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

Your Community Guide · Calabash, Brunswick County, North Carolina

Calabash Station

A 93-acre community off Hickman Road, with Meadowlands Golf Club over the back fence and downtown Calabash five minutes away. Two national builders built here; only one is still building. It is the kind of place where a newer home can simplify the day without pulling you away from the golf, seafood and beaches that brought you to the Carolina coast in the first place. Here is how the neighborhood is actually laid out — and what the portals keep getting wrong about it.

For buyers coming from busier suburbs, colder winters or a house that has simply become more work than they want, the appeal here is easy to understand. You can live in a new home on a quiet street, be five minutes from dinner in Calabash, keep golf practically in the backyard and still make a spontaneous beach run without planning the whole day around it. Calabash Station is less about living inside a resort and more about putting the coastal life you came for within easy reach.

251single-family homes planned at full build-out
93.45acres, with wooded and pond homesites
1builder still selling — Dream Finders
2023first homes released for sale
1,604+square feet, up past 2,900 on the largest plans

Build-out count and acreage per published development records. Not every planned home has been built, and plan availability rotates.

Stan Powell, REALTOR and Broker, 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.
See Every Listing In Calabash Station Live MLS · Updated Daily

Your Community Guide

One community, two builders — but only one still building in Calabash Station

Here is the thing most buyers miss, and most websites still get wrong: Calabash Station was built by two separate national builders, but only one of them is still here. Meritage Homes closed out, with its last new-construction closing in 2025. Dream Finders Homes is the only builder currently offering new homes and homesites. If you want a Meritage plan today, you are buying a resale — and several national sites will still show you their homes as though you could order one.

That variety matters because buyers arrive here for very different reasons. One couple may want a single-level home they can comfortably keep for the next fifteen years. Another may need extra bedrooms for children and visiting family. A second-home buyer may care more about a finished resale they can use this season than selecting every finish from a design sheet. The advantage of Calabash Station is not simply that there are choices — it is that several different versions of coastal living are being sold inside the same neighborhood.

Calabash Station community entrance sign in Calabash, NC
The entrance off Calabash Station Boulevard NW. Both builders' sections share the same entry, the same amenity and the same association.

Calabash Station started selling in early 2023 and is still filling in, which means the inventory on any given week is a moving target: builder spec homes at various stages, to-be-built homesites, and a growing handful of resales from the first owners in.

What follows is how I'd sort it if you were sitting across from me at my Calabash office — by who built it and how fast you can be in it. Each collection has its own live MLS search attached.

Dream Finders Homes

The only active builder

The deeper plan book of the two. Dream Finders runs everything from a tight 1,604-square-foot one-story up through two-story plans with five bedrooms and a bonus recreation room, and their larger elevations are where the community's biggest square footage lives.

Most plans put the owner's suite on the main floor — including the two-story ones — which is the layout that actually matters to the retirees and second-home buyers I work with. Covered front porches and rear covered patios are standard across the line, and select plans offer a three-car garage and an upgraded kitchen package.

One-story home with brick skirt and covered front porch at Calabash Station
A one-story elevation with a brick skirt, dormer and covered front porch. Homes sit fairly close on the interior streets — walk one before you decide whether a premium lot is worth the money to you.
  • Cascade1,604 sq ft · one story · study
  • Harmony1,654 sq ft · 3 bed · split owner's suite, formal dining
  • Belair1,815 sq ft · owner's suite + guest suite down, rec room up
  • Kent2,015 sq ft · 4–5 bed · two-story living room, main-floor primary
  • Oceana2,033 sq ft · 3 bed · rotunda foyer, formal dining
  • Jordan2,408–2,452 sq ft · 4 bed · bonus recreation space

Plan names and sizes rotate as the builder releases phases. Larger elevations above 2,600 square feet have appeared in this community — ask me what is actually releasable this month.

This side of the neighborhood makes the most sense for buyers who still want room to spread out. Think grandchildren upstairs for a long weekend, a study that finally becomes a real home office, or a bonus space where guests can disappear without taking over the main living room. The larger plans give you the square footage of the home you may be leaving behind, but in a newer layout built around how people live now.

