Considering Retirement on the NC Coast? - 2026 Retirement Relo Guide

Hey, welcome everybody. Welcome to my 2026 retirement guide to the greater Wilmington NC area. Hi, my name is Brian Schrader. I'm with the Coastline NC Real Estate team at Blue Coast Realty Corporation down here in southeastern North Carolina. Today's video we're going to talk about, this is more geared towards I'm not sure if you guys have seen my other relocation guide. It's going to have a lot of the same points in it, but this video is going to be geared towards the retiree in our marketplace. Down here we have basically three different markets. We have a traditional market. We have our second home vacation rental market. And then we also have a big retiree market because a lot of folks this area appeals because it hits a lot of things that retirees are wanting. So let's go ahead and dive into it. Let's take a look at the map. The the map here we are centrally located on the eastern seaboard. This is important because a lot of people are looking in the Northeast to retire somewhere where it's warm, it's got low taxes, it's got something of interest, whether it be activities, beaches, the whole nine yards. So, our location is very key because we're subtropical. You can drive down here within the days. It's not like it's Florida where it takes, you know, um, you know, I mean, you can do it in a day if you're a trooper, but realistically that's a two-day trip. So, a day's trip, it's it's great for you. It's also great for your friends and family that want to come visit. So, we're right here in that southeastern part North Carolina. We're about 2 hours from Raleigh, about 3 and a half from Charlotte. But if we take a closer look, this whole region here is our area. It's a tri county area. This is all Pinder and the orange in the blue and then the green area is Bronzo County. But, it's a tri county area. And then we have all these different barrier islands. And each area is a little different. We'll get into the specifics of different areas. I'm going to break it down later in this video, but right now we're just talking about the general Tri County area, but as you can see here, there's a lot of barrier islands from Topsail all the way down to Sunset Beach, which is the last beach before you get into South Carolina. But a lot of coastal area, a lot of barrier islands, you know, and we'll talk about the the Wilmington, the downtown area. I'll talk about towns such as Southport, Calabash, and Hampstead to the north. But the neat thing with all that coastline, we have really pretty beaches, got pretty water. Some are closer to Wilmington. Some are a little bit, you know, farther away from Wilmington. Some are more crowded than others. So, the nice thing about it is that we have a lot of choices here in our area. You know, here's a shot of Wrightsville Beach, which is just it's actually considered right in the town of Wilmington. But you can see here, this is probably one of the more populated beaches here in our area. But all this coastline really, really makes this very special. And on top of that, if you take a look at these temperatures, this is big for a lot of retirees. I find I've been doing real estate down here since 2005, and I've been to a lot of trade shows. I work with a lot of retirees and the folks that move here love the fact that we have four distinct seasons here. We might get a dust and a snow every four years, but they are very very mild winters here. As you can see here, here's a chart of average highs and lows here. So, you know, in the summertime, yeah, in July and August, we creep up in there to that 90 degree mark. But the cool thing about our area is that since we're coastal, we usually get a breeze here versus being like more inland such as towns of Charlotte and Raleigh and Columbia, South Carolina. So temperature and climate are probably reason two why people are moving here to the area. Another big one that we talk about all the time when I go to trade shows is our real estate taxes here are usually pretty low compared to the people that are looking here. Here's the chart of all the different uh uh different cities and beaches to kind of give you a grand like overview the breakdown, but our homes are taxed on assessed value. So, I picked a couple random values and calculated out of the tax rate so you can get an idea. If you lived, say, down in St. James and Southport, you know, and you have your house was assessed at 500,000, you'll roughly pay around $3,460 in annual real estate tax. So, that's another big thing for retirees here in the area is our tax rate. Another neat thing here is having a downtown area, things to do, night life. Here's the shot of downtown Wilmington. You got the historic district, you have the Riverwalk, you've got the restaurants, you've got night life, you've got the farmers market, you've got so many different things. Um, and it's nice having this cool little atmosphere down there. Here's a shot at the Riverwalk right on the Cape Fear River. But having a downtown area is really cool because they offer a lot of neat things. You can go see performances at the Hall. It's historic. You've got Greenfield Lake Amphitheater for concerts. You also have right in the heart down along the river for concerts. You have Live Oak Pavilion, which is an outdoor amphitheater. And you also have the Wilson Center right in downtown Wilmington