I been to both Duck and Corolla.
I grew up up in NJ, and spent much of my childhood in the summer at the shore.
When I went to OBX, I was absolutely amazed at the number of very expensive homes built on such a narrow strip of land. OBX May be lovely, but I have long thought that much of its residential development has been extremely unwise.
There are houses that have been there since the 1920’s and there are fairly new ones that have been destroyed. Luck of the draw really. The prettiest spots to build a house have sound to sea views though, and that’s where new inlets get cut unless it’s got a high dune field running the width of the island at that point. Want to see a pitiful example of some gorgeous Hatteras style beach cottages destroyed, look up Mirlo Beach on the north end of Rodanthe. Only a couple of those houses left now, very elaborate three and four story shingled houses. Used to love going through there. Now it’s just sad, numerous lesser houses survived but are actually on the beach now, high probability that they’ll not survive this storm. Great surfing there though.