Good neighborhoods near Duke for family

[blue post]

Hey everyone, today I talked to a friend of mine who is considering Duke Med for his residency training. He wanted to know about neighborhoods within a reasonable commute where he could get an inexpensive starter home. I lived on campus all 4 years and wasn't in tune with the housing market around Durham, so I just told him that the closer the Chapel Hill generally the nicer it was and also that the Chapel Hill school district is thought to be very good.

General guidelines:
- wife, 2 kids (oldest to start Kindergarten)
- inexpensive but safe neighborhoods in good school districts
- within 20-30 min commute, but closer would be nice

Any suggestions? What is the market like? Decent starter homes for <200k?

Appreciate your help.

[DukeUsul]

There are some very nice neighborhoods in SW Durham near Chapel Hill in the vicinity of Forest Woods Elementary, which is a pretty good school. Lochnora, Garrett Farms, Carillon Woods/Forest, Stonegate. I live in this area and love it. The problem for your friend is most things will be $250+.

One place that might be good to look is Woodcroft. It's in South Central Durham and has more opportunities for homes that are <$200. Nice neighborhood, good amenities (parks and such). I'm not sure what school the kids go to, though.

Tell him to look at Zillow.com to look for prices.

[DST Fan]

I don't think your friend can go wrong with the Chapel Hill public schools. There are reasonably priced homes in neighborhoods and subdivisions off of 15-501 as you drive south and cross the town line into Chapel Hill, which is about 10 minutes from the Duke campus. The prices generally increase as you head toward the UNC campus and up Franklin Street, but that would increase the distance to Duke.

When I was in the market three years ago, $200,000 or less pretty much limited you to a town house or a duplex in Chapel Hill, at least if you wanted something reasonably new. Prices dropped shortly after that, although not as dramatically as in some other parts of the country. I understand prices have rebounded a little in the last 12 months.

Many people looking in your friend's price range are either employees or grad students at UNC. For these people, the proximity of a neigborhood to a Chapel Hill bus route-- and particularly a direct route to the campus-- can be a big factor in purchasing a home since parking (at least for students) is very tight on campus. The is no charge to use the Chapel Hill bus system and, although your friend may not need to ride the bus regularly, it can be a factor when he re-sells.

[hughgs]

Hey everyone, today I talked to a friend of mine who is considering Duke Med for his residency training. He wanted to know about neighborhoods within a reasonable commute where he could get an inexpensive starter home. I lived on campus all 4 years and wasn't in tune with the housing market around Durham, so I just told him that the closer the Chapel Hill generally the nicer it was and also that the Chapel Hill school district is thought to be very good.

General guidelines:
- wife, 2 kids (oldest to start Kindergarten)
- inexpensive but safe neighborhoods in good school districts
- within 20-30 min commute, but closer would be nice

Any suggestions? What is the market like? Decent starter homes for <200k?

Appreciate your help.

I don't know what the housing prices are like, but you don't have to go to Chapel Hill to find good housing. One big issue with Chapel Hill is that the property taxes are relatively high.

Look at American Drive in Durham for starters. They have a number of homes that are pretty close to Duke and are relatively secluded from traffic but close to the major roads.

You can also look at houses along Sparger Road. There are a number of small, older neighborhoods off of Sparger Road. These neighborhoods are also secluded from traffic but are close to the main roads.

As for schools, I've always heard that Durham has pretty good elementary schools and pretty good individual middle/high schools. The big problem is finding one close to a home you can afford.

[allenmurray]

check your private messages

[DukeUsul]

Here are two good sites to pass to your friend.

Bull City Rising - a great blog about all things Durham.

BCR recently posted a link to this site, DurhamHoods.com, which has information about the mailing lists and neighborhood websites for neighborhoods around Durham. It might be very useful for your friend to browse.

[Son of Jarhead]

Hey everyone, today I talked to a friend of mine who is considering Duke Med for his residency training. He wanted to know about neighborhoods within a reasonable commute where he could get an inexpensive starter home. I lived on campus all 4 years and wasn't in tune with the housing market around Durham, so I just told him that the closer the Chapel Hill generally the nicer it was and also that the Chapel Hill school district is thought to be very good.

General guidelines:
- wife, 2 kids (oldest to start Kindergarten)
- inexpensive but safe neighborhoods in good school districts
- within 20-30 min commute, but closer would be nice

Any suggestions? What is the market like? Decent starter homes for <200k?

Appreciate your help.

...hope I can be of some help.

The market is improving here. Durham is probably the best place to find nice homes in that price range. High number of listings vs. fewer qualified buyers means buyers market, so now is a very good time to buy. As a native Durhamite, I know your friend will love living here.

