Search "North Myrtle Beach home prices" and you'll land on a single number: a citywide median sale price of $405,000, covering the three months ending in May 2026, down 1.3 percent from the same stretch last year. That number is accurate. It is also close to useless if you're trying to figure out what your budget actually buys, because North Myrtle Beach was never one housing market to begin with. It's four.
In 1968, the towns of Cherry Grove, Windy Hill, Crescent Beach, and Ocean Drive merged into a single municipality. The city line changed. The identities didn't. More than half a century later, a buyer comparing a channel home in Cherry Grove to a condo near Barefoot Landing in Windy Hill is comparing two products that happen to share a zip code and not much else. If you're pricing a purchase off the citywide median alone, you're averaging four markets that were never meant to average cleanly.
One City on the Map, Four Towns on the Ground
Drive north along Ocean Boulevard and you'll feel the seams. Ocean Drive is still the historic core, the place locals mean when they talk about the birth of the shag. Main Street comes alive around the OD Pavilion, one of the last open-air dance floors on the East Coast, with longtime spots like Fat Harold's Beach Club anchoring a scene that's been going since before the 1968 merger. Real estate here ranges from oceanfront cottages to mid-rise condos, and rental performance tends to track how close a property sits to that walkable energy.
Head north past 15th Avenue and the character shifts again. This is Cherry Grove, built around a network of tidal channels that connect to Hog Inlet, Cherry Grove Channel, and Dunn Sound. Many homes here have direct boat access to the ocean, which is a different value proposition than anything Ocean Drive or Windy Hill offers. The Cherry Grove Pier at 36th Avenue is still the neighborhood's anchor landmark, and Boulineau's, the nearly 80-year-old IGA on the boulevard, remains the kind of local institution that tells you a neighborhood has stayed a neighborhood even as the tourism economy grew up around it.
South of Ocean Drive, Crescent Beach keeps a quieter, more residential feel, a mix of single-family homes, condos, and mid-rise buildings that draws full-time residents and seasonal owners who want beach access without the Main Street crowd. And inland toward Highway 17, Windy Hill trades beach frontage for affordability and convenience, sitting closest to the restaurants and commercial corridor at Barefoot Landing, with more rental inventory available here than in the beach communities to the north.
Even the federal government treats these stretches as separate places. The Grand Strand's 2026 beach renourishment project, run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, finished sand placement in North Myrtle Beach as its own reach by January 31, 2026, months before crews reached Myrtle Beach and Garden City farther south. A single contract, a single project, and still four towns worked in sequence rather than as one line on a map.
What $400,000 Actually Buys, Town by Town
| Historic District | Price Signal (2026) | Property Mix | You'll Recognize It By |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ocean Drive | Commands a premium for beach proximity; runs from oceanfront cottages to mid-rise condos | Historic single-family homes, condos | Main Street, the OD Pavilion, Fat Harold's Beach Club |
| Cherry Grove | Roughly $350,000 to $1.5 million and up | Beach houses, channel homes with private docks, oceanfront towers | Cherry Grove Pier, Boulineau's |
| Crescent Beach | Mid-range, more residential than resort | Single-family homes, condos, mid-rise buildings | Quiet streets between Ocean Drive and Windy Hill |
| Windy Hill | The most accessible entry point; condos from roughly $200,000, single-family from roughly $300,000 | Older beach houses, condos, townhomes, newer construction | Barefoot Landing, Intracoastal Waterway views for some units |
Notice what that spread does to a citywide median. A $405,000 headline number sits comfortably inside Windy Hill's range and near the entry point for Cherry Grove, but it tells you nothing about whether a specific listing in Cherry Grove is priced fairly against other channel homes, or whether a Windy Hill condo is overpriced for its distance from the water. The median is a blend. Your offer needs a comp set from the actual town.
The Rental Permit Now Sorting Buyers by Town
Here's the part that catches people off guard, especially investors who've done this in other coastal markets and assume the rules travel with them.