as well. So, lot of neat things have in downtown in your backyard. There's also a marina down there. There's also breweries. There's cool things to do like taking carriage rides, ghost walks. There's history down there. Across the riverwalk, you've got the USS North Carolina. You can go take a visit, which is pretty historic. It's neat to kind of go through the whole entire battleship. You got the shots here of the Kefir River, the old historic church, which marks the highest point in the downtown or in the Wilmington area, so to speak. But here's a shot of the Inter Coastal Waterway. So, if you're into boating, if you like to fish, there is tons of different places to get in and out. There's offshore, there's, you know, stuff that's close by. You know, the Gulf Stream is about 55 miles out. So, if you're into that, you know, going searching for a marlin or a wahoo or tuner, um, there's grouper out there. It's really, really neat. There's a lot of, if you're into diving, a lot of cool racks off the coast. There's the frying pan tower, which is about 33 miles out. It's an old historic research platform out there. They've got live cams out there. You can log on, take a look. But, you know, paddle boarding, canoeing, kayaking, we talked about all the different beaches. There's tons of like little areas if you're into like boating. There's communities that, you know, have own personal dock space. So, these all make this area really cool. Another thing that retirees like to do is golf. A lot of my folks, there's a lot of golf course here. There's a lot of golf course communities. We'll break those down later in the video. And then with that being said, we have a lot of different active adult 55 plus communities that offer communities that have bike trails, outdoor pools, indoor pools, fitness center, different classes. There's pickle ball. There's a lot of communities, which we'll talk about later. I'll break it down into different sections. But the the thing is is that the climate and the area, the coastal area allows people to do things outdoors, which keeps you active as a retiree, which is very important. Fitness is big in a lot of the communities here in our area. Also know too that we have a lot of great medical. If you're in New Hver County, you got Nant New Hanover Regional Medical. That's the main hospital there, which is pretty awesome. In Brunswick County, the main hospital is Nvant Brunswick Medical Center and also you have Doure Memorial down there in Southport. But also know that for level one trauma, we've got EC ECU, UNC, Duke, and Charlotte um all have you have to be transported. But just knowing that you have multiple level one trauma hospitals in your area is pretty nice because a lot of places don't have access like that. A neat thing is that we have two airports that you can access and your friends and family can have access to. You got Wilmington ILM, which is in New Had County, but also if you're looking at some of the communities in Brunswick County, you also can fly into the Myrtle Beach airport from downtown Wilmington. It's about an hour's drive. But I always tell my clients when they're coming to, you know, check out different communities or exploring the area to check out both of those two areas when looking to fly into town. Another thing a lot of my retirey clients want to know is like the the colleges here in the area. A lot of them want to go back and take classes. There's UNCW Wilmington, University of North Carolina Wilmington up in Wilmington. You also have Cape Fear Community College in downtown Wilmington. And in Brunswick County, you also have Brunswick Community College as well. So those um those are the big factors of why people like our area on the macro. Next couple clips, we're going to break it down. We're going to talk about different sections of where people retire to. We're going to talk about North Wilmington, the Hampstead area, States Fairy area. We're going to talk a lot about Leland, Southport, and Calabash and Brunswick County because there's a lot of master plan communities in those areas. So, let's move on to the next clip. The first section we're going to talk about is lower Brunswick County. A lot of my retirees like to look at this area. There's a lot of great options to choose from. Um, it is a little bit different than some of the other communities such as Leland and Southport and Wilmington area. So, we're going to take a look on the map here. This area here in red is the area we're going to be talking about right now. It has a lot of communities. And when you get to this side of the the the county, you're kind of close to the South Carolina border. So your hub for like everyday convenience factors, big box stores like Costco. You're going to be going down to Myrtle Beach, a little river, but you don't have to live in those areas cuz they could be a little bit hectic in the summertime. But they do offer great benefits. A lot of good commercial down there. Uh there's a good hospital down there. You're also around 20 minutes to Novant which is on the other side of Shallotte for medical. There's also an airport down in the Myrtle Beach area which is great for friends and family and for you guys that want to come back. Um it's about maybe a 20 minute to 50 minute drive from these areas and communities we're going to talk about to the airport. But a couple of the cool things about this