[rthomas]

Best investment I ever made was buying a house on Dogwood Rd, 2 doors down from Cornwallis, when I was a postdoc at Duke. It was about the size of a doublewide, close to carolina blue, but on a completely wooded lot (about .4 ac). And only about a mile to west campus and less to south square mall and about a block or so from the president's house but on the other side of 751. Bought it for ~120 in 1987 and sold it for ~180 in 95.

You should check out this area - quiet, convenient, but don't know how the prices are now.

[DukeUsul]

There are a couple homes for sale in that area, some below $200 if you go over to off of Chapel Hill Rd.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale..._zm/1_rs/1_fr/

[Son of Jarhead]

Best investment I ever made was buying a house on Dogwood Rd, 2 doors down from Cornwallis, when I was a postdoc at Duke. It was about the size of a doublewide, close to carolina blue, but on a completely wooded lot (about .4 ac). And only about a mile to west campus and less to south square mall and about a block or so from the president's house but on the other side of 751. Bought it for ~120 in 1987 and sold it for ~180 in 95.

You should check out this area - quiet, convenient, but don't know how the prices are now.

... & sales price for homes in there ranged from $249-855k in the last 12 months, with most being between $300-500k. On Dogwood itself, the last two sales were in 2009... one a private sale for $200k & the other an open market sale for $325k. Great neighborhood, but the odds of finding in there for under $200k are slim.

[Lid]

There are some very nice neighborhoods in SW Durham near Chapel Hill in the vicinity of Forest Woods Elementary, which is a pretty good school.

I think you mean Forest View, which is indeed a good school, and is one of the closest (if not the closest) schools to DUMC.

I would definitely not suggest Chapel Hill; you'll get a better house cheaper in Durham, and there are several good elementary schools in Durham. Also, when you're a resident and don't have lots of time off, there's no reason to add to your commute unnecessarily. People have given lots of good advice about nearby neighborhoods and areas to check out, but feel free to PM me as someone who lives in the area and has kids in school in Durham.

Along with the other website recs, your friend might want to check out Strong Durham Schools for some Durham school information and personal perspectives. They're anecdotal, but so are most stories people like to pass on about Durham schools.

[fuse]

I'll take some flak for writing this, but relative to Wake, Orange and Chatham counties, in general Durham county suffers in comparison for schools.

Thats not to say there are not good schools in Durham. I've lived in the area since going to Duke and we chose to move to Wake county out of Durham county based on the school situation for our home in Durham. We also looked at homes in Chatham and Orange county.

NC may have a reputation for lower cost of housing than other areas of the country, but depending on your needs, less than 200k is probably not a realistic target for a nice neighborhood for a 3 bedroom home.

If it is for a residency and your friend is not looking long term, there are probably some nice rental options (condo or apartment) and your friend should know between downtown Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill just about everything is 20 minutes away. Your friend should get a sense of the area and sort out what makes sense for his family.

There is a calculator on the NY Times webpage somewhere that talks about the difference between renting and buying- in general, the calculator seems to come out that you come out ahead renting unless you are staying in the same home 6 years or more.

Wishing your friend good luck!

-g

[Lid]

I'll take some flak for writing this, but relative to Wake, Orange and Chatham counties, in general Durham county suffers in comparison for schools.

Thats not to say there are not good schools in Durham. I've lived in the area since going to Duke and we chose to move to Wake county out of Durham county based on the school situation for our home in Durham. We also looked at homes in Chatham and Orange county.

I think this really underscores the point that it's good to look at specific areas and schools instead of dealing in generalities. Obviously, you wouldn't want to write off all of Wake County because of the current well-publicized turmoil; similarly, if the friend is going to be at Duke, writing off all of Durham schools because some schools are really struggling is probably a mistake. (There are definitely Durham schools I wouldn't send my kids to, but there are also Wake, Orange and Chapel Hill schools I would avoid. I don't know much about specific Chatham schools.) I think the different towns in the Triangle have such different feels, too, that the friend should take that into account. Durham and Cary, for example, have such different vibes -- it's good to get a feeling for which one is a better fit for lifestyle reasons.

Having lived for several years in a city with terrible traffic and a long commute, one of my favorite things about Durham now is that I can get between my house, my work, my kids' school and, of course, Cameron within 7 minutes. When my husband was in residency, getting home in 5 minutes after a 2-day shift was a whole lot better than getting home in 20 minutes. But, that may not be as big of a deal to others.

I just love that the Triangle has a place that's a good fit for nearly every person out there.

[fuse]

I think you hit the nail on the head with this observation:

I just love that the Triangle has a place that's a good fit for nearly every person out there.

-g

[blue post]

Thank you everyone for all of your input. I knew that asking here would be a great idea! I will send my friend a link to this thread for his viewing. Keep contributing good ideas because I may be in a similar position next year, strongly considering returning to the Triangle for my training

Also, thank you to those of you who sent PM's to me, I will also forward those along to him.