Topsail Beach, North Carolina.
Typical home $947,446 (+4.7% in a year). Wilmington, NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$3,049 (+158%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $42,774 +5%
- $904,671$947,446 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $233,237 +33%
- $714,208$947,446 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.
- Topsail Beach$4,973
- 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 Topsail Beach, NC rose 4.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Topsail Beach, Pender County, North Carolina
Topsail Beach is a town of 461 people in Pender County. 96% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 4% are rented. Unemployment in Pender County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 9.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Pender 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Topsail Beach is a very small seaside town, and most people who live there are well past middle age, older than in most American towns. Nearly all homes are lived in by their owners rather than rented, and the typical home is worth far more than in most of the country. Few residents live below the poverty line, and a large majority of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild, with January days cool but not harsh and nights just above freezing, while July brings hot days.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in shops, the building trades, and professional and business services. Across Pender County, the largest workplaces include Pender County Schools, Pender County Government and GAF, a roofing manufacturer. Unemployment across the county is a little lower than a year ago, and the county has more jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Lea-Hutaff Island, an undeveloped beach, is a short drive away. Farther afield, Airlie Gardens is a botanical garden and Cameron Art Museum is a museum, both a longer drive away. Carolina Beach State Park, a protected area with woods and waterfront, is also a longer drive.
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- 220households
- 59%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
What people in Pender County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Pender County had 16,071 jobs in 2025, 9.3% more 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, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Pender County
- Pender County SchoolsSchool district1,188FTE
- Pender County GovernmentPersonnel offices, government641
- GAFRoofing, sheet metal, manufacturing240
- Harris Teeter Supermarkets, Inc.Supermarkets and other grocery stores169
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters167
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter163
- Publix Super MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores147
- Pender Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital119FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 31 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,034 people in all across the county; Topsail Beach has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Coastal floodingVery high
- HurricanesVery high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Topsail 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 Pender County and the Wilmington, NC metro.
Topsail Beach home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Topsail Beach$947,446
- 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.
- Topsail Beach13
Zip codes with a Topsail Beach address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Topsail Beach — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.