Cedar Island, North Carolina.
Typical home $286,944 (+6.4% in a year). Morehead City, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$871 (+137%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $17,151 +6%
- $269,793$286,944 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $73,899 +35%
- $213,045$286,944 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Cedar Island$1,506
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Cedar Island, NC rose 6.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Cedar Island, Carteret County, North Carolina
Cedar Island is a township of 251 people in Carteret County. Unemployment in Carteret County was 3.1% in August 2026, and the county had 2.4% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Carteret County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Cedar Island is a very small township in Carteret County, North Carolina, with far fewer people than most towns anyone would think to compare it to. Winters are mild, with January the coldest month and cool days and chilly nights, while summers turn properly hot by July. A good deal of rain falls through the year.
Work. Most residents who work do so in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in professional and business services, or in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Carteret County, the largest workplaces include Carteret County Public Schools, Carteret County General Hospital and Carteret Community College. Unemployment across the county is lower than it was a year ago, and the county has added jobs over the past year.
Things to do. Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area only a short drive away, and it is the natural first stop. Farther afield, the North Carolina Maritime Museum is a museum a longer drive away, and the Queen Anne's Revenge, an archaeological site, is also a longer drive away.
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What people in Carteret County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Carteret County had 25,622 jobs in 2025, 2.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 62° and lows near 38°; warmest in July, with highs near 93° and lows near 73°. About 59 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cedar Is weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Carteret County
- Carteret County Public SchoolsSchool district1,059FTE
- Carteret County General Hospital COMGeneral hospital957FTE
- Carteret Community CollegeTwo-year college508
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters348
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters321
- Bally Refrigerated BoxesCoolers, refrigeration, manufacturing247
- Morehead CityCity and town managers' offices237
- TransImpactTransportation management consulting services178
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 46 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,205 people in all across the county; Cedar Island has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- HurricanesVery high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Coastal floodingRelatively high
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Carteret County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Carteret County and the Morehead City, NC metro.
Cedar Island home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cedar Island$286,944
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Cedar Island6
Zip codes with a Cedar Island address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cedar Island — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.