Scotts Hill is the strip of Pender County that begins at the New Hanover County line and runs north along US 17 toward Hampstead. Nothing here is incorporated. Pender County’s E911 address file, read October 23, 2026, lists 2,031 address points in the Pender County portion of ZIP 28411, every one unincorporated and every one with a Wilmington mailing address, all of it inside the Scotts Hill fire tax district.

That explains most of what buyers get wrong here. The mail says Wilmington. The tax bill, the school bus and the water meter say Pender County, and we have watched buyers believe they were getting New Hanover County schools. The county’s subdivision layer shows what has been platted here: Blake Farm, Scotts Hill Village, Indigo at Abbey Preserve, Scotts Hill Bluff, Scottsdale, Harborside, Wyndham Ridge and Osprey Point. Behind that sits the older Scotts Hill, the wooded acreage along Scotts Hill Loop Road, which bends east toward the Intracoastal Waterway and back.

Growth is the defining fact. Pender County’s adopted FY 2026-2027 budget says the Blake Farm development in Scotts Hill, more than 3,300 units, has broken ground, and puts the county’s 2026 population at 74,072 using Census Bureau data, up 22 percent since 2020. If the current quiet is your reason for buying, read the plats around you.

In the Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage IDX search of Hive MLS listings for ZIP 28411 on October 23, 2026 we found 34 active listings at Scotts Hill addresses: 31 houses and townhomes asking $279,999 to $965,000, and three vacant parcels at $965,000 and $975,000.

The inventory sits in a few communities: 10 listings in Indigo at Abbey Preserve, 8 in Scotts Hill Village, 7 in Blake Farm, 2 in Scottsdale, one each in Harborside and Wyndham Ridge. Entry is the Blake Farm townhome, five active from $279,999 to $352,640. Detached new construction opens at $419,900 and tops out at $749,988 for a five bedroom at 2,913 square feet. Above that you are buying land: the priciest house listed is 1,709 square feet on 1.4 acres at $965,000.

The honest caveat: this is closer to a builder price sheet than a resale market. Twenty-five of the 34 listings sit in new construction communities, so the range reflects what builders ask today, not what older houses trade for. Our Pender County market update put the county median sale price at $499,000 for the three months ending September 2026, up 16.1 percent year over year, at 83 days on market.

Scotts Hill is short on commerce and long on a few hard to find things:

• Poplar Grove, 10200 US Highway 17, the 1850s manor house museum on the National Register of Historic Places and inside the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, with a print shop, a blacksmith shop and festivals including Merry and Bright, November 27 to 29
• Marsh Creek at Scotts Hill Marina, 2570 Scotts Hill Loop Road, family owned since 1986, with roughly 40 wet slips, 300 dry storage spaces, fuel and a store for nearly 400 members
• The Sailfish at Marsh Creek Marine, the waterfront restaurant and bar at the marina, open since 2016, where a one dollar annual membership lets you eat without owning a boat
• Novant Health Scotts Hill Medical Center, 151 Scotts Hill Medical Drive, where a $294 million hospital opened in full on June 16, 2026 with 66 inpatient beds, 14 observation rooms, eight operating rooms and an emergency department twice its old size

No downtown, no sidewalk grid, no grocery store, so everyday shopping happens at Porters Neck or Hampstead. And the marina converted its public ramp to private dry storage, so launching a boat here is a membership question.

Scotts Hill is served by Pender County Schools. We ran four real Scotts Hill addresses through the district’s own WebQuery assignment tool on October 23, 2026, on Scotts Hill Loop Road and in Blake Farm, Scotts Hill Village and Scotts Hill Bluff. All four returned the same assignment, with these grades from the 2024-25 NC School Report Cards:

• South Topsail Elementary School, 997 Hoover Road, Hampstead, PK-5, a B at 71, met growth, 6.3 to 7.5 miles away by the district’s own figures
• Topsail Middle School, 17445 US Highway 17, Hampstead, grades 5-8, a B at 71, did not meet growth
• Topsail High School, 245 St. Johns Church Road, Hampstead, grades 9-12, a B at 82, exceeded growth
• Pender Early College High School, Burgaw, grades 9-13, an A at 94, open countywide by application

