I'm hoping someone can give me some advice as my husband and I are trying to decide if we should stay in ATL or move before we have our first child. I am a huge advocate of AP and do not want to birth in a hospital (unless necessary health wise). Atlanta doesn't have very many good options as far as I can tell. We are currently thinking of moving to the Raleigh/Durham area. Does anyone live in this area and find this area a good place to raise children? My instinct says it might be a better option in terms of schools, etc. I don't consider ATL to be a very open minded area in terms of holistic health either. My concern is that the Raleigh/Durham area might just be the same (kind of a smaller ATL). Any thoughts? I am 31 and we want to get settled somewhere and start a family soon. Thanks!
Stay in ATL or move to Raleigh/Durham?
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My in-laws live in Suwanee!
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We are there every 4th of July.
Well, part of me is screaming "stay in ATL!! real estate is friggin' cheap out there!!"
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But I do understand wanting to move to a more AP friendly area. This area (RDU) is pretty crunchy. Esp. Chapel Hill/Carrboro.
I dunno. Atlanta has cheap gas and cheap real estate. 'Course it takes 30 minutes to get anywhere, traffic is horrible, and the sprawl has just taken over.
What's most important to you in a community?
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Well, part of me is screaming "stay in ATL!! real estate is friggin' cheap out there!!"
I dunno. Atlanta has cheap gas and cheap real estate. 'Course it takes 30 minutes to get anywhere, traffic is horrible, and the sprawl has just taken over.
What's most important to you in a community?
I guess we want more of a community where we can meet like minded people. We live in Duluth right now and I feel pretty disconnected. I think alot of that has to do with the fact that we live in the suburbs. Real estate in the city, where I would want to live, is way too expensive. We'd have to buy a major fixer upper or live in a tiny place. My price range is probably around $225k, just to give you an idea. Is real estate that much higher in RDU? Atlanta has alot to offer but I think we would like to live in a smaller area or maybe we just need to get into a better community. We are quite a ways off from having to worry about schools since we don't have any children yet. I want to be in an area where I can meet some like minded people, have access to good restaurants (locally owned, not chains!), some culture, natural foods stores/famers markets, good quality of life, less pollution would be better but that is hard to find
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, less traffic (if I had to drive with traffic in the morning it would take over an hour to get to the city, luckily I work outside of the city), closer to the beaches (I grew up in Florida and desperately miss the water), just to name a few things we are looking for.
Thanks for reading this and for any suggestions! I've been reading through some of the other posts and this is such a great community!!
Thanks for reading this and for any suggestions! I've been reading through some of the other posts and this is such a great community!!
Well given all you've just listed, it sounds like you're ready to leave ATL.
225k will buy you a very nice sized home here, 3br, 2.5ba., if you buy in the Durham/Raleigh area. Your housing dollar doesn't go as far in Chapel Hill, but Durham is close enough to CH and there is definitely a like minded NFL/AP community here.
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What kind of job would you be looking for?
225k will buy you a very nice sized home here, 3br, 2.5ba., if you buy in the Durham/Raleigh area. Your housing dollar doesn't go as far in Chapel Hill, but Durham is close enough to CH and there is definitely a like minded NFL/AP community here.
What kind of job would you be looking for?
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what do you like about atlanta?
given your posts i would think chapel hill/carrboro would be a great fit. it's very easy to find crunchy people -- just go hang out at weaver street market. there are also great LLL and API groups as well as some new groups starting up.
i'm sure you could find something for $225 in chapel hill/carrboro although your housing dollar will go farther in durham. chapel hill and carrboro are both small towns, though. like atlanta could swallow them whole and not even burp small. if you like a big city raleigh would be the better bet i guess. i never seem to get over there although i do want to take my kids before summer ends to go check out the museums. i'm not a big city person so you'll have to ask a raleighite about the capital city. we have many advocates for durham here and i know lots of crunchy mamas there. i'll let them speak more about durham or direct you to one of the hooray for durham threads.
