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About Cary, NC (Highlands)


Real Estate Prices and Overview

Highlands median real estate price is $705,802, which is more expensive than 94.9% of the neighborhoods in North Carolina and 85.0% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in Highlands is currently $3,390, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 98.7% of the neighborhoods in North Carolina.

Highlands is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Cary, North Carolina.

Highlands real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to large (four, five or more bedroom) single-family homes and townhomes. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Highlands neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 2000 and the present.

In Highlands, the current vacancy rate is 2.7%, which is a lower rate of vacancies than 84.0% of all neighborhoods in the U.S. This means that the housing supply in Highlands is very tight compared to the demand for property here.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.

Notable & Unique: Real Estate

Real estate in the Highlands neighborhood is almost exclusively owner-occupied. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher rate of owner-occupied housing than is found in 98.7% of U.S. neighborhoods. If you are seeking to rent, this neighborhood may not have many options, but high rates of ownership often indicate stability in a neighborhood.

In addition, one way that the Highlands neighborhood really stands out, is that it has more large 4, 5, or additional bedroom homes and real estate than 98.0% of the neighborhoods in America. When you walk or drive around this neighborhood, you'll instantly notice the size of the homes here which definitely makes a strong visual statement.

Furthermore, most neighborhoods are composed of a mixture of ages of homes, but the Highlands stands out as rather unique in having nearly all of its residential real estate built in one time period, namely between 1970 and 1999, generally considered to be established, but not old housing. What you'll sense when you look around or drive the streets of this neighborhood is that many of the residences look the same because of this similarity of age. In fact, 88.3% of the residential real estate here was built in this one time period.

Also of note, some neighborhoods are made up of apartments. Some consist of row houses, and most - by far - consist of a mixture of housing types. But the Highlands neighborhood stands out due to the total dominance of detached, single-family homes here. There are nearly no other types of residential real estate in the neighborhood. In fact, this neighborhood has a higher proportion of single-family homes in its real estate stock than 95.2% of all American neighborhoods.

Notable & Unique: People

Priests and therapists would like to think they know the secrets to a truly successful marriage, but according to NeighborhoodScout's research, the folks of the Highlands neighborhood may actually hold the key. 69.7% of its residents are married, which is a higher percentage than is found in 97.5% of the neighborhoods in America.

In addition, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, Highlands is among the best neighborhoods for families in North Carolina. In fact, this neighborhood is more family-friendly than 97.2% of neighborhoods in the entire state of North Carolina. Its combination of top public schools, low crime rates, and owner-occupied single family homes gives this area the look and feel of a "Leave It to Beaver" episode. Many other families also live here, making it easy to socialize and develop a strong sense of community. In addition, the high number of college-educated parents influences the academic success of the local schools. Overall, you will find all of the amenities a family needs to thrive in the Highlands neighborhood. In addition to being an excellent choice for families with school-aged children, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for urban sophisticates, highly educated executives and active retirees.

Also, if you come to know the people here, you will recognize that you're in the company of one of the wealthiest communities in the nation. In fact, a mere 3.0% of America's neighborhoods are wealthier than the Highlands neighborhood. Real estate here is exceedingly well-maintained, and similarly, tends to maintain its value over time. The cars driven are mostly luxury brands like Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Lexus. If the public schools aren't up to snuff, the residents of this neighborhood preferentially send their children to private preparatory schools. Vacation to Disney? Yes, but equally popular are summers in Europe.

Finally, the rate of college educated adults in the Highlands neighborhood is a unique characteristic of the neighborhood. 74.9% of adults here have received at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, compared to the average neighborhood in America, which has 32.9% of the adults with a bachelor's degree. The rate here is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.4% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

Notable & Unique: Modes of Transportation

While most Americans do drive to work alone each day, the Highlands neighborhood stands out by having 83.1% of commuters doing so, which is a higher proportion of people driving alone to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.1% of all American neighborhoods.

Notable & Unique: Diversity

Did you know that the Highlands neighborhood has more Canadian and Welsh ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Canadian ancestry and 3.0% have Welsh ancestry.

Highlands is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 0.9% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Russian at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 95.2% of the neighborhoods in America.


The Neighbors

The Neighbors: Income

There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.

