The wife and I are headed off to North Carolina in a month and we would appreciate any tips / advice as we relocate.

Specifically, we're moving to Chapel Hill / Durham / Raleigh. She'll be working at UNC (and I'll eventually look for work there or at one of the other nearby universities once we sell our house in CS...). I know CH is more expensive housing-wise, but I understand there are parts of Durham to avoid, too. Any specific areas or neighborhoods we should look at (or avoid)? Any other general advice about moving and / or living out there?

TIA!

Paging NeuroticAg. I believe he's in that area and can give some good advice.

I'm in Raleigh so I'm not as familiar with Durham & Chapel Hill. Also reach out to the Triangle A&M club on Facebook. There are more of them on FB than TexAgs.

the bbq is way different and the weather is still hotter than hell. you'll get lost looking for landmarks due to all of the damn trees.

Chapel Hill is significantly more expensive than Durham, particularly if you are going to buy a house. There are parts of Durham you want to avoid, but there are also some really nice parts, particularly in southwest Durham, which is about halfway between Duke and UNC (and where I lived until about 3 months ago).

I would check out the Durham Woodcroft area. It's pretty nice, close to a lot of things and a lot of UNC/Duke medical residents/postdocs live there. If you can afford it, you could also check out the Sunningdale neighborhood.

http://woodcroftonline.com/

This area is within an easy commute of UNC (I have been doing it daily for years). There are other areas in Durham that aren't bad, but the commute is going to be awful. Unless you are able to afford some really expensive areas, I would check out this area and avoid most of the rest.

I would be happy to answer any other questions.

Also, it's too bad I just had an offer on my house, or I would sell it to you.

Thanks NA. Our price range will likely top out around $200,000. Does that impact your Woodcroft suggestion? Also, do you have any realtors you'd recommend?

I'll likely have some more questions later - thanks in advance for your help.

Not at all. I think you could get a good house in Woodcroft for that. I'm not sure this zillow link will work, but if it does, it will show you the general location that I'm talking about and the price of some of the homes in the area.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/durham,-nc_rb/#/homes/for_sale/Durham-NC/24457_rid/35.937676,-78.920074,35.905285,-78.987107_rect/13_zm/0_mmm/

If not, just type "woodcroft, durham" into zillow and it will get you close enough.

If you have questions you don't want to ask on here, you can shoot me an email at username @ yahoo.

Sorry, I forgot the realtor. We have used Michelle Burris at The Home Team. She is the one who found our house for us and is in the process of selling our house now. I have really liked her and she specializes as a buyer's agent.

http://www.home-team.com/

[This message has been edited by NeuroticAg (edited 7/3/2012 2:10p).]

try checking out alamance county as well. there are some nice places in burlington and mebane and taxes are a lot cheaper than orange and durham counties. 20 mins ride or so to chapel hill from there as well

Thanks for the recs. We're on vacation now, but I may hit you up with some questions at your email address when we get back, NA.