It's getting better here. When we first moved in we had a lot of issues with children looking in our windows (the first floor...
It's getting better here.
When we first moved in we had a lot of issues with children looking in our windows (the first floor apartments are halfway underground, so the windows sit at ground level), but the kids in questions seem to have moved. In the summer, residents of first floor apartments get a very early wake up call every other day or so from maintenance workers trimming grass with weed wackers; since the windows are at ground level, a weed wackers would be running roughly 5 feet from my sleeping face (with a window between us) at 7:30. There are a tooooon of renovations going on, and it's quite consistently loud. My ceiling started leaking when a renovator made a mistake in the apartment above me. They aren't careful with their nails, either; I had five nails in the tires of my car due to maintenance workers dropping them in the parking lot. Walls are extremely thin. Our sink has started flooding at least three or four times in the past year, spewing sewage-smelling water and refusing to drain properly. In the past they've fixed this rather quickly (the whole building contributes to the quality of the pipes, so if someone above you is flushing coffee grounds down the sink, the first floor apartment feels the hurt), however we've currently had a work request in for four days on this issue and it hasn't been resolved. Pet fee is a little ridiculous. Windows are extremely dated and don't lock very well. Make sure there are locks on the windows when you move in, there weren't on several of ours. Our bathtub leaks from the bottom whenever someone takes a bath (not a shower). Virtually no bathroom storage, not a ton of kitchen storage. No closet lights, only two overhead lights in the whole apartment.
I will say that it was awesome to move into brand new carpets and brand new high efficiency appliances, all of which worked great. I think that some of the repairs in the building are cheap and faulty, though. I've read a lot about bug problems in the comments, but we haven't really had that issue at all, in the whole year that we've been here and without needing to be particularly sterile. Parking is a non issue. The pool looks clean although I never used it. The garbage situation has improved tremendously, folks come pick up every day from small trash receptacle that we leave outside the door. Recycling needs a lot of work, we still have to take it to a big dumpster on the far side of the property. Office staff have always been very nice to us. Neighbors can be a little loud and leave a lot of beer bottles and trash around, but are always super nice when you talk to them about it. No robberies since I've moved in.
All in all, I just felt like the rent was far, far too expensive for what we were getting, especially with much nicer small houses renting for less in East and Southeast Durham. Even a small house in Trinity Park rents for not much more than an apartment here. They tried to raise our rent dramatically after the first year, and the only way that it would have been at least close to what we paid initially was if we opened an 18-month lease, which simply wasn't worth it. Maybe affordable for Duke Students, but I don't doubt that a lot of the residents that came here for affordable housing are being displaced.