Apartment Hunting in Durham

wcu_nurse · Mar 13, 2005

Don't be scared about living in Durham. Honestly, most of the crimes are drug related so if you aren't involved in that ,you really have little to worry about. However, I wouldn't sleep with my windows unlocked or anything. It takes adjustment, that's for sure. There are some parts of Durham that are better than others. It's hard to be specific because there are literally pockets of bad sections. You can tell these areas pretty quickly though by observing the area for a while. Northern Durham out towards Guess road is more "country"like if you will and the farther out on guess road, the better. Another way to judge is the cost of living, if an apartment is REALLY cheap, there's a reason why. Good apartments are expensive. Chapel hill is about 10 minutes away and not a bad commute. I will be living in Raleigh and commuting ...about 20-30 minutes. It won't be that bad. I'm excited. I'll be working on the pediatric medical stepdown unit. 5100.

Lets keep in touch. I'll be graduating in May and taking boards at the beginning of June. My start date is June 27th so I don't think we'll have the same orientation but I'm sure we'll see each other and it'll be nice to talk to someone about working and stuff. my email address is and I check it daily. I don't check this site daily. Let me know if you have ?s about specific areas of Durham or Raleigh and I'll do my best to ask my family about the area for ya. Take it easy !! :) And.....don't stress about it. You'll find a safe place to live that's affordable, I'm sure of it. Things always work out. You know that.

~Kimmie

HutofEisen · Apr 4, 2005

Has anyone heard anything about Bainbridge in the Park? It looks nice and its gated... just wondering. Let me know if you guys find any good apartments, I think I will ignore all the warnings and find an apartment in Durham.

Katie

P.S. I am also a new grad and will be starting at Duke in July on 2300 (surg/trauma ICU stepdown)

nia_king · Apr 4, 2005

Hi,

I haven't heard anything personally about it but I usually use apartmentguide.com to check out places until I can actualy make it down to Durham myself.

http://www.apartmentguide.com/Property/property.asp?wsv_psPropertyID=2319&wsv_psReturnTo=2&wsv_psRownum=&wsv_qsSessionID=260557960&wsv_qsListType=1&wsv_qsPartner=-1&wsv_qsGeoKey=1,28,111&wsv_qsKeyword=bainbridge&wsv_qsRegisteredFlag=0&wsv_qsBrowseStatus=0&wsv_qsSearchStatus=1&wsv_qsReferringURL=&wsv_qsSCartStatus=0&wsv_qsLowPrice=&wsv_qsHighPrice=&wsv_qsBR=0,1,2,3,4&wsv_qsTerm=3&wsv_qsAdvancedSearch=&wsv_qsNoAreas=&wsv_qsSFlg=&lk=ovTb

Also check out apartmentratings.com. It is another website to help you decide.

http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate?a=vccbc&name=Bainbridge+&city=Durham&state=NC&x=32&y=9

Goodluck.

A.E

Has anyone heard anything about Bainbridge in the Park? It looks nice and its gated... just wondering. Let me know if you guys find any good apartments, I think I will ignore all the warnings and find an apartment in Durham.
Katie
P.S. I am also a new grad and will be starting at Duke in July on 2300 (surg/trauma ICU stepdown)

lilwill27330 · Apr 24, 2005

has anyone heard anything about bainbridge in the park? it looks nice and its gated... just wondering. let me know if you guys find any good apartments, i think i will ignore all the warnings and find an apartment in durham.
katie
p.s. i am also a new grad and will be starting at duke in july on 2300 (surg/trauma icu stepdown)

bainbridge in the park is not bad. i was actually thinkin of moving there while finishing up my nursing degree. duke is approximately 10-15 minutes from there. warning: they just completed a new housing project about 5 mins drive from that apt. its okay, personally, i would look for something different. what rent range are you looking for and maybe i can help you out? the staff at bainbridge is great. youre about 10 mins north of the brand new mall. thats definitely an advantage, but for a new comer id def be lookin in a different area, or closer to the mall. let me know if you need any help.

HutofEisen · Apr 24, 2005

I would LOVE help trying to find an apartment! I am debating living in Chapel Hill vs. Durham but I don't know much about either of the cities. I am looking for an ecclectic place that also has a decent night life. I want to be able to walk around freely and not worry about crime. All the information I find is very glossy, so I need biased information about what city is better and what areas/apartments I should aviod.

Thanks!

Katie

lilwill27330 · Apr 24, 2005

I would LOVE help trying to find an apartment! I am debating living in Chapel Hill vs. Durham but I don't know much about either of the cities. I am looking for an ecclectic place that also has a decent night life. I want to be able to walk around freely and not worry about crime. All the information I find is very glossy, so I need biased information about what city is better and what areas/apartments I should aviod.
Thanks!
Katie

chapel hill is nice, so is raleigh, durham, and cary. it just depends on what youre looking for. sounds to me like your looking for a safe place that has lots of entertainment options while offering a safe atmosphere. chapel hill is full of tarheels. the streets are filled with college kids which could def get on your nerves. thats just my opinion though. durham is nice. its a tad run down in areas, its screamin revitalization. cary is nice but is more family oriented and snobby. now lets talk about raleigh, you can find 2 br ranging from 600 to 1200 and they're both nice. of course one will have granite counters, but who really needs that. raleigh is about a 15-20 min drive depending on what side, u will have to take traffic into consideration which will :angryfire :angryfire burn u up at times. there's hockey in raleigh, and our large concert venues are there, along with club after club after club and it sounded like you were def looking for night life. dont look for any eccentric (sp) form of public trans in nc period. you better have a car.

