I am happy with my place for the price that I pay. On the up side, there is great light/windows, the management is responsive to any issue and usually comes within the day or the next day to deal with maintenence requests. The pool and gym are are quite nice. (However on some summer Saturdays the pool is taken over by frat bros, but I guess this is a college town.) There is a starbucks coffee machine in the club house. There is also a package locker system where deliveries are stored until you can pick them up--keeps anything you order very secure. However, it should be noted that these apartments are cheaply constructed. The cabinets are made with particle board (which are prone to water damage), the "wood" floors are actually plastic laminate material made to look like wood, and the countertops are a cheap kind of formica or something that takes up stains very quickly (will stain after having a cup of coffee or glass of wine on it for a few minutes). I will also admit that I moved into a place that had not been turned over for three years (I took over the lease of someone who was graduating and roommate was staying on), and for that reason my place was in bad shape when I arrived and needed a lot of cleaning. Perhaps the places that you rent new are nicer or cleaner.

We have had a decent experience at the Belmont. There is a nice jogging trail in the back around a lake, a comfortable lounge, workout room and pool. The apartments are a little older and need some maintenance, but the maintenance workers do a good job at responding to requests. There have been some recent break-ins at the apartment complex, but we currently have increased security around the complex.

I love living at the belmont for its location. It is close to the Duke Medical School and Hospital. It is a little pricer than other areas, but you are definitely paying for its great location.
Unfortunately, in the past few months, there has been an uptick in crime in the area. However, the Belmont staff have been good at reacting to this - they have hired a security firm and made the entry ways to the apartments more secure.

Belmont was an affordable apartment complex in a good location with amenities like a gym, clubhouse, etc. However, in the past year there have been 4 armed robberies within the complex. The action of the management was slow in my opinion.

Convenient location - can walk or take the bus if it's running.
Free Starbucks coffee.
Had several robberies in rapid succession which was extremely concerning. They did respond by increasing security presence but unclear how long this will continue. Walking back when it's dark outside is now a legitimate concern.

Multiple armed robberies and cockroaches though management tries their best to get rid of them.

There were a series a robberies (and then armed robberies) that happened while I lived there. The management wasnt great, especially at the beginning, of communicating about the incidents. While they increased the police presence after the armed robberies persisted, they havent made permanent changes like installing flood lighting or video cameras. They did let us out of our lease early though.

Risking your lifeb if staying here.

Belmont is overall a nice place to live with peaceful nature within the community. The clubhouse has just been renovated so everything is quite new and updated. The gym and study rooms are good.
I would say it gets harder if your apartment is in the back of the community because you would have to walk quite a distance to the bus stop. Check the map before you decide. But there's also back gate that you can walk to a small restaurant area including Chipotle and Dunkin Donuts.
Belmont is mainly different from other apartments in the vicinity in that it's structured like an actual home where you have your own entrance as opposed to hotel/condominium-like style where you enter the main entrance that leads to rooms down the hallway. So the latter might be a little bit safer in a way.
There were some scary incidents regarding armed robberies in the community; four happened within a 2-week span which was quite unacceptable. Me and my roommate were so freaked out and paranoid we could not sleep and kept having nightmares for quite some time. It stressed us out to live under this condition.
The management tried to fix this, of course, coordinating with the police, hiring more security, but still, this was a very frustrating time. So you might want to keep that in mind.
Last thing I would like to mention was the pest problem. I lived on the first floor and experienced cockroaches problem for a few weeks. I could confidently say that my apartment was super clean so I was confused when this happened. I wish the maintenance could have responded sooner to our request but when they came, the cockroaches actually stopped showing up. So pest control worked.

Belmont has decent apartments and facilities. Although this year we had concerns with respect to safety. In the month of November, there were 4-5 robberies in the apartments and the response from the authorities was highly unacceptable and inadequate.