Best PlacesPine Knoll Shores, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pine Knoll Shores, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Pine Knoll Shores ranks 11,565th 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 Pine Knoll Shores
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.
Pine Knoll Shores' strengths and weaknesses
Where Pine Knoll Shores ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 92% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
- Household income$109,333 median, better than 90% of towns
Where Pine Knoll Shores ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pine Knoll Shores
A household needs to earn about $148,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pine Knoll Shores home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $109,333, 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 Pine Knoll Shores' effective rate of 0.46%, 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 Pine Knoll Shores
Pine Knoll Shores 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 Pine Knoll Shores.
Who works in Pine Knoll Shores, and how
Work in Pine Knoll Shores centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Pine Knoll Shores
The coast is about 0 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Pine Knoll Shores, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pine Knoll Shores, month by month
Pine Knoll Shores sees roughly 80 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 Pine Knoll Shores
The nearest airport, Coastal Carolina Regional, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 138 miles away.
The best schools in and around Pine Knoll Shores
Schools across Pine Knoll Shores average an A−, better than 88% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Morehead City PrimaryA− · 58% proficient
- Morehead Elem At Camp GlennA− · 56% proficient
Top high schools
- West Carteret HighA · 70% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pine Knoll Shores school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pine Knoll Shores 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 Pine Knoll Shores against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pine Knoll Shores
Is Pine Knoll Shores a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pine Knoll Shores ranks 11,565th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, an educated workforce, and cheap car insurance, 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 Pine Knoll Shores expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $592,161. The overall cost of living runs about 10% above the national average. Set against a $109,333 median income, cost of living beats 86% of towns.
Is Pine Knoll Shores safe?
Yes, Pine Knoll Shores is safer than 80% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $231 per resident a year.
Compare Pine Knoll Shores with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pine Knoll Shores. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pine Knoll Shores 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.
Pine Knoll Shores detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pine Knoll Shores: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pine Knoll Shores: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pine Knoll Shores: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pine Knoll Shores: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pine Knoll Shores 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.