Just accepted a job that will have me working in Graham (Burlington). Ideally i'd live somewhere in like Hillsborough so I'd be about 15-20 min from my job, but still close to Raleigh (30min).

Anyone have any suggestions in this area? Ideally i'd like to stay under 700/month, of course the cheaper the better without going ghetto.

7/27/2011 1:19:40 AM

Dude, look at Mebane. Just down the road from Graham and some decent shit there. We really liked Spring Forest at Deerfield, but its just a little bit over 700/month. You would be right by 40 though, so your commute would be nothing.

7/27/2011 7:36:38 AM

Thought I would add that I was not impressed by the apartment quality in Hillsborough itself. The only ones that really caught my eye were Patriots Pointe, Heritage, and Ashford Lakes. The biggest problems were location, really. Patriots Pointe was in a nice area, but right in front of the complex was a ghetto ass project. The kids from those apartments regularly crashed the pool at Patriots Pointe and they have issues with cars being broken into, again likely from the neighbors out front. Ashford Lakes was not too bad, but it was right next to a trashy looking trailer park. Other reviews said as much and warned that they could be a problem and also had issues with vandalism of vehicles. Heritage was the only one that did not have these issues, but it was also the most expensive and that put it out of our price range.

As for the rundown of the Mebane apartments, here are the ones we checked out. Our main thing was we were looking for 2 and 3BR apartments as we have 2 kids, so we probably had some different requirements than you. But this is what we thought of the places:

Spring Forest at Deerfield: Really liked it. Nice place, nice pool, nice enough work out area. Great location.

Stoneybrook: Had a nice 3BR townhome, but the complex was kinda sketchy. The complex had a terrible issue with parking and the whole damn place was full on a Saturday morning when we went over there. The rooms weren't the greatest, but were not the worst either. Location was pretty good.

Ashbury Square: We really liked this place. The apartments weren't as big, and they did not have a 3BR option. Unfortunately it was across the Orange County line, so the kids would have gone to Efland-Cheeks, which we were not interested in. However the apartments were nice, the gym was nice, they had a great pool, and a really cool cabana/cookout area next to it. It also was part of a whole Ashbury development, so we really liked that. Just hate that it was in Orange County schools.

Carden Place: The fanciest and newest. They are directly across from Tanger Outlet malls. These units were really awesome, but not going to find anything under 700 I don't think.

Deerfield Crossing: Seemed a little more ghetto. Prices were better though, and it was not THAT ghetto, just wasn't as nice as Spring Forest at Deerfield, which it is just down from. Did not tour.

Fieldstone: This place was kinda pricey, but I don't know why. It was not that new and not that impressive for the cost. We hated some of their kitchen layouts. The pool was the biggest and they liked to brag about that. Supposedly they went to salt this year. Location was good and the school is the better one. But still not one of our favorites.

One last thing. I contacted the Mebane PD and asked if they had any info on issues with complexes getting a lot of calls or not many, and whether they could let us know about that. He said none of them were really outstandingly bad or good, but that Deerfield Crossing and Fieldstone had the most, Stoneybrook was in the middle, and Spring Forest and Ashbury Square had the least. That was pretty much all of my info on the different complexes in Mebane.

7/27/2011 8:39:34 AM

Thanks Nighthawk. Never thought i'd get such a thorough answer so dang quick.

Ideally i'd like to live somewhere closer to Raleigh since i'll be having to come back 2 days a week, but Mebane looks to be a definite possibility. Just after looking at the websites, Ashbury Square apts looks to be my front runner, especially since it has lower prices on 1BR (i'll be living alone).

7/27/2011 10:36:58 AM