So it’s no secret that we weren’t planning on moving this year! If you missed that initial blog post about how moving came about, you can read about that here. Anyway, today I wanted to share how we decided on moving to the North Raleigh area, and hopefully this will give you some things to think about when you’re looking to move either to a new house for apartment.

So, when we started looking, there were things that we knew we definitely wanted in our next house, one of them being a larger yard and more privacy. With that said, we realized fairly quickly that we probably weren’t going to buy in the North Hills area (where we originally thought we might buy) or really anywhere that was close to North Hills or downtown. When we weighed the pros and cons we felt like it was better to be a little further out (15-20 minutes from North Hills) vs. under 10 minutes. Sure, we wanted the drive to the main shopping/eating areas to be manageable (we didn’t want over 25 minutes) but we decided that it was worth it for us to drive 20 minutes to get “into town” and have more land/privacy in exchange.

That being said, we decided that we wouldn’t buy within the beltline (which is where North Hills and downtown are for those of y’all that aren’t familiar) and would look a little further out. If you’re looking to move to Raleigh, when people say they live in the beltline, this is within 440 and is definitely the most expensive part of Raleigh to live in (per square foot). To put it into perspective, if our house was within the beltline, so just 15-20 minutes closer to the city center, it would have cost at least double. So once we decided that privacy/land was more important to us, we started to research what areas would be best to look for houses in. Some of y’all have messaged me about areas like Holly Springs, Clayton, Garner and Apex. All of these are smaller cities outside of Raleigh and are great options if you’re looking for more land or a lot more “bang for your buck.” For us, we wanted to stay in Raleigh because it was important to us to be closer to the main shopping/dining areas like North Hills but some people really like being a little further out and having more space. So that being said, North Raleigh seemed like the best area for us to focus on. It seemed like the best “middle ground” so to speak.

If you’re looking at houses now or buying in the future, these are definitely things to think about! There isn’t a right or wrong but it just depends on your personal preference and what your top priorities in a house (or apartment) are. When we bought our first house, we didn’t need as much space or a yard (we didn’t even have the dogs yet) so we bought closer to the beltline. One of our priorities at that point was to be really close to the main shopping/dining areas. But as the years have passed (all two years LOL) we realized that with this next house, the privacy/yard weighed more heavily than being as close to those main areas.

At the end of the day, I think it’s important to think about what fits your lifestyle. I mean, at this point in our lives we spend most of our time at home so we wanted our home/yard/privacy to be the main priority when looking at houses vs. location (within reason). And I don’t just mean we spend most of our time at home because of coronavirus LOL. Even before this we would go out to eat a couple times a week but it’s not like we go out to the bars anymore. Basically, it wasn’t like we needed to be so close to bars and restaurants because we were going to be out all the time, or needed to Uber home etc. So anyway! I just share all this because hopefully it helps give you some things to think about for the next time you buy, or even the next time you rent an apartment 🙂 What is your current top priority for your house or apartment? Would love to hear!! xxC