Oriental, NC makes the list of Southern Dream Towns 2010 in this month’s Garden & Gun magazine!
Oriental, North Carolina
A Sailor’s Paradise on the Pamlico
Population: 815
Why You Should Move Here Denizens of this welcoming “Inner Banks” fishing village—tucked away at the remote junction of five creeks, the five-mile-wide Neuse River, and mammoth Pamlico Sound—brag that sailboats outnumber residents three to one. On Oriental’s working waterfront, gleaming yachts just in from the Intracoastal Waterway dock alongside shrimp boats. Several businesses survive by selling, repairing, chartering, provisioning, guiding, making sails for, or harvesting seafood from boats. You can stroll, pedal, or paddle to just about anywhere in Oriental, which should find a way to bottle its drowsy small-town charm.
What’s Going On It’s all about the water. Regattas take place year-round, weather permitting, and gunkholers, cruisers, and kayakers stake their claim to this playground, too. Oriental’s School of Sailing offers reputable tutoring at the tiller. You can even sign up for twice-weekly boat-building classes at the local community college, taught by a seasoned circumnavigator. Some 150 miles of tidal creek, river, and sound radiate out from town, and the fishing rarely disappoints. Not far away, the narrow barrier islands of Cape Lookout National Seashore attract admirers of wildlife (shorebirds, loggerhead turtles, even feral horses). Back in town, no one confuses Oriental with Orlando, but the Old Theater does stage some periodic culture (chamber music, bluegrass, local repertory productions), and the Oriental Express Bicycle Club sponsors group rides.
Planting Your Roots Sailors from far-flung ports constantly stop over at Mile Marker 182 on the Intracoastal, and some come back to stay. Three-bedroom houses with private docks on creeks have recently sold for well under $300,000; spacious newer homes with such accoutrements as multiple screened porches, multi-slip docks, boat lifts, and harbor views typically range between $400,000 and $650,000.
Full article – http://gardenandgun.com/article/southern-dream-towns-0
And of course Arlington Place is just down the road with interior homesites starting in the $60Ks, riverfront homesites starting just under $300K, construction prices starting around $220K and exsiting homes around $300K. Something for everyone! Come visit us this summer and experience this ‘Southern Dream Town’ for yourself.