I went to school at Duke and at NC State and took classes at UNC. Housing is cheap(er) and if I had to recommend areas, I would go with Cary or Chapel Hill (and there are nicer developments a bit north of downtown Raleigh.
As for outdoorsy stuff, there’s decent mountain biking and plenty of volleyball leagues and a ok ultimate frisbee league, but it does pale in comparison to San Diego.
Chapel Hill is a solid college town with interesting restaurants and alternative music venues. Durham has been gentrified a bit but still has tensions between the university and the community (see Duke lacrosse).
RTP has got a good economy and has a base of well-educated professionals. I’d rather live closer to the major universities because they’d provide some entertainment possibilities, some energy and frankly I think the school districts are better near where the academics live.
