PINEHURST — Michael Jordan is taking flight from the NBA, will his Airness land in North Carolina? The rumor mill is working overtime in Moore County where Jordan may build a new place to call home.

Jordan bought land there a little more than one year ago. That land is smack dab in the middle of some of the nation's most popular golf courses. Residents believe that's the lure that will bring him to the Sandhills.

Forest Creek is the gated exclusive community where the basketball icon bought two adjoining lots. Jordan has almost four acres of undeveloped land there, purchased in October of 1997 at an undisclosed cost.

Locals say he's been known to come to town once in a while. Now they're really watching.

"Everybody's waiting for him to come," Pinehurst resident Tim Campbell says. "He slides in and out but the people in Pinehurst haven't gotten to know him, I mean see him or anything, so we're ready for him to come."

Fewer than ten families have moved into the mostly undeveloped Forest Creek subdivision.

Exactly who lives there is something of a mystery. "I heard about it. I wasn't sure if it went through or not," Pinehurst resident Julie Reed says of the deal. "I knew a lot of other stars had gotten land here, Oprah Winfrey and so on."

Pinehurst residents believe the local economy would get a big boost if Jordan builds a home there.

"I think it'd be great for the community, for the money, for the people moving down here to see him and everything," business owner Linda Moneymaker says. "I have a restaurant, Pinehurst Cafe, around the corner. It would be good for my business. I think [it would] bring more people around."

Most everyone who spoke with WRAL said they expect Jordan to build a home in Moore County, sooner or later.