My husband and I may have the opportunity to relocate from Southern California to North Carolina. We would need to live close enough to the Raleigh/Durham area to commute but would like to know where to look for a home. We are looking for a safe area, great schools, preferrably on a golf course. We don't mind driving into the city for restaurants and shopping. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help.

Are you working in Raleigh, Durham or RTP? If your job is in Raleigh, live in Raleigh/Wake County. If you job is in Durham, live in Durham/Durham County. If in RTP, you have more options.

I don't know the Raleigh real estate market, especially for golf clubs, but in Durham, most (I think there 3-5) are private clubs. Hope Valley (old, established neighborhood) Willowhaven and some other one I can't remember right now. In Chapel Hill (near Durham) there is Finley (public) and the Chapel Hill Country Club.

Schools: It seens the Wake County schools are redistricting the kids every year. Durham Public has a variety of schools, some with better rankings than others, the best schools are on par with CH-C. Chapel Hill-Carrboro usually has the best test scores of the state. The state of North Carolina has rankings of all schools. It's the ABC's of accountability. I'm sure you could find it through a google search. There are also a bunch of private schools.

The area is sprawled out so there isn't driving into a city for shopping. Malls are located near interstate exits.

Safety wise, people will tell you to stay out of Durham. Yes, Durham (like every city) has crime. Some areas are not as safe as others. As long as you aren't a crack addict or a wife beater, and take normal precautions, you should be fine in Durham.

Tracey,

I grew up in Raleigh but have lived in Cary for 14 years. Cary is a town of approx. 100,000 and is next door to Raleigh.
Three nice Cary neighborhoods with golf courses would be Lochmere, Preston & MacGregor Downs. Try this web site for searching real estate by neighborhoods- www.hpw.com.

Cary was a small town but has gone through a growth explosion in the past decade. It's very safe with plenty of nice restaurants and shopping. Some folks complain of the traffic and think it's too "yuppie" here but we like it!
You'll find lots of planned communities and golf courses and plenty of other families from all over the US and other nations too.

The schools are good, some better than others, but because of growth, the county continues to reassign the students so it's hard to move into an area & know with certainty which school is your base. The web site for Wake County schools is www.wcpss.net.

traceynt,

Welcome to the world of relatively clean air. When you arrive, look up at the sky and notice how blue it is. You haven't seen anything like that in Southern California in many, many years.

Curious

Thank you both for your help, it is appreciated.

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