The Stonewalls

The Stonewalls is about ninety houses on half-acre lots, sitting behind the stone entrance that gives the neighborhood its name off Jenkins Road. A small pond sits inside it. The lots are the reason people buy here. Half an acre is a lot of ground for a subdivision ten minutes from town, and it is what gives the streets their rural feel. The houses went up between 2000 and 2006, so the yards and trees have had twenty years to fill in and nothing about the place reads as new. Prices generally run $450,000 to $600,000. The buyers it attracts are people who wanted land and quiet and accepted a drive for both.

Where it is

The entrance is on Jenkins Road, marked by the stonework. Downtown Wake Forest is about ten minutes away by car, and that is the drive you make for groceries, a restaurant, a hardware store or a school pickup, because nothing here is within walking distance. What surrounds the subdivision is rural, and it stays rural for most of the trip. If you work in Raleigh, add those ten minutes to the front of the commute before you decide the price is good. That is the trade you are making for land this close to a town center. The quiet is real. So is the car dependence.

What to know if you're moving here

Half an acre means real yard work, every weekend, from March through October. The dues are low and so is what they cover, and the build years put the big systems at a decision point.

• The HOA is $350 a year, which is low, and the number tells you what it covers.
• Dues go to the entrance, the common areas and the pond, and there is no pool.
• Assigned schools are Richland Creek Elementary, Wake Forest Middle and Wake Forest High, all inside the Wake Forest schools.
• Check the current Wake County assignment before you sign anything, because base schools move.
• The 2000 to 2006 build range puts the original roof and HVAC at either replaced once or overdue, so ask for dates and receipts.
• The honest drawback is the driving, since ten minutes to town is less easy the third time in one day.

What to do if you're visiting

There is not much to visit inside The Stonewalls, which is a quiet grid of streets and a pond that belongs to the residents. The visit happens in town, ten minutes down the road.

• Dinner at Il Bacio Italian Grill & Pizza is an easy default.
• If you want dessert afterward, Lumpy's Ice Cream is the stop people make.
• To find out what is actually on the calendar while you are here, check Arts Wake Forest.
• If you are looking at houses, come twice: once on a weekday around six, to time the drive in from town when everyone else is making it.
• Come again on a Saturday morning, so you can hear whether the quiet you were promised holds up.