One of the most popular areas of Raleigh that people are moving to
is downtown Raleigh, but is it a good place for you to move to?
On today's video we're gonna give you the pros and cons, so you can make a decision for yourself.
Hello everyone. This is Chris Morton real estate broker with EXP Realty in Raleigh, North Carolina.
And the number one con against moving to downtown Raleigh is the super confusing roads. So
the core of downtown Raleigh is on a grid pattern so it makes it a little bit easier to understand,
but as downtown Raleigh grew and grew and grew, roads got to be a bit of a mishmash going in
all different directions. There's lots of weird intersections and roundabouts and all kinds of
roads, that change name. And in general, it gets really, really confusing. So basically it's a big,
giant hassle, especially if you're new to the area or you've never been to downtown Raleigh.
We definitely recommend a navigation system to get you around it, at least initially,
or if you're directionally challenged like me,
we definitely recommend you use it all the time. I even have trouble finding street to street when
I'm walking around trying to find a shop or a restaurant or wine or something like that. So you
may want to consider using a navigation system, either temporarily or permanently, like me.
The number two con against moving to downtown Raleigh is it’s only a medium size downtown city.
So if you're from New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, any of the big cities,
downtown Raleigh may not be the place for you. Downtown Raleigh does have a lot going on,
but it is not anything like the big cities I mentioned just a second ago. There's just not
the 24 hour lifestyle that you can expect in say New York City, where
if you're craving a bagel at three AM, you can just walk down the street,
half a block. It's not like that. Pretty much downtown Raleigh, they roll the streets up around
ten or eleven or two o’clock on weekends for the bars. But generally restaurant wise, you're
talking ten, eleven o’clock at night at the best. So this con is only a negative if you are from
a big city and you want that big city go, go, go lifestyle. If you're a homebody or you like to be
home by nine-thirty, ten o'clock at night, Raleigh downtown might be a place for you to consider.
The number three con about living in downtown Raleigh, its really expensive to live there.
So there's a lot of demand to live in downtown Raleigh. It has a really good location. And so
with that demand, it means prices are going up and up and up. Currently, as we're filming this,
the median price for a single family detached home in downtown Raleigh has hit $685,000.
The medium price for a town home in downtown Raleigh is currently sitting at
$476,000. And if you're considering renting an apartment in downtown Raleigh,
you're looking at anywhere from $1,400 for a small little one bedroom studio kind of thing,
all the way up to $6,500 for a luxury penthouse apartment overlooking with a great view.
Bottom line, it's fairly expensive to live in downtown Raleigh.
Con number four and another reason you may not want to move to downtown Raleigh is
you're still going to need a car to get around to pretty much anywhere. So yes,
you could survive in downtown Raleigh without a car. It is possible. You're going
to have to be creative about it and there's specific areas you're gonna want to live in
to make that happen. But by and large, when people are coming to the area and inquiring about living
in downtown Raleigh, asking us to help them buy a house, the question invariably comes up,
do they need a car? And yes, we strongly recommend having a car, getting to a grocery store,
getting to a restaurant, getting to medical. It's pretty much a necessity.
Con number five, that's kind of anti-downtown Raleigh, it could potentially be a little
boring and repetitive. So what we mean by this is, again, those people that are from New York City,
San Francisco, Los Angeles. Big cities with a go, go, go dynamic lifestyle, unfortunately,
downtown Raleigh is not as big as that. And so therefore we don't have a million restaurants to
go try where you can eat at a different restaurant every night. Basically you're going to find
some really great stuff that you're going to love it. There is some really great restaurants and
things to do in downtown Raleigh, more on that in a minute, but you're going to find
some things you're gonna latch onto them and Tuesday night's gonna be Brewery Bhavna night,
Wednesday nights, Cafe Luna night, and yada yada, yada, on and on and on. And every single Tuesday
night, you end up in Brewery Bhavana. So that could very well happen to you. It could get a
little bit repetitive. So be warned that you don't have a whole lot of diversity as far as things to
do. There's some great things to do, but not a ton of great things to do in downtown Raleigh.
So let's move on to the reasons you may want to move to downtown Raleigh. Pro number one,
downtown Raleigh is great for foodies. Downtown Raleigh is full of amazing restaurants and there's
some really, really great chefs that make their home in downtown Raleigh. Some of our favorite
restaurants are Second Empire, amazing restaurant, really, really great place for a special occasion.
Highly recommended. Crawford and son and Jolie. There are two restaurants that sit side by side
in downtown Raleigh. They're both owned by Scott Crawford. Really great food, definitely something
we recommend you give a try to. Sam Jones Barbecue is also newly in downtown Raleigh. This is eastern
North Carolina, barbecue at its finest coming from eastern North Carolina. I can vouch. This is
the best stuff. Highly, highly recommended Barcelona Wine Bar is also in downtown Raleigh.
This is a chain. And as you guess, they have wine. They also have tapas -really, really recommended,
and the list goes on and on. There's tons of really good restaurants in downtown Raleigh.