area is that people choose it because of the laid-back environment of these two special islands. You got Ocean Isle Beach here in the clip. And as you can see, there's not all there's hardly any commercial on this island, which makes it special. And then they're also going to have Sunset Beach as well to the south. So, you got two great little barrier islands with hardly any commercial on it. So, they're really laid-back, which makes them special. And, you know, as you can see here, great white sands, pretty water. And these two things make this area very, very special. The closest town is going to be Calabash. It's really cool there because you got the riverfront where the shrimp boats, the fish boats come in. You can get some good fresh seafood. There's also restaurants in Calabash, but it sits here right along this river. And you know, a lot of people like the laid-back atmosphere of all these different communities cuz you got some great ones like this one here, Ocean Ridge Plantation. Multiple golf courses. You got the Big Cats, Tigers Eye, Lion Paw, Panthers Run. You got amenities. You got custom homes. got homes on the golf course, nature sites. So, it's been around for a little bit. They are still building new here in the area. And you're going to find there there's quite a bit of new construction in this area as well. Another one, Sea Trail, it's been around for a while. They have condos, they have, you know, single family homes as well. They have some nice amenities. This one's a little bit closer to Sunset Beach. But, you know, again, everything's got a pro and a con. You know, some of the homes here might be a little bit dated or maybe they've just been up fitted. Um, but you know, this this community has been around for a while. It's got some great golf courses. You know, another one that people like that if you're looking for more of an estate home site, really big lots is Thistle. So, this is a shot of the Thistle Golf Course here. It's gorgeous. Um, again, big estate home sites there. Here's another shot. Brunswick Plantation, you know, single family homes, town homes, condominiums. They've got an indoor pool, outdoor pool, fitness center, golf course. So, you get people that, you know, do second homes here, full-time homes. Right down the street there's Crow Creek, another golf course community, pickle ball, outdoor pool, clubhouse, condos, town homes, and also custom homes as well in this area. So, the area's got tons of different variety, which makes it special. You know, here's Eagle Creek or Eagle Run, sorry. But again, you know, some people want, you know, just a pool and clubhouse. They want to keep it simple. really want to keep the HOA down low. There's a shot of Devon Park here. This is kind of like an architecturally themed neighborhood, but there's a lot of variety and a lot of really cool things to check out in this area. Now, you know, one thing that's neat is that it's kind of like, you know, it's a little bit farther away from shopping, but some people that choose this area, that's what they're looking for. They want to be away from the crowd. And then this this area offers a lot of diversity with all these different communities. Here's a shot of Calabash Lakes. Again, very active. You know, every every community has a different layer of what they offer. Here's the sanctuary of Sunset Beach. You Some of these communities are closer to the beach, some are a little bit farther away. Some of them have golf courses, some of them have pools. Here's the retreat at Ocean Isle. Benefit there. It's really close to the beach, not not being on the beach, but again, it's active adult community. Kingfish Bay and Calabash. Another one. Another cool, there's a couple communities that have beach clubs. This is one of them. Kingfish Bay has a beach club down at Sunset Beach, which is pretty neat. And then you got neighborhoods like Sand Piper Bay. They offer single family homes and condos here in the area. But that's just a snapshot. There's a lot of other communities in between. Those are the big ones. And those are the reasons like I would say the big reason why people are choosing this area besides the taxes, besides the climate, it's because of the beaches. This area is a little bit more laid-back again compared to like say Leland or Wilmington. And again, you you kind of have to want to accept the fact that your hub is going to be more Myrtle Beach, Little River versus driving, you know, 45 minutes up to downtown Wil now downtown Wilmington. Now, it's great having both of those options close by. But, you know, just little subtle differences, but anyway, moving up the coast, we're going to talk about the middle of the county, the Shallotte Holden Beach area. It's doesn't have as many communities as some of the other places. But before I do that, what I'll do is I'll post a link in the description of this video that'll take you to a page if you want to know about pricing. I know pricing changes all the time, but I have another website that's up to date. It gets updated every 15 minutes, but I have pages built on it that's got everything for sale. You can see what is sold. You can look at the comparable sales and that way, you know, because the the market changes all the time. So, just wanted to go ahead and let you guys know that that'll be in the description of all these different communities. But, moving on to the middle