Best PlacesCarteret County, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Carteret County, 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.
Carteret County ranks 1,399th of 3,144 U.S. counties 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 Carteret County
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.
The best areas in Carteret County
The parts of Carteret County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Emerald Isle & Cedar Point
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Morehead City
Fewer homes sit empty, though it is noisier.
Newport
More households have young kids and homes cost less.
Beaufort
Heat risk is higher and prices have run up more.
Scores across Carteret County run from about the 9th to the 87th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Carteret County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carteret County ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of counties
- School gradeA, better than 96% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than 87% of counties
Where Carteret County ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of counties
- Low vacancyBetter than only 13% of counties
- Heat safetyBetter than only 16% of counties
- Big-city accessBetter than only 27% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Carteret County
A household needs to earn about $85,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carteret County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $74,396, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Carteret County's effective rate of 0.46%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Carteret County
Carteret County 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 Carteret County.
Who works in Carteret County, and how
Work in Carteret County 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 84%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Carteret County
Carteret County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 79% of counties. The coast is about 13 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Carteret County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Carteret County growing, and who is moving in?
Carteret County has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Jacksonville, NC.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Carteret County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Carteret County, month by month
Carteret County sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 58, 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 | 58° | 47° | 37° |
| April | 73° | 64° | 54° |
| July | 88° | 82° | 75° |
| October | 78° | 68° | 59° |
Flying in and out of Carteret County
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 136 miles away.
The best schools in and around Carteret County
Schools across Carteret County average an A, better than 96% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Tiller SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
- Atlantic ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- White Oak ElementaryA+ · 74% proficient
Top middle schools
- Broad Creek MiddleA+ · 72% proficient
- Morehead City MiddleA · 67% proficient
- Newport MiddleA− · 57% proficient
Top high schools
- Marine Sci. And Tech. Early College HsA+ · 85% proficient
- East Carteret HighA · 73% proficient
- Croatan HighA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carteret County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carteret County 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 Carteret County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Carteret County suits
Common questions about living in Carteret County
Is Carteret County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carteret County ranks 1,399th of 3,144 counties. 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 Carteret County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $340,542. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $74,396 median income, cost of living beats 60% of counties.
Is Carteret County safe?
Yes, Carteret County is safer than 80% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $308 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Carteret County?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 58 with lows near 37. That works out to about 76 pleasant days a year, more than 31% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Carteret County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Emerald Isle & Cedar Point, Morehead City, and Newport. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Carteret County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carteret County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carteret County 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.
Carteret County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carteret County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carteret County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carteret County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carteret County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carteret County 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.