View Dream Finders Homes For Sale Live MLS · Updated Daily
Community lap pool at Calabash Station in Calabash, NC
The community pool — one shared amenity for the whole neighborhood, both builders' sections included.
Dream Finders single-family home in Calabash Station
A Dream Finders street. The two-story plans sit alongside the one-story elevations rather than in their own section — worth seeing in person before you pick a homesite.
Dream Finders one-story home with stone accent and covered front porch in Calabash Station
A one-story elevation with the stone accent package and a covered front porch. Note the two-story immediately next door — plan heights mix on the same street, which changes afternoon shade and sightlines from your yard.
Typical size
1,604 – 2,452+ sq ft
Bedrooms
2 – 5
Baths
2 – 3
Stories
One-story and two-story plans
Owner's suite
Main floor on most plans
Garage
2-car; 3-car on select plans
Outdoor
Covered porch and rear patio

Meritage Homes

Closed out — resale only

Meritage has finished building in Calabash Station. Their last new-construction closing here was in 2025, the sales office on Forthlin Drive is closed, and no new Meritage homes or homesites are available. Their section of the neighborhood is built out. I am leaving it on this page because the homes are here, people are living in them, and they come up for resale.

What Meritage built here was all single-level — everything on one floor, no stairs, no bonus room over the garage you will never walk up to. If you are downsizing out of a two-story colonial in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, these are worth watching on the resale market.

Each plan carries a flex space that can go office, den, hobby room or fourth bedroom. These are the plans you will see named in resale listings, so they are worth knowing by name when you are scanning the MLS.

  • Parker3 bed · 2 bath · ranch
  • Vincent3 bed · 2 bath · ranch
  • Kensington3 bed · 3 bath · ranch
  • Gibson4 bed · 3 bath · ranch
  • Edgewood4 bed · 3 bath · approx. 2,404 sq ft

The emotional appeal of a one-level home is rarely the floor plan itself. It is realizing that groceries, laundry, guests, morning coffee and the trip from the bedroom to the kitchen all happen without a staircase in the middle of the day. For buyers leaving a two-story home they have maintained for decades, that can feel less like downsizing and more like simplifying.

Street of single-level Meritage homes in Calabash Station
The Meritage streets run single-level end to end. This section is built out — these homes now trade as resales.
Single-level Meritage ranch home at Calabash Station
A Meritage ranch elevation. One level, two-car garage, covered entry — the layout that ages well without a stairlift conversation ten years out. Available now only as a resale.
Typical size
1,817 – 2,404 sq ft
Bedrooms
3 – 4
Baths
2 – 3
Stories
One level, all plans
Flex space
Included on every plan
Garage
2-car attached
Status
Closed out — last closing 2025
How to buy one
Resale only

Resale homes

Move-in, no build wait

The collection that matters most here now. A resale here often lands ahead of a new build on the things buyers forget to price: window treatments, gutters, a finished rear patio, an irrigation system, landscaping that has had two summers to root, and sometimes a fence and a screened enclosure already permitted and installed.

A resale can also feel more settled the minute you pull into the driveway. The grass has filled in, the blinds are hung, the patio has already hosted a few dinners, and the street looks more like a neighborhood than a construction schedule. For some buyers, being able to see exactly what they are buying — including the view behind the house and the homes already next door — is worth more than choosing a cabinet color from a sample board.

You also get to walk a finished neighbor's street instead of a graded lot with flags in it. My honest read: if you want a specific plan on a specific homesite, build. If you want to be in by spring without a $10,000 punch list of post-closing upgrades, watch the resales.

View Resale Homes In Calabash Station Live MLS · Updated Daily
Established home with mature landscaping in Calabash Station
An early-delivery home with the landscaping filled in, woods behind it and a privacy fence already up next door. The difference between year one and year three here is significant.
Typical age
Built 2023 onward
Usually included
Blinds, gutters, sod, irrigation
Sometimes added
Fencing, screened porch, patio extension
Timeline
30 – 45 days to close
Warranty
Balance of builder structural may transfer — verify

Homesites & build-to-order

Pick your lot

Dream Finders still has unstarted homesites — they are the only builder here who does. This is the part of a new-construction purchase where an independent agent earns their keep. Lot premiums in a community like this run from a few thousand dollars to well into five figures for a pond or wooded rear, and not every premium comes back at resale.

A homesite is the one choice you cannot upgrade later. The right lot changes the small moments: whether the back porch is shaded at dinner, whether morning coffee looks into trees or another rear wall, whether a pond catches the evening light, and whether you hear the entry road every time the garage door opens. Those details rarely look important on a site plan. They become very important after you live there.

Send me the lot number before you reserve it. I'll help you look at orientation, rear view, drainage, future phases and premium value.

