Stan Powell, Broker Local. Coastal. Trusted.
(910) 274-5067 StanPowell@SeaCoastRealty.com

Your Community Guide · Carolina Shores & Calabash, Brunswick County, North Carolina

Calabash Lakes

A 164-acre neighborhood off Thomasboro Road built around its ponds, with three distinct home types, a saltwater pool and pickleball courts, and downtown Calabash five minutes up the road. Here is how it is actually laid out — and what your dues really cover.

For most buyers, the appeal here is how easy everyday life becomes. Take a walk around the ponds in the morning, spend an afternoon at Sunset Beach, come home to no lawn waiting to be mowed, and still be five minutes from dinner on the Calabash waterfront. It feels coastal without feeling like you moved into the middle of a vacation resort.

164acres, with 32 in amenity center, clubhouse and common area
253single-family homes at full build-out
174paired ranches — the “duets”
38true townhomes
~15 minto the sand at Sunset Beach

Build-out counts and acreage per the Town of Carolina Shores. Home sizes, plan names and drive times are typical figures and historical offerings, not guarantees. Subject to change.

Stan Powell, REALTOR and Broker with Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage, 10020 Beach Dr. SW, Calabash, NC 28467

“I wanted to create these Community Guides because every neighborhood along our coast has its own personality, history, and little details that you simply can't see in a listing search. Over the past 20 years, I've worked with many of the builders who helped bring these communities to life, and I've watched them grow from the ground up. Along the way, I've had the privilege of welcoming so many people home here. These guides are my way of sharing what makes each community different, what makes them special, and why so many people are proud to call them home.”

Browse Every Listing In Calabash Lakes Live MLS · Updated Daily

Before the floor plans

A neighborhood that's already settled in

Pond with homes around it at Calabash Lakes
The ponds the community is named for. Homes back onto them all through the neighborhood, and those lots turn over faster than anything else here.

Calabash Lakes has a comfortable, lived-in feel that you don't get arriving in a brand-new development where half the streets are still under construction. The landscaping has had time to fill in, the neighbors are established, and the ponds and amenity center have become part of daily life rather than features on a builder's site plan.

It's the kind of neighborhood where you see someone walking the dog after dinner, a group heading to pickleball in the morning, and people lingering around the pool while somebody else settles into the shade with a book or a card game.

Curving residential street at Calabash Lakes
A typical street. Single-level homes, mature trees, mailboxes at the curb and almost no through traffic.
The pool at Calabash Lakes at sunset
Evening at the amenity center. On a weeknight in season there are usually still a few people out here long after the swimming is done.

And when you want the beach, the seafood, the golf or just a change of scenery, you don't have to reorganize the whole day around it. That combination — a neighborhood that feels settled, with the Carolina coast right down the road — is most of why Calabash Lakes keeps drawing relocation, retirement and second-home buyers.

How the neighborhood got here

Two builders, a crash in the middle, and a build that ran more than a decade

Most of what you'll read online credits D.R. Horton with Calabash Lakes and stops there. That's the second half of the story. Portrait Homes was the original builder here, starting around 2007. The housing collapse stopped the neighborhood in its tracks, and D.R. Horton picked it up in 2012 and finished it.

That matters when you're comparing two homes. There's no custom-build section and no third builder, so the comps stay cleaner than in a lot of communities around here — but a home from the first phase and a home from the last were built by different companies, a market crash apart, to different standards of the day.

Calabash Lakes entrance sign on Thomasboro Road
The entrance on Thomasboro Road. One way in, and the boulevard carries you past the amenity center on the way to most of the neighborhood.
  1. 2007

    Portrait Homes starts the neighborhood

    Development and construction begin, with Portrait Homes as the original builder. Portrait built two things here: the first single-family homes, which went on the largest homesites in the community, and all of the two-storey townhomes.

    These are the earliest streets — grown-in landscaping, mature pines, and the deepest lots you'll find in Calabash Lakes. Expect the finishes of their era, and expect roof, HVAC and water heater ages to be a live part of the negotiation rather than a footnote. What we will check: system ages, any moisture history, and whether the screened porch or sunroom was permitted.

  2. 2008
    –2011

    The crash, and a neighborhood on hold

    Development slows dramatically with the housing market collapse. This is the gap that explains why Calabash Lakes feels like two neighborhoods stitched together — and why there is a noticeable jump in style and finish between the oldest streets and everything that came after.