of the county. Okay, here we go. Right here, you see the town of Shallotte, and it's not Shallotte. It it that name gets butchered all the time, but it is Shallotte. It's like kind of like the middle of the county. It does have some restaurants and shops and it's kind of like the hub of the center of the county and it kind of is close to hold beach as you can see here. But you're about, you know, probably about 35 minutes to the airport down to Myrtle Beach and about 40 minutes north of Wilmington. And we're going to talk about some of these communities. Now, in this area here, you'll find that there's some golf course communities. You'll find that there are some communities that have water access to the intra coastal waterway. One of the neat things about these communities that we're going to talk about is being close to Holden Beach. You can see here it's a laid-back beach. Um there's not a whole lot of commercial on the island and this area in general are for people that are trying to get away from the hustle and bustle. There's a couple great communities that we're going to talk about here in this clip here, but this is uh Brick Landing. Now, Brick Landing is actually closer to it's closer to Shallotte, but it's also the beach there would be Ocean Beach just because it's on the other side of town. It's on the south side of Shallotte, but there they've got golf course. They've got clubhouse pool. They've got access to the inter coastal waterway. They got a boat ramp that's not actually not a part of the community, but it is right next door. Another great one that a lot of my retirees will check out is Lockwood Folly. This community is tucked away. It's in like a maritime forest. A lot of the old live oak trees. It sits along the inter coastal waterway. They have a boat ramp, so they have boat access. They have a dock. They've got a community clubhouse and pool. They've got a golf course there. So, again, this community is a little bit older than some of the other ones, but they got pickle ball tennis. It's active. But for my Boers, there's another community that's got a really cool architectural review board. Very strong. The cost to build there is pretty high, but you can see here the detail in some of these homes is pretty impressive. Neat thing about Se-scape here is they have a beach club on Holden Beach. They have a marina there on site on the property. They've got clubhouse, pool, and amenities, which is pretty neat as well. Another cool one with a lot of architectural details is River's Edge in Shallotte. It's got a 18hole Arnold Palmer golf course there. They've got four holes that hug the Shallotte River which are really scenic. They've got the pools. They've got the clubhouse. They've got amenities. It is gated as well. But, you know, again, the another neat community to check out if you're interested in the Shallotte Holden Beach area. Another one which is gated with access to the intra coastal waterway is Oyster Harbor. This one's a little bit farther away from Shallotte. It they got, you know, a couple new builds going on in this area. They do have lots you can build on and they have clubhouse pool, a boat ram to the intra coastal waterway, but they have a lot of nice pretty old, you know, historic the big live oak trees which is pretty neat. They've got pickle ball. They got RV storage which is pretty cool as well. And then another new one is Stansbury Creek. It's right around the corner from Holden Beach, but different, you know, price point. You know, here in this neighborhood, the big pool is to have the access to hold beach, which is about I think it's about three miles away. And they do offer short-term rentals in that community, which is pretty neat. Next town slash area we're going to talk about in my guide here is the Southport area. The Southport, we'll call it the Southport 211 corridor because that's the road that kind of runs almost parallel to the inter coastal waterway. And there's some a lot of great communities here and we'll we'll see it here on the map, but that that area in red there. It sits right behind Oak Island. You got Southport at the the mouth of the Kfare River. You got Baldhead Island right across the way. You can only take a ferry over to. But this area appeals to a lot of folks that like the historic charm of Southport. Here you're about 40 minutes from the downtown Wilmington area. So it's, you know, it's one of those cool areas. And there's a lot of communities along the that 211 which is the road there that kind of runs parallel to the ocean though. But let's take a look here. Yeah. One of the neat things is having Oak Island in your backyard. As you can see here, pretty beach, pretty blue water and it's a laid-back beach. It's kind of like Holden where it's a it's a pretty long island. One of its area sits on the mouth of the Kfir River. The other one sits at the Lockwood Folly River inland. But being close to the historic Southport area is really neat. This is the Southport Port here in Water Park area where they have the swings. This is where they have the restaurants down on the waterfront. But Southport is just a really quaint little area and if you a lot of my folks kind of gravitate to having like a little town feel with some of these communities right up the street from it. But the first one a lot of people talk about is St. James Plantation. It's a It's a large community. It's 81 