Looking at Downtown Raleigh Living from a Different Perspective

This Week’s Tour of Homes

When I speak to most people about living downtown, they think of high-rise condo buildings or high density townhomes. My vision of downtown living includes those options, but I also think of all the wonderful historic neighborhoods that surround downtown: Historic Oakwood, Boylan Heights, Cameron Park, 5 Points, Hayes Barton. There are many neighborhoods within walking/biking distance of downtown, each with their own unique urban feel. I wanted to stress my vision of downtown living because most of our tours will highlight homes in these neighborhoods.

As a resident of one of these downtown neighborhoods, I cannot express how wonderful it is to walk to restaurants and shopping. I walk my kids to school, we take the RLine to the museums, shop at the Farmer’s Market, do skits at the Rose Garden, and more. The diversity of activities available are as wide as the scope of your (my) imagination. And, as Raleigh grows, downtown Raleigh real estate will continue to demand premium pricing due to its proximity to all the amenities downtown Raleigh has to offer.

If you’d like more information about downtown Raleigh neighborhoods, feel free to give us a call. For now, let’s talk about the houses we saw on tour this week.

612 Smedes Pl – Cameron Village
This house is in a GREAT location, just a few steps from Cameron Village. The neighborhood of Cameron Village consists mainly of Mid-Century Ranch style homes, but due to its excellent location, many of the homes have been completely renovated, added onto, or rebuilt. The neighborhood is definitely worth investing in, as I see no reason why people would not continue to want to live so close to Cameron Village, NCSU, Broughton HS, Glenwood South, etc. This particular home was your traditional 3 bedroom/2bath ranch with no updates other than granite counter tops in the kitchen. Although it was neat and clean, quite a bit of modernization would be necessary to justify the list price of $450,000. If it were priced in the $300s I might suggest it as an investment well worth the renovation costs. At this point, I might wait for a price reduction.


1215 Pierce Street – Glenwood
This house had a ton of cool features. I really liked the open floor plan of the formal living room/kitchen and there was a tiny nook completely dedicated to wine, which appealed to me! There was a cute, private exterior courtyard off the kitchen, huge den, and a cool loft office that looked down over the den. They even had their basement hidden behind some bookshelves like in a mystery novel. Of course, Hilary wanted to figure out how to open the doors, yet I found myself creeping down the steep stairs to investigate (just a storage basement). The main drawback to the home was that there were only 2 bedrooms upstairs (3 total). I thought that might limit the buyer pool. As far as the exterior of the home, great porch, courtyard, decent backyard and 2 car garage, but the proximity to Capital Blvd may turn off some buyers.

1206 Dogwood Lane – Ridgewood
I loved the floor to ceiling windows in the living room! The front rooms had a nice open floor plan. But, as I moved back into the bedroom area, everything got kinda tight. I felt like the rooms were a bit small and close together. Then, I went down to the basement. It was HUGE. Great living area/play area for kids or could be its own in-law suite because there’s a full bath and exterior doors.






124 Hudson – 5 Points
What can I say? It’s a fixer-upper. Great price for a renovation project in a fantastic location.

2007 Varnell – Beckanna
I thought this house had a lot of space and a good floor plan for the price. 1662 Sqft with a big yard inside the beltline for $289,900 is pretty good. I like the well-established neighborhood with big trees and a diversity of home styles.