My employer has some rumors flying around hot and heavy about a station opening up in my division at RDU.  I know the research triangle is quite a liberal area, but my wife and I do enjoy visiting the area.  What are some good areas to look for real estate?  I'd like to keep it 250k ish with some land if possible.  We have a soon to be 3y/o that would love to run around till his little head pops off.

Its not really liberal. It may go that way for voting but it not crazy nutty asinine in your face BS liberal. Chaepel hill... Yep all they batshit crazy holier than though academic stupidity you'd ever want.

everywhere else They know their place and basically STFU and leave people alone.

250K with land. how much land?

Wake county pretty much Impossible. Maybe out near Knightdale or Garner or Clayton. Raleigh, Durham Chapel hill No way.
Maybe near  Rolesville, or north/west  of rocksboro but that oragne county and  steered by chapel hill with the taxes to match.

Maybe Granaville county or franklin county.

I'd definitely look at the Garner/Clayton area.  Also check out some of the areas of Benson and Angier.  I'm an insurance agent that has a lot of clients in the rural areas right off of 40 highway (about 15-20min to Raleigh) and there are a metric ton of houses being built in the area.  Judging by most of the sub divisions I've seen some come with more land than others per lot and the sizes of the houses vary a good bit too.  

I guess the moral of what I'm trying to say is you can most certainly have a nice house with land out in the quiet country but still be just a skip away from Raleigh/Durham.

Look south to Lee Co.

Land wise, is like 2.5 or more acres.  I want space where my son can run around like a crazy kid on my property, and not worry pissing off the neighbors. If this goes through, my wife will most likely look for a job at one of the university hospitals (she's a nurse), but she really doesn't want to drive more than 30 min to work.  I had to tell her, this is RDU, not ATL, where 10 miles takes 30 min.   Once we figure everything else out, I'll look for a gun club to join. A few looked appealing, but a few had quite the derp going on from the looks of it.

ETA: I don't mind driving 60 mins or so, I have been doing it for 12 years.

I drive 60 minutes to work every day. ~30 miles.

I do not have 2.5 acres. Most new houses are lucky to have .25 acre, maybe .45 acre waaaay out somewhere.

"University hospitals" for your wife imply driving a good distance. Beware anyone telling you how "quick" their drive is unless you verify
Where are you planning to work? RDU?

Trust but verify, especially if you plan on driving during prime time.

I would be at RDU Intl Apt.  Most likely when the station opens it'll be midnight shift only, so depending on shift legnth, I'd probably would be working somewhere between 2100-0700.

I live in Apex and right now 250K will get you a townhouse on zero land unless you're lucky enough to snatch a fixer upper about the same time it hits the market, and even then you probably wouldn't get much land with it.

ETA: Also my wife works at Duke University Hospital and it takes her anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour to get home because of traffic.