The Golden Mile’s Best-Kept Residential Secret

There is a stretch of Myrtle Beach between 48th and 67th Avenue North where the Grand Strand simply feels different. The high-rise hotel towers thin out. The resort pools disappear. The beach widens. The crowds evaporate. In their place: tree-lined residential avenues, historic beach cottages with wood-burning fireplaces, mid-century bungalows under mature hardwood canopies, and — for those with the budget — some of the most spectacular custom oceanfront estates in all of South Carolina.

This is Forest Dunes, and it sits on what locals call the Golden Mile — Myrtle Beach’s most coveted and historically exclusive oceanfront address. Spanning from roughly 48th to 67th Avenue North, east of Highway 17 Business to the ocean, the neighborhood offers six consecutive blocks of beachfront property with essentially no hotels. Per multiple listing sources and longtime agents: there is a moratorium on new oceanfront hotel construction in this section. The beach here belongs to residents and their guests, and it shows — uncrowded, wide, and blissfully unhurried in every season.

The neighborhood takes its name from the historic Ocean Forest Hotel — a grand oceanfront resort that stood on this site from 1929 until its demolition in 1974. The Forest Dunes Resort condo tower (5511 N Ocean Blvd) was constructed on the former hotel site in 1985. Today, the broader Forest Dunes residential area around it — spanning the avenues between 48th and 67th, along Porcher Drive and the cross streets — is a deeply established, proudly residential community with no two homes alike and a price range that runs from affordable beach cottages to multi-million dollar oceanfront estates.

Three Distinct Personalities in One Neighborhood

Forest Dunes is not a uniform subdivision — it is a loosely defined but highly coveted community that contains distinct zones, each with its own character, price point, and lifestyle identity.

Every Price Point. One Extraordinary Address.

Forest Dunes is one of the few neighborhoods in Myrtle Beach where you can buy a livable beach cottage for under $400,000 and a custom oceanfront estate for over $3 million — on the same stretch of neighborhood. The range is a feature, not a flaw: it reflects the organic, unregimented character of a community that grew over eight decades without a master developer imposing uniformity.

Education in the Forest Dunes / Golden Mile Zone

Forest Dunes is served by Horry County Schools, specifically the Myrtle Beach school feeder pathway. Multiple listing agents confirm: children attend Myrtle Beach Elementary, Middle, and High Schools — the same pipeline serving the broader northside residential community.

Central to Everything — Quietly Positioned Away from It All

Forest Dunes occupies one of the best-positioned addresses in all of Myrtle Beach — east of Highway 17 Business, between downtown Myrtle Beach and the northside resort corridor, with the Atlantic Ocean as the eastern boundary. Despite this central location, the neighborhood’s residential character makes it feel genuinely removed from the resort energy of the Grand Strand.

Daily errands are similarly convenient: Mr. Fish restaurant and New York Pizza are at the end of 65th Ave North — golf cart distance. Akel’s breakfast is nearby. A CVS drugstore is a short ride. The Carolina Opry and Grand Strand Hospital are a couple of miles away. The neighborhood is central without being congested — the defining advantage of the Forest Dunes address.

Your Beach. Your Block. Your Myrtle Beach.

From Golf Cart-Distance Neighborhood Spots to Grand Strand Fine Dining

Forest Dunes has both — a handful of beloved neighborhood staples a golf cart ride away, and the full Restaurant Row fine dining corridor and Barefoot Landing complex within minutes. Residents rarely need to go far for excellent meals at any price point.

Moving Into Forest Dunes — What to Know First

Who Is Forest Dunes For?

Forest Dunes attracts a specific buyer — one who has done enough research to understand that the Golden Mile’s hotel-free residential character, combined with the full range of price points available, creates an opportunity that doesn’t exist anywhere else on the Grand Strand.

The buyer who wants the real Myrtle Beach. Not the resort corridor. Not the condo tower view. The actual residential beach experience — walking to the ocean from your own home, buying local seafood at Mr. Fish, having breakfast at Akel’s, and watching the Atlantic from your porch without a hotel deck in the way. This buyer has found Forest Dunes and rarely looks elsewhere.

The beach cottage buyer seeking character. Mid-century brick ranches under hardwood trees, one block from the ocean, with wood-burning fireplaces and screened porches, for $350,000–$500,000. This price point on the Golden Mile — with no HOA — is genuinely exceptional. These homes have the kind of character that new construction cannot manufacture, and they are becoming scarcer every decade as renovation and teardown activity continues.

The luxury custom buyer who wants to build on or purchase an oceanfront lot on the most prestigious stretch of beach in Myrtle Beach — with the legal protection of the hotel moratorium ensuring the character of their investment is preserved. Vacant oceanfront lots in this corridor are among the rarest available on the Grand Strand. Several new custom builds by acclaimed builders are underway, including Arthur Rutenberg Homes projects cited in recent CCAR MLS listings.

The investment condo buyer who wants Golden Mile address access at the $175,000–$519,000 level through the Forest Dunes Resort tower — a well-established 18-story building with full resort amenities, strong rental history, and an address that commands premium occupancy rates among vacation renters who understand the difference between the Golden Mile beach and the crowded resort corridor to the south.

Northeast relocation buyers selling homes in New Jersey, Connecticut, or New York for $600,000–$1.5M who can acquire a renovated beach cottage, a raised custom home, or even an oceanfront estate in Forest Dunes for the same or lower price — while eliminating state income tax on retirement income, dramatically reducing property tax burden, and gaining a walk-to-the-ocean lifestyle that their current address cannot provide at any price.