Little River vs North Myrtle Beach: Unincorporated Waterway Village or Beach City with a Del Webb Community
Little River and North Myrtle Beach sit side by side at the northern tip of Horry County, South Carolina, near the North Carolina line, and both are among the older-skewing places on the Grand Strand. Conway Medical Center's 2025 community health needs assessment gives Little River a median age of 61.8 and North Myrtle Beach 60.8, and calls them, with Garden City, the aging coastal enclaves. Yet they are different kinds of place. Little River is a census-designated place, not a municipality, with a waterfront on the Intracoastal Waterway and county recreation centers. North Myrtle Beach is a city with its own city government and a Del Webb community that its developer calls a 55-plus community.
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Little River vs North Myrtle Beach: the short answer
Little River and North Myrtle Beach sit side by side at the northern tip of Horry County, South Carolina, near the North Carolina line, and both are among the older-skewing places on the Grand Strand. Conway Medical Center's 2025 community health needs assessment gives Little River a median age of 61.8 and North Myrtle Beach 60.8, and calls them, with Garden City, the aging coastal enclaves. Yet they are different kinds of place. Little River is a census-designated place, not a municipality, with a waterfront on the Intracoastal Waterway and county recreation centers. North Myrtle Beach is a city with its own city government and a Del Webb community that its developer calls a 55-plus community.
The decision turns on jurisdiction, housing type and beach proximity. Which government taxes you depends on which side of the city line a parcel sits, a listing's neighborhood name does not settle it, and the two sides differ in who provides recreation and what kind of housing you are likely to find.
Several figures come from Conway Medical Center's 2025 assessment, which reports survey-based estimates, and the Del Webb figures are the developer's own marketing and sample financing. Confirm tax jurisdiction and current amounts with the Horry County Auditor. State income tax for retirees is covered in the South Carolina retirement tax guide.
Full profiles: Little River (South Carolina) and North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina).
Which one fits you
Choose Little River if
- You want an older-skewing waterfront village feel rather than a resort city: the assessment counts 10,457 residents in the Little River census-designated place and the Horry Independent describes a community some still call a fishing village.
- You want county-run recreation centers close by, including the North Strand Recreation Center with an indoor walking track, fitness room and rock climbing wall, and the C. B. Berry Recreation Center with Vereen Memorial Historical Gardens.
- You want a primary-care office from Conway Medical Center in the community: CMC Primary Care at Little River.
- You accept that you may be under unincorporated Horry County, with the county auditor's branch office at 107 Highway 57 North for tax questions.
Choose North Myrtle Beach if
- You want city government and city services, and a place the assessment describes as comparatively better off: a median household income of $72,111 and a poverty rate of 6.1 percent.
- You want a planned, amenity-heavy community: Del Webb North Myrtle Beach describes a 12,000-square-foot clubhouse, resort-style and indoor lap pools, bocce, walking trails and a full-time lifestyle director.
- You want the beach nearby: Del Webb calls the community a short golf cart or bike ride from Crescent and Ocean Drive beaches and 3 miles from Barefoot Landing.
- You accept a developer's published starting price of $585,990 for new homes and homeowners-association fees that, the developer says, include a cable television package.
Little River and North Myrtle Beach side by side
| Dimension | Little River | North Myrtle Beach |
|---|---|---|
| Jurisdiction and who taxes the parcel | Little River is a census-designated place, not a municipality. An unincorporated Little River parcel pays Horry County and school levies and no city levy. The county's reassessment flyer says municipalities and other tax entities establish their own millage rates, so a Little River address that falls inside the City of North Myrtle Beach pays the city's levy instead. Confirm the jurisdiction on the tax bill; the neighborhood name on a listing does not settle it. The county auditor keeps a branch office at 107 Highway 57 North in Little River. | North Myrtle Beach is a city, so a parcel inside the limits pays a city levy in addition to county and school levies, while the same flyer notes the city sets its own rate. Whether a parcel pays the city levy depends on whether it lies inside the city. Ask the Horry County Auditor for the exact bill, tax district and any special district for a specific address before comparing the two. Because the rates change each budget year, an up-to-date bill is a better guide than a published rate table. |
| Exemptions and reassessment | Horry County's flyer says the countywide reassessment took effect as of December 31, 2023, replacing December 31, 2018, with a 15 percent cap on the increase in taxable value over five years for existing property unless it was purchased in the current year, and a state-required rollback of millage after reassessment. The South Carolina Department of Revenue describes a homestead exemption on the first $50,000 of fair market value of a legal residence for owners over 65, temporarily raised to $75,000 for tax year 2026 only. Apply through the county auditor. A purchase can reset the assessed value. | The same county reassessment and cap apply in North Myrtle Beach, and the same Department of Revenue homestead exemption and temporary $75,000 level for tax year 2026 apply. The exemption is therefore not a differentiator between the two places. The practical consequence is that an owner-occupied buyer in either place should file the legal-residence and homestead applications with the county as soon as eligible, and a second-home buyer should not assume either benefit. |
