Best PlacesTopsail Beach, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Topsail Beach, 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.
Topsail Beach ranks 13,269th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Topsail Beach
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.
Topsail Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Topsail Beach ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of towns
Where Topsail Beach ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Topsail Beach
A household needs to earn about $173,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Topsail Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $84,318, 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 Topsail Beach's effective rate of 0.65%, 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 Topsail Beach
Topsail Beach 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 Topsail Beach.
Who works in Topsail Beach, and how
Work in Topsail Beach centers on hospitality & food and admin & support services. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 65%
- Work from home 32%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Topsail Beach
The coast is about 0 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Topsail Beach, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Topsail Beach, month by month
Topsail Beach sees roughly 66 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 36. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 47° | 36° |
| April | 78° | 65° | 52° |
| July | 92° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 80° | 67° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Topsail Beach
The nearest airport, Wilmington International, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 123 miles away.
The best schools in and around Topsail Beach
Schools across Topsail Beach average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Dr Hubert Eaton Sr ElemA+ · 78% proficient
- Porters Neck ElementaryA · 72% proficient
- North Topsail ElementaryA · 69% proficient
Top middle schools
- Topsail MiddleA+ · 73% proficient
- Holly Shelter MiddleB+ · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- Pender Early College HighA+ · 93% proficient
- Wilmington Early College HighA+ · 93% proficient
- Topsail HighA · 71% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Topsail Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Topsail Beach 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 Topsail Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Topsail Beach
Is Topsail Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Topsail Beach ranks 13,269th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, good schools, and cell coverage, and lowest on an overheated housing market and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Topsail Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $676,700. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $84,318 median income, cost of living beats 75% of towns.
Is Topsail Beach safe?
Topsail Beach is safer than 36% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $377 per resident a year.
Compare Topsail Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Topsail Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Topsail Beach 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.
Topsail Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Topsail Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Topsail Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Topsail Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Topsail Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Topsail Beach 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.