Tell me about Whispering Pines, NC (Southern Pines, Pinehurst: HOA fees, hotel, homes)

[smd669]

Okay...give me the good bad, etc. I have searched online but dont get much info. Is there a town there...what's it like, etc...

[NCDad]

I am sorry that no one every answered your question about Whispering Pines, NC. I hope those who have the same question, the information below will help.

Whispering Pines, NC (AKA the Village of Whispering Pines) is one of the best kept secrets. It is a residential community that boarders Southern Pines and Pinehurst.

Whispering Pines has it own fire department, police, and town hall. It has several private lakes and parks for residents to use. Only one will allow motor boats. It has walking and bike trails throughout the village and county. Golf is a big thing in Moore County, so you have many courses to choose from. Some are private, semi-private, and public. They also have Tennis Courts, and club pools. WP has their own golf course and club house. For the holidays, they prepare wonderful meals for those occasions for a fair price. WP also has a second golf course that includes a restaurant. Some locals and families love to attend their themed specials.

WP is covered in long pines, dogwoods, myrtles, and other various trees, rolling hills, and flat land. The soil is a mixture of sand with some clay...all in all, it absorbs the rain and I never hear of flooding in WP. It is green all year long with evergreens. In the spring it is magnificent with all the flowers, and in fall with the brilliant bursts of autumn colors. Winter is sweater weather with a few weeks of cold weather requiring jackets. A rarity is a ice storm...but when it does happen, it looks like a winterland with shimmering icicles hanging from the pines and trees--It is absolutely gorgeous to look at...this is a rarity and generally melts within a day or two. It does snow, but it is not common. It lasts for a day or two, then melts. It definitely has 4 mild seasons. Summer, like all places is hot. A few weeks it is humid, but no where near that of Florida. Bottom line is that Whispering Pines is a beautiful place to live.

The wildlife includes deers, little critters, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Finches, Blue Birds, Towhees (sp), and other variety of birds. A must is to have a bird feeder. You will be captivated for hours seeing all the varieties come throughout the day to feed with their babies. Make sure to have plenty of hummingbird feeders too...if you sit still, they will come over to check you out. My children are just fascinated by it all.

If you love gardening, WP is zone 7. Nearby are Peach and Apple Orchards; U-Pick Strawberries, Blueberries, blackberries, watermelons, cantelopes, and raspberries. Local farmers sell their vegetables such as corn, collards, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and other various produce. A friendly elderly man sits in his van near the traffic circle in Pinehurst and sells local produce too.

Whispering Pines has one elementary school, Farmlife Elementary School, K-5th grade. The teachers are great, all with a B.A. or Masters Degree. Kindergarten has two teachers per class and for the 1st-4th grade, each class has a teacher and Assistant teacher. The class size is small, about 21 per class...then if it exceeds that amount, they hire more teachers. The school ranks very high for the area and in NC. The school bus will pick up your children in front of your house. If you are not there waiting in your yard, the bus driver will not let your kids off the bus unless you make arrangements otherwise ahead of time. They do try to call you, but if you do not answer the phone, they will take your child back to the school after their run for you to pick up. Depending how you look at it, it is either a good thing or an inconvenience. But you have to admire that your child's well being is top priority.

Housing has not been affected too much by the market as the prices in WP have been stable...yet you can still get a lot for your money. You can find a cute older home for around $100,000. The average is about $350,000 and larger homes on up. Most are brick, brick and wood siding, and some have the new composite siding. The homes consist of mostly single story ranch style and some two stories. Many come with basements and/or walkouts. They are on nice sized lots from 1/4 to over 1 acre. This is an older community, so the homes range from the 1980's on up. A word of caution here, Whispering Pines is not located in or near Carthage or is associated with that city. The only reason the zip code may be confused with Carthage is that Carthage Post Office is contracted to handle the mail for Whispering Pines.

WP has garbage pickup at your door twice a week--people have their trash cans in front of their garages or by their front steps. They pick up your yard trimmings once a week, but the cans have to be near the road. If you have a tree that you cut down, it must be bound in 3 ft bundles. WP does not have any HOA fees and has the lowest property taxes. The residents are a mixture of retires and families. The people here will wave at you as you drive by, so please smile and wave back.

Shopping is done in Aberdeen, 7 miles away. Aberdeen has all the shops and stores for now. A new Harris Teeter Shopping Center is being built nearby that will include high end shoppes. Harris Teeter is an upscale store that not only has great food, but fair prices as well. Their meats and seafood are excellent. Harris Teeter has a reputation of keeping a clean store, rotates, and has friendly service. Food Lion is also being built at the opposite end of W.P. It is suppose to be one of their upscale store models.

In Pinehurst, adjacent to WP is the airport. This is an airport that has small planes. Private jets during Pinehurst Golf Tournaments use this facility. WP does not have any bad areas. Southern Pines and Pinehurst boarders Whispering Pines. Whispering Pines is a residential community and does have a few business.

ADJACENT COMMUNITIES. Between the three cities, WP is the best. Southern Pines has nice and bad areas. They have a wonderful downtown area full of mom & pop shoppes, great to spend several hours going through them. They also have a local theater. Pinehurst is known for its golf tournaments and stately homes. They too have a quaint downtown with a block of shoppes--spend an hour going through and perhaps have lunch or tea there. Breakfast at their hotel is nice too. They also have a wonderful 4th of July display. A negative I was told by some Pinehurst homeowners is that they are very controlling...they have neighborhood patrols who love to find something wrong--you have to get permission for everything. They too have nice and bad areas since they were forced to annex several local cities. I will leave that debate for those who live there.

I hope this answers you questions about what Whispering Pines is like. I can only rave on how nice it is to live in.

It is about 40-45 min from Ft. Bragg if you take the back roads...locals can share the route they take that is quick. WP is near US1 and 15-501 access.