  3. 2012

    D.R. Horton takes over

    D.R. Horton acquires the community infrastructure and begins planning the remaining construction. From this point on, the builder behind the house changes — which is worth knowing before you compare a 2009 home to a 2016 one and wonder why the specs don't line up.

  4. 2013

    The Horton phase, and the amenities you use today

    D.R. Horton launches a new construction phase selling single-family homes, and invests in the clubhouse, swimming pool, fitness center and tennis courts. Most of what residents actually use day to day dates from here. Homes from this era onward generally have life left in the major systems. What I check: original owner or flip, and whether the listed “updates” are cosmetic or structural.

  5. Today

    Sold out — everything here is resale

    D.R. Horton built the community out and closed the sales operation. There is no model home, no sales trailer and no remaining builder inventory. Everything trading is resale, which is usually where the value is anyway: mature landscaping, a settled association with a real reserve study, and in most cases a screened porch or sunroom the original owner already paid for.

A street of varied home elevations at Calabash Lakes
One street, four elevations. Siding, brick and stone sit side by side here because they were offered across different phases spanning both builders and the years between them.

There's a visual difference too, and you notice it driving through: the older streets feel shaded and settled, while the later phases feel brighter, more open and more contemporary. Plan names you'll see in the public records and older listings include Eaton, Litchfield, Acadia, Bradford and the Tuscan duet. Send me an address and I can tell you which builder put it up, roughly which phase it came from, and what that vintage typically needs.

One honest caveat on the record: Portrait Homes is documented as the original builder. Whether the same company was also the original land developer, and which entity first pulled the development approvals, I haven't confirmed. If that distinction matters to your purchase, I'll pull the recorded plats and tell you what they actually say rather than guess.

Three home types, and the middle one gets mislabeled constantly

People search “Calabash Lakes” and get one undifferentiated pile of listings. It isn't one pile. There are detached single-family homes, paired single-level ranches that everybody here calls duets, and a small run of true two-story townhomes. They live differently, they price differently, and the MLS lumps two of them together. Pick the one that fits and I'll send you live listings.

Single-family homes

253 planned · the largest group

Detached homes on their own lots, overwhelmingly single-level, with the later phases running bigger and more open than the early ones. This is where you find the fenced yards, the side-load and extended garages, the sunrooms that were added after closing, and the handful of two-story plans with a bonus room over the garage.

Plans run from roughly 1,400 square feet up past 2,200, and a few of the largest resales break 2,400. Lot sizes vary more than buyers expect — the boulevard lots and the pond-backing lots are noticeably different products from the interior cul-de-sac lots, and they price that way.

There's a reason for that spread, and it isn't random. The first single-family homes here were built by Portrait Homes in 2007, and they went on the largest homesites in the community. Everything built after D.R. Horton took over in 2012 sits on tighter lots. Two homes with the same square footage can therefore come with very different amounts of land, privacy and tree buffer — and the listing photos rarely make that obvious.

If Calabash Lakes is going to be your primary home, this is where the neighborhood feels most traditional. Your own yard, your own driveway, room for family when they visit, and usually a screened porch or sunroom that becomes the spot for morning coffee or dinner when the weather cooperates. A pond behind you changes the whole character of the house.

An original Portrait Homes single-family house on a large homesite at Calabash Lakes
An original from the Portrait Homes era on one of the big homesites — deep front lawn, real space to the neighbour, mature pines along the back. This is the land you cannot add to a later home at any price.
View Single-Family Homes Live MLS · Updated Daily
Brick single-family ranch home at Calabash Lakes
A full-brick single-level plan. Side-gabled, two-car garage, and the kind of lot depth the interior streets give you.
Brick and siding ranch home at Calabash Lakes
Brick-and-siding elevation on a corner lot. Mature crape myrtles out front are a good tell that you are looking at an earlier phase.
Stone-front single-family ranch home at Calabash Lakes
A stone-front elevation on the same single-level footprint. Full brick, brick-and-siding and stone all appear here — which is why two homes with identical square footage can look nothing alike.
Typical size
1,400 – 2,300+ sq ft
Bedrooms
2 – 4
Baths
2 – 3
Stories
Mostly one level; some with bonus up
Garage
2-car attached
Yard
HOA-mowed; fencing subject to ARC approval

Paired ranches — the duets

174 planned · the one buyers misread

This is the piece out-of-state buyers get wrong more than any other in this corridor. A duet is two single-level ranch homes sharing one common wall. Each side has its own front door, its own driveway, its own two-car garage and its own screened porch. There is nobody above you and nobody below you. From the inside it reads as a house, because functionally it is one.