Two things to sit with. There is no school in Scotts Hill, so every assigned school is six to nine miles up US 17 in Hampstead. And the lines are moving. WECT reported on August 11, 2026 that seven of the district’s 17 schools are over capacity this year, including all three above, and Port City Daily reported on August 6, 2026 that the district has begun redistricting with NC State’s Institute for Transportation Research and Education, with new boundaries intended for 2027-28 when J.H. Lea Elementary and Middle School opens in Hampstead for more than 2,000 students. Confirm the assignment for the exact address.

US 17 is both the spine and the constraint. Routing estimates from Scotts Hill Loop Road at US 17, approximate and in free flowing traffic, computed October 23, 2026: Hampstead about 6 miles and 10 minutes, Porters Neck about 7 and 16, Wrightsville Beach about 13 and 24, downtown Wilmington about 15 and 29, the airport about 17 and 28, the Surf City beach access about 20 and 33. The advantage over Hampstead is the I-140 interchange just south at the county line, which puts Leland and I-40 in reach without crossing town.

Relief and disruption are arriving together. NCDOT’s alignment for the US 17 Hampstead Bypass begins at an interchange with NC 140 in New Hanover County and runs northwest past Sidbury Road into Pender County, which puts the project’s southern end at Scotts Hill’s back door. Construction began in fall 2025 on a roughly $490 million project, southbound US 17 shifted onto new roadway near Leeward Lane on May 28, 2026, the first segment from NC 210 to Sloop Point Loop Road is expected in late 2027 and the full bypass in 2030. Nearby we also cover Porters Neck immediately south, Hampstead immediately north, and Indigo at Abbey Preserve, which sits inside Scotts Hill itself.

Most of Scotts Hill is high ground. We queried Pender County’s GIS flood zone layer on October 23, 2026 at county address points on Heart Pine Avenue, Vella Lane, Pandion Drive, Cashmere Court and Scotts Hill Loop Road, and all five returned Zone X, minimal flood hazard. The creek side differs: Osprey Place and East Foys Creek Lane returned the 0.2 percent annual chance area, and the county maps AE and VE special flood hazard zones across the marsh and waterway edge. Check the parcel, not the subdivision.

Flood insurance is usually not lender required on the Zone X lots. Get the wind and hail deductible in writing before you remove due diligence, because on this coast it is commonly a percentage of insured value, not a flat amount.

The tax math is simple and it is not low. Pender County’s FY 2026-2027 adopted budget ordinance levies 0.7375 per $100 countywide, 0.0925 for EMS and 0.0950 inside the Scotts Hill Fire Tax District, a combined 0.9250 per $100, with no municipal rate on top. On a $600,000 purchase that is roughly $5,550 a year. The warning that matters more than the rate: the county’s Budget in Brief says the rate held at 0.7375 because Senate Bill 889 delayed use of the January 1, 2026 revaluation values for a year, so the reassessment reset is still ahead of you.

Water deserves real attention. Pender County Utilities runs a dedicated Scott’s Hill Water and Sewer District, whose posted FY 2024 schedule, effective July 1, 2023, sets a residential base fee of $27.50 a month plus $6.50 per 1,000 gallons, a $3,432 system development fee and a $1,925 tap fee on a three quarter inch meter. The FY 2026-2027 budget funds a 13.2 percent water rate increase. Capacity is the live issue: the county added three wells and a 500,000-gallon elevated tank in the Scotts Hill and Hampstead area in April 2024, roughly 750,000 gallons a day, after suspending irrigation meters for new development here in 2023. County sewer does not reach every lot, so on older houses make the well test and septic inspection part of due diligence.

Most of what sells here sits inside a platted subdivision with covenants and an association, while the older houses on acreage generally do not. Dues vary by phase, so read the documents for the specific plat. Scotts Hill is not a town, so there is no municipal short term rental permit to clear; your constraint on renting will be the covenants.