Best PlacesCape Carteret, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cape Carteret, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Cape Carteret ranks 14,890th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cape Carteret
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Cape Carteret's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cape Carteret ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 96% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 92% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
Where Cape Carteret ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 20% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 25% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 72 pleasant days a year, better than only 31% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cape Carteret
A household needs to earn about $93,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cape Carteret home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $85,590; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Cape Carteret's effective rate of 0.41%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Cape Carteret
Cape Carteret runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cape Carteret.
Who works in Cape Carteret, and how
Work in Cape Carteret centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Cape Carteret
Cape Carteret has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns. The coast is about 7 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Cape Carteret and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cape Carteret, month by month
Cape Carteret sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 48° | 37° |
| April | 74° | 64° | 54° |
| July | 88° | 81° | 74° |
| October | 78° | 68° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Cape Carteret
The nearest airport, Coastal Carolina Regional, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 127 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cape Carteret
Schools across Cape Carteret average an A+, better than 96% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- White Oak ElementaryA+ · 74% proficient
Top middle schools
- Broad Creek MiddleA+ · 72% proficient
Top high schools
- Croatan HighA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cape Carteret school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cape Carteret measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Cape Carteret against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cape Carteret
Is Cape Carteret a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cape Carteret ranks 14,890th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, good schools, and civic engagement, and lowest on disaster risk and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cape Carteret expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $373,998. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $85,590 median income, cost of living beats 74% of towns.
Is Cape Carteret safe?
Yes, Cape Carteret is safer than 58% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $437 per resident a year.
Compare Cape Carteret with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cape Carteret. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cape Carteret represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Cape Carteret detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cape Carteret: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cape Carteret: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cape Carteret: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cape Carteret: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cape Carteret detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.