2026-08-27 · 7 min read · North Myrtle Beach
North Myrtle Beach's Median Price Is Hiding Four Different Towns
One City on the Map, Four Towns on the Ground
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. Ocean Drive is still the historic core, home to the OD Pavilion and Fat Harold's Beach Club. Cherry Grove is built around a network of tidal channels connecting to Hog Inlet, Cherry Grove Channel, and Dunn Sound, where many homes have direct boat access to the ocean. Crescent Beach keeps a quieter, more residential feel. Windy Hill trades beach frontage for affordability, sitting closest to Barefoot Landing's restaurants and commercial corridor.
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 |
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
North Myrtle Beach has always required a business license and remittance of accommodations tax for any short-term rental. What's changed is the layer on top of that: 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 lacking a designated local contact. 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. In Cherry Grove and Ocean Drive, where many owners are out of state, that rule adds a real, ongoing cost to the investment math. Confirm the current permit requirements directly with the city before you count on rental income in your numbers.
If a channel home in Cherry Grove is part of the draw, dock condition and bulkhead status vary significantly property to property, and water depth can determine whether a boat is usable at low tide or only at high tide. New construction and major renovations there also have to meet FEMA elevation requirements.
Reading the Median Like Someone Who Lives Here
The citywide number is still a useful starting point for direction, whether the broader market is cooling or heating. What it can't do is price a specific property. The better question 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." If you're weighing a purchase in one of these four towns against another, or trying to figure out how the city's rental permit changes affect your numbers, get in touch and we'll work through it together.