Beaufort County is a county in eastern North Carolina, immediately east of Pitt County. Its seat and largest city is Washington, with 9,590 of the county’s 47,168 residents. Other municipalities include Aurora (743 residents), Bath (266), Belhaven (1,657), Chocowinity (1,089), Pantego (201), and Washington Park (609) (“Total Population”). Geographically, the county is split by the Pamlico River, with only two road crossings near Washington and Chocowinity and a ferry crossing between Aurora and Bath. The Pamlico River splits the county into two, with the river providing the county with excellent opportunities for recreation, leisure, and tourism. In 2019, the US Census Bureau estimated Beaufort County to have 26,081 housing units, 75.5% of which, or 19,701. This number is considerably lower than the statewide occupancy rate of 85.7% and the national occupancy rate of 87.9%, and it reflects the stagnant nature of Beaufort’s economy and population (“Selected Housing Characteristics”).In 2019 the North Carolina Housing Coalition performed a housing need assessment on Beaufort County; however, there does not appear to be a housing market analysis performed at the county or municipality level in recent years. We have chosen to research Beaufort County because of the lack of compiled research over the past 5 years. With a population mainly consisting of renters (housing), the housing market is constantly changing and can be very volatile in certain cases. We believe that with enough digging, our group will unveil a prosperous county with plenty of growth potential.