We moved to NC about two years ago and love it. As Beerthoven said, the Wake school district is growing so fast they're having a hard time keeping up. The quality of schools available is generally very high, though.
Here's a link you'll need:
North Carolina School Report Cards. It's a good way to check how schools compare. As 9/9 said, don't just look at the overall score, look at the subgroup breakouts. But if you get down to a couple of locations, being able to compare the schools side by side helps a lot.
Let me put my two bits in for Apex & Holly Springs. We're in Apex, just south of Cary. It's not as generic as much of Cary is, and housing is still reasonably affordable. Apex (and a little farther down the road, Holly Springs) is sleepier than Raleigh or even Cary, but if you don't mind driving a couple of minutes you can get more house for your money. I can be in downtown Raleigh in 15 minutes, at the Raleigh farmer's market in 10 and at Carolina Brewing Company in less than 10
. On the downside, development is moving fast so Apex is losing some of its historic charm to townhouses and strip malls. We were lucky to find a great place in an older established neighborhood, so we're somewhat insulated, but there's stuff going up all around us.
Chad
Oh, and if you need a good real estate agent, PM me. Ours was spectacular.