Yet another 'Help, Moving to NC!!' thread (Raleigh, Durham: middle-class, real estate)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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All I have been doing the past few days is reading, reading and more reading and the end result - I am overwhelmed and confused.
Premise: I need to move to Durham, NC from Nashua, NH for a new job in the RTP starting 06/01/07. I am excited about that, but also terribly confused about where to settle in. To start with, I'd have like to move somewhere near to my workplace, but the general impression which I have been given about Durham is to avoid it like the plague because of it's high crime rate. Durham has been compared to the Dorchester/Roxbury area of MA by a co-worker of mine. I would trust his views, but also want to throw this question out to the other residents - is it really that bad? Could it be that a certain section of Durham might be maligning the rest too? Or would you agree to his view? If so, why would the RTP be even built in that area?
To speak about my particular case, I am single and what I am looking for is a quiet (not too far from the stores/malls though), crime-free, pleasant neighborhood near to RTP where my wife can join me in another 6-7 months (I'm engaged atm) and where we can peacefully live at least for 1 year till we stake out the place and buy a house. Not too much to ask, right?
Any particular city/community you would recommend? If so, why? Any recommendation on the apartments? If I read up on them in rent.com or Yahoo! Real Estate, everything is fine and dandy, but I take such claims with a pinch of salt. Apartmentratings.com does have a few useful reviews, but then again it doesn't cover every apartment in the area.
All & any replies are most welcome! Hopefully I will even make some friends before I get down there.
P.S #1: Let me know if you need more info.
P.S #2: Oops, wrong forum, I think. Admin/Mod, please move the thread to 'Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary' sub-forum.
All I have been doing the past few days is reading, reading and more reading and the end result - I am overwhelmed and confused.
Premise: I need to move to Durham, NC from Nashua, NH for a new job in the RTP starting 06/01/07. I am excited about that, but also terribly confused about where to settle in. To start with, I'd have like to move somewhere near to my workplace, but the general impression which I have been given about Durham is to avoid it like the plague because of it's high crime rate. Durham has been compared to the Dorchester/Roxbury area of MA by a co-worker of mine. I would trust his views, but also want to throw this question out to the other residents - is it really that bad? Could it be that a certain section of Durham might be maligning the rest too? Or would you agree to his view? If so, why would the RTP be even built in that area?
To speak about my particular case, I am single and what I am looking for is a quiet (not too far from the stores/malls though), crime-free, pleasant neighborhood near to RTP where my wife can join me in another 6-7 months (I'm engaged atm) and where we can peacefully live at least for 1 year till we stake out the place and buy a house. Not too much to ask, right?
Any particular city/community you would recommend? If so, why? Any recommendation on the apartments? If I read up on them in rent.com or Yahoo! Real Estate, everything is fine and dandy, but I take such claims with a pinch of salt. Apartmentratings.com does have a few useful reviews, but then again it doesn't cover every apartment in the area.
All & any replies are most welcome! Hopefully I will even make some friends before I get down there.
P.S #1: Let me know if you need more info.
P.S #2: Oops, wrong forum, I think. Admin/Mod, please move the thread to 'Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary' sub-forum.
I am sure the thread will get moved, or you could start a new one....but there is more to Durham then just the bad parts.
Not to sugar coat it, cause honestly, there are some rather bad sections of the town, but let's put it this way....Is all of Boston considered horrible because of the one neighborhood of Roxbury? No it isn't. And all of Durham doesn't need to be looked down on for a few areas.
I also avoided Durham like the plague for a long time. Heck, the parts I did seen and went through were THAT bad. I figured that's all there was. A few folks convinced me to look a bit beyond that. I don't know that I'd still want to live in most areas, but Durham does have more to offer.
The idiot DA, Nifong, over there certainly doesn't help the image of the city either.
Especially since you don't have to worry about schools at this point (that is a bigger sticking point for many) I am sure that folks are going to have lots of suggestions for you over on the other forum where you can find a nice apartment in the area.
Is this thread moved yet? I do see a '->' sign at the top, but the thread still seems to be under 'North Carolina'. Anyway...
Thanks for the reply. So Durham isn't all that bad. But how do I identify which place is good/bad though? Any particular locales or neighborhoods I should avoid?
I am still goddamn confused about the apartments though (yeah, did more reading). No one has any recommendations?
I have lived in Durham from 2003 to 2006. My husband was in training at UNC and I worked at Duke Medical Center. We lived in Durham for 3 years with zero issues. The key is to stay in the SW side of Durham. We lived in Hope Valley Farms Subdivision and it is very safe as well as nice. If you look for apartments around WoodCroft and Hope Valley...you should be fine. It is very close to RTP too. One of our neighbors worked in RTP and I think it took less than 20 minutes to get to work (approx 7 miles in distance and with traffic). It's also very close to the best mall around....Southpoint Mall and interstate I-40. So getting to places like Raleigh, Cary , airport and Chapel Hill is very easy from this location. Check it out! I don't know any names of apartment complexes, but this should narrow down the search. Good luck
Post any questions and I will try to answer as best as I can!
I totally agree with DevinDrake. Like a lot of cities, Durham has a bad part of town in the north-eastern part of the city (and I know that's a very large part of town & there ARE some nice neighborhoods there, but generally speaking, that's where the most crime takes place). Southwest Durham sounds like what you want - zip code is 27713 & parts of 27707. The neighborhoods in that area are quiet, safe, and very convenient to SouthPoint mall, highway 54, and I40. I just bought a home in Woodcroft & think it is absolutely gorgeous & I'm thrilled to call it my home.
