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Old 06-28-2022, 05:52 PM
 
11 posts, read 11,779 times
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What are everyone's thoughts on Raeford? The reason I'm moving there is that the housing market allows me to own some land.

I drove through the city (literally nothing to see there) and all around the area. I felt it was strange that one moment you'd see a few random $500K+ homes, then a bunch of $300K+ housing subdivisions, a random skydive facility, some new construction aqua center, and a bunch of land clearing going on. I even saw crazy expensive cars like a McLaren and a Ferrari. But I don't understand, there's LITERALLY NOTHING there - who are those people. I heard there's a huge military base next door and those Soldiers have money to burn.

Are they gentrifying the area? Not trying to pay high taxes a few years down the road ...
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Old 06-28-2022, 08:15 PM
 
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
3,623 posts, read 4,454,902 times
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Raeford is one of my least favorite places in the state. It's small, rundown, hot, flat, pretty poor (I am surprised you saw both a McLaren and a Ferrari there??) and boring. That being said, you definitely can get a good chunk of land for a bargain and be pretty isolated, and I would do that myself in the area I think. 10 or so flat sunny acres sounds pretty great no matter where you are though.

I don't think Raeford is in danger of being gentrified. That's generally reserved for big-ish cities, and Raeford is pretty small out lonely out there with plenty of space for new builds if ever needed. I think it's doomed to be depressing for a number of decades to come.
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Old 06-28-2022, 10:31 PM
 
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Originally Posted by LordHelmit View Post
Raeford is one of my least favorite places in the state. It's small, rundown, hot, flat, pretty poor (I am surprised you saw both a McLaren and a Ferrari there??) and boring. That being said, you definitely can get a good chunk of land for a bargain and be pretty isolated, and I would do that myself in the area I think. 10 or so flat sunny acres sounds pretty great no matter where you are though.

I don't think Raeford is in danger of being gentrified. That's generally reserved for big-ish cities, and Raeford is pretty small out lonely out there with plenty of space for new builds if ever needed. I think it's doomed to be depressing for a number of decades to come.

Yeah I've seen a ton of nice cars out there, but I expected mostly trucks and old junkers. A buddy of mine, who I just realized works at Booz Allen in Fayetteville said it was probably medical doctors or defense contractors.

Realtors there say its a "bedroom city" where you buy or build a home but that's basically it.

I looked in Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Aberdeen, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham, and Charlotte but we didn't want to finance 500K+ for a home with less than 2 acres. Although, we loved the areas we visited.

I'm thinking we'll stick with Raeford for now. My job is fully remote but based out of Raleigh.

We also looked at Sanford, but that place was more remote and my wife said hell no.

I saw they're building a big highway through there, in Raeford, forgot what it's called.

Guess I'll wait and see how many country bumpkins I run across. And yes, it was hot as hell when I was there. Felt like Texas
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Old 06-29-2022, 12:34 PM
 
Location: Chapelboro
12,798 posts, read 16,225,724 times
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Look again at Sanford if you want something less expensive. You can be in Chapel Hill, Durham, or Raleigh in 45 min or less.
It is growing and property value will increase. Sanford is definitely not "more remote" than Raeford.

Raeford is a bedroom community for Fort Bragg and Fayetteville. Way too depressing for me to even contemplate living there.
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Old 06-29-2022, 03:58 PM
 
866 posts, read 1,004,771 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by qiqidee View Post
Yeah I've seen a ton of nice cars out there, but I expected mostly trucks and old junkers. A buddy of mine, who I just realized works at Booz Allen in Fayetteville said it was probably medical doctors or defense contractors.

Realtors there say its a "bedroom city" where you buy or build a home but that's basically it.

I looked in Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Aberdeen, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham, and Charlotte but we didn't want to finance 500K+ for a home with less than 2 acres. Although, we loved the areas we visited.

I'm thinking we'll stick with Raeford for now. My job is fully remote but based out of Raleigh.

We also looked at Sanford, but that place was more remote and my wife said hell no.

I saw they're building a big highway through there, in Raeford, forgot what it's called.

