Masonboro buys you the water and an A-rated elementary school at a much higher price, with a median asking price of $870,000 against $610,000 in Myrtle Grove. Myrtle Grove buys you more house for the money, a shorter run to Carolina Beach and one tax rate for the whole area, while Masonboro is split down the middle by the Wilmington city limits.
These two sit side by side in southeast New Hanover County, share a ZIP code in places, and get used interchangeably by people who do not live here. They are not the same purchase. The difference shows up on the tax bill, in the school assignment and in what a half-acre costs.
We will take the parts that change a decision: price, taxes, schools, flood and the drive, with the date beside each measurement.
Price: the gap is about $260,000 at the median
Our Masonboro community guide matched the Coldwell Banker listings for ZIP 28409 against the county parcel file on October 16, 2026 and found 46 inside the Masonboro boundary. Our Myrtle Grove guide pulled that area’s inventory on October 6, 2026.
- Masonboro: 43 active houses and townhomes, $279,000 to $8,000,000, median asking price $870,000 Coldwell Banker ZIP 28409 listings matched to the county parcel file, October 16, 2026
- Myrtle Grove: 55 active houses and townhomes, $265,000 to $3,200,000, median asking price $610,000 Coldwell Banker Myrtle Grove page, October 6, 2026
- Masonboro county appraisals on 3,269 houses: median $520,300, with quartiles of $399,700 and $715,800 New Hanover County 2026 tax roll, October 16, 2026
- Myrtle Grove median value of owner-occupied homes: $439,100 American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024
- New Hanover County median sale price: $464,000, 61 days on market, 1,251 active listings Tidal Realty Partners New Hanover County market update, three months ending September 2026
Both trade above the county median of $464,000, and Masonboro trades well above it. The reason is the water. Masonboro sells a 1960s ranch on a half acre and a new waterfront house with a deep water dock in the same week, which is why its median asking price sits at $870,000 while its median county appraisal sits at $520,300. Myrtle Grove has the same shape on a smaller scale, from $265,000 townhomes on Winds Ridge Drive to a $3,200,000 waterfront house on Masonboro Harbour Drive.
The shortest version: in Myrtle Grove, $600,000 buys a solid detached house in the interior. In Masonboro, it buys the lower quarter of the market.
Taxes: one rate against two
This is the difference almost nobody sees coming. Myrtle Grove is entirely unincorporated, so there is no municipal line on the bill at all. At the 2026 rates that is 0.3785 per $100, made up of the county rate plus a fire district rate and debt service.
Masonboro is split. Of the 3,656 parcels inside the Masonboro Elementary attendance boundary on the 2026 roll, 2,864 carry Wilmington as their municipality and 787 carry only a fire district. Among the houses the split is 2,630 inside the city to 639 outside. Inside the city limits the combined rate is 0.6375 per $100. On the area’s median appraisal of $520,300 that is about $3,317 a year inside the city and about $1,969 outside it, on two houses that may sit across the street from each other.
Ask which side of the line an address falls on before you fall for the house. That is roughly $1,348 a year at the median, every year you own it.
Schools: this is Masonboro’s strongest argument
Every house inside the Masonboro boundary feeds Masonboro Elementary School on Masonboro Loop Road, which carried a 2025 state grade of A at a score of 90, with growth Exceeded at 94.7 and grade-level proficiency of 82.7 percent in reading and 92 percent in math against 56.2 and 65 for the district. Middle school splits, with about 59 percent of houses to Roland-Grise Middle, a B at 70, and 41 percent to Myrtle Grove Middle, a C at 66. All of Masonboro feeds John T. Hoggard High, a B at 75.
Myrtle Grove is more fragmented. Sampling 402 points against the district’s 2026 to 2027 boundary layers, about 64 percent of elementary points go to H. C. Bellamy Elementary, 24 percent to Edwin A. Anderson Elementary, 5 percent to Masonboro Elementary and 4 percent to Pine Valley Elementary. Middle splits roughly north to Myrtle Grove Middle and south to Charles P. Murray Middle, and about 93 percent of the area feeds Eugene Ashley High rather than Hoggard.
We are not quoting state grades for the Myrtle Grove schools, because our guide could not reach the North Carolina School Report Cards site the week it measured that area and we will not repeat a rating we did not read. What we can tell you is that the assignment is not uniform, so run the exact address through the district locator before you write an offer. The northeast corner of Myrtle Grove does feed Masonboro Elementary, which is a quiet way to get that school at Myrtle Grove prices if you find the right street.
Flood: both are fine inland and expensive on the water
Masonboro’s guide queried the county’s 2025 flood hazard layer at all 3,269 improved residential parcels on October 16, 2026. Zone X, minimal hazard, came back for 2,527 of them, 77.3 percent. Another 405 returned AE at base flood elevations of 12 or 13 feet, and 65 returned VE, the coastal high hazard zone where waves are expected, at 14 to 16 feet. That puts 14.4 percent of the houses in the special flood hazard area.
