Hello,

Happy New Year! I have two specific questions related to the Raleigh/Durham area as a potential OOS investor. 

1. Why does everyone want to live in West Raleigh? (Cary, Morrisville, Apex)

2. What is the area between Bethesda and Joyland like? (crime, age of the neighborhoods)

@Kristyn Grimes

1. Because it is the area that is one of the most built up. The west side of Raleigh has long been a place a lot of people want to live. Lots of good schools, businesses and amenities are over there. I would say if it wasn’t for those items, it is also close to most of the jobs in the area. Close access to 40 and RTP.

2.Not a Durham expert so will leave it to Durham pros.

Thank you Mitch!

Originally posted by @Mitch Miller :

@Kristyn Grimes

1. Because it is the area that is one of the most built up. The west side of Raleigh has long been a place a lot of people want to live. Lots of good schools, businesses and amenities are over there. I would say if it wasn’t for those items, it is also close to most of the jobs in the area. Close access to 40 and RTP.

2.Not a Durham expert so will leave it to Durham pros.

Kristyn, a great website we use for crime is spotcrime dot com (unfortunately I don’t think bigger pockets let’s me use the exact writing to create an easy hyperlink but I’m sure you get it).  And @Vinay Kolluru lives over in that area so hopefully he can provide better feedback on your questions. 

1.  Cary has a pleasant acronym  Containment Area for Relocated Yankees.  It's where a lot of peole from New York or New Jersey moved to, so that has bumped up the real estate values substantially.  Morrisville is a way station between Raleigh and the RTP area or the RDU airport.  Nothing special about Apex.

2.  I am not familiar with these places.  However Durham has more rough neighborhoods than Raleigh or Chapel Hill.  There are places in Durham I would not go unless it is daylight!

@Kristyn Grimes

Hey there

I just moved to Cary NC and also lived in Apex, Raleigh , Durham , Chapel Hill for a while before that via Airbnb to check out the area.

This is my observation and my opinion, Raleigh and Durham are the cities , therefore one street can be really bad but the next street can be really good. Not really my thing to invest in coin flips which is why I did not buy in those areas, really have to know those areas to buy.

Apex is nice with newer houses but doing anything will take a 15 minute drive unless it is a house downtown or near beaver creek shopping center. The Airbnb j stayed in was a big mansion but again, it took 30 minute round trips just to buy groceries. Not sure how it will rent but for me I would not live there unless I was a old retired man with nothing to do

Chapel Hill has the best schools and also the highest taxes. It is also home to Unc so it has a college town vibe. I prefer Chapel Hill over Durham or Raleigh if I were to buy an investment property as renting to college students is what I would do.

Cary and Morrisville are pretty much the same place. From what I have seen so far living here over a year , it is the nicer 2 towns in the Triangle area IMO . Also West Cary (bordering Morrisville) is the better part of Cary from living here. This area is pretty much the “keeping with the Jonases” area. There are guys paying 40k to join the Prestonwood country club etc (link for an application if you want to join https://www.ginamiller.com/site_data/ginamiller1/editor_assets/doc04160020180424121136.pdf)

I am not in that class of people that can afford 40k to join the country club but from my research, West Cary was where I wanted to be and I did not regret my decision. It is the desirable area, only other place I can think of which has the allure is Irvine California. Zillow is also predicting 9.5% appreciation for the area next year as well so that helps as well.

Hope my opinion helps , even though I have only been here a little bit over a year

Kristyn,

1. I have lived in Durham my entire life except for my college years. When I moved back to town my wife and I moved to the border of Durham and Morrisville. We were attracted to the area because there is tons of new development, restaurant's, outdoor amenities (trails, parks, etc). The Morrisville area is also centrally located between Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill so you can get to any of the downtowns within 15 minutes. It is great for people who want to be out and about doing stuff. Durham is great but only has a few newer developed areas. They're working on more though!

2. Joyland and Bethesda are not so great areas of Durham, I would look elsewhere unless you can find a deal you can't refuse.

@A Schwartz Cary actually stands for “Can’t Afford Raleigh Yet”.

@David Burns can you clarify what are you referring to because Cary has median home price that is more than 25% higher than Raleigh (?)

@Account Closed - most all the wake county schools are as good or better than chapel hill schools