Aberdeen NC New Construction Homes: Approved Plans vs. Tours

The Ten Pines approval has one condition that says a lot about Aberdeen's new-home pipeline. When the Aberdeen Town Board approved the 305-home subdivision on November 24, 2025, the developer's proffered conditions said the first 225 homes would be built using a main entrance off Arnette and Page Streets. The second access point, at Olivia and Banbury Lanes, opens for regular use only when the town issues the 226th building permit.

That one sentence ties a road connection to a permit count. Approvals across Aberdeen work the same way. A rezoning sets the terms for a future neighborhood. It does not create homes. In fall 2026, a buyer comparing Aberdeen with Southern Pines and Pinehurst will find the town's approval record is much longer than its list of new homes ready for a walkthrough.

Four projects, one model home

Count the approved and proposed residential projects along Aberdeen's main corridors and the four projects below add up to 970 homes. Count the communities where a buyer can walk into a model home this weekend and you get one.

Each row is at a different stage, and each stage takes time. A rezoning comes before engineering review. Engineering review comes before a plat. Utilities and road work come before permits, and permits come before a home a buyer can close on. Each project's approval conditions show where it currently sits on that path.

Martin Farms is the one you can walk through

Aberdeen approved Martin Farms in 2020 for a mix of townhomes and single-family homes on about 230 acres, with The Pilot reporting that full buildout was expected to take upward of five years. Phase 1A was 109 two-story townhomes near the new Aberdeen Elementary School, sharing access from NC 5 via Farrell Parkway. When The Pilot covered the project, the town had approved about 30 building permits, and a 50-home single-family second phase was under review.

As of October 4, 2026, the builder's community page shows a new model open and Tradition Series homes starting at $326,990, with three to five bedrooms and floor plans from 1,764 square feet. One home on the page shows a price reduction. In that same Pilot report, D.R. Horton expected townhome pricing to start in the mid-$200,000s. The two figures describe different points in the project's life, and together they show where Aberdeen's entry point for new construction sits this fall.

Martin Farms also shows what years of entitlement look like in practice. In 2018 the town split the cost of a $902,000 gravity-fed sewer line to serve the new elementary school and the surrounding land, two years before the subdivision was approved. For now the neighborhood has one connection to NC 5, and future phases are planned to add access from Rowe Avenue and Roseland Road.

Ten Pines: a smaller plan with a long list of conditions

The 122.3-acre Ten Pines site already had an approval. A 2019 planned development allowed 370 residential units and 120,000 square feet of retail and office space. Ribera Development's new plan drops the commercial uses and reduces the count to 305 homes plus a religious institution. Sandhills Sentinel reported the developer's price estimate as the high $300,000s to the high $500,000s. Town records list the mix as 56 age-targeted duplexes, 149 medium single-family homes and 100 large single-family homes.

The conditions decide when any of those homes can exist:

1. A builder has to be chosen. At the hearing, a commissioner asked how the homebuilder would be selected. The developer's representative said reputation and build quality would decide it, and that the target was the middle to upper market. The research for this post found no 2026 public report naming a builder.
2. Roads come first. The plan calls for building Page Street from Ten Pines to Arnette Street, adding a rail crossing at Arnette, closing Olivia Lane's vehicle access to NC 5, closing the Olivia Lane rail crossing, and paving Olivia Lane to public road standards up to Cherry Hill Lane inside the CCNC emergency gate.
3. Environmental review comes before grading. Staff noted that significant grading will be needed. An environmental assessment is required before site disturbance because a portion of the site has been identified as foraging habitat linked to a cavity tree within the Country Club of North Carolina.
4. Utilities are still in review. Aberdeen's Technical Review Committee will carry out additional utility analysis.
5. The phases are fixed. The northern part of the property is built first and the southern part second.

These conditions also matter to buyers who aren't shopping in Ten Pines. Anyone looking at an existing home in Jackson Hamlet, the Cottages, or the CCNC homes along Cherry Hill Drive is looking at a street plan that will change. All construction traffic is required to use the Arnette and Page Street entrance, and the developer agreed to post signs and give the Cottages HOA a contact. The approval also includes a 50-foot forest conservation easement along the CCNC property line and sets aside 30.8% of the site as open space, against a 20% minimum.