The neighbors in the Highlands neighborhood in Cary are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 97.0% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 3.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 72.5% of America's neighborhoods.

The Neighbors: Occupations

What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.

In the Highlands neighborhood, 62.3% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 20.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (9.5%), and 7.5% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

The Neighbors: Languages

The most common language spoken in the Highlands neighborhood is English, spoken by 92.3% of households.

The Neighbors: Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.

In the Highlands neighborhood in Cary, NC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (21.0%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (20.0%), and residents who report Irish roots (16.3%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (7.6%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (5.0%), among others. In addition, 10.7% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.

Getting to Work

How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in Highlands neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (53.5% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (83.1%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


Neighborhood Real Estate Data

Analytics built by:   Location, Inc.

Raw data sources:   National Agriculture Statistics Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Federal Housing Finance Agency, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Geological Service, American Community Survey.

Date(s) & Update Frequency:
  • Home Values, Rents: Reflects Q3 2022. Updated quarterly.
  • Setting, Housing Stock, Homeownership: 2020 (latest available). Updated annually.

Methodology:   NeighborhoodScout uses over 600 characteristics to build a neighborhood profile… Read more

Average Home Values

 

Median Home Value:
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Median Real Estate Taxes:
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Neighborhood Home Prices

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Rental Market

 

Average Market Rent:
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GROSS RENTAL YIELD:
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MEDIAN MONTHLY RENT BY NUMBER OF BEDROOMS

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Setting

 
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Neighborhood Look and Feel

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Housing Market Details

 

AGE OF Cary, NC (Highlands) HOMES

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TYPE OF Cary, NC (Highlands) HOMES

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SIZE OF Cary, NC (Highlands) HOMES

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SIZE OF Cary, NC (Highlands) HOMES

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homeownership

 
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Neighborhood Demographics Data

Analytics built by:   Location, Inc.

Raw data sources:   American Community Survey, U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Education, 50 state departments of education, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 18,000+ local law enforcement agencies, Federal Housing Finance Agency, U.S. Geological Service, National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Date(s) & Update Frequency:   2020 (latest available). Updated annually. Please note: Unemployment data updated November 2022.

Methodology:   Unlike standardly available Census demographics, NeighborhoodScout uses dozens of custom models to transform 8.5 million raw demographic data elements from government sources into proprietary indices and insights…. Read more about Scout's Demographic Data

Lifestyle

 
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Special character

 
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Age / Marital Status

 

Gender Ratio

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Military & College Status

 
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Employment Industries in Highlands

 
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Commute to work

 

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Vehicles Per Household

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Migration & Mobility

 

Race & Ethnic Diversity

 

Diversity Index

(100 is the most diverse)


More diverse than of U.S. neighborhoods.

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Occupations

 

Ancestries & Languages Spoken

 

Ancestry (top 20)

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Languages Spoken (top 20)

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Unemployment Rate

 
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Average Income

 

Per Capita Income

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Median Household Income

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Education

 

Percent with College Degree

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Percent with Advanced Degree

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Income & Education

 
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Neighborhood Crime Data

Analytics built by:   Location, Inc.

Raw data sources:   18,000 local law enforcement agencies in the U.S.

Date(s) & Update Frequency:   Reflects 2021 calendar year; released from FBI in Oct. 2022 (latest available). Updated annually. Where is 2022 data?

Methodology:   Our nationwide meta-analysis overcomes the issues inherent in any crime database, including non-reporting and reporting errors. This is possible by associating the 9.4 million reported crimes in the U.S, including over 2 million geocoded point locations…. Read more about Scout's Crime Data

Neighborhood Crime Data

 

total Crime Index

(100 is safest)


Safer than of U.S. neighborhoods.

Neighborhood Annual Crimes
  Violent Property Total
Number of Crimes
Crime Rate
(per 1,000 residents)

Neighborhood Violent Crime

violent Crime Index

(100 is safest)


Safer than of U.S. neighborhoods.

