Seeking moving advice: Triangle Area, NC.

Ahem... Research Triangle Park...

Not that I have ever lived in RTP, but what specifically is wrong with Apex?

I just did a google search, and it seems like a nice community with schools that perform really well. Being bused is far less of an issue than how good the schools are -- i was bused for an hour to and from magnet schools, and it really made no difference to me especially in light of the quality of education I recieved...

Well there is nothing wrong with attempting to equalize demographics (because it actually does work to everyone's benefit) if you do it well (that is consistency and reasonably short bus routes).

I wouldn't trust personal narratives to get a sense of what a school district's policies are... You should probably directly ask the school district what the busing times are and frequency of school changes.

I have never understood the growing anti-busing tendencies of parents.

Well, I have two more years to go before I retire from the Navy. I'm on limdu right now.

I'd move to Chapel Hill in a heartbeat. Awesome town and it's also home to the Heels, baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay away from Durham. It's a dirty old town, and it's also home to the Puke Blew Devils!!!!!!!!!!! Boo hiiiisssss!!!!!!

But Chapel Hill is nice, Raleigh is nice. But I'd rather live in the outskirts of Charlotte myself. My dad lived in Mathews for a few years and it's a nice town.

Stay away from Wake county - the cross town bussing of students is a nightmare (I know families with multiple kids going to multiple schools, one across town, and they change your school on you sometimes). The problems with Wake county bussing are constantly in the local news, and the population has grown much faster than they have been able to build schools, so there are tons of portible buildings and such.

Durham is actually getting pretty nice - they are rennovating all the brick tobacco buildings into high end condos, forcing the poor people out. But Durham is a place for young, single, hipsters - I live in Durham county, but out of town.

Apex is a soulless wasteland. Houses all look the same, and there are tons of strip malls with places like "Panera Bread" that sell good looking/lousy tasting food.

Pittsboro is wonderful and cheap, but has lousy tasting water. Bynum is also good, also with lousy water quality. I would live in Chatham county if I were in your shoes (but I am not sure how good/bad the schools are).

My local high school (Jordan high - durham county) is supposed to be as good as the Chapel Hill schools, and houses in Durham county are a lot less expensive than Chapel Hill. The Orange county schools outside of Chapel Hill are supposed to be quite bad - there is a big uprising whenever they talk about merging the two school districts.

But the best option is get cheap land as close as possible to the Waldorf school, and send your kids there. Eventually developers will overrun you and buy you out for a boatload of cash - as we are supposed to have high population growth over the next 20 years or so.

I'm out of city limits of Durham, and like it enough coming from up north. Mass transit is a joke and my daughter is not young enough to be going to school yet but if you are far enough away from the dense urban areas of Durham, it's pretty nice.