montclair was/is always just a touch too white bread for us, plainfield a bit too gritty- a nice mix sounds good!
(I always laugh and say chapel hill seems like princeton, and carrboro seems a bit like red bank)
durham seems a lot like new brunswick, but I'm not sure if the music scene is quite as vibrant!
Gotcha! I picked lower Montclair cuz that's less whitebread, haha. You know, I didn't even think of New Brunswick but yup, it's a good comparison. I think there is a pretty good music scene...check out the Independent Weekly:
Parkwood (off Hwy 54 near Hwy 55) definitely has prices in your range (under 200K) and is a very diverse poplulation. We bought 3 years ago for 175. We have a small lake, (all lake front property is private) ballpark, library, small parks, a fire station, several churches, including Ba hai, elementary school, convenient store, and 2 swimming pools, all within the subdivision. Our homeowners fees are very low. They have acitivities for kids at the holidays (x-mas parade, Easter egg hunt) and a community yard sale twice a year. The homes were built in the 60's when there was nothing out this way but RTP, that's why it is so self contained with the things I listed. We were annexed in to the city around 8 years ago. You'd never know you were so close to the hustle and bustle of RTP and Southpoint, it's so quiet here! Two story homes, split levels, ranches, condos, and apartments are here and tons of very mature trees, which you won't find in a new subdivision that has been stripped to build it!
Hula, what can you tell the OP about the HOA for Parkwood?
27707 makes CH/Carrboro/Downtown convenient, but Raleigh less so
27713 makes CH/Carrboro convenient and Raleigh slightly more convenient, but Downtown less so
27703 makes Downtown and Raleigh more convenient, but CH/Car less so
Oy!
We are in 27707 and surprisingly close to 55/40 to get to Raleigh. I don't know where the ZIP code lines are drawn, though, so maybe it's an exception.
I'm thinking of that neighborhood on 55 near Carpenter Fletcher Rd. Starts with an F? or P? It is really big, and seems to have a good community vibe. That would be convenient to Raleigh via 55/40, Chapel Hill via 54 and of course Durham, but not the Eno.
How would American Village be to get to Raleigh, maybe via hwy 70? It is convenient to Chapel Hill via Erwin Rd. Might be out of the price range, but that puts you right beside Duke Forest, which might give you the outdoors you're looking for with the Eno.
We are in 27707 and surprisingly close to 55/40 to get to Raleigh. I don't know where the ZIP code lines are drawn, though, so maybe it's an exception.
I'm thinking of that neighborhood on 55 near Carpenter Fletcher Rd. Starts with an F? or P? It is really big, and seems to have a good community vibe. That would be convenient to Raleigh via 55/40, Chapel Hill via 54 and of course Durham, but not the Eno.
How would American Village be to get to Raleigh, maybe via hwy 70? It is convenient to Chapel Hill via Erwin Rd. Might be out of the price range, but that puts you right beside Duke Forest, which might give you the outdoors you're looking for with the Eno.
Hula, what can you tell the OP about the HOA for Parkwood?
It was $200 this year. Like someone said about Woodcroft, HOA pays for upkeep. In our case we have the ballfield and the lake, playgrounds, and a few small ponds. The lake in particular has up keep for it and the dam. The homeowners on the lake pay a higher fee since they have private access. There is public parkland on either end of the lake, as well as the dam. Drainage and errosion have to be kept under control. There's tons of other things the money goes to too. Just contact the office and they can tell you. Welcome To Parkwood
Parkwood looks nice, but the fact that there's an hoa is just too much for me.
If you drive through Parkwood, you'll find that it doesn't look like a restrictive place. As the previous poster said, $200 a year covers the lake and fields. That's nearly nothing.
I can't prove this with any evidence, but it seems like NC has mostly HOAs because that's just the way it is, and many of the homes that are not in HOAs are of lower quality and in poor neighborhoods.
Again, I could be entirely off base here, but HOA is not as evil as it might seem to someone who hasn't lived with one before. In some cases, it's nearly nothing.
Parkwood looks nice, but the fact that there's an hoa is just too much for me.
It seems most subdivisions have HOA's. New to me too, but they do. A friend lives neaby (behind the Harris Teeter off 54 and Fayetteville Rd.) in a very small condo subdivision and pays over $1,000.00 a year. They have nothing as far as amenities and they're not new condos either. I was shocked!
There's one area no one has mentioned yet which sounds like it might be what you want. It would be quite a haul to Raleigh, but very easy to everything else you mentioned. Look at the area surrounding the intersection of I85 and Pleasant Green Road (just barely Orange County). We looked at a couple houses in this area during our three-year search and found several "dumps" in the 90-125K range...with a bit of acreage!
As a for instance, take a look at 3801 Pleasant Green Road...someone needs to buy that house! Been on the market forever (hugely overpriced initially). Search in that area. There's an old subdivision (no HOA, so far as I know) centered around Linden Road as well. One on Lunsford, one on Renfrew. This area does not perk well so you'd need to make sure to have the septic inspected before a purchase. I used fonvillemorisey.com beta search-by-map engine to locate these. (No, I don't work for them but maybe I should!)
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