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Wrightsville Beach, NC

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



Overview

Wrightsville 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 2,411 people and just one neighborhood, Wrightsville Beach is the 276th largest community in North Carolina.

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

Occupations and Workforce

Wrightsville Beach is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 91.66% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Wrightsville Beach is a town of managers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Wrightsville Beach who work in management occupations (31.41%), sales jobs (14.05%), and healthcare (8.94%).

Of important note, Wrightsville Beach is also a town of artists. Wrightsville Beach has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Wrightsville Beach’s character.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 28.72% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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 Wrightsville Beach is an extremely popular vacation destination. A significant portion of the population is seasonal. During the vacation season, the town experiences a large influx of people who take up residence in second homes they own in the area. As the vacation season ends, the population drops again, leaving behind a substantially quieter and smaller town.

Wrightsville 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.

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

Demographics

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Wrightsville Beach, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Wrightsville Beach is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 72.46% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 21.84%.

The per capita income in Wrightsville Beach in 2022 was $101,948, which is wealthy relative to North Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $407,792 for a family of four.

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

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

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Wrightsville Beach, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

Real Estate

is a neighborhood that is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Many times, such places have amenities that bring locals and visitors to the waterfront for recreational activities or to check out the scenery. In some densely populated areas that are less financially well-off, the neighborhood waterfront can be relatively industrial and less open to recreation. 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, despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 53.7%, which is higher than 99.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

People

If you come to know the people here, you will recognize that you're in the company of one of the wealthiest communities in the nation. In fact, a mere 4.5% of America's neighborhoods are wealthier than the neighborhood. Real estate here is exceedingly well-maintained, and similarly, tends to maintain its value over time. The cars driven are mostly luxury brands like Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Lexus. If the public schools aren't up to snuff, the residents of this neighborhood preferentially send their children to private preparatory schools. Vacation to Disney? Yes, but equally popular are summers in Europe. As one would expect in a considerably wealthy neighborhood such as this, also has one of the lowest ratings of child poverty in the nation.

In addition, a majority of the adults in the neighborhood are wealthy and educated executives. They own stately homes that tend to maintain high real estate appreciation rates. Their upper-level careers keep them busy, but allow them to live comfortably. If you're an executive and want to keep similar company, consider settling in this neighborhood, rated as an executive lifestyle "best choice" neighborhood for North Carolina by NeighborhoodScout's analysis, which rated it as better for executive lifestyles than 98.2% of the neighborhoods in North Carolina. In addition to being an excellent choice for highly educated executives, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for urban sophisticates and active retirees.

Also, the rate of college educated adults in the neighborhood is a unique characteristic of the neighborhood. 73.8% of adults here have received at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, compared to the average neighborhood in America, which has 35.7% of the adults with a bachelor's degree. The rate here is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 95.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Canadian and Scots-Irish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Canadian ancestry and 3.7% have Scots-Irish ancestry.

is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.6% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Greek at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.5% of the neighborhoods in America.

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 Wrightsville Beach are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 95.5% 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.

What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.

In the neighborhood, 68.5% 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 15.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (8.3%), and 7.3% 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 95.0% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Boston's Beacon Hill blue-blood streets, Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish enclaves, Los Angeles' Persian neighborhoods. Each has its own culture derived primarily from the ancestries and culture of the residents who call these neighborhoods home. Likewise, each neighborhood in America has its own culture – some more unique than others – based on lifestyle, occupations, the types of households – and importantly – on the ethnicities and ancestries of the people who live in the neighborhood. Understanding where people came from, who their grandparents or great-grandparents were, can help you understand how a neighborhood is today.

In the neighborhood in Wrightsville Beach, NC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (19.7%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (14.8%), and residents who report German roots (10.4%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (8.7%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (5.1%), 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 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (43.1% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (69.3%) 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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