Email the lot number
See Every Active Listing In Calabash Station
New homes under construction and staked homesites at Calabash Station in Calabash, NC
Construction is still moving through the community — homes in framing, staked lots and silt fence on the right. Walk a homesite in the rain before you reserve it; that is not a joke, and it is not something a builder's agent will suggest.
Builder
Dream Finders only
Homesites remaining
Rotates by phase — ask
Lot types
Interior, wooded rear, pond view
Premiums
Vary by lot; negotiable in some phases
Build time
Typically 6 – 9 months — confirm current
Representation
Bring me on your first visit

Before you go back to the spreadsheet

What life here actually feels like

Shoppers walking past boutiques in a coastal town near Calabash, North Carolina
Life here tends to spill outward. The beach is close enough to be an ordinary afternoon rather than a planned outing — which is the whole difference between visiting the coast and living on it.

Calabash Station is still a young neighborhood, so part of the experience is watching it become more established around you. New landscaping fills in. Construction traffic gradually gives way to neighbors out walking in the evening — on sidewalks, which are rarer in coastal neighborhoods around here than most buyers expect. The pool becomes familiar instead of new. And because the community is not overloaded with private amenities, life tends to spill outward into Calabash itself — dinner on the waterfront, a tee time next door, an afternoon at Sunset Beach, or a quick run across the state line when you want more shopping and entertainment.

That balance is what I would focus on if you are considering a move here. You are buying a newer home and a relatively simple HOA structure, but the bigger lifestyle is outside the entrance. Calabash Station works best for people who want the neighborhood to be an easy home base for the coast, not the entire reason they moved to it.

I have lived in Calabash long enough to know which parts of the pitch hold up. The seafood row is not a tourist gimmick you visit once — it is where people actually eat on a Thursday. The golf is genuinely next door, not "minutes away" in the way marketing copy means it. And the beach run is short enough that you will make it on a whim rather than as a planned outing, which is the whole difference between visiting the coast and living on it.

What I will also tell you: this is a working corridor, not a resort. US 17 backs up on summer Saturdays. Some phases are still under construction. If you want a gated entrance and a staffed clubhouse, there are communities nearby that offer that, and I will show you those instead.

Shrimp boats at the working docks on the Calabash River in Calabash, NC
The working docks on the Calabash River. The boats are not scenery — this is where the seafood actually comes in.
Callahan's of Calabash gift store on Beach Drive in Calabash, NC
Callahan's on Beach Drive, a Calabash fixture long before any of these neighborhoods existed.
Sunset over the marsh and docks at Calabash, North Carolina
Sunset over the marsh from the docks — about five minutes from the Calabash Station entrance.
Waterfront dining with umbrellas beside the marsh in Calabash, NC
Dinner by the water on an ordinary evening. For most residents here, this is the amenity that gets used most.

What you actually get to use

A short amenity list — and that is the point

Calabash Station is not trying to be a resort community. There is a pool, a cabana and walking trails, and the dues reflect that. For a lot of buyers moving down here, that trade is deliberate: the amenities they actually want are the golf course next door and the ocean fifteen minutes away, and they would rather not fund a 20,000-square-foot clubhouse to get them.

The lifestyle here is not built around staying inside the neighborhood gates all weekend. The pool is there when you want it, the walking paths make an evening loop easy, and then the rest of the coast becomes the amenity package: golf next door, seafood a few minutes away, Sunset Beach when the weather is too good to waste, and North Myrtle Beach when you want more activity. For the right buyer, that freedom is the luxury.

Pool cabana at Calabash Station in Calabash, NC
The pool and cabana. Modest by design — and the reason the dues here are a fraction of what the gated golf communities down the road charge.

I say this to every buyer comparing Calabash Station against Brunswick Plantation or Ocean Ridge: run the dues difference out over ten years and ask yourself honestly how many times you would have used the extra amenity. For some people the answer justifies the spend. For a lot of second-home buyers who are here four months a year, it does not.

What Calabash Station buys you instead is a newer house, a lower monthly carry, and a location that is genuinely inside Calabash rather than a fifteen-minute drive from it.

Pool deck backing to a pond and pine buffer at Calabash Station in Calabash, NC
The far side of the deck looks out over a pond and the pine buffer — the same wooded and water edge that a number of the homesites back to.

The golf is the amenity that is not on the HOA budget. Meadowlands borders the community, and the neighborhood is golf-cart friendly, with roughly a dozen more courses inside a short drive toward Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle and the state line.

If you play, the practical value of that adjacency is worth more than a fitness room you will visit twice. Ask me for the current Meadowlands membership and public-rate structure — it changes, and it is not always what the community marketing implies.

