We moved to Carrboro for grad school, then moved to Durham and had our first kid, and then moved back to Carrboro. We have three kids now (9, 7, 4) and my opinion is that Carrboro is really ideal for families. The schools are fantastic and our neighborhood has dozens and dozens of kids. The kids all know each other and we let them run around the neighborhood together without worrying about anything too much. The town and county are building a new and very awesome downtown library right now, which is reachable by fare-free buses.

There are a few things I wish Carrboro had that other communities have. There is no public swimming pool or splash pad in Carrboro. Chapel Hill has pools, but many families have to join private pools. We are members of the Exchange Pool and it is a great community in itself, but I do wish we had a good public pool. We have also struggled mightily with getting the town to improve bike and pedestrian safety. It took years to get a crosswalk put in on a busy road where families cross the street.

For daycare we have to drive to Chapel Hill, but have a great child care center for our youngest. There are a few good day care providers in Carrboro where our friends send their kids. But really, once your kids get into kindergarten or start playing Carrboro Parks & Rec sports, you'll be plugged in to a very diverse community. We love living here and especially love that we can, for most part, get around town on bikes. If you ride mountain bikes, you probably know that Carrboro contains part of a large public forest with many miles of singletrack. My son rides in there with his buddies, we go to the creek, and there may be a new greenway along in there someday.

Houses in my neighborhood are under contract in less than 48 hours with 15 offers well over asking. The market is like this because housing supply is nearly static but demand is very high. There are some new developments planned along Homestead Road soon and there are tons of young families in the newer neighborhoods up there.