Holly Ridge, North Carolina.
Typical home $346,795 (+2.4% in a year), asking rent $1,826 (+6.3%). Jacksonville, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,068 (+142%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,272 +2%
- $338,523$346,795 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $92,536 +36%
- $254,259$346,795 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.
- Holly Ridge$1,820
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Holly Ridge, NC rose 2.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Holly Ridge, NC rose 6.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Holly Ridge runs $549/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $698 in Oct 2023.
That is $2,375 a month against $1,826 rent: a $1,820 mortgage payment, plus $184 property tax and $371 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Holly Ridge
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$2,375
- Renting$1,826
- Mortgage only$1,820
Property tax · $184/mo 0.64% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Onslow County, NC
Insurance & upkeep · $371/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Holly Ridge, Onslow County, North Carolina
Holly Ridge is a town of 4,171 people in Onslow County. Half its households earn more than $104,788 a year and half less, against $68,148 across Onslow County; 1% of its people live below the poverty line. 89% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 11% are rented. Unemployment in Onslow County was 3.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Onslow 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. Holly Ridge is a small town in Onslow County where nearly all homes are lived in by their owners, and very few residents live below the poverty line. Household incomes run well above the county's, and typical home values and rents are on the higher side. Winters are mild, with the coldest days in January staying cool rather than freezing, while July brings hot summer afternoons.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in professional and business services. Some work close to home, at employers such as Gulfstream Steel & Supply and Thorntons Plumbing, though the typical commute is a fairly long one. Unemployment across Onslow County is a little lower than a year ago, though the county has slightly fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Hammocks Beach State Park is a protected coastal area, and Onslow Beach is a beach, each a longer drive away. Airlie Gardens, also a longer drive away, is a botanical garden for slower walks. The New River is another water destination a longer drive away.
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- 1,913households
- 1%below the poverty line
- 32 mintypical commute
What people in Onslow County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Onslow County had 53,881 jobs in 2025, 0.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 55° and lows near 34°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 72°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Surf City weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Holly Ridge
- Gulfstream Steel & SupplyMetal service center58
- Holly RidgeMail and parcel delivery30
- Thorntons Plumbing25
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 113 people in all. 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 weatherVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Holly Ridge’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very high. 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 Onslow County and the Jacksonville, NC metro.
Holly Ridge home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Holly Ridge$346,795
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Holly Ridge listings, and the typical home goes pending in 29 days — the market is roughly in balance.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Holly Ridge31.75%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Holly Ridge71
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Holly Ridge17
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Holly Ridge$352,993
- United States$370,717
Zip codes with a Holly Ridge address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Holly Ridge — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.