Oak Island, North Carolina.
Typical home $602,070 (+4.7% in a year), asking rent $2,111 . Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC-NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,990 (+170%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $26,835 +5%
- $575,235$602,070 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $157,777 +36%
- $444,293$602,070 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.
- Oak Island$3,160
- 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 Oak Island, NC rose 4.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Oak Island, Brunswick County, North Carolina
Oak Island is a town of 8,396 people in Brunswick County. Half its households earn more than $85,872 a year and half less, against $77,024 across Brunswick County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 90% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 10% are rented. Unemployment in Brunswick County was 3.9% in August 2026, and the county had 4.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in professional services, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Oak Island is a coastal town where residents are older than in most of the country, and nearly everyone owns the home they live in. Household incomes run above the county's, and typical home values are high, so renting is uncommon and costly. A good share of adults hold a four-year degree, and winters are cool but mild for much of the country, with summers that turn hot in July.
Work. Residents work mostly in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in banks, insurance and property, and in government. Some people work from home, and the typical commute is a modest one. Among the largest workplaces in town are the grocery stores Lowes Foods, Publix Super Markets and Food Lion.
Things to do. A short drive away, Fort Johnston and the Fort Caswell Historic District are old fort sites, and the Lockwood Folly River offers a quiet stretch of water. Farther afield, Fort Fisher is another fort and Carolina Beach State Park is protected land, both a longer drive away.
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- 4,602households
- 44%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 25%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Brunswick County had 43,201 jobs in 2025, 4.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 60° and lows near 36°; warmest in July, with highs near 92° and lows near 73°. About 55 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Southport North weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Oak Island
- Lowes FoodsGrocery stores120
- Publix Super MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores111
- Food LionGrocery stores75
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 306 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
- Coastal floodingrelatively high in parts of Oak IslandRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Oak Island’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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 Brunswick County and the Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC-NC metro.
Oak Island home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Oak Island$602,070
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Oak Island listings, and the typical home goes pending in 66 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.
- Oak Island26.67%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Oak Island66
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Oak Island266
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Oak Island50
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Oak Island$525,105
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Oak Island96.29%
Zip codes with a Oak Island address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Oak Island — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.