Dare County, North Carolina

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 5.7% below the national average, so the nominal median of $88,994 is worth $94,373 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 7.5 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 49 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 4,898 workers (30.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $32,152. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,462 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $76,156 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $29,939, a 2.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation concentrates at 9.76x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 15 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 48.7% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 3 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.2x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 78.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 52.3% of housing units are vacant, above the North Carolina rate of 12.5%, and down from 55.3% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 58.9% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 38.1% of the vacant stock, or 19.9% of all housing units against the 52.3% headline vacancy rate. That is the figure to plan an incoming employer's housing against, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $68,881 can pay without cost burden (~$1,722/mo), and 44.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 29.5% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 64% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Dare County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Dare County shows strong potential for scenic and sightseeing transportation attraction, with a 9.76x concentration and 38 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 29.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans scenic and sightseeing transportation, real estate, and fishing, hunting and trapping, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 48.7% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.