Why Cary is Still Worth the Money in 2024!

Cary, NC has long been known as one of the safest and nicest communities in the whole country. Some say it’s too nice. But all things change. With all of the growth that Cary has experienced in the last ten years, is it still worth the hefty price tag to live there? For example:

In 2015, Cary was ranked #4 on Smart Assets safest cities in America.

By 2022, it had dropped to position 7.

In 2023, it dropped to position 18. 

While neighboring Durham’s crime rate has been dropping, Cary’s has been going up. 

Crime isn’t the only thing that has changed in Cary. Affordability has changed too.

In 2014, Movato ranked Cary the most affordable place to live in North Carolina. Back then, the median income was 113,000. With incomes that high, it wasn’t hard to afford living in Cary.

Today, the median income is 125,000, but property values have almost doubled in 10 years.

And still, there’s more.

Over the last 10 years, we’ve built parks and shopping centers, we’ve demolished parks and shopping centers, and we’ve been promised stuff that was never delivered. Also, the political landscape has changed over the last 10 years. 

In today’s article we’re going to Cary to look at 6 things that have changed in the town of Cary… the good, the bad and the ugly. 

Real Estate Market in Cary

There is a lot that has changed about the real estate market in Cary. It’s not just the prices of things that have changed, but let’s talk about price first.

In 2014, when Movato ranked Cary the most affordable, the median home price was $306,000. The median priced home in 2014 would have cost you $2287/month. For the median income earner, that’s 32% of your take home pay in Cary at that time. Pretty affordable. 

Homes have gotten WAY more expensive

Today at the beginning of 2024, the median home is $575,000. In 2024, the median home with taxes and fees will cost you $5761/month.

That’s 74%  percent of the median take home pay in Cary.

Check out homes currently for sale in Cary HERE.

Interestingly, the tax rate in Cary has gone down… At 2014’s tax rate, the median home cost per month would have been about $30 less a month back in 2014. That $30 doesn’t really offset the crazy price increases.

But let’s think about this another way. Interest rates are a big part of the housing costs.

Today the 30 year FHA rate is 6.08%. In 2014 it was 3.88%. If today’s rates were the same as in 2014, that monthly payment would only be 45% of the median take home pay in Cary today. Still a little steep.

So the question really is, is Cary still worth it for the price. And that’s not just for people moving here, but also people who already live here. If you live in Cary and let’s say you need to downsize or you’ve outgrown your home, you’re going to have to decide if the cost of Cary is worth what you get if you stay here.

So let’s look at what else has changed in Cary. 

Other Real Estate Changes

It’s gotten more expensive, but the types of housing available have also changed a lot in Cary. Back in 2014, 76% of homes sold in Cary were single family homes, and 24% were condos or townhomes. Today, only 67% of homes sold are single family, and 33% are condos and townhomes. 

Also, a lot more homes were available for sale in Cary in 2014. That year, we sold 2725 homes. But in the past year, only 1729 homes sold in Cary.  There isn’t a lot to choose from. 

Also in 2014, there was a lot more new construction for sale. 31% of homes sold in 2014 were new construction, but this year only 9% of homes sold were new construction. Cary has run out of land to build on. And that’s one of the reasons prices have gone so high. The only real way to build more housing in Cary is to build up.

Builders are building larger homes in Cary. 10 years ago, the median home in Cary was 2300 SF. Today it’s 2400. At least you’re getting a little more house for the increased price in Cary.

If that was all that had changed about Cary, moving here might not be worth it. But as prices rose, some other things got a lot better as well. But there were also things that some people think got worse. 

Amenities

Downtown Cary

10 years ago, downtown Cary was awful. It was boring. There was nothing here. Nothing to do. Traffic was a nightmare because of the constant construction and the poor Jones House was put out of business like 5 times. Every time someone would open a new business there, the town would start construction and the business would close a few months later. It was awful. Most of these little businesses and breweries were still private residences. 

It was a quiet street with nothing to do. This is just 10 years ago. The library was still a cute little 1970’s building. I loved that place. This old building was where the Mayton Inn is right now. But they started building The Mayton Inn in the spring of 2014. 

Park street, back behind the Mayton Inn and across from the Downtown Park, was all these small brick ranch homes. This entire city block has become the Downton Park and the farmers market and a bunch of restaurants surrounding it. This was mostly empty land back in 2014.

Chatham Street has also completely changed. Old industrial type businesses and chain restaurants used to dominate this street. Tire shops, Little Caesars. Only one Little Caesars remains in Cary. My kids were super disappointed when this one closed. 

Also, builders have taken many of the older homes on this street and turned them into condos.

Greenways in Cary

The greenway system has also changed quite a bit. Cary has a goal to have 145 miles of greenway trails throughout the city. Back in 2014 they only had about 70 miles of trails. Today they have 80. So they are getting closer to their goals. There are also a ton of current greenway projects in the works.

Walnut Creek Greenway Project

For example, the Walnut Creek greenway project will add about 5 miles of greenways, and will connect a whole bunch of existing greenways.

It’s going to make it possible to walk from downtown Cary to Fenton to South Hills mall.

