The Cove at Falls Lake

The Cove at Falls Lake is about 80 wooded lots of one to two acres along the lake, with a community dock and a kayak launch that residents share. Every house is a custom build, and the neighborhood has filled in one lot at a time since 2014 instead of arriving in phases. Prices run from $900,000 to $1.8 million, which reflects the land as much as the houses. Dues are $1,200 a year.

Downtown is about a twenty-minute drive. That number shapes daily life here more than anything written in the covenants.

Where it is

The neighborhood runs along the Falls Lake shoreline, and getting anywhere else means the twenty-minute drive into downtown Wake Forest or a similar trip out to US-1, the highway signed as Capital Boulevard that runs south toward Raleigh. There is no version of this address that puts a grocery store five minutes away. What you get for the driving is water at the end of the street and one to two acres of trees around the house. Traffic is not the problem out here. Distance is. Anyone who has lived on a lake road already knows the calculation, and anyone who has not should drive it twice before deciding.

What to know if you're moving here

This is a one-lot-at-a-time neighborhood, and that shows up in what a purchase looks like, in what the dues buy and in how long the lot next to you stays unfinished.

• Every house is a custom build, so buying means closing on a finished one or taking a lot and hiring a builder for a much longer year.
• Lots are wooded and run one to two acres, which brings tree work, driveway maintenance and a lot of ground to keep.
• Dues of $1,200 a year pay for the dock and the kayak launch, and there is no pool.
• Schools are Pleasant Union Elementary, Wakefield Middle and Wakefield High, the Wakefield chain instead of the Wake Forest one.
• Neither the middle school nor the high school is near the neighborhood.
• Building began in 2014 and has not ended, so a buyer may have a lot under construction next door.

What to do if you're visiting

The community dock is for residents, so a visitor's version of this place starts on public water. The honest advice is to come on a weekday if you can, since the lake in October is a different place than it is on the Fourth of July.

• Ramps and shoreline open to anyone are at Falls Lake State Recreation Area.
• For the motorized side of a day on the water, Motor Boatin’ is the listing to check.
• Families who came for a game rather than a lake day have North Wake Baseball at the Factory Ballpark within the same general run of road.