Myrtle Beach Neighborhoods Guide

Downtown Myrtle Beach / The Boardwalk: The Classic Tourist Core

Downtown Myrtle Beach is built around the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk and Promenade, a 1.2-mile oceanfront walkway that opened in summer 2010 and was ranked #3 on National Geographic's "Top 10 U.S. Boardwalks" list. The Boardwalk district is the city's classic nightlife, dining, and tourist core - shops, arcades, an oceanfront park, and nightly live entertainment including stilt walkers, jugglers, bagpipers, and a weekly fireworks display.

This is the highest-density, highest-tourist-traffic part of the city, and the area most visitors picture when they think of Myrtle Beach. Housing here leans heavily toward oceanfront condo towers rather than single-family homes - worth keeping in mind given the condo-insurance and HOA-fee pressures documented elsewhere on this site's Myrtle Beach research, which hit this stretch of coastline directly.

The Golden Mile: Mid-Century Motels Meeting Higher-End Condos

The Golden Mile is a historically distinct oceanfront stretch north of downtown, long associated with an older generation of mid-century motels. Today it's a mix of that older motel stock alongside higher-end homes and condos - a genuine contrast in building age and price point along a single short run of oceanfront.

Honest gap: this research confirmed the Golden Mile's name, general location, and rough mixed-era character through multiple local real-estate sources, but could not independently confirm a deeper, dated historical account of exactly when or why the area earned its name or its specific redevelopment timeline. Treat the deeper history here as unconfirmed until verified directly.

Market Common: A Former Air Force Base, Rebuilt as a Walkable Village

Market Common sits on the site of the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, which closed in 1993. The city completed a redevelopment master plan in 1995, and the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base Redevelopment Authority demolished more than 50 obsolete Air Force buildings and built new roads, underground utilities, and a regional stormwater system across roughly 110 acres before developer Dan McCaffery built what is now a walkable, "neo-traditional" mixed-use village.

The result is three- and four-story buildings with ground-floor retail and dining and residential units above along Howard Avenue, surrounded by single-family homes, parks, and a lake - a genuinely different physical layout than anywhere else in the city, built for walking rather than driving between shops. Then-Mayor Brenda Bethune called it "one of the crown jewels of the city."

Grande Dunes: Upscale, Charleston-Style, Split Across the Waterway

Grande Dunes is an upscale community spanning both sides of the Intracoastal Waterway, marketed around Charleston-style architecture and organized into Marina, Golf, and Ocean "villages." Amenities include multiple golf courses, tennis, and a YMCA - a broader amenity mix than most of the city's other residential areas.

Arcadian Shores: Golf and Restaurant Row

Arcadian Shores is described in local real-estate sources as offering modern amenities and a private golf course, with proximity to "Restaurant Row," the well-known Highway 17 dining corridor. Honest gap: deeper detail on Restaurant Row itself, and on the immediately adjacent Deerfield area, beyond its name and general location along Highway 17, was not independently confirmed in this research.

Carolina Forest: Inland, Master-Planned, and the Priciest ZIP Checked

Carolina Forest is a large, master-planned inland community known for highly rated schools - River Oaks Elementary and Carolina Forest High School among them - along with parks, playgrounds, and recreation centers. Per ZIP-level data checked in this site's broader Myrtle Beach research, ZIP 29579 (Carolina Forest) carried the highest median home price of the ZIP codes checked, at $353,726, versus $275,146 for downtown/central Myrtle Beach's 29577, $312,710 for Grande Dunes-area 29572, and $318,604 for the southern/Socastee-area 29588.

That figure is a snapshot from a single research pass, not a live market feed, and ZIP-level medians move - confirm current pricing directly with a local agent or MLS pull before relying on it.

Barefoot Resort (North Myrtle Beach): Golf, Waterfront, and Retirees

Barefoot Resort sits in North Myrtle Beach, a separately incorporated city just north of Myrtle Beach proper - referenced here for context rather than as a Myrtle Beach neighborhood itself. It's a 2,300-acre community built around four golf courses with Intracoastal waterfront, popular with retirees.

Choosing Among Myrtle Beach's Neighborhoods

The right fit depends on what a buyer actually wants day to day. Someone chasing the classic beach-vacation experience - boardwalk, arcades, nightlife, walk-to-everything oceanfront - looks at downtown/the Boardwalk district or the Golden Mile, both dominated by condo/high-rise product rather than single-family homes. Someone who wants a walkable, mixed-use, more urban-feeling lifestyle without giving up single-family housing options looks at Market Common. Golf- and amenity-driven buyers compare Grande Dunes and Arcadian Shores against each other and against Barefoot Resort up in North Myrtle Beach. And someone prioritizing school quality, inland distance from tourist traffic, and more conventional suburban subdivisions looks at Carolina Forest, which also happens to carry the highest median price among the ZIPs checked in this site's research.

Because so much of Myrtle Beach's oceanfront housing stock is condo/HPR (South Carolina's own "Horizontal Property Regime" term for condominium ownership) rather than single-family, comparing an oceanfront tower in the Boardwalk district or the Golden Mile against a single-family home in Market Common or Carolina Forest is really comparing two different asset classes - with different insurance, HOA/regime-fee, and rental-rule considerations layered on top of location alone.

A Professional-Consult Disclaimer

The ZIP-level price figures cited above (Carolina Forest's $353,726 median, and the comparison figures for 29577, 29572, and 29588) are illustrative snapshots from research sourcing at a point in time, not a live market feed, and they will move - Myrtle Beach's broader home-price data was itself inconsistent across sources checked in this site's research, with figures ranging from roughly $274,000 to $323,000 depending on the exact metric and date. Neighborhood boundaries, HOA/regime fees, amenity access, and zoning can also change, and oceanfront condo insurance and HOA costs have risen sharply in this market in particular. Confirm current listings, comparable sales, HOA/regime fees, and zoning or short-term-rental eligibility directly with a licensed local real estate agent, the relevant homeowners' or condo association, and the City of Myrtle Beach or Horry County before making a purchase decision. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, insurance, or financial advice.