The reason it matters: the MLS classifies most of these as “Townhouse.” So a buyer in New Jersey filters to single-family, never sees them, and misses roughly a third of the neighborhood — including some of the best-value single-level living within fifteen minutes of the beach. The Tuscan is the plan name you'll see most often on the older duets.

Single-level living on most of them, your own two-car garage, your own screened porch — and far less exterior responsibility than most buyers are leaving behind up north. Lock the door and go on a trip. Spend the afternoon at the beach instead of in the yard. For the right buyer, that trade is worth more than having four exterior walls to call your own.

View Duets & Paired Ranches Live MLS · Updated Daily
Side view of a duet pair at Calabash Lakes
The same building from the side. Two rooflines, two garages, one structure — and single-level all the way through.
A pair of duets from the street at Calabash Lakes, each with its own two-car garage
Another pair, from the street. Two house numbers, two full two-car garages side by side, two driveways — and note the dormer over the left-hand unit. Not every duet here is strictly one storey; some carry a bonus room above the garage, which is worth checking on the specific home.
A duet at Calabash Lakes showing two house numbers on one building
Look at the house numbers: 14720 on the left, 14718 on the right. Two front doors, two driveways, two garages — one building. That is a duet, and in the MLS it will almost certainly be filed as a townhouse.
A duet pair with two separate two-car garages at Calabash Lakes
This is a duet. One building, one shared wall down the middle, two front entries and two separate two-car garages — closer to a well-built duplex than to any townhome you have toured up north.
Garage and entry of one side of a duet at Calabash Lakes
One side of the pair, close up. Your own driveway, your own garage, your own front walk. The neighbouring unit starts at the left edge of the frame.
Typical size
1,300 – 1,750 sq ft
Bedrooms
2 – 3, some with a study
Baths
2
Stories
Mostly one level; some with a bonus room up
Garage
2-car attached, private drive
Shared walls
One, on a single side
Listed in MLS as
Usually “Townhouse”

Townhomes

38 planned · the scarce one

The genuine townhomes — attached, two storeys, and only thirty-eight of them in the whole community. Every one of them is an original: Portrait Homes built the townhomes in the 2007 opening phase, and D.R. Horton never added any after taking over in 2012. That makes this the one home type in Calabash Lakes where the supply has been fixed since the beginning.

Most put the owner's suite on the first floor with two bedrooms and a full bath upstairs, which is the layout that works for people who host grandchildren a few weeks a year and want the guests on their own floor.

Because there are so few, they don't come up often, and when a good one does it moves. These are also the lowest entry point into the neighborhood, so they draw both second-home buyers and long-term-rental owners. End units get the extra windows and are worth waiting for.

One difference worth knowing before you tour: this is the only one of the three types that doesn't come with its own two-car garage. Parking is at the building. If a garage is non-negotiable for you, the duets give you single-level living and the garage, usually for less than you'd expect. Confirm the parking arrangement on the specific unit either way.

That separation is a big part of why these work so well as coastal second homes. Most of the year you live almost entirely on the main level. When children, friends or grandchildren come down for a beach weekend, the upstairs becomes their part of the house — and when everybody goes home, you're not carrying a much larger house for the few weeks a year you actually needed the room.

View Townhomes Live MLS · Updated Daily
Two-story townhomes at Calabash Lakes
The townhomes, all of them Portrait Homes originals from the 2007 phase. Genuinely two storeys, genuinely attached, each with its own front entry and walk out to the curb — and parking out front rather than a private garage. Thirty-eight units total and no more ever built, which is why the search alert matters more here than anywhere else in Calabash Lakes.
Typical size
1,300 – 2,200 sq ft
Bedrooms
2 – 3
Baths
2 – 3
Stories
Two
Owner's suite
Usually on the main floor
Builder
Portrait Homes, 2007 phase
Parking
At the building, not a private garage
Supply
38 total — the scarcest type here
Exterior upkeep
Association-maintained

Which home type fits you?

