Living in Outer Banks

North Carolina's Outer Banks region pairs Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills, two towns sitting minutes apart on the same open-ocean barrier island, sharing the most direct and serious hurricane exposure of any North Carolina region in this dataset -- genuinely distinct in kind from river-mouth or inland-of-the-beachfront coastal towns elsewhere in the state. Nags Head is the single most-searched, best-known named town on the Outer Banks, home to Jockey's Ridge State Park (the largest natural living sand dune on the East Coast) and a market genuinely dominated by seasonal tourism and vacation-home ownership -- its small year-round population is slightly declining, and home prices run nearly double the national average. Kill Devil Hills, by contrast, is the Outer Banks' year-round population center, more than double Nags Head's resident count, home to the area's public schools and the Wright Brothers National Memorial marking the exact site of the first powered flight in 1903 -- a more conventional, if still genuinely expensive, residential market. Both towns face chronic, expensive beach erosion requiring repeated nourishment projects and rising state-approved coastal insurance rates. A mover choosing between these two towns is choosing between a vacation-and-rental-dominated market (Nags Head) and the area's most conventional year-round community and infrastructure (Kill Devil Hills).

Explore Outer Banks in depth

• Cost of Living & Housing in Outer Banks
• Best Places to Live in Outer Banks
• Moving to Outer Banks
• Climate & Lifestyle in Outer Banks

Places we've researched in Outer Banks

• Nags Head -- Dare County
• Kill Devil Hills -- Dare County