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Chapel Hill is pretty upscale and expensive. If I'm looking at real estate strictly as an investment, I don't see a lot of bargains. I think you could make a better profit by buying in a depressed Durham neighborhood that gets cleaned up and renovated.
Besides, not everyone is putting CH and Durham into a head-to-head challenge, KWIM? When we moved here, it was for jobs at Duke, and we never even considered living anywhere other than Durham. The value for the money is better, and we'll be leaving before our children are school age, so schools don't matter one bit. Not everyone chooses their home based on the school district, you know? Value for the money and a short commute are very compelling reasons for plenty of people to look in Durham in general, and the Southpoint area in particular.
I've heard differently, but it's only second-hand information so I'll wait for someone else to either concur or refute
I grew up in Chapel Hill, and there are definitely a few bad parts, just a few though. In regards to them being as bad as the parts of Durham, I would say they may be more scary, but only b/c you really don't know what to expect.
As far as appreciation goes, you may actually see more appreciation in homes in Durham, since the values are currently lower than Chapel Hill. There are more bargains to be gotten giving you the room for more appreciation. I'm not sure if new neighborhoods in SW Durham is where you will see that though.
It's difficult, isn't it? It would be easy if we could paint things with a broad brush, but a lot of things can vary even within one town, so it's best to do your homework & just do whatever makes you comfortable. There are some parts of Durham and Chapel Hill that are not as safe as the rest of the town. Luckily, those areas are pretty easily avoided.
Many months ago a ran across a comparison of some schools in Durham compared to Chapel Hill & was surprised to see that, when the test scores are broken down, it appears that a student in a Durham schoool will probably test just as well as they would in a school in Chapel Hill or Wake or any other school district. It appears that economic status & cultural/racial background have a lot more to do with individual performance than many realize. That's part of what makes the school topic so controversial because, unfortunately, black students are performing so much worse than white students. This is true in every school district in the Triangle. There is a larger black population in Durham than in any of the surrounding towns, so the average score at a Durham school is usually lower than the average score at a school in, say, Chapel Hill.
Last year when I was househunting, I wasn't as concerned about schools, but I did a little bit of studying on the subject since I know it affects home values. We bought a house in southern Durham that is assigned to Southwest Elementary. One day I decided to compare its scores to Estes Hill Elementary in Chapel Hill because we have an old family friend who lives in that area. Well, I must say, I was surprised to see how similar the scores turned out to be. For example, here's a comparison of test scores for Southwest Elementary in Durham to Estes Hill Elementary in Chapel Hill from the 2006-07 school year.
Percentage of students who passed the annual reading and math test
Southwest (white students): 88%
Estes Hill (white students): 89.9%
Southwest (black students): 43.2%
Estes Hill (black students): 37.2%
Southwest (economically disadvantaged): 34.7%
Estes Hill (economically disagvantaged): 40.3%
Understand that Estes Hill is not the top performing elementary school in Chapel Hill, but neither is Southwest in Durham. Nevertheless, these scores are quite similar. So what's the big difference? Well, Estes Hill has a smaller percentage of black and ED students, so their overall score is higher (79.4% of all of their students passed the tests, while 54.3% of kids at Southwest passed).
From what I've read and what I've seen, it appears that the kids who historically perform well will still perform well - even in Durham schools. Sadly, the students who are most likely to perform poorly will still perform poorly, no matter which district they're in. Economic and racial issues trickle down to our children, whether we like it or not.
However, most people don't feel comfortable with breaking down the scores like this. They prefer to look at the overall scores only (and since this can get so complicated, I don't blame them much for that). Plus, there's a lot more to a school than just scores. But because of these overall test results, many people assume that Chapel Hill schools are always far superior. That's just one of the reasons why homes cost more there.