If you have had an exceptional meal and you wanna share with the folks that are also viewing this
video, please share it in the comments below. We'd love to see what your thoughts are. We like
going out and trying new things. And we would love your feedback as places to go and beyond the great
restaurants we just mentioned. There's a couple of amazing, amazing food halls in downtown Raleigh.
First up, we have Transfer Food Hall where some of the vendors in the food hall are Bench Warmer
Bagels, Captain Cookie and the Milkman, Locals Oyster Bar, Mama Crows Burgers and Dank Burrito
among many, many others. The other food hall in downtown Raleigh is Morgan Street Food Hall.
There you're going to find such options as Primal Cuts, Curry in a Hurry. Love that name. Yoho:
Hibachi & Sushi Burrito, Cousins Maine Lobster, Bella's Wood Fired Pizza, Oak City Fish and Chips,
Wicked Taco and Cow Bar Burgers and Fries among many, many others. So as you can see,
there's lots of options in downtown Raleigh if your stomach is empty and you're hungry.
Next pro about living in downtown Raleigh is location, location, location. So we mentioned
a little bit ago that cost of living in downtown Raleigh is going up and up and up, reason why it's
really in the center of everything. You can be pretty much anywhere as long as you have a car,
or if you live in the right place in downtown Raleigh, you can be pretty much anywhere in
downtown Raleigh in about five or ten minutes. You can be to the airport in about twenty minutes
and you can be at Research Triangle Park in about twenty-five minutes. So as you can see, this is a
really, really good part of the triangle to live in and jump off to other parts of the triangle.
Next pro about living in downtown Raleigh, lots of really cool bars and breweries.
Downtown Raleigh has some really, really amazing rooftop bars and we've done a video on them. We
definitely recommend you check them out. They're really amazing because they're up high. You can
get a good view of the entire Raleigh area and definitely the downtown Raleigh area, -very chill,
relaxed atmosphere for most of them, definitely what we would recommend. Definitely a good date
night opportunity. There's also a few speakeasy bars in downtown Raleigh that we love and want to
share with you. Our favorite is probably Watts & Ward. It's down on the corner of Hargett Street.
Really, really cool, kind of speakeasy 1920s vibe to it, definitely somewhere we recommend
you check out. It’s down in the basement. Amazing, amazing decor, definitely somewhere for you to go.
There's also a number of really good breweries in downtown Raleigh. We've already talked
about Brewery Bhavana, definitely somewhere we recommend you check out. Also Raleigh Beer Garden
is on Glenwood South on Glenwood Avenue. It is one of the largest selections of beer in the world. So
if you're into beer, that's definitely somewhere you'd want to go see.
Number four, you may want to move to downtown Raleigh, the historic charm. Raleigh has some
really amazing downtown neighborhoods, historic Oakwood, Mordecai, Glenwood, south, some really,
really great places to go visit and live, but unfortunately be warned they tend to go
on the more expensive side. Even more expensive than other parts of downtown Raleigh. Beyond these
neighborhoods, Raleigh has a ton of history, old homes, buildings, mature trees, and things
are really, really nice to look at and give the downtown a really cool charm and historic charm.
Pro number five, why downtown Raleigh might be the place for you to move to, there is plenty of
things to do. And yes, I remember I just said, if you're from New York City, San Francisco,
Los Angeles on and on and on, there may not be a ton of stuff to do, but for the rest of us and
yeah, you cool kids from New York City, there's really some good stuff and plenty of things to
do in downtown Raleigh. You may just have to uncover them. As we mentioned above, there's
plenty of restaurants and shops, coffee bars, breweries, stores, and et cetera, et cetera to do
in downtown Raleigh. Beyond that, there's the Red Hat Amphitheater. It's an outdoor concert venue
right in the heart of downtown Raleigh. It's open from April to October. You can see some really,
really great groups come. Definitely a place to go and see and have a really good afternoon or
evening highly recommended. Beyond that, we have the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts
also in downtown Raleigh. Great location. Great place to go see a Broadway show.
Highly recommended. Also there's the Mordecai House. It's the oldest home in downtown Raleigh
on its original foundation. It's currently a museum, definitely somewhere you want to
check out. And of course, because Raleigh is the state capital there is a lot of the
state museums there. Such as the North Carolina Museum of Natural History, the CAM Raleigh museum,
Marbles Kids Museum, and the Museum of Natural Sciences among many others. Downtown Raleigh
also has lots of green space and parks such as Moore Square, Fletcher Park, Dorthea Dix Park
and many, many others. So if you're planning a move either into or out of downtown Raleigh or
really anywhere in the triangle, my team, and I would love to be your agents of choice.
Please give us a shout. We're happy to help. You can email us at hello@mortonbradbury.com
or click on the link in the description below, like, and subscribe to this video if you haven't
already done. So, and with that, we'll see you on the next one. Take care. Bye-bye.