Most buyers know the answer to this before they know the floor plan. Pick the one that sounds like your situation and I'll open the live search on it.

I want a house and a yard

Detached, your own lot, room for family when they come down, and the option of a fenced yard or a pond behind you.

Single-Family Homes

I want to lock the door and go

Single level on most of them, no exterior chore list, and your own two-car garage. You'd rather spend the afternoon at the beach than in the yard.

Duets & Paired Ranches

I want the lowest-maintenance way in

Main-floor owner's suite, guest space upstairs for the weeks a year you need it, and the association handling the outside.

Townhomes

I'm honestly not sure yet

Tell me how you'll actually use the house — full time, winters, or a few weeks a year — and I'll tell you which of the three fits.

Email Me StanPowell@SeaCoastRealty.com

Side by side

The three home types at a glance

Typical ranges across resale inventory, not guarantees for any individual home. Build-out counts per the Town of Carolina Shores. Portrait Homes built the first single-family homes and all of the townhomes in the 2007 phase; D.R. Horton built the community out from 2013. Which builder put up a specific duet is worth confirming rather than assuming. Verify square footage and association responsibilities on the specific home before you write an offer.
Home type Typical size Beds / baths Planned Built by Levels Exterior upkeep
Single-family 1,400 – 2,300+ 2–4 / 2–3 253 Portrait Homes, then D.R. Horton Mostly one Lawn by the association
Paired ranch (duet) 1,300 – 1,750 2–3 / 2 174 D.R. Horton era (unconfirmed) Mostly one Lawn and building by the association
Townhome 1,300 – 2,200 2–3 / 2–3 38 Portrait Homes, 2007 Two Lawn and building by the association; parking at the building

What you actually get to use

The clubhouse, the saltwater pool, and the courts

Thirty-two of the community's 164 acres are amenity center, clubhouse and common area. Every owner — single-family, duet and townhome alike — has access to all of it. There is no second amenity area and no tiered access, which is simpler than several neighborhoods nearby.

The pool and amenity center at Calabash Lakes
The amenity center. Lap lanes down the near side, the shallow end and pool house beyond, and enough deck that you are not fighting for a lounger in July.
Saltwater community pool at Calabash Lakes
The pool was converted to saltwater — easier on skin and eyes, and the thing residents bring up first when you ask what has changed lately.

Ask a resident what they use and the answer is the pool and the courts, in that order. The pool sits at the clubhouse on the boulevard, with a generous deck and a screened lanai-style porch off the clubhouse for the people who'd rather be in the shade with a card game.

Practically, the saltwater conversion matters more than it sounds. For a buyer who swims most days from May to October, it's a different experience than a chlorine pool, and it's the kind of capital improvement that tells you the association is actually funding its reserves.

Pickleball courts at Calabash Lakes
The pickleball courts — the newer addition, and the busiest thing on the property most mornings.

The tennis courts were part of D.R. Horton's 2013 investment in the amenity center, alongside the clubhouse, pool and fitness room. Pickleball came later still, along with a dog park a short walk down the street, and both get used hard.

If you are relocating and worried about knowing nobody, this is the practical answer. Pickleball in this corridor is how people meet, and a court inside your own community means you don't have to drive to Shallotte or Little River to get into a rotation.

Clubhouse exterior at Calabash Lakes
The clubhouse. Meeting room, fitness room, game room and library inside; the pool and the screened lanai porch out back.
Tennis court at Calabash Lakes
The tennis court, in its own clearing against the pines. D.R. Horton put money into the courts, the clubhouse, the pool and the fitness center during the 2013 phase.

An ordinary week, not an amenity checklist

The better way to read the list below is not to count it — it's to picture how it fits into a normal week. A morning pickleball game turns into lunch with people you met twenty minutes ago. An afternoon at the pool doesn't require packing the car and driving across town. The screened porch gives the non-swimmer somewhere comfortable to sit and talk.

For someone relocating to Brunswick County who doesn't know many people yet, that matters more than square footage. Amenities photograph well. The good ones give you an easy reason to leave the house and become part of the neighborhood.

