Moving to Laurinburg, Pinehurst, or Lumberton (Charlotte, Raleigh: for sale, real estate market, apartment complex)

[NCSC]

If you can stand the commute time, I think you would like Southern Pines or Fayetteville the best. Fayetteville is larger than the others, and gives you more options in everything. All of these will be much different than living in a suburb of DC. More rural than metro area. You need to come and visit to decide which one you'd like best.

[clodhopper]

coming from DC area, You might be like my sister and drive around wondering where all the traffic has disappeared to.

[LindaGlover]

My daughter is a student at UNCP. She absolutely loves the campus, students and staff, but is miserable with the area it is in. There is absolutely nothing to do including in the Lumberton area. If she didn't love the small campus atmosphere and have her Sorority sisters and classes to keep her busy she would have transferred out this year. She is certain to leave after her Sophmore year, but only because of the town.

My husband was born and raised in Raeford (not far from UNCP),so between them both I am hearing too many stories about the area not being safe. Of course it has me concerned, but she loves the campus and small classes with personalized attention.

Have you considered looking in SC right over the NC/SC line? There are some small towns there as well you might be interested in. Otherwise Pinehurst is a quiet golf course community, nice and well maintained and very settled. Fayettville is larger than others you mentioned with many things going on to keep you busy. Choice of schools, shopping, entertainment, etc and only a 45 minute drive.

Good Luck and I know you will love UNCP. The entire faculty has been wonderful to the students and families that attend.

[MariGirl]

[quote=MariGirl;712079] The O'Neal School in SoPines is a well-regarded public school (K-12) that attracts students from several surrounding counties, including a fair number from Laurinburg. There are also religious schools.


Didn't catch my error till now, but meant to type that O'Neal is a private school,not public. (Fingers were just flying too fast...sorry!)

[alice_61]

I had a friend who was a counselor at UNC Pembroke. She wanted to be near the beach so she lived in Whiteville. I don't what the town was like but she enjoyed being only 45 minutes from the beach and she had tons of free pecans in the fall.

[joanchris2000]

I said in an earlier that I had never been to Laurinburg...turns out I've driven through a few times, just didn't remember Anyhow, nothing great or horrible from driving through a few miles.

[mm34b]

Originally Posted by alice_61

I had a friend who was a counselor at UNC Pembroke. She wanted to be near the beach so she lived in Whiteville.

I bet that's an interesting commute from Pembroke. Probably over an hour each way. I commuted from Lumberton to Whiteville for two years. Hated the drive.

[friendnc]

I would personally choose Pinehurst. Very beautiful area.

[junie]

Thank you so much for offering good information

I think my family had better explore sometime soon. By the way, I am so glad to be surrounded with good and friendly people of North Carolina. I appreciate great helps of yours.

[gonzotg]

The lowdown on Laurinburg...

Having moved here from OH (Cleveland /Akron area) 4 yrs ago I can tell you what to expect good, bad or otherwise in this area.

First, the schools. You will find that the area in general (not just Laurinburg) fares worse on standardized testing then your home area. Having moved from the midwest for my family this was this biggest hurdle. Another poster mentioned the ONeil school as a private school option there is also Marlboro
Academy which is just over the SC line as an alternate for private school. Please don't misinterpret, a good education is attainable through the public system here but dropout rates are high and SAT scores are low on AVG. (even for NC).

My wife finished here MBA at Pembroke commuting from LBG and it was very tollerable.

Housing costs are very low and although the tax rate is one of, if not the highest in the state it would be significantly less expensive to live in this area then in a burb of DC.

Laurinburg does have a very active youth soccer group occupying most of the local college's (St. Andrews) practice fields in the fall.

I have found the people to be nice and genuine in my experience.

Expect NO fine dining and gourmet grocery. You will have to go to pinehurst for that. Just don't go for the early bird specials as the median age of the populace is 50 something.

Living in the DC area you may be no stranger to a high crime rate. Laurinburg has a high rate for its size. I attribute most of this to the fact that it is an economically depressed community. Lots of drug arrests and violent crime although most comes out of "the bad side of the tracks"

In LBG you are:

30 -45 min from Fayetteville

2 - hours from Charlotte

1:45 - from Raleigh

2:30 -3:00 from Myrtle Beach

St. Andrews is a small private college with their highlight being the equestrian program. They are very close knit and have almost no presence in the community. Seeing a student around town is kind of a "where's Waldo" affair.

Shopping is anchored around the obligatory Uber Wal Mart and Lowes, but a couple strip malls exist with a Belk (Hudson's for you Yankees) Radio Shack and small shops.

Health care is adequate although not great and takes a back seat to Moore County in terms of available services and reputation.