Thank you very much for your feedback! This is exactly what I was looking for(personal feedback and experience).My user name might infer bias, and that would be fair. I previously lived in Raleigh and nearly built a house in Cary before my career path sent me North. A decade later, when I had the opportunity to move back to the area, I chose Chapel Hill because of the schools and the college town atmosphere. The school system is well-rated, and they were very flexible to let my kids take classes at UNC for any subjects that were beyond the scope of the normal curriculum. (Both had a year of college credit coming out of high school.) There are regular concerts, speakers, and plays drawn by the University. And, of course, there are good collegiate sports of all kinds. It's also convenient to good hospitals at UNC and Duke. As you might expect, the town has a strong university vibe and is VERY liberal (which may or may not appeal to you). All that leads to higher housing prices (maybe 10%) than you typically find in the other towns, but it was pretty painless coming from (NY/CT/DC). But, what you pay to get in, you typically collect on the way out. Overall, there is also more stability in times of flux.
I think Cary and Apex are fine. As mentioned above, Cary has had a huge amount of growth, much of it in cookie cutter developments. I hated those when I was in the DC area. Apex, is going through the same, just one town west. There is also Pittsboro which has huge new developments in play (larger than the original town). Meanwhile, while there are a few nice spots in Durham - stay away.
BTW, as a now-retired IT exec, the Research Triangle area is a good spot to land and continues to see job growth.
Good luck on your move.
Based on what you wrote, it seems Chapel Hill is exactly what I want from the school system.
Would you say that under 600k is a realistic budget to get a decent SFH in Chapel Hill? ChatGPT says yes, but Zillow doesn’t have that many listings in Chapel Hill in good school areas. I’m fairly handy and don’t mind if the house needs some repairs (eg polishing/replacing floors, painting, replacing appliances like a dishwasher etc).
One of the things I like about Cary is the Epic Games headquarters. I feel like that should bring people and more money to the area. What are your thoughts?
Statistics: Posted by bostonlondon — Wed Nov 26, 2025 1:24 am — Replies 30 — Views 1961