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Old 04-24-2008, 01:32 PM
 
8 posts, read 83,220 times
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My husband is part of the Army Rangers, and has just received his orders that his permanent duty station will be Fort Bragg, NC. We currently live in Northern California and will be moving out there in a couple of months. We are both young, with no children. I am an RN and will hopefully continue to work as one in North Carolina. With that being said, I am looking for a safe, friendly area (family minded as I hope to have children soon) with decent house prices. I am not used to the Southern heat yet, so anywhere that’s more of a wooded like area, or near a body of water would be good. I’d love to purchase a home (my budget is no more than 200,000 for a three bedroom, 2 bath hopefully updated home) somewhat close to the base (although I don’t really want to be right next to the base as I hear it isn’t a good area). My husband is willing to commute up to 45 minutes.

I don’t really want to live in the city; I’d like more of a small town feel. Plenty of natural beauty, and hopefully that Southern Charm! Please let me know what areas I should be looking at… thanks!
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Old 04-24-2008, 09:53 PM
 
223 posts, read 1,062,213 times
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Southern Pines or Sanford would both be good options for you. Both are less than a 45 min commute to Ft. Bragg, and meet your criteria. Southern Pines has the edge for beauty and charm. While neighboring Pinehurst has a large number of retirees, Southern Pines has a greater mix of all ages. The downtown is lovely, and on any given evening you will find people out walking, eating at one of the many restaurants, at the theatre or listening to music. First Health of the Carolinas is a top notch medical facility/network in the area and a great place to work.
Sanford is a nice town as well, and is ideally located and less than 45 mins. to Ft. Bragg, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Southern Pines and Asheboro. A number of military and civilian employees live in both towns and commute to Bragg, so I think you'd find a support network in either place.
Fayetteville does get a bad rep on this forum, but there actually are some good neighborhoods to be found. It is a much bigger city than the other two though, so not a small town environment.
It is hot and humid all over central NC, but there are plenty of trees everywhere and a number of developments on small lakes. I suggest checking out the communities mentioned and see what is to your liking.
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Old 04-25-2008, 10:22 AM
 
260 posts, read 1,187,745 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jumpingbean411 View Post
My husband is part of the Army Rangers, and has just received his orders that his permanent duty station will be Fort Bragg, NC. We currently live in Northern California and will be moving out there in a couple of months. We are both young, with no children. I am an RN and will hopefully continue to work as one in North Carolina. With that being said, I am looking for a safe, friendly area (family minded as I hope to have children soon) with decent house prices. I am not used to the Southern heat yet, so anywhere that’s more of a wooded like area, or near a body of water would be good. I’d love to purchase a home (my budget is no more than 200,000 for a three bedroom, 2 bath hopefully updated home) somewhat close to the base (although I don’t really want to be right next to the base as I hear it isn’t a good area). My husband is willing to commute up to 45 minutes.

I don’t really want to live in the city; I’d like more of a small town feel. Plenty of natural beauty, and hopefully that Southern Charm! Please let me know what areas I should be looking at… thanks!

You might want to look at Fuquay Varina. My husband was supposed to get stationed at Ft. Bragg so we bought a small home In Fuquay.. unfortunatly his
orders changed and they sent him overseas to Afghan. for 16 months. The housing is really affordable.

I only have good things to say about the area. It has a small town feel, yet
has lots of restaurants, walmart, parks and really cute down town areas (2). We love it there and hope to move there full time.

I think it's about a 40 min commute..?? unsure so you may want to check into that.
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Old 04-25-2008, 03:27 PM
 
8 posts, read 83,220 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MariGirl View Post
Southern Pines or Sanford would both be good options for you. Both are less than a 45 min commute to Ft. Bragg, and meet your criteria. Southern Pines has the edge for beauty and charm. While neighboring Pinehurst has a large number of retirees, Southern Pines has a greater mix of all ages. The downtown is lovely, and on any given evening you will find people out walking, eating at one of the many restaurants, at the theatre or listening to music. First Health of the Carolinas is a top notch medical facility/network in the area and a great place to work.
Sanford is a nice town as well, and is ideally located and less than 45 mins. to Ft. Bragg, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Southern Pines and Asheboro. A number of military and civilian employees live in both towns and commute to Bragg, so I think you'd find a support network in either place.
Fayetteville does get a bad rep on this forum, but there actually are some good neighborhoods to be found. It is a much bigger city than the other two though, so not a small town environment.
It is hot and humid all over central NC, but there are plenty of trees everywhere and a number of developments on small lakes. I suggest checking out the communities mentioned and see what is to your liking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks so much, I will make sure to check out both of these areas! I am already so excited to move to the area… reading these posts it seems like the state of NC is filled with genuinely nice, helpful people!

I looked at Pinehurst, but had not yet checked out Southern Pines, so I will have to do that! Thanks again for all your help, and feel free to give me any other tips or hints!
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Old 04-25-2008, 04:18 PM
 
Location: Eastern TN
420 posts, read 1,527,080 times
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Southern Pines is gorgeous, quiet and has quite a range of properties including many on lakes (ex. Seven Lakes). It's very different from NoCal, but is lovely in its own way. Enjoy the land of the long leaf pine!
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Old 05-13-2008, 09:07 AM
 
Location: Sanford, NC
635 posts, read 3,082,284 times
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Thumbs up Defintely check out Sanford

We moved to Sanford, by way of a year in Cary, from San Jose, CA about 2 years ago.... and haven't looked back. Although I've lived all over the country, my wife was a born and raised NorCal girl, and we're very happy here.