holes of golf. They got a beach club on Oak Island. It's active. It's got lots of different amenities that go along with it. There are pools, pickle ball courts, uh, amphitheater, and all the golf fitness center. It's really, it's probably rated as one of the most active communities here in the area. But neat thing that people a lot of people don't know about St. James, it is private. So, if you want to join the membership, the clubs, if you want to be a part of the indoor pool and all the other amenities except for the beach club and the gate, obviously, everything else is a part of initiation. But check out my video on St. James. I've got the membership fees posted on there as well. But another neat one right down the street, which is not private, is a Winding River. It's uh it's a little bit farther away from Southport, but they have little interior gates in the community. They also have an oceanfront beach club with a pool on Holden Beach, but they have a really cool 27 hole golf course, Carolina National. They also have fitness center amenities. They have access to the the river on a riverhouse down there on the Lockwood Folly River, which makes this community pretty neat. But it's pretty well established. uh you know great great reviews on the golf course but Winding River is another one along that 211 corridor that a lot of people will entertain. A lot of retirees like to look at this one as well. Moving on to right next to Winding River is River Sea Plantation. It sits along the Lockwood Folly River as well. They have a boat ramp there, canoe and kayak access. They have pickle ball courts. They have an indoor pool, outdoor pool. There are still building new here in River City, but it's a neat one. They've kept a lot of the the trees around it. A lot of people like that factor. It's both Winding River and River City are close to the west end bridge of Oak Island. So, it's a pretty neat community. A lot of people will check out this one. Here's some shots of the river access down there at Lockwood Folly. Another one, Paul Meadow Creek. It sits on the other side of 211. It's got a nice entrance. It's got pool, clubhouse, pickle ball courts. It's got, you know, that neat feel. They're still building some new, they got town homes and single family homes in this area, but along that 211 corridor, a lot of my retirey folks will check out Paul Meadow Creek. Now, I will say too, like there's a lot of other smaller communities that are mixed in between. There's a lot of new construction going on in this area as well, so I don't want to discount that. But these are the main ones when people come down that are looking for active and looking for amenities here in the south. The Leland area, it sits just outside of the downtown Wilmington area. It's got some shopping and convenience factors around it, but most pe people that live in the Leland area like the fact that you're just across the bridge and you got a 15inute drive and you can be right there in the heart of Wilmington. As you can see here on the map, it sits a little bit north of Southport about 35 minutes, but it's right across from Wilmington. And there's a lot of great communities in this area. And you know, comparing Leland to Wilmington, you know, the taxes are lower in the Leland area versus Wilmington. And there's a little bit more retirey/master plan community. So, when you live in the Leland area, you know, the the closest beach here is going to be Writesville Beach. Again, probably about 25 minute, 30 minute drive to get to Writesville going around the bypass on I40. And then also too, when you live in this area, a lot of my retirey folks like the fact that you can get down to the Brunswick County, Oak Island, Holden Beach, Ocean Island, Sunset Beach, too, because you're kind of there in the middle. But one of the biggest things that I find that people choose Leland is they like the fact that they're close to downtown Wilmington where you got restaurants, you got the Live Oak Pavilion, you know, concerts, the Riverwalk, Farmers Market. So, it's kind of like what Southport is to like some of those other communities that we talked about like St. James in Winding River and River City. So, but let's go ahead and talk about some of the main ones. Brunswick Forest comes up a lot. It's a big master plan active adult community with multiple amenity centers, pools. They also have indoor pool, pickle ball. They have a village center up front, fitness center. Lot of convenience factors, a lot of walking and biking trails throughout this community. It's also they're still building new here. So, you got Brunswick Forest and you also have Compass Point. Now, this one's gated. Here's a picture of their Grand Lai. They have a fitness center, indoor pool. It's very active. They have a golf course in there as well. Also, Brunswick Forest has a golf course. They're both private, but the only differences in those two communities is that the HOA does include the amenities. So, you don't have to join the golf course to get access to the amenities. One of the first golf courses in Leland is Magnolia Greens. It sits there. Um, it's one of the first neighborhoods, but again, it's another great master plan community. Um, the lot sizes are a little bit bigger here, but you got 27 holes. You've got multiple amenity centers, two outdoor pools, you have an indoor pool, a fitness center, and right next door you