Cape Carteret, NC population, income and ZIP codes

Cape Carteret town is a small town in North Carolina, with 2,598 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #289 of 777 ranked by population — larger than 62% of them. The median age here is 47.6 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Cape Carteret town earn a median of $75,313 a year, 4.1% below the national figure of $78,538 and 23% above the $61,228 median for the 459 North Carolina cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 7.3% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Cape Carteret town is valued at $347,500, 14.5% above the national figure and 58% above the $219,800 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,755 a month, 24.8% above the national figure, or roughly $21,060 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 28% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 4.6×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 80.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.