Are you sick of being a city slicker?
Do you long for life in suburban North Carolina? Where you can drive your overly-large vehicle to the store for groceries, and schlep the kids around to practices and appointments without worrying about a parking space?
We do too.
Public transportation is…icky at times. When you have to call an Uber to get to urgent care on a Friday night, that gets old after a while.
So, the question is, if you wanted to move out to the suburbs of Raleigh, where would you go? And how would you decide on the ranking factors to help you pick which North Carolina suburb was best?
No worries. We got it all figured out here.
These are the 10 best suburbs in the Tar Heel State:
- Davidson (Photos)
- Cary (Photos)
- Pinehurst (Photos)
- Apex (Photos)
- Holly Springs (Photos)
- Morrisville (Photos)
- Chapel Hill (Photos)
- Elon (Photos)
- Wake Forest (Photos)
- Stallings
Davidson is the place to be when it comes to being a soccer mom in suburban North Carolina.
So if you’re thinking of packing up your mini van and making a move to a quiet place to live in North Carolina, we’ve got you covered.
Keep on reading for a detailed methodology. Or, check out the best places to live in North Carolina and the best places to raise a family in North Carolina.
How do you determine which suburb is the best in North Carolina anyways?
To give you the best suburbs in North Carolina, we have to look at a handful of metrics. Of course, we want to measure the type of people who live in each city, and make some assumptions about what’s a “best city” and what isn’t.
So we researched the internet for a database that contains all that information.
How we crunched the suburb numbers for the Tar Heel State
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using U.S. Census data produced for the state of North Carolina, we looked at every town between 5,000 and 200,000 residents, and within 30 miles of a city that’s over 200,000 people (In other words, suburbs).
We paid particular attention to:
- Median Home Values
- Median Income
- Population Density (Higher is Better)
- Unemployment Rates
- Commute Time
- Education Levels
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Poverty Rates
We ranked each suburb in North Carolina across a number of criteria from one to 71, with one being the best.
We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the town posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title “Best Suburb To Live In North Carolina”.
The result is some of the safest, quiet, and awesome places to live in North Carolina
Read on to see why Davidson is the ‘burb with the most, while Selma is probably not the best place to live in North Carolina.
1. Davidson
Population: 12,076
Median Income: $109,907
Median Home Price: $393,300
Davidson is located 19 miles north of Charlotte.
2. Cary
Population: 155,822
Median Income: $94,617
Median Home Price: $309,800
Cary is located 10 miles west of Raleigh.
3. Pinehurst
Population: 15,522
Median Income: $78,338
Median Home Price: $287,400
Pinehurst is located 28 miles west of Fayetteville.
4. Apex
Population: 43,893
Median Income: $95,283
Median Home Price: $278,400
Apex is located 14 miles west of Raleigh.
5. Holly Springs
Population: 30,126
Median Income: $98,041
Median Home Price: $249,500
Holly Springs is located 16 miles west of Raleigh.
6. Morrisville
Population: 22,600
Median Income: $92,769
Median Home Price: $291,400
Morrisville is located 10 miles south of Durham.
7. Chapel Hill
Population: 59,005
Median Income: $65,373
Median Home Price: $390,300
Chapel Hill is located 8 miles west of Durham.
8. Elon
Population: 9,781
Median Income: $45,767
Median Home Price: $236,500
Elon is located 17 miles east of Greensboro.
9. Wake Forest
Population: 36,472
Median Income: $81,200
Median Home Price: $270,300
Wake Forest is located 11 miles north of Raleigh.
10. Stallings
Population: 14,759
Median Income: $80,858
Median Home Price: $221,100
Stallings is located 11 miles east of Charlotte.
There You Have It – The Best Suburbs In North Carolina
Here’s a look at the worst suburbs in North Carolina according to the data:
- Selma
- Eden
- Lexington
For more North Carolina reading, check out:
- 10 Worst Places To Live In North Carolina
- 10 Most Dangerous Cities In North Carolina
- 10 Most Ghetto Cities In North Carolina
Detailed List Of The Best Suburbs In North Carolina
City | Rank |
---|---|
Davidson | 1 |
Cary | 2 |
Pinehurst | 3 |
Apex | 4 |
Holly Springs | 5 |
Morrisville | 6 |
Chapel Hill | 7 |
Elon | 8 |
Wake Forest | 9 |
Stallings | 10 |
Huntersville | 11 |
Carrboro | 12 |
Oak Ridge | 13 |
Harrisburg | 14 |
Summerfield | 15 |
Matthews | 16 |
Waxhaw | 17 |
Rolesville | 18 |
Clemmons | 19 |
Weddington | 20 |
Marvin | 21 |
Cornelius | 22 |
Knightdale | 23 |
Lewisville | 24 |
Fuquay-Varina | 25 |
Mint Hill | 26 |
Gibsonville | 27 |
Hillsborough | 28 |
Stokesdale | 29 |
Garner | 30 |
King | 31 |
Clayton | 32 |
Mooresville | 33 |
Mebane | 34 |
Wesley Chapel | 35 |
Southern Pines | 36 |
Concord | 37 |
Wendell | 38 |
Kernersville | 39 |
Mount Holly | 40 |
Archdale | 41 |
Indian Trail | 42 |
Trinity | 43 |
Hope Mills | 44 |
Belmont | 45 |
Aberdeen | 46 |
Unionville | 47 |
High Point | 48 |
Kannapolis | 49 |
Pineville | 50 |
Burlington | 51 |
Angier | 52 |
Gastonia | 53 |
Thomasville | 54 |
Butner | 55 |
Graham | 56 |
Sanford | 57 |
Kings Mountain | 58 |
Mocksville | 59 |
Spring Lake | 60 |
Asheboro | 61 |
Reidsville | 62 |
Oxford | 63 |
Lincolnton | 64 |
Roxboro | 65 |
Dunn | 66 |
Smithfield | 67 |
Monroe | 68 |
Lexington | 69 |
Eden | 70 |
Selma | 71 |