have Waterford of the Carolas, another great community, new golf course here, but you got Magnolia right next door, which is public. They have a nice clubhouse, fitness center, pool, pickle ball courts. Again, really a really really nice little community. A lot of water features here in Waterford. But the Bluffs on the Kate River, unique thing is that they have an oceanfront beach club down here at at Oak Island, but they're kind of north of Leland proper as I call it, but they sit right along the Kate River, which is pretty neat. They got a marine up there. They got direct boat access to the river. The bluffs are kind of more sec more secluded. They have left a lot of the trees in place there. The lots are bigger and it's just really quiet and peaceful. They have a, you know, community pool, clubhouse, fitness center. They just added on to this amenity center here recently, but it's another neat one to put on your list if you're looking at the Leland area. It's a little bit farther away from the grocery store, but it also offers a lot of peace and quiet as well. Mallalerie Creek. It's a It's kind of got a bunch of different sections to it, but you got the Mallerie Creek, the original section with the couple pools. And then you also have a true 55 plus here in this community. Dell Webb is building new in there. And they'll have their own clubhouse pool amenity center as well. But it's one to check out. You know, if you're looking for 55, a true 55 plus, you might want to check out this community because the only other one here in the area is the one over in Wilmington, which we'll we'll cover that in the Wilmington clip. Another nice one is that they're building new in is Indigo Preserve. This is a shot of their actually future clubhouse, outdoor pool area, but it's another one to check out if you're looking for new construction. This one sits right next to Brunswick Forest. It's not included in Brunswick Forest as far as the amenities go, but they do have really easy access to their commercial village center where you can walk, bike up to the grocery store, the restaurants, the coffee shop, and also the House of Pickle Ball, which is an indoor pickle ball arena, which is pretty neat as well. Another new one, if you're looking for new construction, it's called Terapin. This one sits right across from Compass Point. They are well on its way. They're building the infrastructure. This one's going to have a clubhouse, community pool, fitness center, and uh Logan Homes is actually doing the infrastructure on this, but there's a couple different builders here in Turpin, but that's new construction. But a lot of retirees like the Leland area because they, you know, it's closer to Wilmington versus say lower Brunswick County where you're closer to Myrtle Beach. But they still have some new construction. They the hub there is more downtown Wilmington. So that's Leland. So let's go ahead and move into the Wilmington. Wilmington, when it comes to retirement, um Wilmington does not have a whole lot of land. So there's not a whole lot of master plan communities. Don't get me wrong, people do retire to the Wilmington area, but as far as master plan communities, there's not a whole lot. Wilmington's kind of geared towards different sections. You got the beaches, Carolina Beach, Kerry Beach, Writesville Beach, got Midtown, you got a downtown area. So, that definitely feels like everyone's different. Everyone has their wants and needs, but as far as communities go, we're going to talk about the ones that are here in this little red area. This is the Wilmington proper, also known as New Hatter County. But the neat thing here, you know, you pay a little bit more in taxes being in the city in some areas and also New Hadford County versus Brunswick County and Pender County to the north, but you are closer to Ritzville Beach, Carolina Beach, Kiri Beach. And you're kind of right in the heart and have access to downtown Wilmington. Here's a shot of the river front that we talked about, which is also important to a lot of the retirees that that choose the legend area as well. But here are the main players here in the the Wilmington NC area. Wilmington proper. There's a River Light. It's a nice master plan community. There's two sections. You have River Lights proper and then you also have a true 55 plus Dell web section of River Light. So that's one unique thing. So it offers a lot of different sections. They do have, you know, a marina restaurant right there along the Cape Fear River. Another one that's on the Cape Fear River is River Bluffs. It's a section that is gated. It's right there north of Wilmington along the Cape Fear River Custom Homes. They do have a boat ramp. They have a canoes, kayaks. They have a nice river walk that runs along the Cape Fear River and a marina down there as well. Also, they have a small fitness center, pool, and clubhouse, which makes this community pretty neat. And you're just a few minutes from downtown Wilmington. Another one, Landfall. They have some be beautiful, gorgeous, large homes here in Landfall. It sits right behind Wrightsville Beach. It is private there. And another private country club is Porter's Neck Plantation, just to the north of Wrightsville Beach. Again, great community. They've been around for a while. Porter's Neck and Landfall are both private country clubs, but those are the the the unique main larger