On the outskirts of town, Smithville Woods is a my top destination pick if you are planning to relocate to Southport and are looking for a family-friendly neighborhood with lots of kids. It's the kind of place I dreamed about growing up in. While living and raising our kids in Downtown Southport, I've always felt like they had the best of all worlds. Learning to ride their bikes on the sidewalk, playing ball in the street, walking down to the river every day to crab and pick up treasures, the freedom of walking on their own to the candy store, ice cream man, or the library. It was all very Norman Rockwell but it was absolutely real. The town was still full of locals, but young'uns were scarce except for a hand full that came and went. What I'm getting at is, that in spite of this 
picture-perfect little world we were living in, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY KIDS...all four of them...expressed on a regular basis...that they ever-so-badly...wanted to live in SMITHVILLE WOODS. Deep down, I've always understood why. From moms out walking with their babies and toddlers, kids on bikes and skateboards, older kids on golf carts, surrounded by large undeveloped tracts of land for secret clubs and hideouts. What's not to love?
Although surrounding development is inching closer, Smithville Woods is still a quiet, safe haven reached by turning right on Robert Ruark Dr. at the stoplight just as you are entering Southport. It is a diverse neighborhood, with homes in a variety of styles and price ranges, starting out in upper 200s, averaging in the 350k to 425k range, and topping out with a small number of million dollar homes built on
the banks of Dutchman Creek. For the boater, who doesn't have his own dock on the creek, there is a private ramp for property owners to access the water, whose deep channel allows direct access to the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic beyond.
Smithville Woods is, you could say, Southport's first suburb. Started back over 20 years ago, and laid out on the family-owned land of a local Cape Fear River Pilot, the various streets bear the names of relatives, and other local references. While I'm promoting Smithville Woods as a family oriented neighborhood, it has its share of retirees as well. At a time when modern-day developments advertise and target age and socioeconomic-specific buyers, it's important that we have communities like Smithville Woods, welcoming both the young and the young at heart.
