Wrightsville Beach is a very small coastal town (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of North Carolina. With a population of 2,420 people and just one neighborhood, Wrightsville Beach is the 276th largest community in North Carolina.
Wrightsville Beach home prices are not only among the most expensive in North Carolina, but Wrightsville Beach real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.
Wrightsville Beach is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 91.24% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Wrightsville Beach is a town of managers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Wrightsville Beach who work in management occupations (29.94%), sales jobs (16.62%), and healthcare (9.43%).
A relatively large number of people in Wrightsville Beach telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 24.78% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Another notable thing is that Wrightsville Beach is an extremely popular vacation destination. A significant portion of the population is seasonal. During the vacation season, the town experiences a large influx of people who take up residence in second homes they own in the area. As the vacation season ends, the population drops again, leaving behind a substantially quieter and smaller town.
Wrightsville Beach is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.
Residents of the town have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 19.22 minutes getting to work every day.
Wrightsville Beach is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
If knowledge is power, Wrightsville Beach is a pretty powerful place. 71.65% of the adults in Wrightsville Beach have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns.
The per capita income in Wrightsville Beach in 2022 was $97,190, which is wealthy relative to North Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $388,760 for a family of four.
The people who call Wrightsville Beach home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Wrightsville Beach residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Wrightsville Beach include English, Irish, German, Italian, and Scottish.
The most common language spoken in Wrightsville Beach is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
Do you like a coastal setting? If so, this neighborhood may be to your liking. The neighborhood is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Often such coastal places have amenities and recreational activities on the waterfront that are attractive to residents and visitors alike. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.
In addition, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 56.1% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 99.2% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
If you come to know the people here, you will recognize that you're in the company of one of the wealthiest communities in the nation. In fact, a mere 4.8% of America's neighborhoods are wealthier than the neighborhood. Real estate here is exceedingly well-maintained, and similarly, tends to maintain its value over time. The cars driven are mostly luxury brands like Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Lexus. If the public schools aren't up to snuff, the residents of this neighborhood preferentially send their children to private preparatory schools. Vacation to Disney? Yes, but equally popular are summers in Europe. As one would expect in a considerably wealthy neighborhood such as this, also has one of the lowest ratings of child poverty in the nation.
In addition, a majority of the adults in the neighborhood are wealthy and educated executives. They own stately homes that tend to maintain high real estate appreciation rates. Their upper-level careers keep them busy, but allow them to live comfortably. If you're an executive and want to keep similar company, consider settling in this neighborhood, rated as an executive lifestyle "best choice" neighborhood for North Carolina by NeighborhoodScout's analysis, which rated it as better for executive lifestyles than 97.0% of the neighborhoods in North Carolina. In addition to being an excellent choice for highly educated executives, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for urban sophisticates and active retirees.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Greek and English ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Greek ancestry and 23.7% have English ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.6% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Greek at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.5% of the neighborhoods in America.
There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Wrightsville Beach are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 95.2% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the neighborhood, 66.8% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 19.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (8.4%), and 5.4% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 94.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the neighborhood in Wrightsville Beach, NC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (23.7%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (13.3%), and residents who report German roots (12.2%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (7.3%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (5.8%), among others.
How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (43.9% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (69.2%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.