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North Topsail Beach, NC

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.





Overview


North Topsail Beach is a very small coastal town (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of North Carolina. With a population of 1,033 people and just one neighborhood, North Topsail Beach is the 401st largest community in North Carolina.

North Topsail Beach home prices are not only among the most expensive in North Carolina, but North Topsail Beach real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Occupations and Workforce

Unlike some towns, North Topsail Beach isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in North Topsail Beach are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, North Topsail Beach is a town of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in North Topsail Beach who work in sales jobs (15.84%), management occupations (14.37%), and healthcare (11.73%).

North Topsail Beach is home to a number of people employed in the armed forces. When you visit or walk around North Topsail Beach, some of the people you will bump into will be military people In and out of uniform, jogging, shopping and generally out and about town.

A relatively large number of people in North Topsail Beach telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 33.62% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Setting & Lifestyle

Another notable thing is that North Topsail Beach is an extremely popular destination for tourists and seasonal residents. So much of the population is seasonal such that the town’s population swells significantly during the vacation season, and drops again when the season ends. Because of this, much of the local economy is centered around tourism; some businesses may be operated only during the high season. During the low season, year-round residents will notice that the city is a substantially quieter place to live.

Residents will find that the town is relatively quiet. This is because it is not over-populated, and it has fewer college students, renters, and young children - all of whom can be noisy at times. So, if you're looking for a relatively peaceful place to live, North Topsail Beach is worth considering.

North Topsail Beach is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.

One downside of living in North Topsail Beach is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In North Topsail Beach, the average commute to work is 38.78 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.

Being a small town, North Topsail Beach does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in North Topsail Beach. 51.10% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%.

The per capita income in North Topsail Beach in 2022 was $67,603, which is wealthy relative to North Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $270,412 for a family of four. However, North Topsail Beach contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call North Topsail Beach home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of North Topsail Beach residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in North Topsail Beach include Irish, German, English, Scottish, and Italian.

The most common language spoken in North Topsail Beach is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.

Real Estate

Do you like a coastal setting? If so, this neighborhood may be to your liking. The neighborhood is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Often such coastal places have amenities and recreational activities on the waterfront that are attractive to residents and visitors alike. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.

In addition, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 84.7% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 99.9% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.

People

Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the neighborhood has some of the lowest rates of children living in poverty of any neighborhood in the United States. In a nation where approximately 1 in 4 children are living in poverty, the community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.

In addition, if you are an executive or professional seeking a neighborhood affording an executive lifestyle, or just wanting to find where other executives live in the area, the neighborhood should be on your list. It has an enviable mix of spacious homes, relatively stable real estate values, and residents that include a number of wealthy executives, managers, and professionals. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis places it as one of the top 10.8% executive lifestyle neighborhoods in the state of North Carolina. In addition to being an excellent choice for highly educated executives, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for active retirees.

Modes of Transportation

In the neighborhood, many people's commute means walking from the bedroom to the home office. NeighborhoodScout's analysis found that 38.6% of residents worked from home. This may not seem like a large number, but Scout's research shows that this is a higher percentage of people working from home than 99.4% of the neighborhoods in America. Often people who work from home are engaged in the creative or technological economy, such as is found in areas around Boston, and in Silicon Valley. Other times, people may be engaged in other businesses like trading stocks from home, or running a small beauty salon.

Occupations

With 2.1% of employed workers living in the neighborhood active in the military, this neighborhood has the distinction of having a higher proportion of people in the military than 96.5% of American neighborhoods. This is a major shaper of the neighborhood's culture and character.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Scottish and Welsh ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 5.7% of this neighborhood's residents have Scottish ancestry and 2.4% have Welsh ancestry.

The Neighbors

How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.

The neighbors in the neighborhood in North Topsail Beach are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 67.9% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.

A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.

In the neighborhood, 53.1% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 23.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (13.4%), and 9.7% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 97.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.

In the neighborhood in North Topsail Beach, NC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (18.2%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (16.2%), and residents who report German roots (14.7%), and some of the residents are also of Scottish ancestry (5.7%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (5.6%), among others.

Getting to Work

Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (48.7% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.

Here most residents (60.5%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


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