Author Topic: Raleigh, North Carolina?  (Read 23941 times)

geekette

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Re: Raleigh, North Carolina?
« Reply #50 on: January 11, 2015, 02:37:30 PM »
Well, you can check google maps for distances, but Holly Springs is pretty far out, IMHO.  The new toll road (SW portion of 540) would make an airport trip about 30 minutes, if you don't mind the toll.  Of course that's from "Holly Springs", not inside some development, which may add time as well.

Anything labeled 55, 54, US 1, I-40, Davis Dr (1613 on the map) will be busy (often stop and roll) during rush hour.  The Beltline, US 70, 401, basically any major artery will be crowded.  Google maps will show traffic - you just have to check then.

If you can find the shops and schools you like in Holly Springs, then great.  Otherwise you'll be spending a lot of time on the road. 

RootofGood

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Re: Raleigh, North Carolina?
« Reply #51 on: January 11, 2015, 04:30:39 PM »
My Holly springs friend hated the drive into Raleigh for work and for social gatherings.  He was planning on moving somewhere closer to town but when he sold his house, relocated to Charlotte (he works from home). 

Holly springs has schools and some shopping, so you won't have to drive a long distance.  But if you're looking for a particular retailer or for a variety of retailers, you might be driving to Cary/Apex/Raleigh. 

The toll road (Triangle Expressway/ NC 540) really connected Holly Springs with RTP, so it's a straight shot into the Park, or keep going north on the toll road and you get onto NC 147 which is the Durham Freeway, and it passes near Duke if you end up in PA school there.  I think it's about $2-3 for Holly Springs to the Park or to Durham. 

mandies

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Re: Raleigh, North Carolina?
« Reply #52 on: January 12, 2015, 10:47:37 AM »
Quote
I'm also super excited about living around Raleigh. We are trying to plan a house-hunting visit. Do you have any opinions about Holly Springs? My DH wants me to look out there.

I concur with Holly Springs being really far out. A friend of mine moved to Willow Springs, which is near there, and hated being so far out. His house also didn't appreciate hardly at all, because it is so far away.

A lot of the more interesting things happen are in and around downtown Raleigh and downtown Durham, and you'd be really far away from that, and stuck on US 1 and 401 to get anywhere, which aren't as quick to get around as 540.

Quote
The toll road (Triangle Expressway/ NC 540) really connected Holly Springs with RTP, so it's a straight shot into the Park, or keep going north on the toll road and you get onto NC 147 which is the Durham Freeway, and it passes near Duke if you end up in PA school there.  I think it's about $2-3 for Holly Springs to the Park or to Durham.
We've found that this is really expensive for a Toll Road. You pay per exit you travel, and it's pricey. We avoid it, and are willing to drive the extra 5 minutes when we have to drive that way on 55.

A lot of the areas that have lots of new construction, like Willow Springs, Clayton and Holly Springs, tend to have the urban sprawl really, really bad. The houses that being built are also McMansions on micro-lots, which I don't like, but some people like to have all new construction and new stores to shop at.
« Last Edit: January 12, 2015, 12:49:39 PM by mandies »

RootofGood

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Re: Raleigh, North Carolina?
« Reply #53 on: January 12, 2015, 02:00:15 PM »
We've found that this is really expensive for a Toll Road. You pay per exit you travel, and it's pricey. We avoid it, and are willing to drive the extra 5 minutes when we have to drive that way on 55.

A lot of the areas that have lots of new construction, like Willow Springs, Clayton and Holly Springs, tend to have the urban sprawl really, really bad. The houses that being built are also McMansions on micro-lots, which I don't like, but some people like to have all new construction and new stores to shop at.

My wife uses the toll road to get to work in the middle of the Park (coming from the north side on I-40) and it's a no brainer.  $0.65 or so to cut off 5-10 minutes of traffic on 2 lane roads and reduce trip length by a mile. Outside of rush hour it's probably not a great value since local roads aren't as congested. 

mandies

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Re: Raleigh, North Carolina?
« Reply #54 on: January 13, 2015, 07:03:14 AM »
We've found that this is really expensive for a Toll Road. You pay per exit you travel, and it's pricey. We avoid it, and are willing to drive the extra 5 minutes when we have to drive that way on 55.

My wife uses the toll road to get to work in the middle of the Park (coming from the north side on I-40) and it's a no brainer.  $0.65 or so to cut off 5-10 minutes of traffic on 2 lane roads and reduce trip length by a mile. Outside of rush hour it's probably not a great value since local roads aren't as congested.

We're usually looking at driving the kids to homeschool co-ops and meetups in Cary/Apex from Durham, and then it would run almost $1.50 to take it all the way, one way. We have a very fuel efficient car and aren't driving at rush hour, so we just avoid it.