Meadowlands Golf Club clubhouse and pond in Calabash, North Carolina
The Meadowlands clubhouse. Open since 1997 — an established course next door, not a promised one.
Sunset over the water and fairways at Meadowlands Golf Club in Calabash, NC
Sunset across the water at Meadowlands. This is the amenity that costs the association nothing — part of why the dues here stay where they are.

Community pool

Shared by the whole neighborhood, both builders' sections included. One association, one pool, one set of dues.

Cabana

Covered shade structure at the pool deck. Not a full clubhouse — set your expectations accordingly and price the dues against that.

Walking trails

Scenic paths through the common areas, which is what most residents here actually use daily.

Meadowlands Golf Club next door

Adjacent to the community. Open since 1997 — an established course, not a promised one.

All ages, no restriction

Calabash Station is not age-restricted. Full-time retirees, second-home owners and working families all buy here.

Five minutes to Calabash

The seafood row, the town park, Food Lion, a brand-new Publix, Walmart and Ace Hardware are all a short drive, not a highway trip.

The question everyone asks second

What the dues cover — and what they don't

Builder marketing has quoted dues in this community in the neighborhood of $45 a month, which is genuinely low for southern Brunswick County. Low dues are a feature. They are also worth understanding before you assume something is included that isn't.

Generally included

  • Community pool and pool service
  • Cabana and pool deck
  • Walking trails and common areas
  • Common-area landscaping
  • Common-area lighting and electric
  • Stormwater pond maintenance
  • Professional management

Generally your responsibility

  • Your own lawn, irrigation and landscaping
  • Your own roof, siding and exterior
  • Your own termite bond and pest service
  • Homeowner's insurance on the full structure
  • Fencing, if permitted by the covenants

The new-community questions

  • The association is still young — reserves are building, not built
  • Declarant (builder) control transitions to homeowner control at a threshold set in the documents
  • Dues in a build-out community can move once the builder stops subsidizing
  • Architectural review is typically strict during build-out
  • Rental and lease restrictions vary — never assume

What the national sites get wrong about Calabash Station

The claim"Calabash Station, Myrtle Beach"

The realityIt is in Calabash, North Carolina — Brunswick County, ZIP 28467. One of the builders files this community under its Myrtle Beach sales division, so it propagates across the internet sites as a South Carolina community. It is not. You will pay North Carolina property tax to Brunswick County and vote in North Carolina.

The claimListed in Carolina Shores. Or Ocean Isle Beach.

The realityThe exact same street inside this community shows up on the big portals under three different town names. Rosefield Way and Forest Bend Drive get entered as Carolina Shores; Calabash Station Boulevard gets entered as Ocean Isle Beach. Same subdivision, same ZIP. If your saved search is filtered by town, you are missing homes.

The claim"Calabash Station by Meritage Homes — now selling."

The realityMeritage finished here. Their last new-construction closing was in 2025 and the Forthlin Drive sales office is closed. Several national sites still carry the community as active, some with quick move-in homes listed and a builder phone number attached. If you call about a Meritage plan expecting to order one, you will be disappointed. Dream Finders is the only builder still building in Calabash Station.

The claimCalabash Station and Calabash Palms are the same place.

The realityThey are not. Calabash Palms is a separate, smaller townhome community — roughly 69 attached homes — from the same builder, nearby but distinct. Different product, different price point, different association. If you are comparing them, compare them as two communities, because that is what they are.

The claim"Here's everything for sale in Calabash Station."

The realityNot from a builder's website, it isn't. A builder site shows only its own inventory and never shows resales — and one of the two builders here no longer builds at all. With Meritage closed out, most of this neighborhood now trades as resale, which is exactly what those pages cannot show you. The searches on this page pull the full MLS.

See Every Active Listing In Calabash Station

Getting around

Inside Calabash, minutes from the state line

Calabash Station sits on the west side of Calabash near the Meadowlands, which puts you close to the North Carolina beaches and closer than most Brunswick County communities to North Myrtle Beach and the airport.

Family walking on the beach on the southern Brunswick County coast of North Carolina
Everyday life stays close: Calabash for groceries and hardware, the beach towns for a change of pace, and North Myrtle Beach when you want real shopping and a bigger night out.

Practically, the location is the strongest thing this community has going for it. You are genuinely inside Calabash — five minutes to the seafood row on River Road, the town park, the grocery and the fire station — while still being roughly fifteen to twenty minutes from North Myrtle Beach when you want a bigger town.

That combination is unusual. Most of the newer inventory in this price band is pushed out toward Shallotte or up US 17, which adds ten to fifteen minutes to every errand you will run for the rest of your life here.

