Best Places to Live in Sandhills & Fayetteville
This region's four towns serve four genuinely distinct kinds of movers: golf/retirement (Pinehurst), equestrian/historic small-town retirement (Southern Pines), military relocation (Fayetteville), and manufacturing/life-sciences-workforce affordability (Sanford).
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Learn morePinehurst: World-Class Golf and Retirement
Pinehurst is the unambiguous pick for golf-focused retirees and buyers -- Pinehurst No. 2 has hosted the U.S. Open three times (plus 2024) and is committed as a USGA Anchor Site through 2047, and the USGA's second headquarters (Golf House Pinehurst) and the relocated World Golf Hall of Fame both opened here in 2024. Its demographic skew is real and disclosed: a median age of 60.6, more than double the U.S. median, and a well-above-average median household income of $109,802.
Southern Pines: Equestrian Tradition and a Walkable Historic Downtown
Southern Pines is the pick for buyers wanting a genuine, century-old equestrian identity (the Moore County Hounds, NC's oldest fox hunt; the 4,000-acre Walthour-Moss Foundation; the Carolina Horse Park) paired with a real walkable historic downtown Pinehurst's golf-club-centered layout doesn't have. Its median age (38.7) runs notably younger than Pinehurst's despite sitting minutes away, though it still carries a real, Census-documented retiree draw (25.6% of residents 65-plus) -- a genuinely different, more mixed-age town than its famous neighbor.
Fayetteville: Military Relocation at Scale
Fayetteville is the region's (and one of the state's) clearest fits for military relocation -- Fort Bragg is home to the U.S. Army's XVIII Airborne Corps, the 82nd Airborne Division, and U.S. Army Special Operations Command headquarters, with a cited $8.3 billion annual direct-plus-indirect economic impact to the Cape Fear Region. Its median age (30.7) runs well below every other town in this region, a direct reflection of PCS-driven population churn. Downtown revitalization is real and documented -- Segra Stadium ($40 million, opened 2019) catalyzed more than $120 million in additional investment, next to the Airborne & Special Operations Museum (3 million-plus visitors since 2000).
Sanford: Manufacturing Affordability and an Aspiring Life-Sciences Hub
Sanford is the pick for buyers prioritizing manufacturing-sector employment and affordability within reach of the Triangle -- Caterpillar (a 26-year presence, adding roughly 600 more jobs as of May 2026), 3M, Pentair, Tyson Foods, Moen, and Coty all operate here, and Central Carolina Community College's biotech-training building positions the town as an aspiring life-sciences workforce hub within 45 minutes of Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and NC State. One major nearby project needs an honest caveat, though: the VinFast EV/battery megafactory in neighboring Chatham County (not Lee County, though close to Sanford) is not operational as of August 2026 -- construction was abandoned in December 2024, and North Carolina's Attorney General sued VinFast in May 2026 to reclaim the site. Anyone drawn to Sanford by that project's original jobs promise should treat it as an unresolved, litigated situation, not a coming-soon employer.
Key takeaways
- Pinehurst is the clear pick for golf-focused retirees (USGA Anchor Site through 2047, median age 60.6); Southern Pines offers a younger, more mixed-age alternative minutes away with a genuine equestrian and historic-downtown identity.
- Fayetteville is the region's clearest fit for military relocation (Fort Bragg, XVIII Airborne Corps, USASOC) and has the youngest population in the region by a wide margin (median age 30.7).
- Sanford fits manufacturing-sector employment and affordability-focused buyers within reach of the Triangle, but the nearby VinFast megafactory (Chatham County) should be treated as a troubled, litigated project, not a reliable near-term employer.
- These four towns are not interchangeable "Sandhills" options -- each fits a genuinely different kind of mover, more so than most other regional groupings in this dataset.
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