Durham - where to live?

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It seems as I may be relocating to work at Duke (yay!). I have some friends in Chapel Hill, but am not too familiar with the area.

I am going down soon to scope out areas to live and would love some advice. I want to be close to the hospital (I want a short commute), but want to live somewhere safe. I am looking to rent a house (have pets), but am not sure of what areas to look in.

Any points in the right direction are appreciated! :confused:

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Specializes in NICU.

Hi VegRN2Be! I have lived in both Durham and Raleigh and even worked at Duke for a while! When I first got out of nursing school, I lived off the freeway near North Carolina Central University. I lived in a fairly safe area (Courtney Creek Apartments) but had to travel through a rough area of town to get to the freeway. In hindsight, it probably wasn't safe at all! :) Most of my friends lived off 15-501 and it was a 15 minute or less commute to Duke for them. I can't remember the name of the apartment complexes, but I know my friends really liked them. Anything in or near RTP will be nice, but pricey. Briar Creek is really nice with lots of shopping conveniences, and they have both apartments and townhouses there. It is less than 20 minutes, and that's with traffic. There is tons of real estate, but if you will be living on your own, it may again, be too costly. Anything down from Duke's campus will also be nice, but again, pricey. And the closer you live to the hospital/campus, the more college students you will be near. Hope this helps! What area will you be working in? Duke is an awesome hospital. I really miss working there!

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Thanks for your thoughts. I am pretty excited. We are going down this weekend to look for places. I will be at the Heart Center.

I am glad to hear you say you liked it so much! : )

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VegRN2B-

I too work at Duke and moved here just a few months ago. I love it and hope you will too. :-) As for places to live, There are tons of apartments but I bought so I don't know too much about them. If you are thinking of buying, Beazer homes has a brand new townhome community maybe 7-10 mins from Duke and they range from $120,000 to $150,000. A lot of grad students/young professionals are buying in there. The Southpoint area, Swann's Mill, Grove Park, Brier Creek, and Ravenstone are quite nice and affordable. Hope this helps.

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Thanks for your comments. We went down this weekend and looked at house rentals ALL over. We ended up finding a perfect place just in Chapel Hill. Should be about a 20 minute commute even in iffy traffic (if Sat's stop and start was an indicator). But hey - there isn't too much traffic during most nursing start times!

I hope you are enjoying Duke. I am looking forward to the challenge!

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