you have a ton of school choices in the area. durham has a great charter (free, public) elementary school that supervee might tell you more about. chapel hill public schools have national reputations as high achievers. they're also supposed to be good with special needs populations. the flip side of that, though, is some folks feel their average kids fall btwn the cracks. there are a lot of private options in the area -- waldorf, friends community independent school . the homeschooling community is large and thriving and well organized with a coop friday school in the spring and fall.
there's a great freestanding birth center in chapel hill. there are also plenty of OBs and lots of standard allopathic medicine since both duke and UNC have med schools and are teaching hospitals. some of the OBs are natural-birth friendly and some not so much, but there midwives who work at UNC, too and i know folks who have used them and been really happy. i loved going to the freestanding birth center, the Women's Birth and Wellness Center, for my second dd. the NC HomeBirth site has more info on homebirth midwives in the area and there are several of those, too, and i know mamas who've absolutely loved their homebirths, too.
there is lotsa culcha in the area -- art museums, music, art, dance (durham is home to the american dance festival each summer), thriving rock/alternative/americana music scene. i don't know if there's as much "to do" here as there is in atlanta, but i think we could come close. if you're a braves fan there's not a major league ball team, but we do have the durham bulls who are a great minor league team. i haven't been to a game in years, but it's much more of a community event with lots of stuff for kids.
as far as food, i already mentioned weaver street mkt, but there's also a fantabulous farmer's mkt in carrboro as well as markets in durham and raleigh and even saxapahaw (www.rivermillvillage.com). there are lotsa great "nationally known, locally owned" restaurants (to steal a phrase from the carrboro farmers mkt) throughout the area and some great restaurants that aren't that well known, but yummy yummy yummy. i don't have any trouble finding something to eat. not too many chains in chapel hill.
traffic is not very good in raleigh or so i hear. not too bad in chapel hill/carrboro since we're small. takes about 15 minutes to get all the way across town. if you or your dh will be working in RTP i really don't know too much about your commute since i never drive out there during rush hour and rarely go there at all, but i'm sure some mamas here could advise. to echo finch, what kind of job(s) would you be looking for? the beaches are about 3 hrs away, mountains about 3.5.
personally i think there's a lot to offer in our neck of the woods.
hth
given your posts i would think chapel hill/carrboro would be a great fit. it's very easy to find crunchy people -- just go hang out at weaver street market. there are also great LLL and API groups as well as some new groups starting up.
i'm sure you could find something for $225 in chapel hill/carrboro although your housing dollar will go farther in durham. chapel hill and carrboro are both small towns, though. like atlanta could swallow them whole and not even burp small. if you like a big city raleigh would be the better bet i guess. i never seem to get over there although i do want to take my kids before summer ends to go check out the museums. i'm not a big city person so you'll have to ask a raleighite about the capital city. we have many advocates for durham here and i know lots of crunchy mamas there. i'll let them speak more about durham or direct you to one of the hooray for durham threads.
you have a ton of school choices in the area. durham has a great charter (free, public) elementary school that supervee might tell you more about. chapel hill public schools have national reputations as high achievers. they're also supposed to be good with special needs populations. the flip side of that, though, is some folks feel their average kids fall btwn the cracks. there are a lot of private options in the area -- waldorf, friends community independent school . the homeschooling community is large and thriving and well organized with a coop friday school in the spring and fall.
there's a great freestanding birth center in chapel hill. there are also plenty of OBs and lots of standard allopathic medicine since both duke and UNC have med schools and are teaching hospitals. some of the OBs are natural-birth friendly and some not so much, but there midwives who work at UNC, too and i know folks who have used them and been really happy. i loved going to the freestanding birth center, the Women's Birth and Wellness Center, for my second dd. the NC HomeBirth site has more info on homebirth midwives in the area and there are several of those, too, and i know mamas who've absolutely loved their homebirths, too.
there is lotsa culcha in the area -- art museums, music, art, dance (durham is home to the american dance festival each summer), thriving rock/alternative/americana music scene. i don't know if there's as much "to do" here as there is in atlanta, but i think we could come close. if you're a braves fan there's not a major league ball team, but we do have the durham bulls who are a great minor league team. i haven't been to a game in years, but it's much more of a community event with lots of stuff for kids.
