Nice places to live near Raleigh, NC?

I have a home in Raleigh.

How much do you want to spend?

 

Many, many nice places. In Cary, McGregor Downs. In North Raleigh, Wakefield Plantation. There's a lot of good stuff near my shop off of Strickland Road between Creedmore Rd. and Six Forks Rd. If you like older, established upscale neighborhoods, look inside the Beltline (I-440) north of Wade Avenue towards and off of St. Mary's Rd.

I'm sure ferrarilou and ECTurboGSX will chime in.

I live in Durham, which has it's pockets of affluence, too.

-Peter

 

i just moved to n. raleigh after living in cary for 15 years. i found this site invaluable.
http://www.hpw.com/SearchPages/?AgentID=R20079

Unless you know the area, you should probably hook up with an experienced agent. There are alot of choices

 

In the Cary area, Preston is your typical Stepford neighborhood. Very nice country club and very good golf course if you are into that. Peter already mentioned MacGregor which also has a country club and golf course, though not as much is said about that one. Also you can look into the Briar Creek area, which lies just outside the Research Triangle. I think if you want to buy a newer home, look into North Raleigh, Cary, or parts of Apex. If you are looking to move into a more established neighborhood, inside the beltline on the northwest side of downtown is going to be a good area. That would be in the area of St. Mary's St, Lassitter Mill Rd, Glenwood Ave, etc. These are going to have much higher property values and you may not get as much actual house for what you pay. Where exactly in Raleigh would you be working? That will play a big part in deciding where you live. Raleigh was ranked pretty poorly when it came to traffic, not far behind LA in terms of traffic problems and delays as a proportion of the population. Definately hook up with a realtor, we used Kelly Cobb when we moved up here.

 

I live in north Ral about 5 miles from Down Town. Houses in the area go from anywhere between $150 to $300k. Let me know if you come into town.

 

There are lots of nice placed to live in and around Raleigh. It's hard to make a recommendation on a 'nice' place without knowing more about what type of place you are looking for. Raleigh has houses over $1M that are certainly nice, but there are a ton in lower price ranges also. For example, I still live in the house that I thought would be my 'starter home' back in the '80s ... I've since added 900sq ft, torn down multiple walls, moved the kitchen to the other corner of the house, moved a bathroom, and remodelled most rooms Nonetheless, the house is in a nice area and I like it here. You can get new houses or houses in established areas. The advantage of an established area is that you have significantly less risk that someone is going to build a strip mall in what was once the nice woods behind your house. Happens to a lot of people who don't consider what the neighboring property might be used for when the area develops further.

Location:
Cary, Apex, and Holly Springs are among some of the nice areas around Raleigh. Cary government has always had a reputation for trying to control the clean antiseptic look of the town by imposing many restrictions on the homeowners and businesses. The advantage is that the town is beautiful, but you give up some rights. Also, Cary has traditionally had trouble with acquiring enough water for its residents needs, so just about every summer they go on water restrictions while we Raleigh-ites kept washing our cars and watering our lawns This past year was the only time I ever remember Raleigh having water restrictions of any non-trivial length.
Apex and Holly Springs are very nice, but the state and county keep wanting to shove a garbage dump down there. Choose carefully.

Traffic:
You didn't mention where you are going to work. If it is in RTP, some locations have lousy traffic getting there, but nobody is immune. The I-540 beltline bogs down to a stop at the interchange with I-40 every morning. New roads are being built but they are long multi-year projects. Luckily I can get onto I-40 at a earlier entrance and avoid that part of the mess. Most days I just stagger my hours since my employer is very flexible.

Hope that helps.

If you come visit, let us know and maybe we can get several locals together. We will even invite our commuting Durham-ite since he shows significant class by driving a Mondial-T


Lou

 

I have lived here in the Raleigh area for about 10 yrs and find the place ever expanding while trying to somewhat maintain it's charm. I moved into my current home nearly two years ago and love it here. The neighborhood has a range of home from townhomes starting at $160K up to 3000-5000 sq ft homes approaching $1 mil. Bedford has a few homes with a character all of thier own in the area and I really like the Charleston homes that seem to remain popular with the residents. They are still building and will continue to do so for a short period of time. It is located near the Wakefield area as previously mentioned wich hosts Golf tournaments and social events as well. No matter where you decide to buy a home good luck and hope to see you in the area.

More on Bedford
http://www.bedfordtradition.com/

 

This is a bit off-topic, but I'm curious. Maybe one of your Raleighites can tell me about a town in your vicinity:

What kind of a crazy name is "Fuquay Varina"??

 

Raleigh appeared to me to be awaiting the proverbial Renaissance- I have visited twice in the last month on business, and it looks like a nice small city ready to reemerge after a deep sleep.
We had a great meal or two at the Second Empire restaurant, a restored jewel of a mansion on the outskirts of town- and also had a hard time locating decent hotel rooms on short notice- I understand that much of the construction going on downtown is about new hotel developments.

Doesn't seem like a bad place to live- kind of an interesting mix of southern and mid-atlantic cultures.

 

It was two seperate towns, Fuquay and Varina, and then they merged. I've read the history behind both of the names, but I don't remember it off hand.

There is a big thing going on downtown this weekend where a large group of artists, industrial designers, scientists, and clergy are getting together for three days and just brainstorming on how to improve downtown. They figure that if you load a room full of people who spend every day in deep thought, you're bound to come up with something. If you're interested in living here, now is the time to get on, because the entire area is on a major growth spurt. Raleigh was ranked number four as the best place to live in the US in the city category and Cary was ranked number five among large towns. I believe that is from Money Magazine. I don't know whether this applies to anyone here, but Raleigh was also ranked number six for best singles life.

 

We have several crazy names for our towns: Lizzard Lick & Spivey's Corner are two of the most cited. Fuquay-Varina came from merging the towns of Fuquay Springs and Varina in 1963. See the following for some history:

< http://finditfuquay-varina.com/histsoc/ >

Winston-Salem was the same way ... two towns merged.


Lou

 

Here is the article from Money:

http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/moneymag/bplive_2006/frameset.exclude.html

 

Thanks for the info. At least "Winston-Salem" still has a reasonable sound to it. Still not as far-fetched as "La Canada-Flintridge" (CA). And I wonder if that's how "Soddy-Daisy" (TN) got its strange name?