The Outer Banks Is A Great Vacation Home Market
The Outer Banks Is A Great Vacation Home Market
“The Good Life”
The Outer Banks of North Carolina has become the prime east coast destination for vacationers to escape to the beach and relax. The OBX offers unique local appeal with historic relevance like the legends of Blackbeard the Pirate or the birth of aviation.
The east coast is covered with resort towns that have become heavily populated, and most beach towns on the east coast are covered with shopping, high rise developments, parks and huge condo units. The Outer Banks has preserved its quaint charm throughout the years, and its unique feel attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Starting at the Virginia Border, the Outer Banks spans three counties and runs south along the North Carolina coast for about 130 miles. One reason for underdevelopment on the OBX is the thinness of the islands. Most homes are either oceanfront or within short walking distance to the ocean. Towns such as Duck and Corolla have become very popular for vacation home owners because these are popular rental markets.
In a recent USA Today article the Outer Banks was classified into three different areas. They are as follows:
• Northern beaches: This area includes the towns of Duck, Corolla, Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills. “Favorites include Duck and Corolla, and it’s mostly single-family homes, though at the low end you can get a one-bedroom waterfront condo for under 0,000. Most homes are in the 0,000-0,000 range, though Corolla is known for larger oceanfront homes up to million,” a local Outer Banks realtor notes. North of Corolla, where Highway 12 ends, nearly 15 miles of dunes stretch to the Virginia border, dotted with vacation homes accessible only by four-wheel-drive vehicles: “That’s a whole different buyer seeking remote privacy.”
• Southern beaches: Hatteras Island is even less developed than the Northern beaches, and it is well-known for its excellent fishing, windsurfing, kiteboarding, and surfing. It is also at least another 30 minutes farther from the mainland bridges and includes more protected lands. Avon, Hatteras Village and Rodanthe, where the Richard Gere romance Nights in Rodanthe was set, are the most popular towns, and prices are lower than farther north. “Low-end one-bedroom condos start around 0,000, and the high end would be a seven-bedroom oceanfront home for about .5 million,” a local Outer Banks realtor notes.
• Mainland: The main bridge from the Outer Banks connects to a peninsula jutting into Albemarle Sound, including the town of Powell’s Point 4 miles from the bridge. “We consider it part of the Outer Banks even though it’s on the mainland,” notes a local Outer Banks realtor, who mentions that the Kilmarlic Club is popular with second-home owners. A master planned golf community with amenities like tennis and health club “started less than 10 years ago. All are single-family homes, from the mid-0,000s to the 0,000s.”
Continually increasing in popularity, there is enormous opportunity in these rental markets. If you are interested in owning a second home on the Outer Bank
Welcome to Seaside Vacations. Family-owned and operated, Seaside Vacations has spent the last 20 years bringing friends and families together to reconnect and experience meaningful and relaxing vacations on the Outer Banks. We believe that quality time with friends and family should no longer be a luxury, but a way of life.