You also have a choice of beaches rather than just one. Sunset Beach is the quiet, family-oriented island, with the pier and the walk out to Bird Island. Ocean Isle is a little livelier and has more to do within walking distance of the sand. Holden Beach is farther up but worth the drive. And North Myrtle Beach is close enough for a concert, an airport run or a day when you want a bigger town — without living in the middle of it.

This is the part out-of-area buyers often understand only after they spend a few days here. You can run to the grocery store without turning the trip into an expedition, meet friends for seafood in Calabash, be on Sunset Beach for a late-afternoon walk, and still come home to a neighborhood that feels removed from the tourist traffic. The state line is close enough to make North Myrtle Beach useful without making it your everyday environment.

Meadowlands Golf Club
Adjacent
Downtown Calabash & the seafood row
~5 min
Groceries & everyday errands
~5 min
Sunset Beach — the sand
~15 min
North Myrtle Beach
~15–20 min
Ocean Isle Beach
~25 min
Shallotte
~20 min
Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center
~25 min
Myrtle Beach International Airport
~40 min
Wilmington
~60 min
Golf courses within about 7 miles
~12

Drive times are approximate and vary with season and traffic. US 17 backs up on summer Saturdays — plan accordingly.

Streets you'll see in the listings

If you are cross-referencing addresses from a portal, these are inside Calabash Station:

Not a complete list, and new streets open as phases release. You will occasionally see "Calabash Station Road" in a listing record — that is a data-entry error for Boulevard. Ask me if you're unsure whether an address falls inside the association.

Questions I get about Calabash Station

Is Calabash Station in North Carolina or South Carolina?

North Carolina. It is in the Town of Calabash, Brunswick County, ZIP 28467, a few minutes from the state line. One of the builders administers it through a Myrtle Beach sales division, which is why it turns up on national sites filed under South Carolina. Your taxes, your schools and your deed are all North Carolina.

Who is building in Calabash Station?

Dream Finders Homes is the only builder still building in Calabash Station. Meritage Homes also built here, but closed out — their last new-construction closing was in 2025 and their sales office is closed. Both builders' homes share the same entrance, amenity and homeowners association. If you want a Meritage plan now, it has to be a resale.

Can I use my own agent when I buy from a builder here?

Yes — but you generally need to bring me with you on your first visit to Dream Finders, or at minimum register me before you tour. Builders have registration policies, and if you walk in alone and sign in, you may forfeit representation on that purchase. The builder's onsite agent works for the builder.

Should I build new or buy a resale here?

It depends on what you're optimizing for. Build if you want a specific plan on a specific homesite and can wait. Buy resale if you want to be in quickly and want the blinds, gutters, landscaping, patio and possibly fencing already done — those items add up to real money after closing on a new build, and buyers routinely underestimate them.

What are the HOA dues?

Builder materials have quoted figures in the range of $45 a month, which is low for this area and reflects the modest amenity package. Dues in a community still under builder control can change as build-out completes and the association takes over. I pull the current budget and governing documents on every transaction rather than relying on a quoted number.

Is Calabash Palms the same community?

No. Calabash Palms is a separate townhome community of roughly 69 attached homes, nearby and from the same builder, but with its own association, product type and price point. They get conflated constantly online. If you are comparing them, I will put the two side by side properly.

Who is Calabash Station best for?

In my experience it fits buyers who want a newer, lower-maintenance home without paying resort dues for amenities they will rarely use — people who play golf or want it close, who want the beach reachable on a whim rather than as a planned trip, and who value being genuinely inside Calabash for everyday errands. It fits less well if you want a gated entrance, a staffed clubhouse, a fitness center and an activities calendar. Those exist nearby, and I will show you those instead if that is the priority.

How's the resale market here?

I publish a branded market snapshot covering absorption rate, days on market and closed price trends for communities in this corridor. Ask me for the current edition on Calabash Station — it's free and there's no obligation attached to it.

Calabash Station will not be the right community for everyone — and that is part of its appeal. It fits buyers who want a newer home without paying for a resort-sized amenity package, who like having golf and the coast nearby without living in the middle of either, and who value everyday convenience as much as the postcard moments. If that sounds like the balance you are looking for, the next question is not whether to tour the community. It is which builder, homesite or resale gives you the best version of it.

Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage

Stan Powell

REALTOR®, Broker

Office

10020 Beach Dr. SW
Calabash, NC 28467

CNE · ABR · e-PRO · CSP

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