North Myrtle Beach has always required a business license and remittance of accommodations tax to the city, county, and state for any short-term rental. What's changed is the layer on top of that. As the city has worked through a community-informed process on short-term rental oversight, local news coverage has put the number of registered short-term rentals in the city at roughly 5,400, with as many as 1,700 of those lacking a designated local contact to respond to noise, parking, or trash complaints. That gap is the reason the rules have tightened: an annual permit tied to a physical inspection, and a requirement that every short-term rental have a Local Responsible Agent within 30 miles of the property, either the owner or an appointed licensed manager.
That single requirement lands very differently depending on which of the four towns you're buying in. In Cherry Grove and Ocean Drive, where oceanfront and channel homes carry the strongest rental demand and many owners are out of state, the Local Responsible Agent rule adds a real, ongoing cost to the investment math. In Windy Hill, where more of the housing stock leans toward long-term rental and owner-occupancy, fewer buyers ever trip this wire in the first place. If you're comparing a Cherry Grove channel home to a Windy Hill condo purely on purchase price, you're missing a line item that only shows up once you know which zoning and rental profile you've bought into. Confirm the current permit requirements directly with the city before you count on rental income in your numbers.
Cherry Grove's Docks Come With Their Own Homework
If a channel home is part of what's pulling you toward Cherry Grove, the diligence list is longer than a standard home inspection. Dock condition and bulkhead status vary significantly from property to property, and water depth at the dock can determine whether a boat is usable at low tide or only at high tide. Some of these channels are only navigable a few hours a day.
New construction and major renovations in Cherry Grove also have to meet FEMA elevation requirements, which is why you'll notice a mix of older homes that have been elevated or rebuilt alongside untouched originals along the same street. None of this is unique to Cherry Grove within the Grand Strand, but it's specific to waterway-adjacent property in a way that a Windy Hill condo or an Ocean Drive mid-rise simply doesn't require. It's one more reason the four towns aren't interchangeable once you get past the listing photos.
Reading the Median Like Someone Who Lives Here
None of this means the citywide number is meaningless. It's a useful starting point for understanding direction, whether the broader market is cooling or heating, and how North Myrtle Beach compares to Myrtle Beach or Surfside Beach one town over. What it can't do is price a specific property or tell you whether the rental income projection someone hands you actually holds up under the current permit rules.
The better question to ask before you write an offer isn't "what's the median in North Myrtle Beach." It's "what have comparable channel homes in Cherry Grove sold for in the last few months" or "what's the current rental inventory doing in Windy Hill compared to Ocean Drive." Those are town-level questions, and they're the ones that actually shape your negotiating position.
Questions Worth Answering Before You Tour
Is a short-term rental permit required everywhere in North Myrtle Beach, or only in certain zones? The business license and tax remittance apply citywide. The newer permit and Local Responsible Agent requirement is part of a broader ordinance the city has been developing, so confirm the current status and any zoning-specific conditions with the city before you rely on rental projections.
Are the inland communities west of Highway 17 part of North Myrtle Beach? Some are, and they tend to offer larger lots and lower entry prices than the beachfront towns, trading ocean proximity for space and value. They're worth a look if beach walkability isn't your top priority.
Does the Local Responsible Agent rule apply to long-term rentals too? The requirement is tied specifically to short-term rental registration. If you're planning a traditional annual lease rather than nightly or weekly stays, the calculus is different, though it's still worth confirming with the city given how much this area of the ordinance has been in motion in 2026.
Which of the four towns has the strongest resale demand right now? Demand patterns shift with rental rules and inventory, which is exactly why a submarket-level comparison matters more than a citywide average when you're timing an offer.
If you're weighing a purchase in Cherry Grove against one in Windy Hill, or trying to figure out how the city's rental permit changes affect your numbers, that's a conversation worth having with someone who works these four towns as four towns, not one line on a map. Local to Coastal Realty splits its practice between inland North Carolina and the Grand Strand specifically so clients get that kind of granular read. Request a free consultation and we'll walk through the comps that actually apply to the block you're considering.
