They are called barrier islands. You’ve touched on a subject near and dear to Mrs. BLTC and my hearts as we are also looking for a place at some point south of the horrible winters that infest the Capital Region of NY…
We’re from MD, so very familiar with OC, MD and Assateague Island, MD. OC is very touristy, fun on a weekend kinda place to go, but, not to live, IMHO…Assateague is beautiful, definitely worth a visit, but as a National Park, they kinda discourage people from living there…
We have a family home on the Outer Banks of NC, Duck specifically, it’s horrible, please don’t move there…we’re really horrible people, it sleets constantly, year round, and there’s nothing to rent…:p…nah, it’s awesome, it’s our little part of paradise, and while the water is generally in the 70’s and sometimes in the 80’s (it was for us a couple of weeks ago), when the wind blows off-shore, it can drop into the 60’s very quickly as the Labrador Current is just off-shore…the same is true for Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head, but as you go south, it does get warmer on a more consistent basis…
Further down in Rodanthe and Avon, it’s still beautiful, not as crowded as KH, KDH or NG, but it’s isolated, we actually looked at some places down there this year, the prices were good, but a hospital is pretty far away, if a hurricane blows up, you either have a long evacuation or hunker in place…Same for Hatteras, beautiful, but out there…
Below Ocracoke Island and Cape Lookout, the coast line and the barrier islands turn east-west, and much further west, the water gets much warmer consistently, there’s Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle, then moving south, Surf City, Topsail, and Wrightsville Beach, Sea Breeze, Carolina and Kure Beach…
The coast line again turns east-west, and there is Oak Island, Holden Beach, Ocean Isle and finally Sunset Beach just above the SC line…
We are actually partial to Oak Island, still growing, still quiet enough, the water is warm, and more importantly, affordable for us…
Please, this is not an exhaustive list of the NC barrier islands and towns, there are many more, but that part of our country is absolutely beautiful, temperate, yes, hot in the summer, but nowhere near as bad as FL, the spring and fall in Duck is fantastic, and that’s one of the more northern towns…Corolla is about 25 minutes north of Duck…