The pool at sunset at Calabash Lakes
Evening at the pool. The deck stays usable long after the swimmers have gone in.
Pool deck and seating at sunset at Calabash Lakes
Tables, loungers and umbrellas on the deck — the part of the amenity that gets used by people who never get in the water.
Landscaped beds beside the pool at Calabash Lakes
The planting beds around the amenity center are part of what the dues pay for, and they are kept up year round.

Saltwater pool

The centerpiece. Deck furniture, generous surround, and a recent conversion from chlorine — a real quality-of-life upgrade for daily swimmers.

Clubhouse & meeting room

Large meeting room for clubs, card groups and association business, reservable by owners through the association.

Screened lanai porch

Off the clubhouse, with card tables. Shade, a breeze and no bugs — used far more than the floor plan would suggest.

Fitness room

On-site equipment, so a treadmill doesn't mean a drive to Shallotte or across the state line.

Tennis & pickleball courts

Both on site. Pickleball is the newer addition and the one with the standing rotation.

Game room

Pool table and ping pong inside the clubhouse — small amenities nobody puts in the MLS and residents mention constantly.

Shuffleboard

An original amenity that has outlasted every prediction of its demise. Still played, still competitive.

Library

A shelf-lined quiet corner in the clubhouse, stocked and swapped by residents.

Ponds & catch-and-release fishing

The lakes the community is named for. Fishing is catch-and-release, and the water lots are the ones buyers compete for.

Dog park

Added within the last few years, a short walk from most of the neighborhood.

Quiet, walkable streets

Low traffic and a layout that loops, so an evening walk doesn't mean driving somewhere first or doubling back the way you came.

An actual social calendar

Organized events run through the year by resident committees, not by a management company checking a box.

The question everyone asks second

What the dues cover

Calabash Lakes bundles in a lot of what you'd otherwise write separate checks for — lawn care, pest control, exterior washing, insurance. Compare the number against your current all-in cost of ownership before you judge it, and compare duet dues against single-family dues separately, because they are not the same product.

For most buyers moving here, the real value isn't the individual line items — it's what disappears from the weekend. Less mowing, less exterior upkeep, fewer chores competing with the reason you moved toward the coast in the first place. That trade matters even more for second-home owners, who want to arrive Friday afternoon and start enjoying the house instead of starting a maintenance list.

Included across the community

  • Lawn mowing, edging and mulching
  • Irrigation
  • Annual exterior power washing
  • Termite bond and pest control
  • Clubhouse, pool, fitness room and courts
  • Common areas, ponds and street lights
  • Master insurance policy
  • Professional management and trash service

Added for duet & townhome owners

  • Building exterior and structure maintenance
  • Roof handled at the association level
  • Broader master insurance coverage on the structure
  • The genuine lock-and-leave position for a second home

How it's governed

  • A single association covering all three home types — no sub-associations to untangle
  • Professionally managed, with resident committees for ARC, facilities, finance and communications
  • Architectural Review Committee approval required for exterior changes, fencing and additions
  • Reserve study and audited financials on file with the association

Getting around

Off Thomasboro Road, and out of the US 17 crush

Calabash Lakes sits on Thomasboro Road rather than fronting the highway, which is worth more than it sounds on a summer Saturday when US 17 backs up. You are still five minutes from groceries and the seafood row.

Residential street at Calabash Lakes
Inside the neighborhood. Street lights, palms at the driveways, and roadways maintained by the Town of Carolina Shores rather than the association.

Here is a detail that catches buyers off guard: your mailing address will very likely say Calabash, NC 28467, but the municipality you actually live in is the Town of Carolina Shores. Listings show it both ways, which is why the same neighborhood appears twice in portal searches.

It matters practically. Carolina Shores handles building inspections, planning and zoning, street lighting and roadway maintenance. Brunswick County handles sewer, law enforcement and curbside garbage; the Calabash Fire Department covers fire. Ask me which line items that changes on your tax bill before you assume.

When the beach becomes part of everyday life

Those numbers read like statistics until you live here. Fifteen minutes to Sunset Beach means you don't plan a beach day, you just decide to go. Five minutes to Calabash means dinner on the waterfront is a Tuesday-night decision, not an outing. North Myrtle Beach is close enough for the shopping and the entertainment, and coming home still feels distinctly quieter. That's the location advantage here: close to everything people move to this coast for, without living in the middle of it.