lilwill27330 · Apr 24, 2005

I would LOVE help trying to find an apartment! I am debating living in Chapel Hill vs. Durham but I don't know much about either of the cities. I am looking for an ecclectic place that also has a decent night life. I want to be able to walk around freely and not worry about crime. All the information I find is very glossy, so I need biased information about what city is better and what areas/apartments I should aviod.
Thanks!
Katie

im so damn long winded..okay, part 2. lol. you can def walk around in raleigh from club to club, granted you find a parking space. remember also that these areas run into each other without borders, so you can be in any one of the other cities within a 5-10 min drive. for what you're looking for, i would def try raleigh. if i decide to stay in nc, i'll prob move to raleigh. right now im approximately 30 mins south, and attend school in durham everyday. if you have any questions feel free to ask.

doodlemom · May 25, 2005

I just moved from Durham after having lived there for nearly 20 years and I miss it. Don't let people scare you with the crime thing. I lived in North Durham for years and yes, I slept with the windows open all of the time. I've never lived in an apartment, though - always either rented a house or duplex. One good place to look for a rental is the duke student off campus housing website. I don't have the address, but I'm sure if you google it you can find it easily. I liked N. Durham the best because it was a quick exit from the "city" and the housing is reasonable. Chapel Hill and Raleigh are more expensive places to live. Good luck

rach_nc_03 · May 25, 2005

heh- we're mostly new grads who'll be working at duke! I worked for the last year on 4200 neuro icu, and i'll be starting in the PICU in June.

I've lived in this area for 15 years, in chapel hill, durham and raleigh. I just got divorced and moved from my safe suburban house in southeast durham (right on the wake county line, in fact- it's just north of the brier creek area, which is super nice and REALLY pricey) to an apartment in what I *thought* was a similar area of the city- I now live in parkside at woodlake, which is about a mile from the Streets at Southpoint mall. The good thing about this complex is that Duke is considered a preferred employer, so if you work there, they'll back-load your rent. My montly rate for a 2 br 2 bath, 1100 sf is 625; however, they let me do 480 for four months, then 720 for the remainder of the year. that helps a LOT when you're starting out in an area, and going through a divorce while finishing nursing school, that was a tremendous benefit.

This neighborhood is pretty okay- lots of families, but also lots of young singles and couples (plenty of duke nurses live here, actually). On the weekends, I see people in the parking lot that I know don't live here- and I have a feeling one of my upstairs neighbors is involved in something criminal (he has people coming and going alot, and keeps pit bulls on his deck 24/7)...except for that, I feel pretty safe here as a woman living alone. I would *not*, however, walk around ANYWHERE in durham alone at night. actually, I wouldn't walk around anywhere in the whole triangle alone at night- i didn't even do it in my old neighborhood, where i owned a house. There are some clubs and interesting night spots in downtown durham, but raleigh certainly has more. I'm not interested in those things much anymore, but if you are, there are some great places in raleigh that are pretty hip and within walking distance- try the Five Points area of Raleigh, for instance. Buildings built in the 1940's and 50's with huge trees, cute (small) apartments, and coffee shops and restaurants. Really, you need to check out the area before you decide.

I heard on tv recently about a place called Durham Residence Hall that's fully furnished for $100 a week- it's female-only. That might be an option if you don't know where you want to live when you move here. i haven't seen the place, but it might be a good place to crash for a week or two while you look for apartments.

Personally, I've lived both very far and very near my place of employment in this area, and my advice is to avoid anything more than a 1/2 hour commute. our traffic sucks, big time. and you really have to get on one of the interstates to go from one city to another, so be forwarned. also, the secondary roads are rarely plowed after ice or snowstorms, so take that into consideration if you don't have all-wheel drive. it doesn't happen a lot, but usually at least twice a winter, sometimes a lot more frequently.

All that being said, it's not a bad place to live. If you're into night life, go for downtown raleigh and commute to duke. I wouldn't do chapel hill, mostly because of expense, and the UNC students (I was one at one time, but I don't want to hear them outside at 4 am!). Wouldn't live in cary because it's pricey, generic, and traffic to and fro is a b**ch. Durham- especially, as one poster said, far northern durham- is quite pretty, and parts of it are nice to live in. If you choose durham, I'd advise a trip to visit before you settle on a place. It's *very* possible to find a really cute apartment and discover there's horrid crime there. (I'm paranoid about crime, but I'm a cop's kid, so hey!)

Actually, the durham police website has a crime mapper that's really helpful. just put in the address of the place you're considering, and you can see stats on arrests by criminal activity (burglary, rape, auto theft, etc.) within a certain radius. The website is http://www.durhampolice.com/.

Hope that wasn't too wordy....if anyone wants to pm me with specific questions about places, please do. and if you come here to apartment-hunt, let me know and we'll have lunch. :)

lady_jezebel · May 25, 2005

I've lived in Durham & Raleigh, and went to school in Chapel Hill. Personally, I would look for housing in Chapel Hill or on the Chapel Hill/Durham border. There IS a lot of crime in Durham. I witnessed a potential murder (shooting in a parking lot, in a nice shopping center), and the Duke ER has a gunshot wound almost every night! Chapel Hill is only a few miles away, and the commute is easy if you take the back roads. Raleigh is a little too far, and the commute is a nightmare.

J Lau · Jun 7, 2005

Hello everyone,
I will be moving to Durham from Atlanta after my graduation in June to begin work at Duke. I keep hearing that Durham is a terrible place to live (per crime). I was wondering if some areas are better than others...anyone recommend a particular apartment community? Oh and I wouldn't mind a roomate either! :) Thanks in advance for your help.....
A.E

One of my friends is a new grad, and moving to NC to work at Duke! The nurse recruiter told her to see if Duke is a preferred employer at the apartment you are looking at, and if they are, you probably are in a safe area. Duke may be able to tell you which apartments they recommend. I know they helped my friend a lot. (She is moving from 1100 miles away)