Chapel Hill Neighborhoods

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Featured Video~ Southern Village a Chapel Hill Neighborhood

Map of Town of Chapel Hill and Map of Town of Carrboro.

Are you moving to Chapel Hill for the schools?

One of the reasons my clients choose to live in Chapel Hill is the excellent Chapel Hill/Carrboro school district. If a home isn’t in the shaded area of the above two maps it is not in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. That isn’t necessarily a problem because there are other good school systems, it just can be confusing if you are specific about being in the Chapel Hill Schools. Here is more about the Chapel Hill Schools.

What are the best neighborhoods in the Chapel Hill school district?

1. Southern Village was developed in the 90’s. It was the first planned development with small lots and a commercial area. Even though the homes have some age on them it’s still hugely popular because of proximity to UNC, community pool and tennis, variety of homes, and shops and restaurants.
2. Meadowmont is a planned development with commercial area, YMCA, variety of homes, shopping, restaurants, elementary school and walking trails make it a top choice for Chapel Hill neighborhoods. It’s pricey though.
3. The Oaks surrounds the Chapel Hill Country Club. It’s a friendly neighborhood  more manicured than many in Chapel Hill.
4. Gimghoul is in the area around UNC. Some of the most expensive homes in town. It’s beautiful, small and university focused.
5. Chesley.Very hilly nice big homes.
6. Springcrest. Great location and popular price range. 400’s to 500’s but not manicured. I don’t think many people have a yard service here.
7. Colony Lake is popular with UNC employees and staff. It’s on the bus line and a good neighborhood to get out and walk. Modest homes.
8. Lake Forest was built around Eastwood Lake. This neighborhood is for you if you like trees and an overgrown look, many homes from the 70’s and 80’s.
9. Larkspur was built in the 2000 and has some really good floor plans, tall ceilings and a neighborhood pool. Very good quality homes. There isn’t much variety in the exterior materials.
10. Stoneridge was built in the 80’s and has a neighborhood pool, acre + lots, mixture of home styles, lower County taxes but still in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro school district.

Historic Districts

Chapel Hill has three historic areas Franklin-Rosemary, Gimghoul, and Cameron-McCauley. Franklin Street generally has the highest priced homes in the historic areas ranging from the $800,000’s and up.

Downtown Chapel Hill Neighborhoods

Westwood- a campus area located off South Columbia Street near the UNC Hospital. It has winding streets and wooded lots with an eclectic collection of homes built from the 1920’s to an occasional home on an infill lot today. Prices start at around $400,000 but sometimes a little rental cottage will come on the market for less.

Franklin-Rosemary

Historic Laurel Hills

Gimghoul Historic

Tenney Circle

Cameron-McCauley

Historic Franklin Hills

Greenwood has a neighborhood conservation overlay with regulations about building and renovations.    

View Chapel Hill Neighborhoods in a larger map

The area around the star on the map is the University and downtown historic area. Chapel Hill is a university town and while we have some beautiful older homes most of the historic area homes are fairly simple compared to those in Southern towns that were formed because of business and manufacturing.

Chapel Hill

The Town Center is considered the intersection of Franklin St and Columbia St. Franklin Street is Chapel Hill’s main street with lots of local restaurants and shops.  The main downtown crossroad is Franklin and Columbia Street, which goes South through the UNC campus and will take you to Chatham County and Pittsboro. North of Franklin St. the same street is MLK Blvd and will take you to I-40 and Hillsborough.   Many people define Chapel Hill by the area within the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City School District. If you are thinking about building or renovating a home in the Town of Chapel Hill there are neighborhood protection areas and districts regulating what you are allowed to do with the property.  

Neighborhoods South of Chapel Hill in the Town limits and in the Chapel Hill school district

If you start at the center of town and continue down South Columbia Street past UNC you’ll cross Fordham Blvd. (some call it The Bypass) and the road name will change to 15-501 south. Southern Village will be just ahead on your right. Development started in the mid 90’s and has just finished so there are only resale homes for sale now. It’s a planned, new-old neighborhood with a combination of apartments, condos, town homes, single family homes priced from the $400’s and a retail area including restaurants, a movie theater, elementary school, church, day care and other retail and service businesses. It’s one of the most popular neighborhoods in town with one of the highest appreciation rates

Also South of downtown are the neighborhoods of Southern Village, Chancellors Ridge and Hundred Oaks along with The Reserve and Hunts Reserve.The Reserves are the only two neighborhoods in Chapel Hill with  OWSA (city)water and sewer and acre plus lots. Other large lot neighborhoods are in the county with well and septic are Hunters Ridge, Sun Forest, Beechridge,and  Laurel Hills.

East of Downtown Chapel Hill Neighborhoods

Greenwood is bordered by 15-501 and hwy 54 and is just down the hill south of UNC and Chapel Hill. The playwright Paul Green developed the neighborhood in the 1930’s as a special place with affordable homes for artists and intellectuals. The beautiful lots are at least an acre and wooded. Home prices have varied from the $300’s up to over a million. Recently a developer tore down an existing home and built a large new home that sold for over 1.8 million. This was a wake up call to the neighbors who had the town designate the area as a Neighborhood Conservation District to protect the neighborhood from mega sized homes and preserve the harmonious look of Greenwood.  Presque Isle-condos, Colony Woods,  Colony Lake, The Oaks, Provendence Glen-condo, The Oaks, Finley Forest, Pickard Oaks-duplex town homes and Springcrest.

Carrboro Best Neighborhoods

Some of the most popular neighborhoods in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro school district are in Carrboro. They may have a Chapel Hill address but that’s just the post office. They are in the Town of Carrboro,

1. Lake Hogan Farms
2. Claremont
3. Winmore
4. Sunset Creek
5. Wexford
6. Cates Farm
7. Bolin creek
8. Roberson Place
9. Quarterpath Trace
10. Parkslope

In today’s competitive real estate market, timing is everything. Many good homes are sold before they are ever advertised. Beat other homebuyers to the hottest new homes for sale in Chapel Hill with my New Listings Notification. If you own real estate that you’re thinking of selling, I would be happy to provide you with a FREE Home Evaluation. Please browse my website for listings, reports and important local real estate information. Sincerely,

Marianne Howell Wright, owner and broker with Triangle Area Real Estate and member of the Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors.

919-274-4365