Hi moving_pains,
I tried to send you a private message but you don't have that feature enabled.
Just wanted to send a 'yankee hello" because we're from S. NH. Know Nashua well. Used to work for the PD. We are retiring to NC.
I've had occasion to drive through RTP several times. It's a nice area and has some apartment/condo complexes right there very close by. As for Durham as a place to live, I've had people who actually live in Durham tell me to stay away from it, so I avoid it when I can. There are so many nice areas that I figure there's no need to focus in on Durham. I understand that people who live there want to mitigate the image that the city has, and maybe there are nice areas, but what would I have to drive through from point A to point Z in the process? Even when we did our prelim research, Durham came up with extremely high crime rates compared to surrounding towns. Yep, I could live in one of the so-called 'safe' areas, but my thinking was that all the crime,drug and gang problems of the city are bound to drive up taxes. I just didn't want that problem along with eventual resale difficulty, should we decide at some point to move elsewhere. Why not ask around at the new employer (maybe the HR people) where they live, etc.
Anyway, hope you find a pleasant place to settle, have a successful move!
(Won't you miss NH, just a little?)
Last edited by swbtoo; 04-25-2007 at 07:48 AM..
Reason: sp
I understand that people who live there want to mitigate the image that the city has, and maybe there are nice areas, but what would I have to drive through from point A to point Z in the process?
I suppose that depends upon where you're driving. Just about all of the places we frequent are in Chapel Hill, southern Durham, and occasionally along I40 to Raleigh & Cary. We've never driven through a bad neighborhood while puttering about & exploring these areas. The only time I found myself in an area which was shady was up in the north-eastern part of Durham (not too far from where it meets Raleigh, interestingly enough). In my experience, the bad parts of town are exceedingly easy to avoid. I think people who live in northern parts of Raleigh are more likely to cross into the bad part of Durham than those of us who live further south.
My wife and I have lived in Durham for almost three years -- we moved down from Boston (Cambridge MA), and she was born and raised in Milford NH and so we're pretty familiar with Nashua.
I have to say, Durham is a lot like a bigger Nashua in a lot of ways. There are pockets of Durham (like Nashua) that have issues with crime and drugs; those are generally on the eastern and southeastern side of downtown, with a bit up north of I-85 on the eastern side of Roxboro.
Southern Durham has the same "shopping district" like DW Highway, but with more upscale and newer stores. Lots of new subdivisions down there as well. Northern Durham in the central portion is mostly middle-class single-family homes dating to the 60s/70s (lots of brick ranchers.) Northern Durham on the western side -- and the northern part of Durham County, north of Horton Rd -- is more upscale, with many homes running from the 300s to $1m+.
Although the neighborhoods to the east of downtown have some issues with drugs and crime, the neighborhoods to the west -- Forest Hills, Trinity Park, Duke Park, Watts-Hillandale, Old West Durham, etc. -- are popular "in-town" neighborhoods where you can walk/bike to stores and restuarants, lots of walking trails, etc. Also home to Duke Univ. and some of the best restaurants and local shopping in the whole Triangle. Reminds me of the neighborhoods with older homes between downtown Nashua and DWH.
Is Durham as a city like Roxbury/Dorchester? Definitely not. More like Boston as a whole -- you have upscale areas, middle-class areas, and areas that are downtrodden. Some people (my wife and I included) prefer to live in a community that's more diverse and urban. Others prefer more suburban areas, and those folks tend not to like Durham as much, or only southern Durham.
We feel as safe in our neighborhood (Trinity Park) out walking at night as we did in Harvard Square. By the same token, my wife or I wouldn't walk alone in Harvard Square after 11pm at night or so, and if we're out late walking we're walking back from a movie together. I can't think of many places in the whole country where this wouldn't be true. Well... okay, Milford, but once she left she knew she didn't want to go back to a small town, ever ever again. :-)
A lot of folks who move to the Triangle are steered by real estate agents and co-workers to other parts of the region, but much of this is based on the stereotype more than reality. But you should recognize that it and Raleigh proper are "real cities" and have the good and bad that goes with that.
In terms of advice for apartments -- we lived in an apartment in the Croasdaile community when we first moved to Durham and loved it; it's an okay but not great commute to RTP, and if you're working in the Park, southern Durham apartments are generally all in safe areas and I'd suggest checking out online apt. reviews for folks' experience. If you're looking for a more urban experience, there are lots of apartments in downtown Durham worth checking out -- West Village and Station Nine come to mind -- and feature a short drive to RTP on the Durham Freeway.
Durham has many fine areas in which to live - both urban and suburban. But, if you are working in RTP, you have many options on where to live in addition to Durham - Raleigh, Cary, Wake Forest, Chapel Hill, Hillsboro, Fuqay-Varina, and many other wonderful communities.
If you are unfamiliar with the area, which it sounds like you are, then if possible I would suggest selecting a rental property with a reasonable commute to your work place. You can then spend 6 months or more getting familiar with the area and finding which part works best for you. If that isn't possible, then there are many threads on various areas in this part of the country. If they don't answer your questions, then there are lots of friendly folks who will do their best to do so.
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Lived in Durham. Can help somewhat!