"The Olivia and Banbury Lane access point will be opened for regular use upon issuance of the 226th building permit." Ten Pines conditions of approval, Aberdeen Town Board minutes, November 24, 2025

Keyser Street and Legacy Lakes have different hurdles

The two smaller projects are held up by different things, which is why grouping all of Aberdeen's approvals together hides what a buyer actually needs to know.

On Keyser Street, the former Aberdeen Primary School site was rezoned in August 2025 for up to 76 attached homes, down from an earlier 85-home layout. The plan keeps the gym and a multipurpose community building and demolishes most of the other school structures. Asbestos remediation and site preparation come next. The work standing between that rezoning and a finished home is demolition and cleanup. No homebuilder was identified in that coverage.

At Legacy Lakes, the issue is infrastructure. Aberdeen approved annexation and R-20 zoning for the 35.5-acre McKee Homes parcel across from Heflin Road on October 27, 2025. On June 4, 2026, McKee Homes proposed 74 single-family homes there as The Cottages at Legacy Lakes. According to Sandhills News, the homes would need a new sewer pump station, a water extension from the highway, and sewer pumped to the existing pump station inside Legacy Lakes. The town's planning staff were reviewing the proposal and consulting utility providers, emergency services and NCDOT. The research for this post found no later approval record. Aberdeen's September 28, 2026 Town Board agenda lists a UDO text amendment, an ordinance amendment and a budget amendment, but no subdivision approval.

NC 5 is being rebuilt at the same time

Martin Farms and Ten Pines both rely on NC 5, and NC 5 is in the middle of a rebuild. NCDOT's U-5756 segment runs from US 1 in Aberdeen to Trotter Drive and Blake Boulevard in Pinehurst. It is part of a $274 million program with a listed completion date of fall 2028. The 3.3 miles from US 1 to Whitney Drive will become a reduced-conflict-intersection corridor. The Pilot reports that this design uses a raised median, limits left turns, and adds U-turn bulbs. New signals are planned at Farrell Parkway by Aberdeen Elementary and at Linden Road, along with a multi-use path of about 10 feet.

For a Martin Farms buyer, that means the route out of the neighborhood will change over the next two years, and the planned signal at Farrell Parkway is part of that change. For Ten Pines, the traffic study the board reviewed counted on the NC 5 widening improvements, plus additional changes the study recommended. Some of that work is already happening. The Pilot reports crews grading and relocating water and sewer lines along NC 5. In June 2026, both directions of NC 5 west of Saunders Avenue were closed for a day and a half to remove a railroad crossing. The combined contract went to Flatiron Fred Smith Company JV.

The town's carrying costs have held steady

Ongoing costs are one thing a buyer can pin down with more confidence than build timelines. Aberdeen's adopted FY 2025–26 budget kept the property tax rate at $0.42 per $100 of valuation and raised residential garbage service by $1 to $20 a month. The budget proposal also recommended a 3% increase in water and sewer usage rates with base rates unchanged, so confirm the current utility schedule with the town. The town manager's May 15, 2026 recommended budget for FY 2026–27 proposed keeping the rate at $0.42. That figure comes from the recommended budget, so confirm the adopted rate with the town before running numbers on a specific home.

A few direct questions

Can I reserve a home in Ten Pines today? As of the November 2025 approval, the developer had not selected a builder, and preliminary and final engineering reviews were still ahead. The research for this post found no public sales launch or builder pricing since then.

Will the Ten Pines prices hold? The high $300,000s to high $500,000s range was the developer's estimate during the approval process. It is not a builder's price list.

I'm buying a resale home near Olivia Lane. What changes? The approved plan closes Olivia Lane's vehicle access to NC 5 and its rail crossing, sends that traffic to Arnette Street, and paves Olivia Lane to public road standards. Several property owners would need to agree before that section could be dedicated as a public road.

When will NC 5 be finished? NCDOT lists fall 2028 for the full program and notes that future dates are subject to change. The research did not find a separate completion date for the Aberdeen segment.

If you are weighing a new Aberdeen home against a resale in Southern Pines or Pinehurst, it helps to know where each of these projects stands before you set your timeline. Cherry Amanatidis can walk you through what is available now, what is still in review, and how the planned NC 5 and Olivia Lane changes affect the homes you are considering. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.