Year round, Surf City is a small town living inside a much larger summer one: the American Community Survey for 2020 through 2024 counts 4,396 year-round residents in a town with 4,621 housing units, 2,255 of which are held for seasonal use. Living here all twelve months means a quiet winter and a walkable beach you get to yourself, paid for with a 53-minute drive to Wilmington, a grocery and hospital run on the mainland, and tax and insurance bills that do not take the off season off.
Most people meet Surf City in July. They rent for a week, eat at the pier, cross the high-rise bridge at sunset and start running numbers on the way home. The question we get a month later is the right one: what is this place like in February, when the rental houses are dark?
Surf City holds up better in the off season than most beach towns its size, because about two in five of its housing units are lived in rather than rented, as our Surf City community guide lays out. It still is not a full town. Here is what the year-round version costs and feels like, with the source and date on every figure.
Who is actually here in February?
The housing count tells the story faster than any tour. Of the 4,621 housing units the American Community Survey recorded for 2020 through 2024, only 1,784 were occupied and 2,255 were held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use. That is just under half the town built for people who are somewhere else most of the year. The survey also counts 458 mobile homes, most of them in long rows on the sound side at the north end.
What that produces is a real but thin year-round community. The town runs a community center and bark park at 201 Community Center Drive, a disc golf course at 102 H2O Place, and Soundside Park at 517 Roland Avenue with an amphitheater, a kayak launch and a boat ramp. The town calendar carries the tree lighting on November 21, the flotilla and Christmas market on December 5, the Dolphin Dip on January 1 and a bluegrass festival in April. Those are off-season events for residents rather than visitors, and they are the clearest sign that somebody is home.
What the town limits do not contain is everyday errand infrastructure. Groceries and the hospital are a drive on the mainland, so the buyers happiest here already shop weekly rather than daily.
- 4,396 year-round residents; 4,621 housing units with only 1,784 occupied and 2,255 held for seasonal use American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024, via our Surf City guide
- Combined property tax 1.305 per $100 of value: Pender County 0.7375, countywide EMS 0.0925, Town of Surf City 0.4750 Pender County 2026 tax rate schedule and the town’s adopted budget, read October 2026
- Town rate cut 5.5 cents to 0.4750 in the budget adopted June 30, 2026, built on 2025 values after Senate Bill 889 deferred the 2026 revaluation WECT, July 1, 2026
- Median annual flood policy cost in ZIP 28445 for single-family homes: $1,602 in Zone VE, $1,408 in Zone AE, $737 outside the mapped hazard area FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP policy data, policies effective on or after September 1, 2025, retrieved October 27, 2026
- 3,085 of the 3,431 single-family flood policies in that ZIP, about 90 percent, are rated in Zone AE or VE FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP policy data, retrieved October 27, 2026
- 96 active Surf City homes ran $168,400 to $4,200,000, median asking $827,000, median 105 days on market Coldwell Banker Surf City page, October 8, 2026, via our Surf City guide
- Pender County median sale price $499,000, up 16.1 percent year over year, 83 days on market against 51 a year ago Our Pender County market update, three months ending September 2026
- 30-year fixed average 7.32 percent Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending October 22, 2026
What it costs to carry a Surf City house all twelve months
Start with the tax line, because it surprises people who shopped a low-tax beach county to the south first. Inside the Pender County portion of Surf City, the 2026 schedule stacks the county at 0.7375, a countywide EMS rate of 0.0925 and the town at 0.4750, a combined 1.305 per $100 of assessed value. On the $827,000 median asking price among active homes that is roughly $10,792 a year, about $899 a month; on the $512,300 median value of homes already owned here, closer to $6,686. Our Pender County market update carries the wider county numbers.
The town rate did just come down. Surf City adopted its 2026-2027 budget on June 30, 2026 at 0.4750, a cut of 5.5 cents from 0.53, and WECT reported on July 1 that the budget was built on 2025 values because Senate Bill 889 deferred the 2026 revaluation. Read that as a one-year arrangement, not a trend: when reappraised island values land, the rate applied to them is a decision the council has not made yet.
Then insurance. We pulled every single-family flood policy FEMA records in ZIP 28445 effective on or after September 1, 2025. The median annual cost was $1,602 in Zone VE, the coastal high hazard zone where wave action is expected, $1,408 in Zone AE and $737 outside the mapped hazard area. That is flood alone, with wind and hail quoted separately, which is why we tell every Topsail buyer to get a bound quote during due diligence rather than a ballpark after closing. Our flood zone and flood insurance guide explains how the zone on your parcel drives that number.
Last, the loan. At the $827,000 median asking price with 20 percent down, principal and interest run about $4,545 a month at the 7.32 percent average Freddie Mac reported for the week ending October 22, 2026, which our mortgage update tracks weekly. Add about $899 in tax plus flood and wind policies, and the gap between renting a week here and owning here gets obvious fast.
