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Brunswick County, NC: The Coast That Keeps Growing — But For Whom?

Brunswick County sits at the southeastern tip of North Carolina, wedged between the Cape Fear River and the South Carolina border, anchored by towns like Leland, Shallotte, and the vacation mecca of Oak Island. It's one of the fastest-growing counties in the entire country by percentage — and the data makes clear exactly who's driving that growth, and who's getting squeezed in the process.

The median age of 56.1 years is the first thing that stops you in your tracks. Nationally, the median age hovers around 38. Brunswick County skews nearly two decades older — a demographic fingerprint that explains almost everything else in the dataset. This is retirement country, drawing retirees from the mid-Atlantic and Midwest who are cashing out of high-cost markets, arriving with equity in hand, and remaking the coastal landscape in their image. One in three residents is 65 or older, while children under 18 represent barely 14% of the population — about half the national share.

A Housing Market Built for Arrivals, Not Locals

The gap between the median home value ($314,700) and the average sale price ($500,534) is jarring — a $185,000 spread that reveals just how bifurcated this market truly is. The top 10% of homes sell at $860,000 or above, a tier largely populated by oceanfront and Intracoastal properties in communities like Holden Beach and Ocean Isle Beach. These luxury coastal assets pull the average skyward while median workers see a market that's increasingly out of reach at its upper end.

Year-over-year price appreciation of 7.8% is running nearly double the rate of wage growth, and with a price-to-income ratio of 6.8x against a national benchmark of 4x, the affordability math is punishing for working-age residents. The renters who remain — just 16% of occupied units — face a rent burden rate of 43.3%, well above the 30% threshold considered sustainable. Nearly a quarter of renters are severely cost-burdened.

The Vacancy Paradox

A 31.4% vacancy rate sounds alarming until you understand the context: Brunswick County has nearly 94,000 total housing units for roughly 64,000 occupied households. The gap isn't blight — it's beach houses. Thousands of properties are seasonal rentals or second homes sitting empty in January and full in July. This dynamic artificially suppresses rental supply for year-round residents while propping up purchase prices.

The median home here was built in 2016 — one of the newest housing stocks of any county its size in the South — reflecting the relentless pace of new construction that has transformed farmland and pine forest into master-planned retirement communities over the past decade.

What makes Brunswick County unique? Brunswick is one of America's premier retirement migration destinations, combining coastal access, North Carolina's relatively low property taxes, and proximity to Wilmington's healthcare infrastructure. That demographic concentration shapes every number in this dataset.

Is Brunswick County a good place to invest in real estate? The combination of 7.8% annual appreciation, a booming short-term rental market along the barrier islands, and continued retirement in-migration suggests strong fundamentals — but investors should note that high vacancy rates and severe renter cost burdens signal limited long-term rental upside at middle price points.

Why is the labor force participation rate so low? At just 48.7% — versus roughly 62% nationally — Brunswick's labor market reflects its age structure. When a third of your population is retired, conventional employment metrics tell only part of the story. The county's economic engine runs less on wages than on investment income, Social Security, and the retirement savings of its residents.