29582 · Horry County
North Myrtle Beach
Its own city since 1968, made of four beach towns that still know which one they are — and the home of the shag.
North Myrtle Beach is a separate city from Myrtle Beach, about fifteen miles up the coast, and it is far more residential than its neighbour — 21,346 people, four in ten of them over 65, and 82% owning their own home. It was stitched together in 1968 from Cherry Grove, Ocean Drive, Crescent Beach and Windy Hill, and people here still tell you which section they live in. Main Street, in the Ocean Drive section, is where the Carolina shag was born, and Country Living named it one of the best small-town main streets in America.
Where people actually eat
- Hoskin’s Restaurant — Main Street, opened by Hubert and Leona Hoskins in 1948 and still family-run. Southern plates, fried chicken, chicken bog.
- Boulineau’s — Cherry Grove’s own institution and not really a restaurant at all: a grocery with a café, a bakery, a hardware store and Platt’s Seafood, which has been taking daily South Carolina deliveries since 1950.
- Snooky’s Oceanfront — open seven days, 11 to 9, all year. Fish comes off Longshot Fishing’s boats; the patio takes dogs.
- Rockefeller’s Raw Bar — Main Street, and the reason to go is the steam kettles of spicy shrimp and crawfish.
- Crooked Hammock Brewery — a brewery built like somebody’s backyard, hammocks and string lights and a bar in a retro camper.
- Duffy Street Seafood Shack — casual Main Street seafood. The Low Country boil and the crab dip are what regulars order.
- Driftwood at Cherry Grove Pier — American food at the end of the pier, open 11 to 9 daily.
What you’ll do here
- Shag dancing on Main Street — the Carolina shag is South Carolina’s official state dance and it started on these beaches in the 1950s. Fat Harold’s has DJs nightly from 7pm and free lessons on Mondays and Tuesdays. The SOS Fall Migration brings ten days of it and two free block parties.
- The parks are unusually good — the city keeps more than 240 beach accesses and over 300 acres of natural areas. Heritage Shores Nature Preserve is a mile of boardwalk out into the Cherry Grove marsh, free and dog-friendly. Ingram Dunes protects thirty-foot native dunes and maritime forest.
- The Park & Sports Complex — 160 acres with fourteen fields, a 25-acre lake, trails, an amphitheatre, dog parks and a five-tower cable wake park.
- Barefoot Landing — on the waterway, with the Alabama Theatre and House of Blues, whose Gospel Brunch runs every Sunday morning.
- Golf most towns would envy — Barefoot Resort alone has four championship courses by Greg Norman, Davis Love III, Tom Fazio and Pete Dye. Tidewater plays nine holes along the Cherry Grove inlet.
Where you’d look
Two costs people do not see coming. First, if you buy on a Cherry Grove channel you inherit the dredging assessment — the canals silted up badly enough that properties sat on dry land at low tide, and a special assessment district has been funding the dredge since 2015, running to about 2028. Recent years ran around $1,800 a year for a single-family property. Second, Horry County averages close to $5,000 a year in homeowners insurance, and a July 2026 study projects South Carolina will see the nation’s second-steepest premium rises over the next decade. Get a wind and flood quote before you go under contract, not after. On the market itself: the median was $412,549 in August 2026, down slightly year on year, with homes taking about 90 days and nearly four in ten seeing a price cut. That is a buyer’s market and you should use it. One more thing worth knowing — the city has been workshopping much stricter short-term rental rules. As of the city’s own page it is still licence-only, but if you are buying to rent, check where that landed before you sign.
Live from the MLS
What is for sale in North Myrtle Beach right now
Straight from the Coastal Carolinas MLS and updated as listings change. Active listings only — nothing under contract, nothing already sold.