Downtown Calabash & the seafood row
~5 min
Calabash — groceries, Walmart, Publix
~5 min
Sunset Beach — the sand
~15 min
North Myrtle Beach
~20 min
Ocean Isle Beach
~20 min
Shallotte
~15 min
Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center
~20 miles
Myrtle Beach International Airport
~35 min
Wilmington
~55 min
Golf courses within a short drive
30+

What that radius actually looks like

Everything below is inside the fifteen-minute circle around Calabash Lakes. This is the part of the move people underestimate until they've lived here a season.

The beach and sea oats at Sunset Beach, North Carolina
Sunset Beach, about fifteen minutes from the entrance. Wide, flat, quiet sand — and a very different beach from the one twenty minutes south in Myrtle.
Shrimp boats at the docks on the Calabash waterfront
The Calabash fishing fleet at the docks. The boats tied up here are the reason the town has a seafood reputation at all.
The Oyster Rock Waterfront Seafood on the Calabash waterfront
The Oyster Rock, on the waterfront. Five minutes from home, which makes dinner out a Tuesday decision rather than an outing.
Outdoor waterfront dining at dusk in Calabash
The same stretch of waterfront at dusk. Tables out on the lawn, the marsh behind, and the fleet coming back in.
Callahan's of Calabash storefront
Callahan's — gifts, apparel, home decor and a Christmas store that runs year round. It is the thing visiting family always wants to do.
Callahan's Nautical Gifts sign beneath a live oak in Calabash
The live oak out front has been there a lot longer than the shops have. Calabash is small, and that is most of the appeal.

Streets you'll see in the listings

The lake naming convention runs through most of the community. If you're cross-referencing addresses from a portal, these are inside Calabash Lakes:

Not a complete list — ask me if you're unsure whether an address falls inside the association.

Want to know which homes here I'd actually shortlist today?

Not the full inventory list — the three or four I'd put in front of you if you were my buyer, and the reasons the rest didn't make it.

Call (910) 274-5067 Email Me Your Criteria

Straight answers

What the national sites get wrong about Calabash Lakes

I check these portals because my buyers read them first. Here is where the record needs correcting.

“It's a 55+ community.”

No. Several national retirement directories list it that way and they're wrong. Calabash Lakes is all ages — the association's own mission statement describes it as an everyone's-welcome neighborhood. The population skews toward retirees and second-home owners because of where it is, not because of a restriction.

“Gated community with private dock access.”

Neither. There is no gate and no guardhouse. The streets are public and maintained by the Town of Carolina Shores — which is a financial positive, because road resurfacing isn't sitting on the association's reserve schedule. The ponds are interior stormwater and amenity ponds, not navigable water.

“Townhomes for sale in Calabash Lakes.”

Usually a duet, not a townhome. The MLS classifies most of the 174 paired ranches as “Townhouse.” Only 38 units in the community are genuine two-story attached townhomes. Filter to single-family only and you'll miss about a third of the neighborhood.

“Calabash Lakes is a D.R. Horton community.”

Half right. Portrait Homes was the original builder, starting around 2007, and built both the first single-family homes — on the largest homesites in the community — and all thirty-eight townhomes. D.R. Horton acquired the community infrastructure in 2012 and built it out from 2013 on. If your home predates the crash, a different company put it up, which affects the specs, the original finishes and, more than anything, how much land came with it.

“New homes available from D.R. Horton.”

Sold out. D.R. Horton built the community out and closed the sales operation. There is no model, no inventory and no lots to build on. Builder pages and aggregator listings still surface in search. Everything available here is resale.

“Calabash Lakes and Carolina Shores are different neighborhoods.”

Same place. The USPS mailing address is generally Calabash, NC 28467, while the municipality is the Town of Carolina Shores. Portals show it both ways, so the community appears twice in searches. Verify the address before you close — I'll pull it for you.

Questions I get about Calabash Lakes

What exactly is a “duet,” and how is it different from a townhome?

A duet is two ranch homes sharing one common wall. Each side has its own entry, driveway, two-car garage and screened porch, and there is no unit above or below you — the shared wall runs between you and your neighbour, not over your head. Most are a single storey, though some carry a bonus room above the garage. A townhome here is a genuine two-story attached unit. The confusion comes from the MLS, which classifies most duets as “Townhouse.” That's the single most common search mistake I fix for buyers looking at Calabash Lakes.