Violent Crime Index By Type

Murder
Index
Rape
Index
Robbery
Index
Assault
Index

100 is safest

100 is safest

100 is safest

100 is safest

Violent Crime Comparison (per 1,000 residents)

20 15 10 5 0
LOCKED
LOCKED
4.3
National Median: 4
    Highlands
    Cary
    North Carolina

My Chances of Becoming a Victim of a Violent Crime

1 in

in Highlands

1 in

in Cary

1 in 232

in North Carolina

Cary VIOLENT CRIMES

Population:
Murder Rape Robbery Assault
Report Total
Rate per 1,000

United States VIOLENT CRIMES

Population:
Murder Rape Robbery Assault
Report Total
Rate per 1,000

Neighborhood Property Crime

property Crime Index

(100 is safest)


Safer than of U.S. neighborhoods.

Property Crime Index By Type
Burglary
Index
Theft
Index
Motor Vehicle
Theft

100 is safest

100 is safest

100 is safest

Property Crime Comparison (per 1,000 residents)

100 75 50 25 0
LOCKED
LOCKED
22.4
National Median: 19
    Highlands
    Cary
    North Carolina

My Chances of Becoming a Victim of a Property Crime

1 in

in Highlands

1 in

in Cary

1 in 45

in North Carolina

Cary Property CRIMES

Population:
burglary theft motor vehicle theft
Report Total
Rate per 1,000

United States Property CRIMES

Population:
burglary theft motor vehicle theft
Report Total
Rate per 1,000

Crimes Per Square Mile

200 150 100 50 0
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25
National Median: 26.8
    Highlands
    Cary
    North Carolina

Neighborhood Public School Data

Analytics built by:   Location, Inc.

Raw data sources:
  • Test Scores: Edfacts (U.S. Department of Education), State departments of education.
  • Expenditures: National Center for Education Statistics.
  • Educational Environment: American Community Survey (U.S. Census Bureau).
Date(s) & Update Frequency:
  • Due to Covid-19, complete standardized testing did not take place during the 2020-2021 academic school year. Test data: Reflects 2018 – 2019 school year.
  • Expenditures: 2019
  • Educational Environment: 2020 (latest available). Updated annually.
  • All data updated June 2022

Methodology:   Only NeighborhoodScout gives you nationally comparable school ranks based on test scores, so you can directly compare the quality of schools in any location. Read more about Scout's School Data

School Rating Information

 

School Quality

(100 is best)

Better than of U.S. schools.

Neighborhood School Quality Rating

Rates the quality of all K-12 public schools that serve this neighborhood. Info

Schools That Serve This Neighborhood

 
School Details Grades Quality Rating Compared to NC* Quality Rating Compared to Nation*
Oak Grove Elementary School
10401 Penny Road
Raleigh, NC 27606
PK-05
Athens Drive High School
1420 Athens Drive
Raleigh, NC 27606
09-12
Swift Creek Elementary School
5601 Tryon Rd
Raleigh, NC 27606
KG-05
Penny Road Elementary School
10900 Penny Rd
Cary, NC 27518
KG-05
Dillard Drive Elementary School
5018 Dillard Drive
Raleigh, NC 27606
PK-05
Dillard Drive Middle School
5200 Dillard Drive
Raleigh, NC 27606
06-08
Lufkin Road Middle School
1002 Lufkin Road
Apex, NC 27539
06-08
Middle Creek High School
123 Middle Creek Park Avenue
Apex, NC 27539
09-12
* 10 is highest

Neighborhood Educational Environment

Adults In Neighborhood With College Degree Or Higher
Children In The Neighborhood Living In Poverty

This neighborhood is served by 1 district:

WAKE COUNTY SCHOOLS


Students Enrolled in This District


Schools in District


Students Per Classroom

District Quality Compared to North Carolina

(10 is best)

Better than of NC school districts.

District Quality Compared to U.S. info

(10 is best)

Better than of US school districts.

GET FULL REPORTS FOR ANY SCHOOL IN THIS DISTRICT

SEE ALL SCHOOLS

Schools In This District

School District Enrollment By Group

Ethnic/racial Groups This District This State
White (non-hispanic)
Black
Hispanic
Asian Or Pacific Islander
American Indian Or Native Of Alaska
Economic Groups This District This State
ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED
FREE LUNCH ELIGIBLE
REDUCED LUNCH ELIGIBLE

Educational Expenditures

For This District Per Student Total % Of Total
Instructional Expenditures
Support Expenditures
Student
Staff
General Administration
School Administration
Operation
Transportation
Other
Total Support
Non-instructional Expenditures
Total Expenditures

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