Simple Abundant Living

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Re: Raleigh, North Carolina?
« Reply #55 on: January 16, 2015, 02:29:47 PM »
Any thoughts about Wake Forest or Chapel Hill? I'm struggling to find a public high school that offers a Chinese language program for my son. He says he doesn't want to go to a charter or magnet school. Two of the high schools that offer 4 years of Chinese are Heritage High in Wake Forest or Chapel Hill High. I guess we could just pay for private language school or tutoring, but I'd rather find a school that had what he needs.

Melf

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Re: Raleigh, North Carolina?
« Reply #56 on: January 16, 2015, 03:20:43 PM »
I think Chapel Hill has been mentioned a few times before in this thread.  Wake Forest is on the northern eastern edge of Wake county.  It's a nice area but it's grown a lot in the last 15 years just like everywhere else in this area.  The traffic can be bad through that area if you're trying to get out of there in the mornings or back in the evenings since US 1 is the main way in and out.  It's only about 15 to 20 minutes down to North Raleigh if traffic isn't bad. Closer to 45 minutes to downtown Raleigh.  The closest way to Durham from there is Hwy 98 which is just two-lane and heavily traveled at peak time.  I'd say half an hour to an hour to Durham depending on where you need to get to.

I actually live in the Fuquay Varina area now.  Traffic out this way....Fuquay, Holly Springs, Apex seems to get worse every month.  More and more developments and huge apartment complexes go in all the time.  There is more and more retail going up as well.  Thank goodness I work from home because I'm sure this traffic would kill me if I had to deal with it every day.

Marlan

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Re: Raleigh, North Carolina?
« Reply #57 on: January 16, 2015, 04:18:46 PM »
I loved Chapel Hill for my undergraduate education. They have a great free public transportation system and the downtown area is incredibly walkable, as is Carrboro. I think it would be easy to find Mustachian folks, but the town is full of "consumer suckers" as well.  Property taxes are high and so are home prices. The foreclosures I have looked at are in areas highly populated by college students (just north of the university walking distance to campus, bars, and restaurants). These areas can be loud at night.

Fun fact, Chapel Hill has  a whole task of police called the "ALE" trained to catch underage drinking. This is because tons of older age high schoolers attempt to drink at college parties.

jpo

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Re: Raleigh, North Carolina?
« Reply #58 on: January 17, 2015, 06:11:28 PM »
Where did he move to? It's so hard to gauge how far everything is on a map. Traffic can be an unknown variable. And we really don't know what where we'll be driving to right now other than to schools/grocery stores.
Moved to Cary.

NC55 usually moves fairly well during rush hour.

RootofGood

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Re: Raleigh, North Carolina?
« Reply #59 on: January 23, 2015, 09:28:49 AM »
Any thoughts about Wake Forest or Chapel Hill? I'm struggling to find a public high school that offers a Chinese language program for my son. He says he doesn't want to go to a charter or magnet school. Two of the high schools that offer 4 years of Chinese are Heritage High in Wake Forest or Chapel Hill High. I guess we could just pay for private language school or tutoring, but I'd rather find a school that had what he needs.

You might want to research more schools.  I would be surprised if 4 years of Chinese wasn't offered at other Wake County high schools.  My alma mater, Enloe, offers 4 years plus AP and IB Chinese for example.  http://enloehs.wcpss.net/departments/foreignlang/chinese.php  It's magnet and the base attendance area is in a "gentrifying" area (ie you might hear gunshots at night).  Not a bad school to spend 4 years if you want to get fluent in a language and get a couple years head start on college though (from personal experience).

In Raleigh, there's Broughton High School.  I think they are offering a Chinese immersion language program starting this fall (but couldn't verify by googling).  The base attendance area is mostly high dollar real estate, so getting in might be tricky unless you can swing a magnet seat or don't mind living in a specific part of the city. 

I had a lot of Chinese friends growing up in Cary, so I bet some of the Cary/Apex schools offer Chinese too.  Then there's the Chinese school on Saturdays that my friends attended.  Not sure if they take just anybody though lol. 
 

dcnats

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Re: Raleigh, North Carolina?
« Reply #60 on: February 03, 2015, 12:52:58 AM »
I recommend the area in the middle - between Durham and Raleigh.  I lived under Falls Lake and I worked in southern RTP (near Chapel Hill) and it was a 15 minute commute (also 15 min to Duke or 15 min to Raleigh - very central), great housing prices, great neighborhood, and awesome area (loved biking to Falls Lake, had a Creek behind my house, had a blueberry picking farm and grocery store within walking distance.  I found traffic and housing prices to be much higher deeper in Durham and Raleigh, and Cary was just ridiculously populated and expensive with poor traffic planning.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!