Am I buying in Calabash or in Carolina Shores?

Both answers show up in the listings, which is why the neighborhood looks like two neighborhoods online. The USPS mailing address is generally Calabash, NC 28467. The municipality is the Town of Carolina Shores, which the Town's own records confirm. That distinction affects which government handles inspections, zoning and roads, and it can affect your tax line items. Verify it for the specific address before you close — I'll pull it for you.

Who actually built Calabash Lakes?

Two builders, not one. Portrait Homes was the original builder and began construction around 2007, putting up the first single-family homes on the community's largest homesites along with all thirty-eight of the two-storey townhomes. The housing collapse stalled the neighborhood from roughly 2008 through 2011. D.R. Horton acquired the community infrastructure in 2012, launched a new phase in 2013, and invested in the clubhouse, pool, fitness center and tennis courts before building the community out. Most national sites credit Horton with the whole thing, which skips the first chapter. One caveat I'll be straight about: Portrait Homes is documented as the original builder, but I have not confirmed whether the same entity was also the original land developer.

Can I still buy new construction here?

Not in Calabash Lakes. D.R. Horton built the community out and closed the sales operation; there is no model, no inventory and no lots to build on. Everything available is resale. If new construction is what you're after, that's my background — I sold it for the builders for years — and there are several active communities within fifteen minutes of here. I'll show you both sides and let you compare honestly.

Can I rent my home out?

Some owners hold homes here as second homes or long-term rentals, but minimum lease terms and rental rules are set by the governing documents and can be amended. Never assume based on what a listing says or what a neighbor tells you. I get the current covenants and any rental amendments in front of you before you go under contract.

Which lots are worth paying more for?

Two things to look for, and they sometimes overlap. The pond-backing lots turn over faster than anything else in the neighborhood and hold value better, because the back yard stops reading as a subdivision lot. And the original Portrait Homes single-family homesites from the 2007 phase are simply bigger than anything built after 2012 — more front lawn, more room to the neighbour, more tree buffer. You cannot add land to a newer home at any price, so if space matters to you, that's where to start. The boulevard lots trade convenience for traffic noise and price accordingly. Send me an address and I'll tell you which category it falls in.

How's the resale market here?

I publish a branded market snapshot for Calabash Lakes covering absorption rate, days on market and closed price trends, broken out by home type — because blending duets and single-family homes into one average gives you a number that describes nothing. Ask me for the current edition. It's free and there's no obligation attached to it.

Homes across a pond at Calabash Lakes, framed by trees
Thirty-two of the community's 164 acres are common area, ponds and amenity center — and every owner has access to all of it.

Finding your place at Calabash Lakes

Every buyer arrives at the coast with a different vision of what home should feel like.

For some, it's a detached house with a yard and a pond behind it. For others, it's a duet where the lawn is somebody else's problem, the beach is fifteen minutes away, and the responsibilities of homeownership feel a little more manageable.

What I love about communities like Calabash Lakes is that they remind us a home is much more than a collection of bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage. It's where ordinary days become meaningful, where new traditions begin, and where the next chapter of life starts to take shape.

Screened porches and sunrooms overlooking a pond at Calabash Lakes
Screened porches, sunrooms and a few chairs set out facing the water. This is what the day-to-day actually looks like once the boxes are unpacked.

After more than 20 years working in the Brunswick County housing market, I've learned that helping someone find the right community is just as important as finding the right house. My goal is to help you understand both — so when you finally turn the key, you feel confident you've found a place that truly fits the life you came here to enjoy.

Thinking about Calabash Lakes?

If you've found an address you're considering — even one on Zillow, Realtor.com or another agent's site — send it to me before you make an offer. I'll tell you which plan and which phase it came from, whether it's a duet or a true townhome, what's across the street and behind it, and what the recent sales say it's worth. No obligation.

Send Me The Address

Stan Powell · REALTOR®, Broker · Cell (910) 274-5067

Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage

Stan Powell

REALTOR®, Broker

CNE · ABR · e-PRO · CSP

Office

10020 Beach Dr. SW
Calabash, NC 28467

Cell (910) 274-5067 Office (910) 579-8471 StanPowell@SeaCoastRealty.com