Welcome to Fayettenam. Moving to Bragg was my first time PCSing too. We live in the Haymount neighborhood. It's a very nice and safe historic neighborhood a few blocks from downtown and a short drive to Bragg. It also has the best public schools. Affordable houses can be hard to find but do exist. You just have to spend a lot of time looking. With any large neighborhoods, there are a few questionable areas. As far as schools, I have no idea other than the ones in Haymount. Good luck to you guys!

I agree with the comment above. From what I have gathered, the Terry Sanford school district is the best in Fayetteville. We bought and could not find a home in Haymount that did not require more love and money than we could surrender; Tallywood proved to be a nice alternative. Our realtor was Tim Jackson with Signature Properties (handles rentals as well) and we could not have been happier. He is originally from Fayetteville. Having seen some interesting properties online, he steered us away from them based upon his knowledge of the city and the above mentioned "questionable areas." All of this said, if I had been to Southern Pines prior to our purchase we would have never lived in Fayetteville.

I TOTALLY agree!! Just took a trip to Southern Pines for the first time the other day to go to The Fresh Market. I almost broke down crying because we are stuck in Fayetteville and have this beautiful town right on the other side of base.

Okay. I will admit it. I did cry, but just a little bit. @Thaliasmom Southern Pines is a gorgeous hamlet in the woods. Housing on average is pricier than Fayetteville but there are some true gems at a much lower cost--my friends just purchased a home for $150,000. The streets are lined with old trees, there are lines of shops straddling the railroad tracks, there are a great variety of restaurants, the parks are lush and child friendly, the school system is great, and it has an air of pleasantville. If only!

How far is Southern Pines? My husband wanted to move to Southern Pines Pinehurst Or Aberdeen. But i didnt know how far it is from fort bragg.

Thank you ladies for your input!

Have you ladies heard of any houses on base? Thats our last resort we prefer to live off but since i've never been its kinda hard to find a good house in a good area not to far from base

I cannot speak for traffic, but I know of friends who drive from Southern Pines an average of 35-45 minutes door to door. This can all depend on the distance you live from the closest gate and where your husband will be working at Ft Bragg. It is a very large base. My hubs averages just under 20 minutes during peak hours, but it is much closer to 10 minutes when he is on call overnight. I am completely ignorant to housing options on base. He was stationed here prior to our marriage. As a result, he was assigned the initial task of finding our rental and then we purchased our home. If you have the option to visit ahead of relocating here, I would recommend pestering any woman in the Starbucks at post. They are a decent resource for all things Ft Bragg.

http://spousebuzz.com/blog/2011/03/fort-bragg-infant-death-update.html Maybe I would avoid living on post.

Thanks Lovelymess!! That just made me think twice about living on base.

Heritage Village is off post military housing that is in Raeford about 20 minutes from Fort Bragg. However, I would try for on post housing if I were you as the commute to and from Fort Bragg is a little much. It takes my husband about 30 minutes to get to and from work and we average about $100 in gas a week. Not to mention the fact that he is not able to come home after PT and at lunch like we were used to when we were lived on post at our prior instillation. However, we do not pay electric or water or garbage. And it is a military friendly subdidivison. They do provide a van for the soldiers to use to car pool It requires having 6 soldiers. So there are options

I live on Bragg in ste mere eglise. The houses are old but they have a lot of space, and added benefit. It's nice being able to go home for lunch, and have hot food instead of brown bagging it. The lunch rush is pretty bad here. They call the town, Fayettenam for a reason. The town is really unsafe. They have so many crashes here that they send a civlian crash investigation team to let police know if it's bad enough for them to show up. Besides that, their is a lot of robberies and violence in the community. Just remember to be careful.

Just reading the posts here and, WOW, I do know that times change every 3-4 years but I sure did not know that it is that "unsafe" there. I was posted there in '71 and '78 and we did have problems but being ARMY we did take care of our own. Best of luck to all...