The Homestead at Heritage

The Homestead at Heritage is the newest section of Heritage, about 180 Craftsman-style houses built between 2016 and 2020, tucked off Rogers Road with a pool that belongs to this section alone. A handful of builders worked here, so plans and elevations vary from lot to lot without the patchwork you get in a community assembled over twenty years. Most yards back to trees or to the buffer, which is the first thing buyers notice on a walk through. Prices run $500k to $700k and dues are $650 a year. Both sit toward the upper end of what Wake Forest buyers pay across Heritage as a whole, and what the premium buys is new construction and a pool with only 180 households on it.

Where it is

Rogers Road is the way in. The Homestead sits off it, on the newer edge of the Heritage community, close enough to the greenway that residents walk to it instead of driving somewhere to walk. Heritage Village and the golf course are inside the same community, so shopping and dinner are a short hop and not a trip out to a highway. Sitting in a pocket off Rogers Road instead of fronting the village center cuts both ways. Through traffic is not a problem on these streets, and the flip side is that anything at the village end is a drive. A short one, but a drive, and it adds up over a week.

What to know if you're moving here

The build years are the practical argument for this section and the price is the practical argument against it. Everything else on the list sits between those two, starting with the dues.

• Houses from 2016 to 2020 are still inside the useful life of roofs, HVAC systems and water heaters.
• Nothing here is lined up up for replacement the way it is in Heritage sections built around the turn of the century.
• Dues of $650 a year land in the top half of the $300 to $900 range across Heritage, and here they cover the section pool.
• Schools are Heritage Elementary, Heritage Middle and Heritage High.
• The mature growth is in the buffer behind the lots, so street trees planted in 2018 leave the front of the neighborhood thin on shade for years yet.
• The band starts at $500k, well above where the older sections of Heritage start, and you are paying for the newest housing stock in a community with plenty of alternatives.

What to do if you're visiting

Start with the greenway, since it is the reason this section gets described as the walkable one, and Heritage has its own trails besides. After that, the village end of the community is where things happen.

• Golf at Heritage Golf Club is the course the whole community was laid out around.
• An unhurried afternoon belongs at the Bird's Nest at Blackbird Brewery.
• What gets promised to kids on the way home is Jeremiah's Italian Ice.
• If you are house hunting, come in the late afternoon, because new sections look their most honest at five o'clock on a weekday.