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Thread summary:

Seeking teaching and graphic design jobs, community with strong church life, outdoors, shopping, good schools

 
Old 04-16-2007, 01:38 PM
 
Location: Bronx, NY
1,491 posts, read 3,111,500 times
Reputation: 735

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Hi,

My wife and I live in NYC and are strongly considering moving NC within the next few years or earlier if led. We are in our early 50's and will be seeking work in teaching (her) and graphic design/arts (me). Having heard very good things about the area, one place we are looking at are the counties around Raleigh. Nightlife is not important but good schools, strong church life, outdoors and shopping (for her!! ) are essential.

What are some nice areas to live (not in Raleigh proper)? What is the weather like usually (do hurricanes cause much damage and flooding)? Crime rates? Cost of living? How fast are the housing prices going up? I know there are many questions we have but any advice, enlightenment, information will sure be helpful.

We will be visiting there within the year and look forward to meeting a lot of nice people as we have heard the folks there are warm and friendly. We look forward to hearing from many of you and we wish you all well and many blessings. Thank you all again for your time and assistance! God bless!!

Patrick
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Old 04-18-2007, 10:08 AM
 
Location: Bronx, NY
1,491 posts, read 3,111,500 times
Reputation: 735
No replies?? Was it something I said?
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Old 04-18-2007, 10:39 AM
 
Location: Wake Forest
2,834 posts, read 12,016,708 times
Reputation: 1060
Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanlemur View Post
Hi,

My wife and I live in NYC and are strongly considering moving NC within the next few years or earlier if led. We are in our early 50's and will be seeking work in teaching (her) and graphic design/arts (me). Having heard very good things about the area, one place we are looking at are the counties around Raleigh. Nightlife is not important but good schools, strong church life, outdoors and shopping (for her!! ) are essential.

What are some nice areas to live (not in Raleigh proper)? What is the weather like usually (do hurricanes cause much damage and flooding)? Crime rates? Cost of living? How fast are the housing prices going up? I know there are many questions we have but any advice, enlightenment, information will sure be helpful.

We will be visiting there within the year and look forward to meeting a lot of nice people as we have heard the folks there are warm and friendly. We look forward to hearing from many of you and we wish you all well and many blessings. Thank you all again for your time and assistance! God bless!!

Patrick
I think maybe people didn't respond because there are SO many nice areas to live in around raleigh, or even in raleigh itself. I grew up in chapel hill, so that is always one of my favorites, and I have (as an adult) lived in holly springs, apex, raleigh, durham and now wake forest. Again, all nice places!

The towns surrounding raleigh really come down to personal preference. Some have all of the amenities you would need as far as shopping, grocery, target, etc Some you would have to travel to another town to get things. I think what people are most surprised about when they do come and visit is the:

number of trees - to the point where they cannot see over them while driving on the highway lined with trees, people continually say how green it is here

the actual size of the towns. People have heard of cary, and when they come to visit they soon realize that cary seems to be separated in the cary close to rtp, the older downtown cary area and the cary close to apex in the more southern part of the county.

That being said, people tend to pick a couple of towns based on the proximity to where they will be working. Why live in north raleigh when you are working in apex? Now, some people like north raleigh more and they chose that route, but it all about personal preference.

Crime rate, probably the best thing to do is to contact the police department they can tell you about the crime rate in different areas of raleigh. Not to say crime doesn't happen, because it certainly does, but it is not something that weighs heavily on me on a daily basis. I feel comfortable raising my young children here and sending them to public school

Housing prices are holding steady. I think people tend to believe they are going to get a huge house for a little money, but that is not the case. My guess is your taxes will be less than the taxes in new york, but it all depends on what you want to spend on a house. I bought my first house in holly springs 10 years ago, it was 1700 square feet, new construction, 3 bedroom 2 bath detached 2 car garage. We bought it for 139k, and sold it for 155 4 years later. Different parts of the triangle have seen different increases in the housing prices.

You will pay more for a house in certain parts of cary, inside the beltline (the 440 beltline runs around raleigh), wake forest is getting more expensive, apex is as well.

Definitely come and visit, it will help you get a handle on the area. I have had many clients come to town determined they were going to live in cary, and ended up not liking that part of town for whatever reason.

