These Are The 10 Best Suburbs In North Carolina For 2018


We used science and data to determine the best suburbs in North Carolina for you to live.

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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:

  1. Davidson (Photos)
  2. Cary (Photos)
  3. Pinehurst (Photos)
  4. Apex (Photos)
  5. Holly Springs (Photos)
  6. Morrisville (Photos)
  7. Chapel Hill (Photos)
  8. Elon (Photos)
  9. Wake Forest (Photos)
  10. 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

Davidson, Nc

Population: 12,076
Median Income: $109,907
Median Home Price: $393,300
Davidson is located 19 miles north of Charlotte.

2. Cary

Cary, Nc

Population: 155,822
Median Income: $94,617
Median Home Price: $309,800
Cary is located 10 miles west of Raleigh.

3. Pinehurst

Pinehurst, Nc

Population: 15,522
Median Income: $78,338
Median Home Price: $287,400
Pinehurst is located 28 miles west of Fayetteville.

4. Apex

Apex, Nc

Source: Public domain

Population: 43,893
Median Income: $95,283
Median Home Price: $278,400
Apex is located 14 miles west of Raleigh.

5. Holly Springs

Holly Springs, Nc

Population: 30,126
Median Income: $98,041
Median Home Price: $249,500
Holly Springs is located 16 miles west of Raleigh.

6. Morrisville

Morrisville, Nc

Population: 22,600
Median Income: $92,769
Median Home Price: $291,400
Morrisville is located 10 miles south of Durham.

7. Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, Nc

Population: 59,005
Median Income: $65,373
Median Home Price: $390,300
Chapel Hill is located 8 miles west of Durham.

8. Elon

Elon, Nc

Population: 9,781
Median Income: $45,767
Median Home Price: $236,500
Elon is located 17 miles east of Greensboro.

9. Wake Forest

Wake Forest, Nc

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:

  1. Selma
  2. Eden
  3. Lexington

For more North Carolina reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Best Suburbs In North Carolina

City Rank Population Median Income Median Home Price
Davidson 1 12,076 $109,907 $393,300
Cary 2 155,822 $94,617 $309,800
Pinehurst 3 15,522 $78,338 $287,400
Apex 4 43,893 $95,283 $278,400
Holly Springs 5 30,126 $98,041 $249,500
Morrisville 6 22,600 $92,769 $291,400
Chapel Hill 7 59,005 $65,373 $390,300
Elon 8 9,781 $45,767 $236,500
Wake Forest 9 36,472 $81,200 $270,300
Stallings 10 14,759 $80,858 $221,100
Huntersville 11 51,701 $90,633 $259,200
Carrboro 12 20,867 $53,513 $326,700
Oak Ridge 13 6,617 $109,509 $320,700
Harrisburg 14 14,500 $88,865 $245,400
Summerfield 15 10,758 $100,724 $342,300
Matthews 16 30,054 $75,205 $224,000
Waxhaw 17 12,398 $86,771 $273,900
Rolesville 18 5,583 $91,000 $259,000
Clemmons 19 19,536 $67,783 $202,200
Weddington 20 10,254 $125,966 $426,400
Marvin 21 6,056 $185,862 $618,900
Cornelius 22 27,426 $86,355 $258,800
Knightdale 23 13,787 $67,167 $171,300
Lewisville 24 13,356 $72,994 $185,500
Fuquay-Varina 25 22,722 $70,226 $208,100
Mint Hill 26 25,024 $69,336 $218,200
Gibsonville 27 6,759 $51,316 $148,700
Hillsborough 28 6,428 $50,240 $205,300
Stokesdale 29 5,278 $94,934 $198,300
Garner 30 27,625 $59,812 $164,800
King 31 6,777 $54,471 $145,400
Clayton 32 18,553 $60,989 $162,000
Mooresville 33 35,387 $63,632 $194,500
Mebane 34 13,592 $56,037 $172,400
Wesley Chapel 35 8,217 $103,438 $321,300
Southern Pines 36 13,258 $47,235 $278,700
Concord 37 85,753 $56,459 $169,800
Wendell 38 6,298 $47,295 $127,100
Kernersville 39 23,736 $48,383 $170,200
Mount Holly 40 14,058 $48,712 $156,400
Archdale 41 11,483 $52,696 $134,600
Indian Trail 42 36,357 $72,726 $177,200
Trinity 43 6,651 $49,208 $131,200
Hope Mills 44 16,189 $47,941 $124,000
Belmont 45 10,494 $60,314 $156,700
Aberdeen 46 7,107 $49,104 $170,300
Unionville 47 6,397 $63,771 $190,200
High Point 48 108,982 $43,322 $142,700
Kannapolis 49 45,685 $45,863 $125,600
Pineville 50 8,244 $40,597 $162,100
Burlington 51 52,570 $37,862 $124,400
Angier 52 5,079 $43,354 $151,800
Gastonia 53 73,877 $43,003 $135,900
Thomasville 54 27,178 $36,796 $109,900
Butner 55 7,692 $46,642 $127,200
Graham 56 14,506 $32,020 $128,600
Sanford 57 29,048 $42,070 $132,200
Kings Mountain 58 11,053 $37,023 $103,400
Mocksville 59 5,140 $38,806 $139,900
Spring Lake 60 13,258 $38,340 $92,200
Asheboro 61 25,978 $34,100 $111,400
Reidsville 62 14,107 $35,599 $102,200
Oxford 63 8,707 $33,528 $137,200
Lincolnton 64 10,593 $31,967 $123,000
Roxboro 65 8,329 $21,516 $99,600
Dunn 66 9,762 $29,552 $112,600
Smithfield 67 11,746 $33,415 $123,900
Monroe 68 34,212 $44,267 $146,700
Lexington 69 19,089 $27,437 $101,800
Eden 70 15,434 $28,908 $82,300
Selma 71 6,325 $27,982 $85,400

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.