Well, you have the university area with a LOT of students and young people.

NC State has the main campus on Hillsborough Street on one side and Wade Avenue nearby... within a few miles are hundreds of student rental apartments and plenty of food and shopping options geared toward students... multi-bedroom apartments are usually rented to individual students at a share of the rent so they can be pricy...

with a good rental agent, you may be able to find a great place because you are more stable as a tenant than a student... good luck

You will find most nightlife is downtown so the closer you get to DT, the easier it is. Depends on what you want and how much you want to spend. New apts are opeining up DT and there are also older apts in houses in areas. Thte city is basically broken up to inside the beltline and outside. Good place outside but can be a more expensive cab ride.

Staying near NCSU is Ok, Cameron village is good, but my guess you are ready to take the next step and don't want to be in a run down student apt complex with a bunch of college kids.

Look DT, 5 points, North Hills, Crabtree area and west Raleigh.

Look at some of the new apt complexes around Glenwood south. Also look at THE HUE which is apartment building DT.

Also look at a neighborhood like MOrdecai as near DT and walkable nad near the R Line.

My partner and I moved to Raleigh last year to the Brier Creek neighborhood. It is where a LOT of people relocating, relocate to, mostly because I think it's quite convenient to Raleigh and Durham. There are pros and cons to this. But I really loved the neighborhood because of its convenience to shopping and restaurants right across the street. Often, we walked to the grocery store if we were just picking up a few things.

Brier Creek wouldn't be as convenient if you were working in downtown Raleigh or nearer to NCSU - so I would just compare it to where your job would be.