Buying the median home in Fayetteville means financing $230,000. Against the area's $52,000 median household income, that works out to a 4.4x price-to-income ratio.
Fayetteville's 0.85% property tax rate runs below the 1.1% national average. That's $163/month on the median home here, not a rounding error against the mortgage payment.
North Carolina levies a state income tax on top of the $1,451/month this mortgage runs. Model your real after-tax take-home before deciding how much payment you can carry.
Fayetteville's cost of living index is 85, below the 100 national baseline. That's on top of the housing numbers above, not instead of them.
Fayetteville's median home price runs 41% lower than nearby Charlotte: $390,000 there versus $230,000 here.