Guess I'll wait and see how many country bumpkins I run across. And yes, it was hot as hell when I was there. Felt like Texas
This statement makes no sense to me at all. Raeford has US 1, US 421, US 15-501 and NC 87 all going through its city limits, more federal and state roads than does Raeford. And Sanford has a much bigger population than Raeford as well. Where were you looking at when you visited there?
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Old 06-29-2022, 07:31 PM
 
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
3,623 posts, read 4,454,902 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by qiqidee View Post
Yeah I've seen a ton of nice cars out there, but I expected mostly trucks and old junkers. A buddy of mine, who I just realized works at Booz Allen in Fayetteville said it was probably medical doctors or defense contractors.

Realtors there say its a "bedroom city" where you buy or build a home but that's basically it.

I looked in Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Aberdeen, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham, and Charlotte but we didn't want to finance 500K+ for a home with less than 2 acres. Although, we loved the areas we visited.

I'm thinking we'll stick with Raeford for now. My job is fully remote but based out of Raleigh.

We also looked at Sanford, but that place was more remote and my wife said hell no.

I saw they're building a big highway through there, in Raeford, forgot what it's called.

Guess I'll wait and see how many country bumpkins I run across. And yes, it was hot as hell when I was there. Felt like Texas
To each there own, but Sanford is certainly not isolated and is a much nicer place to live that can still give you several acres at a bargain. I'd live in Sanford any day of the week, but would pretty much never live in Raeford unless I got the deal of a lifetime on a lot of land. Even then idk...as for the expensive cars you were seeing, I imagine they were just passing through. Raeford is pretty heavily poverty-stricken and that will be pervasively obvious when you're there.

Out of curiosity, have you visited Sanford in person?
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Old 06-30-2022, 06:51 AM
 
11 posts, read 11,779 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ozmoe571 View Post
This statement makes no sense to me at all. Raeford has US 1, US 421, US 15-501 and NC 87 all going through its city limits, more federal and state roads than does Raeford. And Sanford has a much bigger population than Raeford as well. Where were you looking at when you visited there?
All we know is, sanford looks more rural because it feels like there's more land available. But as a result, it gave us the impression of it being far too rural , at least for my wife
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Old 06-30-2022, 06:59 AM
 
11 posts, read 11,779 times
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Originally Posted by LordHelmit View Post
To each there own, but Sanford is certainly not isolated and is a much nicer place to live that can still give you several acres at a bargain. I'd live in Sanford any day of the week, but would pretty much never live in Raeford unless I got the deal of a lifetime on a lot of land. Even then idk...as for the expensive cars you were seeing, I imagine they were just passing through. Raeford is pretty heavily poverty-stricken and that will be pervasively obvious when you're there.

Out of curiosity, have you visited Sanford in person?
Yeah we drove through Sanford and looked at land. We also looked in Fuquay. Fuquay was nice but land was bought up or way outside our budget.

In Sanford, we found a nice lot but there were a lot of mobile homes around and people had junk all over their yards like cars and stuff. So we didn't want to build and have to see that everytime.

There was a new subdivision or was going to be a subdivision, in Sanford, guess the developer stopped, nice homes with tons of acreage. It was like 45-50min from Raleigh. The only issue was part of the land (about 10 acres) was swamp and we couldn't develop it or do anything with it bc it was protected or something

So then we said let's look in Raeford, since it's closet to Fayetteville and Bragg and probably has more there (which it definitely does not). But we saw a few lots and homes for a deal.

We looked in two new subdivisions they have there, but since their lots were less than an acre, we looked further out in Raeford
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Old 06-30-2022, 01:03 PM
 
Location: Chapelboro
12,798 posts, read 16,225,724 times
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But being closer to Fayetteville and Fort Bragg is a disadvantage. Why would you want to be closer to there unless you work there or are military stationed there?

Sanford all day long over Raeford. Coulda been drug dealer cars you saw in Raeford. It's not a nice place.
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Old 06-30-2022, 01:11 PM
 
11 posts, read 11,779 times
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Originally Posted by poppydog View Post
But being closer to Fayetteville and Fort Bragg is a disadvantage. Why would you want to be closer to there unless you work there or are military stationed there?

Sanford all day long over Raeford. Coulda been drug dealer cars you saw in Raeford. It's not a nice place.
So we looked at getting close to bragg and Fayetteville bc I work as a Software Engineering Manager at Raytheon. They said I needed to relocate for that role and (a guy there told me to avoid living in Fayetteville.)

Due to the clearance requirement, i have to be onsite too for a specific project. So that played a role into it.

We haven't put any offers in Raeford yet, but my wife is looking on zillow every day
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