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Moving to Raleigh NC and need some advice
Rotiart
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey all, if all goes as planned I will be getting a new job in Research Triangle Park in NC and would appreciate some assistance with finding an apartment. I have a budget of ~1000 a month and would like a 2 Bedroom somewhere in Raleigh where it is easy to go out for fun (preferably without having to take my car) and still able to get to work quickly. Thanks in advance for any help!
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Cary is newer, but is what people mean when they say Suburbia. Nice, clean, soulless. Cary also, when I last looked at it, had one of the lowest crime rates in the country. If you live here, you owe it to yourself to go to La Farme for bread. Hell, go there anyway no matter where you live in the area.
Brier Creek is also suburbia, but its even newer. There are some really nice apartments for cheaaaap. I live in Orange County, CA now and I'm paying over double for about the same amount of space. Anyway, theres a lot of shops and grocery stores up here. No soul, but I was able to walk to all my grocery and shopping options. On the other hand, you WOULD have to take the car to Raleigh.
Durham... is Durham. You can get some nice streets here and there. But its really not that great of a place. I would not suggest living here. All the crime that does not happen in Cary, happens here.
While you couldn't walk downtown from most of the places off of Edward's Mill/Crabtree, you could definitely bike, and it has easy access to The Capital Area Greenway, which has lots of nice walking/biking trails that go all over Raleigh.
If you want to get even closer downtown (walking distance to just about all the "fun" in Raleigh), there are lots of (older, but still nice) places in Cameron Village, which is a newly redone area smack dab in the middle of downtown, and relatively easy access to highways so you can get to work.
If you're job is in RTP, the Brier Creek area and southwest Durham are within your budget range. The former doesn't have a ton in walking distance. If you get closer to downtown Durham your drive increases (although not horrendously) but your walking-distance options also increase.
Its a great state for outdoorsy stuff, and weekend roadtrips to the beach and the mountains though.
I'm assuming 1000 is just rent budget. For that amount you can get a pretty good apartment. For mobility's sake you should try to get something close to the beltline, I 440. Directions to pretty much anywhere in Raleigh will begin with "Get on 440..." If you can, try to get some idea of the traffic flow near your place of work and keep that in mind when picking an apartment. Traffic can be a bitch and if you pick your location well you can smile as you cruise past the poor suckers parked in the other lane.
Avoid Garner. I don't know what's going on down there but those people drive like drunken, brain-damaged baboons.
0431-6094-6446-7088
Where in RTP is your new job?
Morrisville practically is RTP and there's quite an abundance of apartments and townhomes that have gone up there in the last few years. If you value a short commute and don't want to risk your life in Durham (I exaggerate *slightly*), it's my recommendation.
Alternatively, if you expect to live here for a long time then you should just buy a house in Holly Springs. Houses are still cheap out there, but NC 540 is going to make access to RTP very fast. Currently, it's probably a 45-50 minute drive (thanks to the bottleneck at the US 1/NC 55 intersection), but in a few years it should drop to 30 minutes.
I personally live in Apex, which is south of Durham and southwest of Raleigh. If you're looking for somewhere really nice to live, it's average income is only slightly less than Cary, but the housing is cheaper (and we still have our souls
Your use of the past tense makes it sound like you're no longer in the area?
It's worth pointing out that the south half of 540 (NC 540) is now a toll road. It's still worth it for your commute, but it's no longer quite as awesome.
It was fun telling friends from out of state that the couldn't miss my highway exit because it was literally the last one. I'm sure by now its been further extended.
Yeah, it runs all the way down to US 64 now. It comes out right by Beaver Creek, which is about a minute from my house.
They even expanded the 540 -> 40 ramp so it's less of a bottleneck, they removed the 3rd lane on 40 West near Garner that caused bottlenecks because of people merging out then back in.
I no longer work with the DOT, or live in the area, but I believe their next major projects are to finish resurfacing 440, and to look into widening 440 near Hillsborough.