communities in the Wilmington area. You'll find some small ones, you know, like this is a shot of Helmsport. They're unique. They're right along the inter coastal waterway. They have a marina. They have a clubhouse pool area. And you'll find that um there a lot of just neat little pockets of neighborhoods in the Wilmington NC area. But as far as retirement goes, a lot of my folks tend to gravitate towards some other areas just because the taxes are a little bit more favorable in Brunswick County and also Pender County as well. And there's just really more to choose from. And then you talk about pricing, which I'll have a link in the description. The pricing is more expensive in Wilmington versus some of these other areas that we talked about. So, we got one more clip. We're going to talk about two. We're going to cover towns from Hamstead all the way up to to Holly Ridge. And we're going to also cover another town called Wallace. There's one master plan community that you guys should know about. And let me just show you here on the map where these are located. So, north of Wilmington all the way south of Jacksonville, we can see that circle there. We're going to talk about a few communities in this region. And then where you see the arrow in the town of Wallace, there's one called Riverlanding we'll talk about. But, you know, in this area here, your closest beach is going to be Topsel Island. It's pretty long. It covers two different counties. It's about, I think, 21 miles long, and it's through Pender County and Enslo County. But one of the communities, Castle Bay, it's in Hamstead. It's a golf course community. They got a clubhouse there, golf course, and it's it's nice. It's well manicured, but it's not as active as some of the other ones that we've talked about. And you'll find that there are not a whole lot of active adult communities in this area. And when you get here, the the main hub is going to be kind of drunk more the water and being closer to the intra coastal waterway. But one of them that's pretty close active. They got a nice pool. They got some pretty trees and walking trails throughout is Pecan Grove. They have water access along the intra coastal waterway. So, if you're looking to retire, but maybe you're more of a fisherman and you like the boat, you can you're really close to the intra coastal waterway and you're right up on it. So, you got you can drop your boat in here and be out the inlet and into the ocean in no time. This is Pecan Grove. Another one in Hamstead area is Salters's Haven. If you're into boating, they've got a clubhouse, pool, fitness center, and they have their own marina right behind the intra coastal waterway. And that's, you know, down in Hamstead. So, moving up a little bit into the Holly Ridge section, probably one of the the the more complete master plan communities is Summerhouse on Evers Bay. It's more of a it's gated. It's got water access. It sits right behind the Intric Coastal Waterway. They've got a massive clubhouse. They have a lazy river pool area with multiple sections throughout. They have a fitness center and it's got walking trails. It's got a dock for canoeing and paddle boarding. But it's one of those one that's kind of has more, you know, everyone's driving around on the golf cart heading down to the little dock area going up to the clubhouse. They got pickle ball, but definitely one that's more complete as far as that master plan community feel. Now, don't get me wrong, they're not all retirees here, but it definitely has that active feel that retirees are looking for. Now, another one that you find, it's going to be in Wallace. Now, this one's going to be about 45 minutes north of Wilmington. This is going to be more out in the country. They have a golf course there. It's really nice. It's more of a royal setting. They've got the vineyards. They've got, you know, the small town of Wallace, but it's River Landing. And there's a big difference in price points when you talk about these communities that we're talking about here in the northern part of the greater Wilmington area versus some of the ones in Wilmington and also in Leland. So these I know it's not a whole lot in in this area, but those are the top ones in the Hamstead, Holly Ridge, and Wallace area of northern Wilmington. But, you know, a lot of times, you know, people that I come in contact with that are looking to retire, one of the things you got to be used to is, you know, that 45minut drive into Wilmington for your box big box stores like your Costco and Whole Foods and stuff like that. And again, some people could care less about that thing. They'd rather be out in the peace and quiet. But this kind of wraps up my 2026 retirement guide. We've covered a lot of information. And there's a lot more in between, too. But this is the the meat and potatoes. Again, our whole area is a real big bullseye for retirees due to those things we talked about, the climate, the taxes, the beaches. If you have any questions, give me a call. It's Brian Shrader. I've been doing real estate down here for the past 20 years and hopefully we'll see you guys down here and hope to see you guys here on the next area update..

Thanks for watching!

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Brian Schrader

coastlinenc@gmail.com

(910) 297-2475

Coastline NC Real Estate Team BlueCoast Realty Corp

https://www.coastlinencrealestate.com/