"Any Town", USA
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4/28/2006
My family and I moved from New England to Cary a couple of years ago. We were drawn by its favorable rankings in the press, and to escape the long Northern winters.
The town is pleasant, with friendly neighbors, decent schools (for the South) and nice weather. Like most places, Cary has some issues to consider prior to packing up the U-Haul.
1) Lack of defined character. If you remember the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons with the characters running past a repeating backdrop, you've seen Cary. Eckerds, Walgreens, major chain restaurants and supermarkets all repeat in a smorgasborg of franchising frenzy. Adding to the mix, building codes require homogeneous facades and landscaping so you'll regularly find yourself lost for the first few months. If you're looking for some Southern charm, there is the "Old Cary" area, comprised of several square blocks of the oldest homes (mostly tiny brick ranches and 60's split levels), which cluster around a quaint downtown district (gas station, bakery, library, etc).
Unfortunately, they are also within whistling distance of the railroad, which rumbles through at all hours, and takes special delight in repeatedly blowing the loudest air horn I have ever heard. We are over a mile away and it awakens us on a regular basis.
Another adjustment (if you're not from the South) will be the large number of single-story strip malls which snake along the major roads. Although this peculiar 70's throwback has been dead for decades elsewhere, it lives on here with a vengeance.
2) Unchecked growth. There are few if any controls on commercial or residential development. Housing developments, strip malls and pharmacies sprout up daily. A town planner once told me he could not recall a single time they had refused a zoning change request from a developer! As development speeds along, Cary absorbs land from the surrounding unincorporated areas in a shotgun approach. Therefore, as the population grows, so does the land area of the town. There are grassroots efforts by those living in the outlying areas to avoid absorption (coupled with 80% tax increase), but to little effect.
An unfortunate offshoot of all this expansion is the need to widen many of the formerly sleepy country lanes, resulting in folks losing a sizable chunk of their front yards while simultaneously seeing their home value drop by as much as one-third.
3) Minimal real estate appreciation. Agents will disagree, but we have witnessed little in t
mark | Cary, NC