| Population and income profile | Conway Medical Center's 2025 assessment counts 10,457 residents in the Little River census-designated place, with a median age of 61.8, a median household income of $64,590, a poverty rate of 9.9 percent and a daily commute figure of 27. The broader Little River census county division has 44,248 residents, a median age of 59.8, a median household income of $66,360 and a poverty rate of 9.3 percent. The commute figure is longer than the 22.5 the report gives for North Myrtle Beach. | The same assessment lists 19,343 residents in North Myrtle Beach, with a median age of 60.8, a median household income of $72,111 and a poverty rate of 6.1 percent, and describes the economic stress in Horry County as concentrated elsewhere, in Atlantic Beach and Loris. The assessment's findings for the area include higher demand for chronic disease management, senior care and transit, and the county primary-care ratio of about 1,870 residents per physician in 2023, against about 2,030 statewide. |
| Hurricane zones and evacuation route | Little River sits where Horry County's coastal zones begin. Zone A covers areas east of House Creek from the South Carolina-North Carolina line to the center of Cherry Grove Beach, with minor fluctuations inland, and Zone B covers areas east of Highway 17 from Little River to Atlantic Beach. The evacuation route for the northern end is SC 9 north to I-95 and beyond. Waterfront and marsh-front homes along the Intracoastal Waterway should be checked for flood zone and elevation, and the county advises people in flood-prone areas along waterways to consider leaving even outside a designated zone. | North Myrtle Beach faces the same zone definitions, and the county's evacuation page directs evacuees from North Myrtle Beach and northward to take SC 9 north to I-95 and beyond, while those from Briarcliffe Acres south to 10th Avenue North take SC 22 to US 501. The state emergency division's 2026 plan gives clearance times for the whole Horry and Georgetown region from 11.8 hours in the lowest Zone A scenario to 29.4 hours for Zones A, B and C at full compliance and visitor occupancy. Horry County notes that only the Governor can order an evacuation. |
| Recreation and public amenities | Horry County operates two recreation centers in Little River. The North Strand Recreation Center at 120 Highway 57 South has a full-size gymnasium, an indoor walking track, a fitness room for classes, multipurpose and activity rooms, a rock climbing wall and outdoor fields. The C. B. Berry Recreation Center at 2250 SC-179 is a 4,750-square-foot community and historical center with a full kitchen and meeting rooms, next to Vereen Memorial Historical Gardens. The waterfront is the local landmark, with restaurants and small businesses on the Intracoastal Waterway. | Del Webb says the J. Bryan Floyd Community Center next door offers an indoor gym with basketball and indoor pickleball, and the nearby 20-acre Central Park has four tennis courts, four pickleball courts, baseball fields and picnic shelters. The developer also describes beaches within a golf-cart or bike ride and Barefoot Landing 3 miles away. These are developer descriptions, so visit and confirm hours, membership terms and which amenities are included in association fees. |
| Planned community versus mixed housing | Housing in Little River mixes waterfront and marsh-side homes, golf and neighborhood subdivisions and older fishing-village lots. The Horry Independent reports that county planners identified dozens of parcels with structures more than 50 years old during a historic-district review, including the Livingston House and the Riverview Live Oak Tree. If an older property falls inside a historic district, ask the county Planning and Zoning department what rules apply to exterior changes. Ask any homeowners association for governing documents and the current budget. | The community that can be documented in North Myrtle Beach is Del Webb North Myrtle Beach, a planned neighborhood of single-family homes with natural-gas service and a fiber network, which its developer calls a 55-plus community. The developer's page lists new single-family homes from $585,990 for the Stardom floor plan of 2,179 to 2,712 square feet, with an illustrative payment of about $2,886 a month before taxes and insurance under its own sample financing. The warranty is one year for materials and workmanship, two years for plumbing, electrical and HVAC, five years for water infiltration and ten years for structural elements. |
| Hospital and physician access | Conway Medical Center lists Little River among the regions in its Find Care Near You directory and operates CMC Primary Care at Little River. The hospital is at 300 Singleton Ridge Road in Conway and reports 222 inpatient beds, almost 2,000 staff and about 200 physicians across 30 specialties, and became strategically related to Novant Health in August 2023 while remaining an independent nonprofit. Because Little River is at the far northern edge of the county, check the drive to the emergency department you would use. | The Del Webb page describes the community as close to Grand Strand Hospital and other medical offices and 30 minutes from Myrtle Beach International Airport. Conway Medical Center says its physician practices extend from Georgetown to Little River, which includes the northern end of the coast, and McLeod Health lists McLeod Health Seacoast and McLeod Health Carolina Forest among its locations. The assessment projects county growth of about 20 percent in the 65-plus population from 2023 to 2028. Ask each practice whether it accepts your Medicare plan. |
Related guides
Sources and review date
Last reviewed . Facts on this page come from the sources below; where a rule or figure can change, check the linked source before relying on it.
- Reassessment, Rollback Millage, Property Value (flyer) — Horry County Government (accessed 2026-09-30)
- Auditor — Horry County Government (accessed 2026-09-30)
- Property Tax Exemptions (Exempt Property) — South Carolina Department of Revenue (accessed 2026-09-30)
- Know Your Zone — Horry County Emergency Management (accessed 2026-09-30)
- Evacuations — Horry County Emergency Management (accessed 2026-09-30)
- SC Hurricane Plan, Annex C: Evacuation Zones and Clearance Times (May 2026) — South Carolina Emergency Management Division (accessed 2026-09-30)
- Recreation Centers — Horry County Parks and Recreation (accessed 2026-09-30)
- 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment, Horry County — Conway Medical Center (accessed 2026-09-30)
- About Us — Conway Medical Center (accessed 2026-09-30)
- McLeod Health — McLeod Health (accessed 2026-09-30)
- 'The gem that it is': County looks to preserve Little River's historic places — Horry Independent (MyHorryNews) (accessed 2026-09-30)
- Del Webb North Myrtle Beach — Del Webb (PulteGroup) (accessed 2026-09-30)