Retiring in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Retiring in North Myrtle Beach: overview

North Myrtle Beach is in Horry, South Carolina, within the Grand Strand & Myrtle Beach region.

North Myrtle Beach sits at the north end of the Horry County coast, near the North Carolina line, and is the place in this guide where the demographic tilt toward retirees is clearest. Conway Medical Center's 2025 community health needs assessment lists 19,343 residents, a median age of 60.8, a median household income of $72,111 and a poverty rate of 6.1 percent, and describes North Myrtle Beach as comparatively better off than other Horry places. Compare Myrtle Beach, where the same report gives a median age of 47 and an income of $53,679.

The town is also home to the region's most clearly documented retirement community, Del Webb North Myrtle Beach, which its developer calls a 55-plus community. This page explains the local cost, tax, hazard and healthcare structure around that choice.

Cost of living in North Myrtle Beach

Household income is the best published cost context. The 2025 health assessment reports a median household income of $72,111 in the city and describes the economic stress in Horry County as concentrated elsewhere, in Atlantic Beach and Loris. It lists a daily-commute figure of 22.5 for North Myrtle Beach, and notes that the Little River, Garden City and North Myrtle Beach areas skew older, with median ages above 60, which affects demand for senior care and transit.

Del Webb's North Myrtle Beach page lists new single-family homes from $585,990 (Stardom floor plan, Echelon series, 2,179 to 2,712 square feet, with an illustrative payment of about $2,886 a month before taxes and insurance under the developer's sample financing assumptions). For resales, check recent sold data.

Property taxes in North Myrtle Beach

Millage appears in the state report as a decimal of assessed value; for example, 0.0521 equals 52.1 mills, or $52.10 of tax per $1,000 of assessed value. In the 2025 South Carolina Association of Counties report, North Myrtle Beach levies 0.0450, well below the 0.0834 listed for the City of Myrtle Beach. Horry County's countywide millage totals 0.0521 and Horry County Schools levy 0.1091 operating plus 0.0100 debt. Owner-occupied homes qualifying for the 4 percent assessment ratio are exempt from school operating taxes except for school-debt mills, according to the same report. Whether a parcel pays the city levy depends on whether it lies inside the city, so confirm the jurisdiction on the tax bill.

Horry County's reassessment flyer says the countywide reassessment took effect as of December 31, 2023, that state law caps increases in taxable value on existing property at 15 percent over five years unless the property was purchased in the current year, and that millage is rolled back after reassessment. The Department of Revenue says the homestead exemption covers the first $50,000 of fair market value of a legal residence for owners over 65, and that the General Assembly temporarily raised it to $75,000 for tax year 2026 only. Apply through the county auditor. See the South Carolina retirement tax guide for income-tax rules.

Insurance and risk in North Myrtle Beach

Horry County's evacuation system treats the north end of the coast differently. Zone A includes areas east of House Creek from the state line to the center of Cherry Grove Beach, and Zone B includes areas east of Highway 17 from Little River to Atlantic Beach. 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 (the Conway Bypass) to US 501.

SCEMD's 2026 annex gives clearance times for the whole Horry and Georgetown evacuation 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 and that flood-prone areas along waterways should consider leaving even outside a designated zone. See the coastal hurricane and flood insurance guide and get address-specific quotes for wind and flood coverage.

Healthcare access in North Myrtle Beach

The Del Webb North Myrtle Beach page describes the community as close to Grand Strand Hospital and other medical offices, and says the community is 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.

Because the town skews older, the health assessment's findings matter here: it projects the county's 65-plus population to grow about 20 percent between 2023 and 2028, reports a county primary-care ratio of about 1,870 residents per physician in 2023 and about 12 percent of residents uninsured in 2023. Ask any prospective physician practice whether it is accepting Medicare patients before you relocate. The healthcare access guide explains the steps.

Climate in North Myrtle Beach

North Myrtle Beach shares the county's hurricane calendar: the Atlantic season runs June 1 to November 30, and the county's annex says evacuation of the coastal zones must be complete before tropical-storm-force winds arrive, so the decision can come days before landfall. The annex also warns that a system can intensify quickly, citing Hurricane Gaston in 2004. Plan for road closures, power loss and delayed return after any evacuation.

Lifestyle and recreation in North Myrtle Beach

Del Webb says its North Myrtle Beach community is a short golf cart or bike ride from Crescent and Ocean Drive beaches, 3 miles from Barefoot Landing and 25 minutes from Broadway at the Beach, and that the J. Bryan Floyd Community Center next door offers an indoor gym with basketball and indoor pickleball, while the nearby 20-acre Central Park has four tennis courts, four pickleball courts, baseball fields and picnic shelters. The community's own amenities include a 12,000-square-foot clubhouse, resort-style and indoor lap pools, bocce, walking trails and a full-time lifestyle director.

Del Webb also runs an Experience Del Webb stay program in which a guest pays a fee for a three-night stay in a furnished home with a golf cart; the page states that guests must meet with a sales consultant and that one guest must be at least 50. That is a sales program rather than a neutral trial, so treat it as a chance to see the community, not a substitute for renting in the area in the off-season.

Housing in North Myrtle Beach

Housing data for the town is thin in primary sources. The community we can document is a planned 55-plus neighborhood of single-family homes with natural-gas service and a fiber network, and the developer's page says a cable television package of 175 channels is included in HOA fees. Its warranty structure is 1 year for materials and workmanship, 2 years for plumbing, electrical and HVAC, 5 years for water infiltration and 10 years for structural elements, with the structural warranty transferable.

For resales and other neighborhoods, use the county auditor's parcel records to see tax history, and for any association ask for the governing documents and current budget.

Retirement communities in and near North Myrtle Beach

• Del Webb North Myrtle BeachA Del Webb community marketed as 55+ at 1315 Saw Palmetto Street in North Myrtle Beach, with single-family homes from $585,990, a 12,000-square-foot clubhouse and sports courts.

Comparisons with North Myrtle Beach

• Little River vs North Myrtle Beach: Unincorporated Waterway Village or Beach City with a Del Webb Community

Places near North Myrtle Beach

• Myrtle BeachSouth Carolina's largest Grand Strand city, in Horry County, with the region's commercial airport, a mid-sized resident population, a city millage of 0.0834 and an oceanfront that falls in the county's Zone A and B evacuation areas.
• ConwayThe Horry County seat on the Waccamaw River, home to Conway Medical Center, a 0.0981 city millage and a location inland of the Grand Strand beaches that sits on the county's evacuation highways rather than in a coastal evacuation zone.
• Little RiverThe northernmost Grand Strand community on the Intracoastal Waterway, an older-skewing census-designated place (median age 61.8) served by county recreation centers, a county auditor branch office and Conway Medical Center's Little River practice.

Guides relevant to North Myrtle Beach

• Healthcare Access Across the Carolinas: Hospitals, Trauma Centers and Medicare
• Hurricane, Flood and Wind Insurance on the Carolina Coast: What Retirees Should Know
• South Carolina Retirement Taxes: Income, Property, Vehicle and Sales Tax