Wexford Reserve

Wexford Reserve is about 90 houses on wooded lots off Highway 98, built between 2019 and 2023 and now finished. A pond sits inside it. The lots kept their trees, which is the clearest difference between this place and the cleared-and-replanted subdivisions that went up in the same years. Prices generally land between $575,000 and $775,000.

It draws buyers who want a house close to new without joining a master-planned community. There is a homeowners association and it costs $700 a year, a different kind of commitment from the monthly dues and amenity calendars at the larger developments around town.

Where it is

The subdivision comes off Highway 98, on the Falls Lake side of Wake Forest. Highway 98 does most of the work out here. Head west and it carries you toward the middle of town and across US-1, the four-lane signed as Capital Boulevard, which is the route south toward Raleigh. Head east and the road runs into lake country. Nothing in Wexford Reserve is within walking distance of a store, so groceries and dinner out both start with a turn onto 98, and how long either takes depends on what that road is doing at the hour you leave.

What to know if you're moving here

The build window is the number that matters most to a buyer here. The rest of what you are signing up for comes down to a small association, a fixed number of houses and a school assignment that catches some people out.

• These houses went up between 2019 and 2023, so the code is recent and nothing is yet due for a roof.
• Mature trees stand over houses that are not, because the lots kept their timber through construction.
• Dues are $700 a year and cover the common areas.
• They do not buy a pool, so a family that wants one is paying for a membership somewhere else.
• Children are zoned for Richland Creek Elementary, Wake Forest Middle and Wake Forest High, the Wake Forest chain rather than the Wakefield one.
• The honest drawback is supply: about 90 homes, fully built out, and only a handful change hands in a given year.

What to do if you're visiting

Most of what a visitor does around here happens on the water or under trees. The commercial half of the day is back west on Highway 98, so it makes sense to take the outdoor part first and eat afterward.

• The anchor is Falls Lake State Recreation Area, crowded on summer weekends and close to empty by late October.
• Golfers have Brevofield Golf Links in the same general orbit.
• For a walk that is not a lake walk, Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserve is worth the drive.
• The day usually ends downtown, west on 98, where residents go for dinner and for a Saturday morning with the shops open.