So what's a person to do? That depends on the individual. You need to decide which environment is best for you and your family. Nowadays, a lot of people are saying that they want to live in a "more diverse" area, but they get scared off by the schools. Sometimes their concerns are legitimate, but often the reality is more complicated than it appears at first glance. Look closely at what's available and follow your gut.
It's difficult, isn't it? It would be easy if we could paint things with a broad brush, but a lot of things can vary even within one town, so it's best to do your homework & just do whatever makes you comfortable. There are some parts of Durham and Chapel Hill that are not as safe as the rest of the town. Luckily, those areas are pretty easily avoided.
Many months ago a ran across a comparison of some schools in Durham compared to Chapel Hill & was surprised to see that, when the test scores are broken down, it appears that a student in a Durham schoool will probably test just as well as they would in a school in Chapel Hill or Wake or any other school district. It appears that economic status & cultural/racial background have a lot more to do with individual performance than many realize. That's part of what makes the school topic so controversial because, unfortunately, black students are performing so much worse than white students. This is true in every school district in the Triangle. There is a larger black population in Durham than in any of the surrounding towns, so the average score at a Durham school is usually lower than the average score at a school in, say, Chapel Hill.
Last year when I was househunting, I wasn't as concerned about schools, but I did a little bit of studying on the subject since I know it affects home values. We bought a house in southern Durham that is assigned to Southwest Elementary. One day I decided to compare its scores to Estes Hill Elementary in Chapel Hill because we have an old family friend who lives in that area. Well, I must say, I was surprised to see how similar the scores turned out to be. For example, here's a comparison of test scores for Southwest Elementary in Durham to Estes Hill Elementary in Chapel Hill from the 2006-07 school year.
Percentage of students who passed the annual reading and math test
Southwest (white students): 88%
Estes Hill (white students): 89.9%
Southwest (black students): 43.2%
Estes Hill (black students): 37.2%
Southwest (economically disadvantaged): 34.7%
Estes Hill (economically disagvantaged): 40.3%
Understand that Estes Hill is not the top performing elementary school in Chapel Hill, but neither is Southwest in Durham. Nevertheless, these scores are quite similar. So what's the big difference? Well, Estes Hill has a smaller percentage of black and ED students, so their overall score is higher (79.4% of all of their students passed the tests, while 54.3% of kids at Southwest passed).
From what I've read and what I've seen, it appears that the kids who historically perform well will still perform well - even in Durham schools. Sadly, the students who are most likely to perform poorly will still perform poorly, no matter which district they're in. Economics and racial issues trickle down to our children, whether we like it or not.
However, most people don't feel comfortable with breaking down the scores like this. They prefer to look at the overall scores only (and since this can get so complicated, I don't blame them much for that). Plus, there's a lot more to a school than just scores. But because of these overall test results, many people assume that Chapel Hill schools are always far superior. That's just one of the reasons why homes cost more there.
So what's a person to do? That depends on the individual. You need to decide which environment is best for you and your family. Nowadays, a lot of people are saying that they want to live in a "more diverse" area, but they get scared off by the schools. Sometimes their concerns are legitimate, but often the reality is more complicated than it appears at first glance. Look closely at what's available and follow your gut.
Very well said, I'd pass some more rep, but it won't let me
There are some parts of Durham and Chapel Hill that are not as safe as the rest of the town. Luckily, those areas are pretty easily avoided.
I've never accidentally stumbled into a bad section of CH, but I've often done this in Durham. Wherever these bad sections are, they must be hard to find. Not so in the heart of Durham.
I've never accidentally stumbled into a bad section of CH, but I've often done this in Durham. Wherever these bad sections are, they must be hard to find. Not so in the heart of Durham.
Well, I stumbled upon a questionable neighborhood in Chapel Hill the very first week of living in the Triangle, but it was months before I found a questionable neighborhood in Durham (and I spent a lot of time in Durham during those months). Just goes to show that different people have different experiences.
I have heard that Northside is the bad part of Chapel Hill - based on crime stats in the various areas.
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