Cary Community Information
A Realtor’s Guide to Cary, North Carolina
A Realtor’s Guide to Cary, North Carolina
Do you want to learn all there is to know about the Cary, North Carolina Real Estate market, as well as information about the community itself? I am a North Carolina Real Estate Agent presently working with Better Homes and Gardens Go Realty. If you are thinking of buying or selling a home in Cary, please get in touch, as I would love to share my real estate expertise. With the support of my team, helping buyers and sellers comes easy to me. Now, sit back and enjoy learning about what makes this town so neat, courtesy of yours truly.
City Intro
Cary is the 7th largest municipality in North Carolina consisting mostly of Wake County and some of Chatham County. It is also the third largest municipality in The Triangle, first being Raleigh and Durham. Cary is often considered one of the safest major cities in the United States because of its extremely low crime rate (79% lower than the state of North Carolina)
Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham make up the three main cities of the Research Triangle region even though Cary is the third largest city in the area. The regional nickname of “The Triangle” started after the creation of the Research Triangle Park in 1959, which is mostly located in Durham County, four miles from downtown Durham. Research Triangle Park is surrounded on three sides by the city of Durham and is in the middle of the cities of Raleigh and Chapel Hill and consisting of 3 major research universities of NC State University, Duke University, and UNC Chapel Hill.
In June of 2003 the U.S. Office of Management and Budget split them into two separate metro areas, resulting in Raleigh-Cary, NC Metro Area and the Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Metro Area.
Cary is divided into distinct east and west sections. The east side is older and contains the downtown area and the town’s oldest neighborhoods. Several of the town’s iconic buildings, like the Fidelity Building, Page Walker Hotel and the Ashworth Drug Store are found in this part of town. The western side is much newer and is visibly the center of wealth in Cary. It is almost completely suburbanized, and features growing neighborhoods, parks, lakes, golf courses.
A Little Bit of History
Cary started in 1750 as a settlement called Bradford’s Ordinary. About 100 years later, the North Carolina Railroad between New Bern and Hillsborough went through the town, linking Bradford’s Ordinary to a major transportation route.
Allison Francis Page (known as Frank) is credited with founding the town. He was a farmer and lumberman in Wake County. He and his wife, Catherine, purchased 300 acres surround the railroad junction in 1854 and named it after Samuel Fenton Cary, a former Ohio congressman and prohibitionist that he very much admired. Frank Page became a town developer and a railroad agent. He put down Cary’s first streets and built a general store, a post office (Page also became the towns first Postmaster) and a sawmill. He built a hotel in 1868 to serve the railroad passengers coming through the town. Cary was incorporated on April 6th, 1871 and Page was the towns first mayor. Later, the Raleigh and Augusta Air-Line Railroad (eventually called the Seaboard) arrived in Cary from the Southwest, which created more growth and the Fetner Junction just North of downtown.
Cary then adopted zoning and ordinances on a spur-of-the-moment basis to control grown and give the town structure. In 1971 the town created Planned Unit Development zoning (PUD) to help population growth related to the growing Research Triangle Park close by. A PUD allows a developer to plan an entire community before starting the development. This allows for the future residents to be aware of where schools, churches, and commercial and industrial areas will be located. Kildaire Farms in Cary was NC’s first 967-acre Planned Unit Development.
Cary also has quite a few places listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the most popular being the Page Walker Hotel, Cary Historic District, Nancy Jones House, Carpenter Historic District, Green Level Historic District, and the Ivey-Ellington House.
Geography
Cary rests Northeast of Raleigh. The town is hilly and has dense woods and a variety of undeveloped land. There are lots of creeks and small lakes, the most popular being Lake Crabtree in the north. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total of 55 square miles and 1.4 square miles of water.
How’s the Weather?
Cary is in the Humid Subtropical climate zone and it receives hot summers and mildly cold winters, with several months of nice weather each year. Temperatures range from the negatives to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Hurricanes and tropical storms can sometimes affect Cary, but usually after they have weakened. Snow falls every year, averaging around 6 inches annually. For more weather information Click Here
Demographics and Real Estate
According to the 2010 Census, there were 135, 234 people and 55,303 households in the town. As of 2013, the population has increased to 151, 088. The median household income for Cary as of 2011 was $110,609.