Anyhow, I hope this has helped a little and maybe some more people will respond.

Leigh
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Old 04-18-2007, 10:40 AM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
178 posts, read 1,226,231 times
Reputation: 130
Patrick -

There are several nice towns surrounding Raleigh. Cary is the most developed in terms of restaurants, shopping, etc. Apex, Morrisville and Wake Forest would be next; Apex and WF have "small-town downtowns" that are hubs of activity. Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina (FEW-KWAY), Garner, Knightdale and Clayton are all growing (exponentially it seems) attractive locales as well. It really depends on what you want in a new hometown.

The weather is tolerable year-round. Winter is typically mild (little snow or ice, 40s daily and 30s or lower nightly) and Summer is typically moderate (think 80s and sunny). Bad weather is mostly thunderstorms with strong winds. Hurricanes usually result in the same thing (lots of rain and wind) since we're 120 miles +/- from the coast.

As for crime, the metro area in general enjoys low crime rates. In Holly Springs (my home) the police reports in the weekly paper include things like speeding on a neighborhood street, driving under the influence, noise complaints - non-violent types of behavior.

I believe the cost of living to be lower than many larger urban areas primarily because of the lower taxes (for property) and the competitiveness of the market for food, gasoline and services. I don't actually have empirical data to support my belief however.

Housing is appreciating between 3 and 6% per year on average. Some developments may realize a greater rate (e.g., Brier Creek in northeast Raleigh) because of location (near the airport and the RTP), amenities (golf course, shopping, etc) and appeal (it's been a hot development for a while).

You might try Googling for the chamber of commerce websites in the towns noted above, the Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau site and the official NC tourism bureau site. All will have info on the many attributes of living in "the triangle" metro area.

Russ
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Old 04-18-2007, 10:46 AM
 
Location: Oxnard, CA on the way to Raleigh NC
306 posts, read 1,191,082 times
Reputation: 149
Wink Don't take no replies personally

My suggestion is to go back and look at the previous threads. There is a lot of information there about the questions you asked. Then if you have additional questions post a new thread. As far as areas outside Raleigh, look at threads on Garner, Knightdale, Clayton, Wake Forest. As far as hurricanes there are several threads on the subject that are very informative. There was a fairly ecent thread on crime rate and ALt-X (a police officer) had some great info on that thread. There are a lot of thread dealing with cost of living in Raleigh and several I remember on home prices going up. There are sveral realtors on the forum that are quite informative. Taking a look at the previous threads might answer some of your questions and also pose some new ones. I still like going back to the begining of the threads and reading them, there is a wealth of information in them.

Have fun finding out about you possible new home. Char
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Old 04-18-2007, 10:48 AM
 
Location: Wake Forest
3,124 posts, read 12,650,802 times
Reputation: 743
Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanlemur View Post
Hi,

My wife and I live in NYC and are strongly considering moving NC within the next few years or earlier if led. We are in our early 50's and will be seeking work in teaching (her) and graphic design/arts (me). Having heard very good things about the area, one place we are looking at are the counties around Raleigh. Nightlife is not important but good schools, strong church life, outdoors and shopping (for her!! ) are essential.

What are some nice areas to live (not in Raleigh proper)? What is the weather like usually (do hurricanes cause much damage and flooding)? Crime rates? Cost of living? How fast are the housing prices going up? I know there are many questions we have but any advice, enlightenment, information will sure be helpful.

We will be visiting there within the year and look forward to meeting a lot of nice people as we have heard the folks there are warm and friendly. We look forward to hearing from many of you and we wish you all well and many blessings. Thank you all again for your time and assistance! God bless!!

Patrick
I think you didn't get many replies because...well....these answers are all over the forum in the other other threads....and with some basic online research.

I've seen that specific questions tend to get better answers then 'tell me everything' types.
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Old 04-18-2007, 11:42 AM
 
Location: Bronx, NY
1,491 posts, read 3,111,500 times
Reputation: 735
I have to agree about checking other postings....as I am brand new to the site, I didn't even consider that. Your information has been so helpful...thank you all. We really are looking forward to visiting one day soon and God willing, coming to live. We're very country oriented so I think we would blend in well. Thanks again!!!
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