Best PlacesEmerald Isle, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Emerald Isle, 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.
Emerald Isle ranks 10,188th 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 Emerald Isle
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.
Emerald Isle's strengths and weaknesses
Where Emerald Isle ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 96% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 95% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
Where Emerald Isle ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Emerald Isle
A household needs to earn about $145,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Emerald Isle home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $89,878, 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 Emerald Isle's effective rate of 0.43%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Emerald Isle
Emerald Isle 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 Emerald Isle.
Who works in Emerald Isle, and how
Work in Emerald Isle centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 67%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Emerald Isle
Emerald Isle has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of towns. The coast is about 0 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Emerald Isle and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Emerald Isle, month by month
Emerald Isle 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 Emerald Isle
The nearest airport, Coastal Carolina Regional, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 130 miles away.
The best schools in and around Emerald Isle
Schools across Emerald Isle 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 Emerald Isle school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Emerald Isle 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 Emerald Isle against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Emerald Isle
Is Emerald Isle a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Emerald Isle ranks 10,188th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, an educated workforce, and good schools, 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 Emerald Isle expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $582,732. The overall cost of living runs about 12% above the national average. Set against a $89,878 median income, cost of living beats 61% of towns.
Is Emerald Isle safe?
Yes, Emerald Isle is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $219 per resident a year.
Compare Emerald Isle with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Emerald Isle. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Emerald Isle 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.
Emerald Isle detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Emerald Isle: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Emerald Isle: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Emerald Isle: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Emerald Isle: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Emerald Isle 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.