I went to grad school in Chapel Hill. When my wife and I decided to have kids we bought a house in Cary.
We HATED Cary. It was a suburban wasteland. The traffic was terrible and we had nothing in common with our neighbors. (The only things they were interested in was lawn care and basketball.) When I got a job in L.A. we said goodbye to Cary with no regrets.
Take a look at Carrboro. It’s right next to Chapel Hill and tends to be a little cheaper and more adult. If my commute wouldn’t have been insane, my wife and I might have looked for a house there instead of Cary.