Brunswick County

Brunswick County comes in at a 3.4% cap rate and a gross rent-to-price ratio of 0.052, which places it firmly on the appreciation end of the spectrum rather than the cash-flow end. At a $404,357 median purchase price and $1,765 median monthly rent, the math on a leveraged acquisition is punishing: modeled at 6.85% financing with 20% down, the estimated monthly mortgage runs $2,120, and after adding $618 in expenses the pro forma spits out negative $973 per month in cash flow, a cash-on-cash return of -12.55%. That is not a rounding error or a modeling quirk, it is a structural feature of a coastal Carolina market where prices have been bid up well ahead of rent levels. Year-over-year home price growth of 0.48% is nearly flat, so an investor cannot even console themselves with rapid equity accumulation right now. The affordability index of 43 confirms that this market is stretched for renters and buyers alike, which historically limits the ceiling on rent growth when tenants are already under pressure.

The numbers narrow the viable buyer profile considerably. A pure cash-flow investor has no real path here without either a substantially all-cash purchase (removing the mortgage drag) or a value-add deal priced meaningfully below the median. Even then, a 3.4% cap rate is thin protection against vacancy or capital expenditure surprises. The more natural buyer is an appreciation investor with a long hold horizon and the willingness to carry a monthly deficit, betting that coastal Brunswick, adjacent to the Wilmington metro and the Cape Fear region, continues to attract retirees and remote workers who push prices higher over a five-to-ten-year window. Brunswick's overall score of 49 and appreciation score of 55 reflect exactly that: slightly above-average appreciation prospects relative to the tool's 1,000-county universe, but below-average cash-flow characteristics. A value-add operator can participate, but only if acquisition is disciplined enough to compress that entry price and if the renovation scope can push rents materially above the $1,765 median, since the market has little room to forgive overpaying.

No economic anchor data was provided for this county, so that dimension of the analysis is limited to what the broader figures imply: a population of 139,721 with an affordability index of 43 suggests a market shaped in meaningful part by in-migration and second-home demand rather than a deep local employment base. That dynamic supports the appreciation thesis when migration trends are favorable, but it also means rental demand can be more discretionary and sensitive to interest rate or lifestyle-shift headwinds than a market anchored by large employers or an institutional healthcare or university presence.

The combined monthly tax and insurance load of $377 is already baked into the $618 expense figure above, but it is worth isolating. The property tax rate used is 0.84%, described as a state-average effective rate from Tax Foundation 2024 data, and the actual county or township rate in Brunswick will differ, so verify the county assessor's levy before finalizing any underwrite. At 0.84%, the rate itself is flagged as normal and does not represent a particular headwind or tailwind relative to the national landscape. Annual property tax on the median asset runs approximately $3,397 and annual insurance approximately $1,132, the latter reflecting the coastal exposure premium that is common along the Southeast Atlantic seaboard. Investors underwriting beachside or near-coastal assets within Brunswick should stress-test insurance assumptions independently, since carrier withdrawals and rate resets in coastal North Carolina have been directionally unfavorable and the state-average figure may understate actual costs for specific zip codes.

The comparison with neighboring counties is instructive. Cleveland County at a $202,617 median and a 0.069 rent-to-price ratio is the starkest contrast: it scores 51 overall (two points above Brunswick) and offers nearly 30% more gross rent yield per dollar deployed. An investor who genuinely needs positive carry should be looking at Cleveland, not Brunswick. Caldwell County at $231,573 and a 0.056 ratio is a similar story, meaningfully cheaper with a slightly better yield. Currituck County is the only neighbor with a higher median price ($541,876), but its 0.060 rent-to-price ratio and overall score of 52 suggest it actually generates more gross rent per dollar than Brunswick despite the premium entry point, which likely reflects its Outer Banks vacation-rental demand. Mecklenburg, the Charlotte-area county, carries a nearly identical median to Brunswick ($416,475) with a slightly lower rent-to-price ratio of 0.050, and scores 48 overall, making it marginally less attractive across the board. Brunswick makes the most sense over its neighbors when the investment thesis is specifically coastal North Carolina appreciation and lifestyle-driven demand, not when the objective is cash flow or capital efficiency.