[corey_rideDC]

heading down to chapel hill on the 21st to interview for an art director position at a marketing communications firm! seems like this NC move could actually happen at some point now. I'm bringing the wife and boy along, so no time for bikes unfortunately but we're spending saturday with a realtor digging into the housing market.

hoping to get some info on a coupla areas from yall...

i'm instantly attracted to North Raleigh, as it seems to have a lot of the conveniences i'm used to nearby. Add that to it's proximity to the lakes and nat'l parks in wake forest and i'm sold. But my friend who lives in Apex describes it as a 'little Northern Virginia', which is exactly what i'm trying to get away from. She says: lots of traffic, lots of people, not as friendly... but she admits her own bias towards lil old Apex.

Now this move is all about taking it down a notch or five, but the wife has no interest in living in the middle of nowhere and we're very used to having grocery stores and everything we need within 15 minutes or so... is there another place you guys would recommend? We're looking to stay in the mid 200k range and i'd like to keep my commute to a 30 min maximum to chapel hill.

can you tell i'm excited?

 

[SuboptimusPrime]

If you're going to be working in chapel hill, and don't want a nasty commute, I'd avoid raleigh entirely. I-40, which connects raleigh to the chapel hill/durham area is a clusterf#$% on a daily basis. I also agree with your friend's characterization of raleigh. I think one misconception that you may have is that chapel hill/carrboro and durham are out in the boonies. All of these towns have all the ammenities you could need. They aren't cities though. That said, by comparison to DC, neither is Raleigh.

Anyhow, I don't know how much house you want, if you're down with town houses, etc., but you can definitely find things potentially in chapel hill (you'll have less house/yard here, but its a good investment), carrboro (basically a continuation of CH to the west), and durham, especially south durham, which is like 10-15 minutes from the university, and is right near a large mall and several other shopping centers.

Good luck and a preemptive welcome to the area.

 

[TCP21]

awesome job, hope you get the job, it sounds like alot of fun. hopefully you will be able to ride some and not work all of the time

 

[corey_rideDC]

thanks SubOp... ideally, i'd love to live in CH/carrboro, but we really really want a nice single family home with a little bit of land and from what i've seen, we just can't afford anything like that in chapel hill.

apex seems like it might be a good location for a backroad commute up to CH, but i don't see a lot of shopping malls/amenities on google earth. looks like there's a ton of stuff in cary, and that's only 15 min or so away...

anyway, thanks for the input, it's very helpful ... you've gotten me a little less enamored of N. Raleigh now, for good reasons.

so where exactly is country park? i'll deal with traffic if i can live with riding distance of dirt jumps

EDIT: found it in greensboro, imagine that's about 30 min away ... anything closer in?

 

[Dogboy]

EDIT: found it in greensboro, imagine that's about 30 min away ... anything closer in?

There's stuff to ride in Chapel Hill

 

[SuboptimusPrime]

Knowing that you want a house and some land, I know where I'd look if I were you. I would take a peak west of chapel hill, just over the county line--Alamance. You will still be really close to chapel hill and all the goodness there (currently, good dj scene in chapel hill), but I know you can get a house on land for the money you're talking about. You will feel out in the woods, but still be minutes away from town. Just another idea...and again, consider durham county...real estate is far cheaper there than in the Hill. You might also look south of chapel hill out towards Pittsboro (Chatham County)...this area is rapidly growing up, but is not yet as pricey as chapel hill.

 

[bizutch]

you should move to Rutherfordton, NC...heh

 

[meatboot]

Farris here, of XXL Whistler trip (in)fame. Check your PMs and let me know if you have any questions.

 

[corey_rideDC]

very cool info. i will check into alamance and the area around there. thanks again for the leads, you guys are awesome.

 

[urbaindk]

Corey, Good Luck with the interview.

Try Chatham Co. There's still plenty of cheap stuff. My wife and I were renting a nice secluded 2br duplex for about $600 with enough land to build my own trails with some fun ladders and drops. Chatham Co. is about 10 - 15 minutes south of Chapel Hill. Decent grocery store at Cole Park Plaza. Good out in the country feel with amenities nearby. Most houses you find will have large lots. You might try looking off Manns Chapel Rd. There are a couple of pretty nice, inexpensive neighborhoods back in there.

It's 10 minutes to Jordan Lake. Jordan Lake has a decent xc trail that will test your cardio. It's 15 minutes to CHHS trails in Carrboro - very kick ass set of trails - you'd like very very much, trust me.

You will pass the Performance Bikes mail order warehouse everyday on your way to work. Corner of 15-501 and Old Lystra Rd.

Again I highly recommend Chatham CO.

Dave.

http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?addr=US+15+At+Manns+Chapel+Rd&csz=Chapel+Hill,NC&country=us

 

[corey_rideDC]

thanks again for all yr info guys, it was very helpful. had my interview last weekend and it went well. i may be moving down at the end of July, we'll see...

looked at a bunch of places, mostly in apex & cary. chapel hill/carrboro are awesome, but too expensive. alamance & chatham co's are too far out for us. some of the developments we like were Shepherds Vineyard (Apex), Savannah (Preston) and another one that started with an 'H' in apex but i can't remember. they're all blurred together for me now.

commuting up 64 to 751? to chapel hill seemed pretty nice, even during rush hour.

this trip really confirmed what i thought about raleigh... all of the conveniences we're used to, but without the crush of rude people.

 

[urbaindk]

Sounds like you had better luck at your interview than I had at mine. I have no idea where I stand. It was actually kind of ugly. Good luck to you.

I commuted the opposite direction down 64 from Chapel Hill / Chatham Co. to NC State. The traffic is really managable and the drive is very scenic along the lake. A good time to collect your thoughts for the day or unwind after work. (far different from 495!)