I've lived at Ashbrook since 2006, so I feel qualified to write a review. I moved into Ashbrook on a sublease based on the positive reviews posted here, and I have not regretted it.

The pros: huge apartments, huge windows, lots of light, beautiful grounds, great location across from a shopping center (I don't use it as often as I should, but there are lots of people who live here and just walk over to get their groceries at the Food Lion across Jones Ferry Road, and relatives and friends visiting me have done the same thing). University Lake is a few blocks away, and there's a doctor's office and a dentist across the street for those who don't have cars.

There are a number of different bus lines which run by and can get you to UNC, Carrboro, and Chapel Hill. The JFX is an express bus in the morning and evening that gets you to the middle of campus in 10 minutes flat, as does the CM and the CEX. The CW takes a bit longer and goes through Carrboro.

The apartments are well-built and I have never been able to hear anything from another apartment from within my own. There has never been any type of safety problem since I've lived here. There are students, working professionals, young families, older people who have lived here since the complex opened, you name it. I like the variety. People are always out walking their dogs. A nature trail connects Ashbrook to Poplar Place next door, which makes for a very pretty walk.

Cons: There are not furnaces here but "heat pumps," which I will look out for at any apartment I hunt in the future. They simply don't work very well. It's cold in these rooms in the winter-- for instance, today it was 60 degrees outside, but we still had to have the heat on because it was freezing in here. I see a few other people use plastic wrap on the windows and I can't blame them. Houseguests here during the winter have consistently commented that it's just absolutely freezing, and it is. You have to bundle up in sweatshirts, sweaters, etc. Beyond that, the complaints are minor. There's kind of a midday lull in bus service where there's only about one bus per hour, so if you want to get to campus between 11 and about 3pm, you may just have to walk over to Abbey Court to get the J bus. The rent increases have been a bit excessive in my opinion, which has us paying $200 more a month than when we moved in. There used to be a complimentary membership at Carolina Fitness, but that has been done away with in favor of a renovation of the fitness room. Personally, I liked it better before the renovation and I don't like the new stuff, but that's just me.

The landscaping is kept up very well, almost too well because I get annoyed by the workers and their loud machines sometimes.

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