Now, I'll never say that we don't miss aspects of California, or that perhaps if we won the lottery that we'd even consider going back(all her family is there). But we love our new adopted home, and have never had more friends than we do here. In my decade in California, and her whole lifetime there, comparatively we've made more friends here in a year than that entire time.

California is go-go-go, but in a city the size of Sanford, the pace is much more relaxed. But that's not to say it is stagnant. Many things are happening, and given the size of Sanford, you can personally make a difference and see your impact.

When someone opens a store here, it makes the news. I've organized city council campaign debates in our neighborhood. The mayor and city manager knows us by name, and waves at us when we run into them in public. And we've been able to make several noticeable impacts to our community, in only about a year. That's hard to do in a larger city, and especially somewhere like parts of CA where the populace is so transient. Here people put down roots, and want to make a difference.

And Sanford is an ideal location for those stationed at Ft. Bragg, and we have loads of career military in our area.

Check out:

Lee County Readies for BRAC Impacts (http://leecountync.gov/press-releases-1/lee-county-readies-for-brac-impacts.html - broken link)

default (http://leecountync.gov/brac/?lnav=1 - broken link)


And houses in the price range you are looking at are exactly what Sanford can offer. Plus, since Sanford is growing and wasn't "overdeveloped" during the boom, our house prices are still affordable, but appreciating in many cases.

I don't know if you are interested in older homes, but Sanford has four National Historic Districts, and one Local District - Rosemount McIver Park, which is where we live. Again, unlike some areas, we have seen two houses in our neighborhood only be on the market for weeks before selling. I think this is because we have competitive house values, a good location, and people see the potential.

Again we have many military, current and past, that live in our neighborhood, and we always seem to have a handful of great restored, unrestored, or "midway done" historic homes on the market for any family.

And even if older urban historic neighborhoods aren't your cup of tea, Sanford is small enough that in just 5 minutes you can also look into houses sitting on an acre, 5 acres, or 20 acres of land.

To get an idea of our Rosemount McIver Park neighborhood, you can look at our woefully outdated website:
Moderator cut: url removed

But that at least will give you some information from the links/info section about the city, neighborhood, and area.

Given its ideal location midway between Raleigh, Durham/CH, and Fayetteville... not to mention less than an hour from Greensboro.... I think Sanford is going to see significant growth and continued investment. But I also think it is just far enough away from those same cities to resist overbuilding and will retain some degree of its small town charm. Hopefully that balance will remain. I think it will, and I think Sanford has some of the best potential of any of the cities in the area.

Also, if you do a search for "Sanford" here at City-Data under the North Carolina forums, you'll find several threads.

Here are a couple:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/ralei...ford-area.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/ralei...-sandford.html

The second one has a bunch of links to other posts in my reply.


Check it out, and good luck

Al

Last edited by autumngal; 05-13-2008 at 10:15 AM.. Reason: RE links not permitted please
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Old 06-03-2008, 05:27 PM
 
1 posts, read 28,531 times
Reputation: 10
Default Im moving from NorCal too!

HI there! I re-classed in the Army (from Marines) and have orders to go to Ft. Bragg in July. My wife lives in Concord and we just cant wait to move! I think we are going to rent for a while because of possible deployments. My wife will be working in Raleigh and I would like to move somewhere in between. I have also heard good things about Sanford and The "pine" areas. Safety and commute times are my primary concerns. No kids, just a dog. Any ideas???

ps. Sorry about jumping on your thread, but looks like we have a lot in common. Thanks!
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Old 06-03-2008, 08:07 PM
 
Location: Southeastern Cumberland County
983 posts, read 3,971,481 times
Reputation: 818
There's also EAST of Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg! Eastover is just a 10 minute drive down I-295 to town. Still small enough and far enough out to feel like you're in the country, but close enough to town to be convenient. Lots of nice housing going up in the area, good schools too.
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Old 06-03-2008, 09:02 PM
 
106 posts, read 511,106 times
Reputation: 48
Quote:
Originally Posted by jumpingbean411 View Post
My husband is part of the Army Rangers, and has just received his orders that his permanent duty station will be Fort Bragg, NC. We currently live in Northern California and will be moving out there in a couple of months. We are both young, with no children. I am an RN and will hopefully continue to work as one in North Carolina. With that being said, I am looking for a safe, friendly area (family minded as I hope to have children soon) with decent house prices. I am not used to the Southern heat yet, so anywhere that’s more of a wooded like area, or near a body of water would be good. I’d love to purchase a home (my budget is no more than 200,000 for a three bedroom, 2 bath hopefully updated home) somewhat close to the base (although I don’t really want to be right next to the base as I hear it isn’t a good area). My husband is willing to commute up to 45 minutes.

I don’t really want to live in the city; I’d like more of a small town feel. Plenty of natural beauty, and hopefully that Southern Charm! Please let me know what areas I should be looking at… thanks!
check out spring lake--not far from the base and nice -my dtr lived there for a short time . Also a 2nd on sanford
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Old 06-04-2008, 05:54 PM
 
66 posts, read 283,983 times
Reputation: 35
We live in Southern Pines and a lot of my neighbors are Special Ops. It is a great family town where you can walk to the farmer's market on Sat or catch a movie at the local theater. A good selection of restaurants in the town and shopping is 5 min away in Aberdeen.

The entrance to Bragg is at one end of town.
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