Best Place For For a Family Near Ft. Bragg/Pope? (Charlotte: sales, crime)

[cutiemama3]

We are moving from Charlotte, NC to the Fayetteville area and need help deciding where to focus our house hunting efforts! We have 3 small girls, so we were thinking Moore County for the schools? Maybe Pinehurst or Southern Pines? I know my husband also liked a subdivision in Vass, NC called Woodlake? Any imput would be greatly appreciated! We love safe, smaller towns with charm!

[MariGirl]

Southern Pines, Pinehurst, and Whispering Pines are all very nice areas. They are adjacent to each other, though Pinehurst is the most upscale and expensive of the 3. Whispering Pines is the smallest. Both S.P. and Pinehurst have lovely downtown areas, walkable/charming. These towns have been known primarily as golf communities for retirees, but in the past few years this has changed a lot as many younger families have moved to the area. New restaurants, stores and sport facilities have been built in response to the changing demographics.

Woodlake is an attractive development, though somewhat isolated. For a similiar feel you may want to look a bit further north up 87 at Carolina Trace in Sanford (Lee County). You can google the website for Carolina Trace - lovely community with mix of ages as well. It's about a 30 min. drive to Fayetteville from there, and 10 mins into Sanford which is a bit larger than Southern Pines and Pinehurst. Plenty of folks commute to Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg from all of the above mentioned towns.

Finally, don't know if you've checked out Fayetteville to live in, but I would encourage you to do so. Yes, it has it's drawbacks, but it also has some very good areas as well, which you'll see if you explore a bit. Good luck!

[cutiemama3]

Thank you for your help! We only have a few weeks to make this move, so we are scrambling to figure out where to live!!

[havin fun]

Woodlake is very nice, but has had problems in the past with "high water". Homes don't actually flood, but getting in or out of the developement has been a problem. 13 miles from grade school and about 18-19 miles to middle and high school.
Southern Pines/Pinehurst/Aberdeen is a further commute (@ 10 minutes) to Fayetteville/Bragg/Pope, for the commuter, but closer to schools. Someone is going to spend some time commuting-either your children on a bus or the "breadwinner" to work.

[FairwaysandGreens]

There are several nice places to live in and around Ft. Bragg. Moore county does have options, but quite a commute to Bragg. 20-30 minutes depending on where on post he will be working-there are many back roads that cut through the base that shorten commute from moore county areas. Cumberland county includes cities such as fayetteville and spring lake is quite nice and offers alot to do in area. I would look for the developments outside of any city jurisdiction-no city taxes and much more pleasent not dealing with local politics-the eastover community which includes baywood development all east of river-south would be the grays creek community that includes the cypress lakes development-look for alot of new construction around grays creek high school and gallberry farms elementary school-good schools and lots of military families in area-also outside of hope mills city limits which is good. You do not want to move inside Hope Mills-the city mayor there said that military families do not count because they are transient. all schools are good in pinhurst area, in cumberland county would look at cape fear schools-this is eastover area and greys creek schools. Wish you good luck!

[NCDad]

I have to say that Whispering Pines, NC is the best. It is a residential community with a few businesses. Being built within a mile is Harris Teeter with upscale shoppes. On the far end of WP they are building an upscale Food Lion. Crime is low because it is a small community with their own Police Dept., Fire Dept. and Village Hall. Resident only are permitted to use the lakes and parks. Whispering Pines consists of families and retires. Of the three, Whispering Pines overall is the nicest.

As far as Ft. Bragg, those who commute there know the back roads to take that avoids traffic. It is the number 1 choice of the Officers with families.

[roncorey1]

Originally Posted by FairwaysandGreens

You do not want to move inside Hope Mills-the city mayor there said that military families do not count because they are transient.

I don't blame Mayor Dees for saying what he said (as it applies to active duty). The "fear" of taxes among military and DOD employees continues to baffle me! Why do people that make their living off of the federal government and taxpayers avoid paying any kind of local tax? Could it be that they couldn't care less about the communities that they live in? Everybody wants "good schools", but doesn't want to pay taxes. Everybody wants "safety", but doesn't want to pay taxes.

So go ahead and live 25 or 30 miles from where you work. Enjoy your little "safe" towns in Hoke, Moore (not Carthage of course), and Lee (ugh!) counties. Just don't die of boredom. Watch out for all the illegal aliens. You'll end up coming to "FayetteNam" to do all of your shopping and eating out anyway!

And if Fayetteville is so bad, as so many on these posts that deal with military/DOD/contractors moving to that area suggest, then why are there so many retirees and vets living there permanently??

[faabala]

I'm sure I could argue about what you actually get for the extra city tax money. But I won't. We've decided to buy a home inside the city limits and not in the county like I had originally wanted. The house in the county was more then the one in the city so with the higher taxes the payment will even out and we will be closer to our work, shopping and entertainment.

[ladybug07]

There is come county that is close to everything.
Good places to live are touch and go. You can be on say Cliffdale and see a good area to live then go down the road a bit and be in an area not so good.
Something I have learned about here recently is that Cumberland County has the Choice schools option. I dont care for the school that my oldest would be attending, so we are putting in an application for a choice school that is closer to our home than the school he would be assigned to is.
We did look into buying in Hope Mills, but it didnt work out. The house we wanted to get was already sold but was still listed on the MLS.

The "fear" of taxes among military and DOD employees continues to baffle me! Why do people that make their living off of the federal government and taxpayers avoid paying any kind of local tax? Could it be that they couldn't care less about the communities that they live in? Everybody wants "good schools", but doesn't want to pay taxes. Everybody wants "safety", but doesn't want to pay taxes.

Sorry, I have to disagree with you. Not only do we pay federal taxes, we also pay sales taxes, county (and for some city taxes) and the spouses have to pay state income taxes if we work because we are not able to claim "home of record" like the military member does. The commissary on post we have to pay a surcharge of 5% on everything we purchase there. So I hardly think that is a valid case to argue.
Myself along with other spouses have no issue with paying taxes for the local area.