Best PlacesFayetteville, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Fayetteville metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Public domain, City of Fayetteville, via commons
Fayetteville ranks 316th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on crime and walkability. It does better on state finances, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Fayetteville metro
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Fayetteville
The towns and districts of the Fayetteville metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Raeford
Crime runs lower, it is quieter, and more households have young kids.
Linden, Eastover & Wade
Tree cover is thicker and local pay stretches further.
Fort Bragg
Commutes are shorter, though more homes sit empty.
Hope Mills
Fewer adults hold degrees.
Downtown Fayetteville
Heat risk is higher and prices have run up more.
Stedman
Health outcomes score lower.
Spring Lake
Incomes run lower and fewer residents vote.
Fayetteville shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Fayetteville's strengths and weaknesses
Fayetteville ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. State finances, good schools, and fast internet carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: crime, walkability, and biking all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Fayetteville ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of metro areas
- School gradeB, better than 83% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 81% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 76% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 74% of metro areas
Where Fayetteville ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 65 pleasant days a year, better than only 13% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Fayetteville
A household needs to earn about $54,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fayetteville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,344, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Fayetteville's effective rate of 0.88%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Fayetteville
Fayetteville runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Fayetteville.
Who works in Fayetteville, and how
Work in Fayetteville centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Fayetteville
Fayetteville has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Fayetteville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Fayetteville growing, and who is moving in?
Fayetteville has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Harnett County, NC.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Fayetteville go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Fayetteville, month by month
Fayetteville sees roughly 65 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 58° | 45° | 33° |
| April | 79° | 64° | 50° |
| July | 94° | 82° | 72° |
| October | 79° | 65° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Fayetteville
The nearest airport, Fayetteville Regional/Grannis Field, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 58 miles away.
The best schools in and around Fayetteville
Schools across Fayetteville average a B, better than 83% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Beaver Dam ElementaryA · 65% proficient
- Eastover-central ElementaryA · 63% proficient
- Long Hill ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Seventy-first Classical MiddleA+ · 68% proficient
- New Century International MiddleA− · 58% proficient
- John R Griffin MiddleA− · 57% proficient
Top high schools
- Cross Creek Early CollegeA+ · 93% proficient
- Cumberland International Early CollegeA+ · 83% proficient
- Cumberland PolytechnicA+ · 83% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fayetteville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fayetteville measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Fayetteville against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Fayetteville suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Fayetteville
Is Fayetteville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fayetteville ranks 316th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state finances, good schools, and fast internet, and lowest on crime and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fayetteville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $204,783. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $66,344 median income, cost of living beats 20% of metro areas.
Is Fayetteville safe?
Fayetteville is safer than 4% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $615 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Fayetteville?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 58 with lows near 33. That works out to about 65 pleasant days a year, more than 13% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Fayetteville?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Raeford, Linden, Eastover & Wade, and Fort Bragg. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Fayetteville good for families?
Schools beat 83% of metro areas, crime safety beats 4%, and childcare runs $749 a month.
Is Fayetteville good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 20% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 81% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Fayetteville with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fayetteville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fayetteville represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Fayetteville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fayetteville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fayetteville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fayetteville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fayetteville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fayetteville detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.