One bridge, two counties, and a 53-minute drive to Wilmington
Everything on the island crosses one span. NCDOT opened the current high-rise bridge in December 2018, a 3,773-foot crossing about 65 feet above the Intracoastal Waterway that replaced a 1955 swing bridge, so boat traffic no longer stops cars. The island end is still the pinch point: WECT reported on April 29, 2026 that NCDOT planned a temporary signal ahead of the roundabout on May 6 while the state studies a permanent fix.
Distances matter more here than in any beach town to the south. Routing from the island end of the bridge on October 8, 2026, Holly Ridge is 5.6 miles and about 10 minutes, Hampstead 13.6 miles and 23 minutes, Jacksonville 26.6 miles and 40 minutes, downtown Wilmington 30.6 miles and 53 minutes, and Wilmington International Airport 32.0 miles and 51 minutes. If your job is in Wilmington five days a week, this is the wrong beach town, and we will say so before you write an offer.
The other thing to get straight before you shop is the county line. Surf City straddles it. Pender collects for most of the town, but part sits in Onslow, and when we geocoded the 113 active Surf City listings on October 8, 2026, 18 of them landed in Onslow. Different county means a different tax bill and a different school district on the same stretch of road.
Schools, and the redistricting nobody has settled
On the Pender side, ten real addresses we ran through the district’s own lookup on October 8, 2026 all returned the same three schools: Surf City Elementary and Surf City Middle on Literacy Lane in Hampstead, and Topsail High on North Saint Johns Church Road. Their 2024-25 North Carolina School Report Cards are a C at 67 with growth Met, a C at 69 with growth Met and a B at 82 with growth Exceeded. All three sit on the mainland, so the school run crosses the bridge, 5.77 miles from a North Shore Drive address by the district’s own measure.
Addresses on the Onslow side sit in a different system. Onslow County Schools’ lookup returned Coastal Elementary, Dixon Middle and Dixon High, graded B at 76, C at 62 and B at 75. Neither set of assignments is permanent. Pender County Schools’ redistricting page, updated October 1, 2026, says no boundary changes have been approved and that recommendations go to the board in January 2027, and the district counts 10,892 students in 2025-26 against 17,407 projected by 2035-36. Get the assignment for your address in writing before you make an offer.
Two things change buyers’ minds here, and we would rather raise them early. The first is flood: of the 113 active Surf City listings we queried against the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer on October 8, 2026, 73 landed in Zone AE and 21 in VE, so the odds are strong the house you like carries a flood requirement and the premium with it. The second is the commute. Buyers who need Wilmington daily are usually better served in Hampstead, which feeds the same Topsail high school without the bridge. For a quieter island, Topsail Beach fits better, and if the plan is really a rental you use some weeks, our post on buying a Surf City beach rental runs that math instead.
Related questions people also ask
Is Surf City a year-round community?
Partly. The American Community Survey for 2020 through 2024 counts 4,396 year-round residents and 1,784 occupied housing units against 2,255 held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use, so roughly half the town empties out after Labor Day. There is still a genuine year-round core with a town community center, a winter events calendar and full-time neighbors, which is more than the smaller Topsail towns offer. Expect quiet streets and shorter restaurant hours from November through March rather than a shuttered town.
How far is Surf City from Wilmington?
Road routing from the island end of the Surf City bridge on October 8, 2026 put downtown Wilmington at 30.6 miles and about 53 minutes, and Wilmington International Airport at 32.0 miles and about 51 minutes. Jacksonville is closer at 26.6 miles and roughly 40 minutes, which is why many year-round residents shop and see doctors to the north instead. Those are free-flow times, so plan on longer in summer traffic and at the island-end roundabout.
Do you need flood insurance in Surf City?
If your house sits in a Special Flood Hazard Area and you have a federally backed mortgage, your lender will require it, and most of the town qualifies. When we checked all 113 active Surf City listings against the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer on October 8, 2026, 94 fell in Zone AE or VE and only 12 sat in a minimal hazard area. Even a cash buyer outside the mapped zone should price a policy: FEMA’s policy records for ZIP 28445 show a median annual cost of $737 for single-family homes rated outside the hazard area.
Before you fall for a specific house here, get three things on paper for that exact address: the flood determination, a bound insurance quote for wind and for flood, and the school assignment from whichever county you are actually in. We pull all three for our buyers during due diligence, and we are glad to walk you through what they mean for a year-round budget rather than a rental spreadsheet. Bring us the address and we will tell you what the year looks like.
Sources: American Community Survey 2020 to 2024; Pender County 2026 tax rate schedule; WECT, July 1, 2026 and April 29, 2026; Port City Daily, July 2, 2026; FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP policy data, policies effective on or after September 1, 2025, retrieved October 27, 2026; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, queried October 8, 2026; Coldwell Banker Surf City page, October 8, 2026; North Carolina School Report Cards, 2024-25; Pender County Schools redistricting page, updated October 1, 2026; our Surf City community guide and Pender County market update, three months ending September 2026; Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending October 22, 2026.