Myrtle Grove’s guide queried the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer at 402 points on October 6, 2026. Two hundred eighty-three came back Zone X, 62 came back VE, 38 AE, 18 the 0.2 percent annual chance band and one the floodway. Every VE point sat in the eastern third along Masonboro Sound.
The pattern is the same in both: west of Masonboro Loop Road it is mostly X, and the sound edge is where the premium lives. Both sit in insurance territory 140, Eastern Coastal, where the January 17, 2025 settlement between the Department of Insurance and the Rate Bureau approved base rate increases of 10.5 percent in 2025 and 10.1 percent in 2026. Get a written quote during due diligence either way.
Getting around
Masonboro is closer to the city and to Wrightsville Beach. By road routing from the middle of the neighborhood on October 16, 2026, downtown is about 8.1 miles and 18 minutes, Wrightsville Beach 9.1 and 19, and UNCW 4.8 and 11. Myrtle Grove is closer to the ocean to the south. By routing from the center of that area on October 6, 2026, the Carolina Beach boardwalk is about 6.6 miles and 13 minutes, downtown about 10.0 and 20, and Wrightsville Beach about 13.3 and 25.
Both have the same weakness. Masonboro Loop Road is two lanes and backs up at the Loop and Pine Grove twice a day. Myrtle Grove depends on Carolina Beach Road and the Monkey Junction intersection, where NCDOT has project U-5790 funded at $54.5 million to widen US 421 and build flyovers, with right of way in 2027 and construction in 2029.
Two things make this comparison messier than it looks. The first is that the boundaries are arguments, not facts. Masonboro is not a town and the Census Bureau draws no place by that name, so our guide used the Masonboro Elementary attendance area to draw a line around it. Myrtle Grove is a census-designated place, and part of it feeds Masonboro Elementary. On the ground the two blend into each other along Masonboro Loop Road, and a listing marketed as one may sit in the other. The second is timing. The two measurements are ten days apart, and the inventory counts are small enough that a handful of new waterfront listings would move either median. Treat the $260,000 gap as a reliable direction rather than a precise figure, and price the specific street you are considering rather than the name on the sign.
Related questions people also ask
Is Masonboro more expensive than Myrtle Grove?
Yes, by a meaningful margin at every measure we checked. The active houses and townhomes in Masonboro carried a median asking price of $870,000 on October 16, 2026, while Myrtle Grove’s carried a median of $610,000 on October 6, 2026. The county’s own 2026 appraisals tell the same story, with a median of $520,300 across Masonboro’s houses against an American Community Survey median value of $439,100 in Myrtle Grove. Deep water access and the elementary school assignment are the two biggest drivers of that difference.
Do Masonboro and Myrtle Grove go to the same schools?
Mostly not: every house in Masonboro feeds Masonboro Elementary and John T. Hoggard High, with middle school split between Roland-Grise and Myrtle Grove Middle. Myrtle Grove is divided among four elementary schools, two middle schools, and feeds Eugene Ashley High for about 93 percent of its area. The northeast corner of Myrtle Grove is the exception and does feed Masonboro Elementary and Hoggard. Because the lines cross through both areas, run the exact address through the New Hanover County Schools locator before making an offer.
Which one is closer to Wrightsville Beach?
Masonboro, by a clear margin. Road routing from the middle of Masonboro puts Wrightsville Beach at about 9.1 miles and 19 minutes, while routing from the center of Myrtle Grove puts it at about 13.3 miles and 25 minutes. The reverse is true going south: the Carolina Beach boardwalk is about 6.6 miles and 13 minutes from Myrtle Grove and farther from Masonboro. Which beach you actually use most is a better tiebreaker here than the mileage itself.
Pick two or three specific addresses you like in each area and let us run them side by side: the city limits line, the school assignment, the flood determination and a real insurance quote on each one. Those four checks separate these two places far better than any median does. Schedule a consultation and we will build that comparison with you before you tour.
Sources: Tidal Realty Partners Masonboro community guide, listings and parcel data read October 16, 2026; Tidal Realty Partners Myrtle Grove community guide, listings and boundary data read October 6, 2026; New Hanover County 2026 tax roll and 2026 historic tax rates; New Hanover County 2025 flood hazard layer and the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer; North Carolina School Report Cards, year 2025, read October 16, 2026; North Carolina Department of Insurance and Rate Bureau settlement, January 17, 2025; NCDOT 2026 to 2035 State Transportation Improvement Program, project U-5790; American Community Survey 2020 to 2024; Tidal Realty Partners New Hanover County market update, three months ending September 2026.
