Hasentree

Hasentree is a gated community of roughly 700 homes on the edge of Falls Lake, built around a Tom Fazio golf course and a country club. Prices start near $800,000 and run past $2.5 million, the highest band in the Wake Forest area, and the driveways are the longest. Tennis, swimming and a fitness center sit on the club side of the ledger, which is the practical difference between this and the other neighborhoods out here. The amenities come with a membership rather than with the homeowners dues.

The mailing address says Wake Forest. The school assignment is Wake County's Wakefield side, which catches out buyers who assume the two match.

Where it is

Hasentree sits on the edge of Falls Lake, outside the older part of Wake Forest and behind a gate. The gate controls who comes in, which is a small detail until you are the one waiting on a delivery driver or talking a guest through the entrance. Errands mean driving, as they do everywhere on this side of the county, and US-1, signed as Capital Boulevard, is the road that carries traffic south toward Raleigh and north through Wake Forest. The lake is the near edge of the property, and the course occupies a good deal of the ground between the streets.

What to know if you're moving here

Two numbers matter here and they are separate, and neither one is the purchase price. What it costs to buy into Hasentree and what it costs to live here are different questions, which is where buyers get surprised.

• The homeowners association is $200 a month, and the club bills its dues on top of that.
• Ask for the current dues schedule and the initiation terms before you get attached to a house.
• Construction started in 2007, so the oldest houses are near twenty years old and into their first major replacements while other sections are still new.
• What the club side buys is golf on a Tom Fazio course, tennis, a fitness center and a pool.
• Schools are Pleasant Union Elementary, Wakefield Middle and Wakefield High.
• The drawback is carrying cost: big lots, big houses, the association and the club make this the most expensive neighborhood in the area to live in.

What to do if you're visiting

Most of Hasentree is private. The course and the club are for members and their guests, so a visitor sees the neighborhood from a resident's passenger seat or not at all. Everything around it is open, though.

• The public version of the same water is Falls Lake State Recreation Area, with ramps, shoreline and room for a long afternoon.
• Golf without a membership is at Brevofield Golf Links, the other course listed in this part of the directory.
• A spring Saturday goes to North Wake Baseball at the Factory Ballpark if the family includes a ballplayer.