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Hello! We are likely relocating to Charlotte in August from an amazing neighborhood in DC. We are walkable to restaurants, 3 playgrounds, and have 8 families with children under 6 on our block alone. Our son is in an amazing school, we are close with our neighbors and regularly have impromptu cookouts and dinners together. We love it here and are pretty sad to leave, but are looking forward to building a new community in Charlotte.
My husband will be working in the University area and I'll be working at home. We have a budget of around $300-350K for a house, but we will probably rent for 6 months-1 year while we get to know the area before we actually purchase. We really want a neighborhood where people hang out, and their kids play together. Ideally, we'd like a pool and a playground/park in the neighborhood and some restaurants close by that are kid-friendly. Great schools are certainly preferred, but we would consider private if needed, and lots and lots of young kids!
I'm looking for recommendations of neighborhoods, but also realtors, and any suggestions on hiring a nanny as well. Thank you so much for any recommendations!
Thanks for the response! I heard from his work that the area is not always the safest for young children so we had kind of ruled it out, but perhaps we should not have?
I'd look in South Charlotte...Blakeney or Ballanytyne areas. Excellent schools, tons of families, great shopping/restaurants. It is about 30 minutes from University area, but it is opposite the traffic.
Thanks for the response! I heard from his work that the area is not always the safest for young children so we had kind of ruled it out, but perhaps we should not have?
Jeez, this must be the 5th post this month where someone said "I'm going to be working in the University area but I was probably planning on ruling out living there because people have said it's unsafe." Not your fault obviously, but there must be a lot of uninformed people out there.
The "University Area" is a pretty broad term and I'm not sure if there are even specific boundaries. Overall I would say the University Area is safe, a main reason people avoid it is because the public schools in that area of Charlotte are not rated very highly. If you want to be extra careful about safety, a general rule that some say is to stay north of WT Harris. And if you want to avoid the students, you might want to stay west of I-85. I'm not familiar with these complexes specifically but I think Colonial Grand seems to be a pretty reputable management company and they have two complexes right near David Taylor Dr. WT Harris is also littered with what look like nice apartment complexes.
Many people would probably even consider Highland Creek part of the "University Area," and that is one of the most popular family neighborhoods in the area.
If you're looking for lots and lots of young kids, I'd probably start with Highland Creek. The rental market is pretty tough right now but it's a big neighborhood so I'm sure there are rentals available. It's actually in two different counties and for that area the ones in Cabarrus County are generally considered better than the ones in Mecklenburg, but if you are considering private that gives you a lot more options.
Not sure how the previous poster thinks Ballantyne is opposite traffic to University though. To go somewhat opposite traffic you'd have to go all the way around 485, but you'd still have to go with the traffic down 85, 29 or 49 to get to wherever you're going in University. I'd guess it'd take around 40 minutes, although that may still be within your husband's desired commute range.
Thank you again for the responses. Obviously I know nothing of Charlotte. Can someone explain to me the difference between north and south Charlotte a little more? Or if this has been beaten to death, I will troll the archives (but I definitely did that for moving and didn't find anything that was as specific as I wanted).
I looked at Highland Creek and we're definitely interested, particularly as it seems like an easy place to meet people if you're new, but it would be a huge difference from the in town environment we live in now! I was looking into Dilworth and I loved the areas around the arboretum but the commute seems too far for my husband. The houses just seemed really nice and interesting.
There are plenty of threads for you to troll, but to be honest I think Ballantyne, while perfect for what you're looking for is a longer commute than you'd want. Perhaps, Cabarrus County would be better. I can't speak on the schools though but there's plenty of resources for that.
It was not obvious from your first post that you preferred in town to suburb. Yes Dilworth is wonderful but your budget is a bit low for the real estate there. You could check out Plaza Midwood - convenient to the university and a very walkable neighborhood. Again,, the prices have really skyrocketed here. Also - you would have to go magnet schools or private there. Elizabeth is also nice - but again - expensive. The issue in Charlotte - there are so few walkable urban neighborhoods (because Charlotte was so small until recently), that they command a premium.
The Arboretum area is nothing that special that doesn't exist all over Charlotte. Perhaps Matthews is worth checking out - it has a small town center which reminds one of yesteryear.
That said, having a short commute is really worthwhile - The University area has some nice suburban neighborhoods - just stay north of Harris Blvd to avoid student riff raff. It would be a big change from DC that's true (I love DC so I sympathize)
It was not obvious from your first post that you preferred in town to suburb. Yes Dilworth is wonderful but your budget is a bit low for the real estate there.
Agree, OP said they loved their DC neighborhood but at first it still sounded more like they were looking for a suburb this time around.
Marpepp, do you mean just the arboretum area was too far of a commute or Dilworth too? Dilworth shouldn't be that bad...as ex-burgher said it's a great in-town neighborhood which is probably kinda similar to some DC neighborhoods but without the rowhouses. The houses are a little pricey for their size though, although you may be used to that and you'll probably be amazed how far your housing budget will go in the Charlotte area in general compared to DC.
There was actually a recent thread trying to determine the boundaries of "South Charlotte" too, but in general, the Southern portion of the Charlotte City limits (to be very broad, much of what's south of 277 and in between 77 and 74) are generally considered the more desirable areas of Charlotte proper. This is also where you'll find some of the best public schools in Mecklenburg County - I think Providence and Ardrey Kell HS are generally considered the two best, but those may be a bit of a far commute. Myers Park is also well known for its IB program (I think Dilworth attends MP).
There's not a whole lot to North Charlotte IMO, but there are some not so great areas there. Further up 77 the towns of Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson are popular suburbs for families, but Huntersville is the only one I'd consider commuting to the University area from. It's actually zoned to several different high schools, with Hough generally considered to be the best. Other towns still in Mecklenburg County such as Mint Hill and Matthews are also nice family-friendly towns with above average schools for the most part.
As Jake Ryan suggested, Cabarrus County (Concord and Harrisburg specifically usually) is a popular choice for people working in the University area, but they are doing construction on 85 right now which can be a pain. Supposed to be done soon though...
I have read on here Concord is nice too but don't know the commute as I hadn't been there. I was going to suggest Hunterville too. My cousins live there and they love it. I agree with others, Ballantyne/Arboretum is far and not against traffic at all.
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