68% of it’s residents are 25 years or older. 60% of adults in Cary possess a bachelor’s degree or higher. The western part of Cary, most notably the community of Preston, is particularly well educated. Also of interest is that Cary has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. The 2000 Census shows 29% of Cary residents are NC natives and 55% were born in other states. 15% of the town’s population was born outside of the U.S. Cary also has a 72% home ownership rate.
While the average home prices in Cary are not what some would consider inexpensive, they do offer a great value for those who desire to live in a small town close to Raleigh or Durham. You can find all types of homes in Cary. The median price right now is about $340,000. Remember that this figure represents the middle price of all homes listed. This means that half of the homes in Cary cost less than this and half of them cost more. This is good news for those who want a value, because it is certainly possible to find it with the right help.
The best way to locate the house you want for the price you can afford is through an experienced Realtor covering Cary real estate. While it is possible to find a home you want on your own, there is a significant amount of work involved. It is not something that you can spend a few hours doing and hope for success. It takes time and networking to discover the best deals as they arrive on the market. An agent experienced in Cary real estate information will know the right channels to explore -areas that the average person typically does not have access to. Your real estate agent will have an established network of data to track down the perfect house for you and your family and will have the necessary expertise to negotiate the best price for your new home.
Transportation
- Public transit within the town is provided by C-Tran, with six fixed-routes. There is also a door-to-door service for the senior citizens (60+) and riders with disabilities. GoTriangle operates fixed-route buses that serve the metropolitan region and connect to the local municipal transit systems in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.
- Amtrak’s Silver Star, Carolinian and Piedmont passenger trains stop at the Cary Amtrak Station. They offer service to Charlotte, New York City, Miami, and intermediate points.
- The League of American Bicyclists has designated Cary one of the fourteen recipients of the first Bicycle-Friendly Community awards for providing safe accommodation and facilities for bicyclists and encouraging residents to bike for transportation and recreation. The Maine-to-Florida U.S. Bicycle Route 1 passes through suburban Cary, as does N.C. Bicycle Route #2, the "Mountains to Sea" route.
Mountain bike trails are available just north of Cary in Lake Crabtree County Park. Information on other trails in the area is available at www.trianglemtb.com.
- Cary Greenways and Trails have a network of sidewalks and paved trails connecting neighborhoods and parks throughout the town. These greenways place strict requirements on environmental conditions to preserve a park-like atmosphere. In addition, standard sidewalks and paths exist throughout the town.
- The Raleigh-Durham International Airport, located north of Cary via Interstate 40 between Cary, Raleigh and Durham, serves Cary and the greater Research Triangle metropolitan region. Raleigh-Durham offers more than 35 destinations, serving approximately 9 million passengers per year.
Education
Based in Cary, the Wake County Public School System is the largest public school system in North Carolina. Check out this easy-to-use list I made with links to each school’s website.
High Schools
Middle Schools
Elementary Schools
Private Schools
Cary Academy (middle and high school)
Resurrection Lutheran School (K-8th)
Landmark Christian Academy (K-10th)
Higher Education
Why Cary?
Because of many things, Cary is a great place for families with children to consider. Many families with children live here, making Cary a place where both parents and their children are more likely to develop a social connection with other families, as well as find family-oriented services in the community. The town’s good public school district and large population of well-educated adults provide an environment of established academic values. With regard to real estate, Cary has one of the highest percentages of owner-occupied single-family homes, which often reflects stability in the local community. Not to mention, Cary’s overall crime rate is lower than average for the country.
If you are in the market to buy, you will find a variety of residential options to choose from to fit your lifestyle and budget needs. I can be your guide to the Real Estate market as an educated buyer’s agent. Lots of real estate agents think marketing is putting a for sale sign in your yard and listing on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This is what post and pray real estate agents do! Put a sign in the yard, put it in MLS and pray. This is NOT what you want! Selling your home is an emotional process and you want someone who respects that and treats the listing with that kind of importance.
When it comes to Real Estate marketing, you will find that I do things that other Realtors do not, including spending time on search engine optimization and social media marketing. Seeing your home featured in Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter, to name a few, are the norm for me, not the exception.
Additional things that help your home stand out include exceptional professional photography, vivid descriptions describing all the best features of your home, along with a video tour that will be found in YouTube, Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, and MLS.
If you are looking for an awesome Cary, NC real estate agent to either buy or sell a home, I would love the opportunity to speak with you and show you what I’m made of. #ConnectWithKennedy
Cheers to You and Yours,
Kimberly R. Kennedy
Better Homes and Gardens | Go Realty
859-598-9657
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