Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina.
Typical home $530,239 (+2.2% in a year). Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC-NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,646 (+145%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,231 +2%
- $519,008$530,239 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $125,680 +31%
- $404,559$530,239 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.
- Ocean Isle Beach$2,783
- North Carolina$1,743
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Ocean Isle Beach, NC rose 2.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ocean Isle Beach, Brunswick County, North Carolina
Ocean Isle Beach is a town of 867 people in Brunswick County. Half its households earn more than $96,786 a year and half less, against $77,024 across Brunswick County; 5% of its people live below the poverty line. 96% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 4% 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 people in Brunswick 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ocean Isle Beach is a very small coastal town in Brunswick County, with an older population than most of the country and almost every home lived in by its owner. Household incomes run well above the county's, and very few residents live below the poverty line. Most adults hold a four-year degree, and winters are mild for the country, with cool January days, hot summers, and plenty of rain through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in professional and business services, and in the building trades. Many people work from home, and the typical commute is a modest one. Across Brunswick County, the largest workplaces include Brunswick County Schools, Brunswick County Government and Duke Energy, and the county has added jobs over the past year while unemployment has eased.
Things to do. The Grand Strand, the well-known stretch of beach to the south, is a longer drive away. Closer by, Little River is a short drive away and makes an easy trip on the water. For a day among the trees and water, Lake Waccamaw State Park is a protected area a longer drive away.
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- 514households
- 65%of adults have a degree
- 5%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 43%work from home
What people in Brunswick County 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 56° and lows near 36°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 73°. About 57 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Shallotte Ag weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Brunswick County
- Brunswick County SchoolsSchool district1,687FTE
- Brunswick County GovernmentGeneral services departments, government1,405
- Duke EnergyNuclear electric power generation1,019
- VictaulicCouplings, hose, metal, manufacturing492
- Brunswick Medical CenterGeneral hospital472FTE
- Brunswick Community CollegeTwo-year college393
- Atlantic Telephone MembershipOn-line access service providers, using own operated wired telecommunications infrastructure379
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters369
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 92 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 12,087 people in all across the county; Ocean Isle Beach 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
- Coastal floodingVery high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Ocean Isle Beach’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 Brunswick County and the Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC-NC metro.
Ocean Isle Beach home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ocean Isle Beach$530,239
- North Carolina$332,159
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Ocean Isle Beach listings, and the typical home goes pending in 82 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.
- Ocean Isle Beach28.42%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Ocean Isle Beach82
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Ocean Isle Beach175
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Ocean Isle Beach35
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Ocean Isle Beach$528,914
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Ocean Isle Beach96.90%
Zip codes with a Ocean Isle Beach address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ocean Isle Beach — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.