as far as food, i already mentioned weaver street mkt, but there's also a fantabulous farmer's mkt in carrboro as well as markets in durham and raleigh and even saxapahaw (www.rivermillvillage.com). there are lotsa great "nationally known, locally owned" restaurants (to steal a phrase from the carrboro farmers mkt) throughout the area and some great restaurants that aren't that well known, but yummy yummy yummy. i don't have any trouble finding something to eat. not too many chains in chapel hill.
traffic is not very good in raleigh or so i hear. not too bad in chapel hill/carrboro since we're small. takes about 15 minutes to get all the way across town. if you or your dh will be working in RTP i really don't know too much about your commute since i never drive out there during rush hour and rarely go there at all, but i'm sure some mamas here could advise. to echo finch, what kind of job(s) would you be looking for? the beaches are about 3 hrs away, mountains about 3.5.
personally i think there's a lot to offer in our neck of the woods.
hth
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Chapel Hill is supposed to really be cool.
We moved to Raleigh from Atlanta several years ago, shortly after DD1 was born, searching for a more family-friendly area and have been pleased. We bought in Wake Forest and were able to find lower housing costs, plus a small community feeling.
Actually, prices in Atlanta were way out of our range. They were building $500K-$1M homes down the street from where we were renting. Here, we paid well under $200K for a house that is small, but perfect for us.
Although there are traffic jams here, I have yet to find anything as bad as sitting on 400 at 8am.
P.S. I may get flamed for this, but if you consider Durham, just be sure to check it out carefully first. There are some very good areas, and some very bad areas.
We moved to Raleigh from Atlanta several years ago, shortly after DD1 was born, searching for a more family-friendly area and have been pleased. We bought in Wake Forest and were able to find lower housing costs, plus a small community feeling.
Actually, prices in Atlanta were way out of our range. They were building $500K-$1M homes down the street from where we were renting. Here, we paid well under $200K for a house that is small, but perfect for us.
Although there are traffic jams here, I have yet to find anything as bad as sitting on 400 at 8am.
P.S. I may get flamed for this, but if you consider Durham, just be sure to check it out carefully first. There are some very good areas, and some very bad areas.
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That's anywhere. I grew up in Northern Durham County. The Southern end is becoming very upscale and Southpoint Mall and all. I don't even recognize it! There's a revit going on in town and there are some nice little nooks there too. For some reason, Durham has gotten bad press and folks think that when they cross over they are gonna get killed or something
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: Sure, there are some places I wouldn't dare go or go at night; but, I can't think of anything I would need over there unless it was a nickel bag.:LOL
Originally Posted by raleigh_mom P.S. I may get flamed for this, but if you consider Durham, just be sure to check it out carefully first. There are some very good areas, and some very bad areas. |
Meh, everywhere has it's bad parts. We had this discussion on another thread, all us Durham mommies seem to think the reason Durham has a "bad" rep is because we have more *GASP!* black people. Seriously. That's it. Raleigh has statistically higher crime rates than Durham. But Durham is supposedly this shady, gang-ridden place according to lots of people in Raleigh and CH. The only difference is the racial makeup. And Durham is cooler and they're just jealous.
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Thanks for all of the advice! We've decided to come and visit the area as soon as this oppressive heat goes away
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: Can't wait! I think we'll be putting our house on the market early next year (once we've saved a little money & decided where we want to live) and that also gives us a little time to figure out jobs etc. By the way, how is the job market in the area? I am in the mortgage industry right now but want a career change and my husband does ad layout design for a home builder. I'd prefer that one of us have a job but we may have to move without jobs and just hope for the best.
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Oh! Well, now I live in Raleigh; but, my mama and my sister still live there! I don't think any of us have records; <g> and my dad was even a promient member of the community til his death in the 80's. It was a drunk driver. Still murder in my book; especially since his license was revoked and he had several priors. But, not in the way that everyone would think b/c we lived in Durham.
Originally Posted by Finch Meh, everywhere has it's bad parts. We had this discussion on another thread, all us Durham mommies seem to think the reason Durham has a "bad" rep is because we have more *GASP!* black people. |
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