If you’re not familiar with South Hills Mall, it’s this eyesore on Buck Jones road, near Crossroads shopping center. It’s still full of old crumbling asphalt and chain link fences, but all of that is getting ready to change.

Cary received a rezoning request for this 44 acre parcel. The developer wants to redevelop it as a vertically integrated, mixed use development with residential, office space, retail and a community center.

At the same time this is happening, the town of Cary is working on their own plans for this area in South Hills. Cary won a $75 million dollar grant in 2023 to create an indoor multi use sports facility to encourage tourism in the area. Now, the town hasn’t yet finalized the location. It may not end up in South Hills, but they are leaning towards this South Hills spot. 

Being able to walk to all of that from just about anywhere in the town is a huge deal. And this area is not very walkable right now. 

Shopping in Cary

Another thing that has changed in Cary is shopping. We’ve lost some, we’ve gained some and we’re going to take a look at how that has changed and then we’ll look at how rising crime over the last 10 years is impacting safety in the town of Cary. 

Crossroads Shopping Center

In 2014, our two main shopping centers were Crossroads and Cary Town Center. If I’m being honest, the engineers that designed Crossroads didn’t do the best job. The traffic patterns are a mess. It can be hard to find things and get to stores in this shopping center. It’s not walkable at all. Crossroads is very spread out, and you have to walk through busy parking lots to get to different sections. It’s honestly just not a great shopping center.

It’s also difficult to drive through, because it seems so haphazard, which makes walking even less comfortable. But it was where you went in 2014 for all your big box stores. 2014 was around the time that the Holly Springs Towne Center was just in the planning phases, so Crossroads served everyone in Southwest Wake County, not just Cary. 

Crossroads hasn’t changed much in 10 years. They have blocked off some sections of the parking lots to try to force traffic to all go the same direction, which helped a little. 

The Old Cary Town Center

We also had the Cary Town Center Mall.

It was old, it was dated.

60% of the stores were empty. But you could hit Talbots from an outside door without going into the mall and the Belk had the best sales of any Belk in the area. And the mall was also where we went with kids when it was raining because there was a merry go round and a train ride and if those failed they could run the wide empty hallways. Seniors also used to walk the mall early in the morning and during the summer.

Regardless of the stores, having a mall in Cary was definitely a plus and a lot of people miss having it. I don’t think the town considered the recreation aspect of the mall, when they allowed it to be demolished. Because now, it’s been bought by Epic Games, who is just sitting on this huge piece of property in the middle of Cary. And they cost us years of indoor recreation just to do nothing with it.

When Epic Games bought the site in 2020, they anticipated a completion date of 2024. No zoning or planning requests have been filed with the town of Cary. And the old ladies and moms have no place to walk. Unless you join a gym, there is nowhere indoors to walk in Cary. I’m not a gym person. I want my mall back. 

Fenton changes shopping in Cary

But, if we’re talking shopping, Fenton is incredible. I love going to Fenton. It’s such a beautiful place to hang out and it has a lot of great stores.

There are all these outdoor spots to relax. And some cover in case it rains. Fenton feels luxurious and we didn’t have a lot of luxurious things in Cary 10 years ago. They definitely took shopping to the next level in Cary with this development. The other thing that has changed in is location of shopping districts.

Like I said earlier, Crossroads used to be the only place to shop in Cary if you wanted a Target or other box store. As the developments in west Cary grew, it was quite a schlep to get from all the way out here to Crossroads.

Now there is Parkside Town Commons with a Target, a movie theatre, an indoor golf place,  a comedy venue and some other big box stores and lots of restaurants. They also built Alston Town Center which is anchored by Whole Foods. This provides a lot more variety and convenience for west Cary.

Crime is UP, but still not bad

According to the latest data available, Cary saw a 15% increase in crime from 2021 to 2022.

Most of that increase was driven by increased property crime.  Cary has historically been known as one of the safest cities in the country, so even with that increase Cary’s overall crime rate is still 49% lower than the national average, and 78% lower than the national average for violent crime. 

So, yes Cary is still a very safe place to live, but with the population growing, not just in Cary but all across the Triangle crime seems to be growing as well. 

The only red areas on the Cary crime map are around two shopping centers, with a low residential to traffic ratio.  So, when not many people live in the area, and there are property crimes there (cars being broken into for example) the rates will appear elevated.

So… is Cary still worth it? First let me say that I think Cary is an incredible town. It’s a fantastic place to live and there aren’t many places like it. In 2022, we were in desperate need for a little more space and we decided to move to Holly Springs. 

Changing Political Landscape 

The other thing that deserves addressing is politics. 

The make up of the town council is definitely different than it was 10 years ago. 

In 2014 the seven member town council was pretty moderate, with one republican, 3 unaffiliated members and two democrats.

Today, the town council is made up of 5 Democrats, 1 republican and 1 unaffiliated member.

In keeping with national trends, as Cary has gotten larger and more urban, it has shifted left.  Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, I’ll leave it to you to decide.

If you like this article, you might like watching this video about why my family moved to Holly Springs from Cary.