Can You Homestead in a Neighborhood? City Limits, HOAs, and Small Lots

“Can you homestead in a neighborhood?”

I get asked this all the time.

And the answer depends a lot on where you live and what restrictions apply to your property.

The size of your lot isn't always the limiting factor. As I've written about before, you can do an incredible amount of homesteading on a half-acre or one-acre property. See how much land you need to start homesteading.

The bigger question is often what you're actually allowed to do with that land.

Salt & Soil Realty Group is a real estate brokerage, not a law firm or HOA attorney. This post is educational. Confirm city ordinances, county zoning, restrictive covenants, and livestock rules with the recorded documents and licensed professionals before you buy animals or a property.

See how to start homesteading, acreage in Onslow County, and land buyer services.

Carroll Harrod with Salt & Soil Realty Group helps buyers read the real limits on a homestead property in Jacksonville, NC, Onslow County, and nearby towns such as Richlands.

---

Can you homestead inside city limits in Onslow County?

Absolutely.

But you need to understand the rules first.

Municipalities can regulate things like livestock, accessory structures, setbacks, gardens, fencing and other activities that might be part of your homestead.

Richlands, North Carolina is a good local example. The current town code generally prohibits keeping livestock within the corporate limits except for certain exceptions allowed under its zoning rules and for bona fide farms. The zoning ordinance also specifically includes fowl under its definition of agricultural livestock.

That can significantly limit what a person living inside town can do compared with somebody living a couple miles down the road in the county.

You may still be able to grow an incredible garden.

Plant fruit trees.

Grow berries.

Compost.

Bake bread.

Preserve food.

And depending on the local rules, you may still be able to keep certain animals or bees.

But don't assume that because something fits comfortably in your backyard, you're automatically allowed to have it there.

Check first.

It's a lot easier to read an ordinance before buying ten chicks than it is to explain to your children why the chickens have to move after everyone has named them.

Can you homestead in an HOA?

This one gets a little more complicated.

A neighborhood outside city limits may still have an HOA, and an HOA can have substantial authority over what owners can do when that authority is established through the community's recorded covenants and governing documents.

HOAs also vary pretty wildly.

Some exist primarily to maintain common areas, private roads, drainage systems, community water or sewer systems, or other shared infrastructure.

Others have extensive restrictive covenants.

They may regulate fences.

Sheds.

Livestock.

Chicken coops.

Gardens visible from the road.

Where you can park a trailer.

How tall your grass can get.

What changes you can make to the exterior of your home.

Some communities regulate details that most homesteaders would never even think to check before buying a property.

That's why, if homesteading is important to you, you need to actually read the restrictive covenants before purchasing a home.

Don't just ask, “Does it have an HOA?”

Ask what the HOA restricts.

There's a big difference.

You can have restrictive covenants without an HOA

Here's another one that catches people by surprise.

Even if you live outside city limits and don't have an HOA, your property may still have restrictive covenants attached to it.

I've seen neighborhoods in Onslow County developed exactly that way.

There may be no active homeowners association sending violation letters or collecting dues, but restrictions written into the deeds can still exist.

Without an association enforcing them administratively, enforcement of private restrictive covenants generally requires someone with the legal right to enforce them to pursue the matter through the courts. North Carolina courts have long recognized that owners within a common development scheme may, in appropriate circumstances, enforce restrictive covenants against other owners.

I've met people who look at a situation like that and decide to take their chances.

I wouldn't build a homestead around that strategy.

The last thing you want to do is spend years of effort and a pile of money building livestock infrastructure, fencing, shelters and other improvements only to end up in a legal fight over whether you're allowed to have them.

Know what applies to the property before you build.

What if you have unrestricted land in a neighborhood?

Now suppose you're one of the lucky ones, like me.

You live outside city limits.

You're outside an HOA.

And you're on property without restrictive covenants preventing what you want to do.

Now there's opportunity!

A large lot in a subdivision can produce an incredible amount of food when it's managed well.

You don't need the stereotypical 20-acre farm with a red barn to have a legitimate homestead.

My own half-acre property is a good example.

But having the legal right to do something brings me to another part of neighborhood homesteading that I think matters just as much as the rules.

You still need to be a good neighbor.

Just because you can homestead doesn't always mean you should

I've always believed that part of homesteading is building community.

Making every neighbor around you hate your homestead isn't a great way to accomplish that.

Bees are a good example.

North Carolina law specifically prevents counties from prohibiting people from keeping five or fewer hives, and cities that regulate beekeeping must still permit up to five hives on a single parcel, although they can impose certain placement and safety requirements.

That doesn't mean I need to cram as many bees as legally possible onto my half-acre lot.

I've figured out through experience that once I get much beyond about five colonies total at my house, the bees tend to get a little spicy.

And the neighbors begin to notice.

Could I stand there and insist, “I have my rights!”?

Sure.

But I also have to live beside these people.

So I've decided to scale the apiary back while I'm living in a subdivision.

That's not giving up on homesteading.

That's adapting the homestead to the place where I live.

Keep the smells, noise, and mess under control

There are plenty of other little things you can do to make neighborhood homesteading work better.

For example, if you've got animals, they're going to poop.

A lot.

If you don't manage that well, your neighbors are going to know about it whether they want to or not.

Keeping a generous supply of wood chips and other carbon-rich bedding around can help absorb moisture and keep animal areas much more pleasant. Clean housing, good drainage and thoughtful placement also go a long way.

Think about noise.

Think about flies.

Think about where runoff goes.

Think about whether your animals can get loose.

Think about what your neighbor sees when they're sitting on their back porch.

You don't need to hide the fact that you're homesteading, but there's no reason your hobby has to become everybody else's problem.

I actually make a little game out of seeing just how much homesteading I can get done without my neighbors really knowing about it.

Most people walk past my fence and probably think:

“Yeah, they've got some fruit trees and a few chickens.”

Meanwhile, there are honeybees and pigs back there too.

And that's exactly how I like it.

A neighborhood homestead doesn't have to look, smell or sound like a commercial farm.

With the right property, a little planning and some consideration for the people around you, you can produce a surprising amount of food right in the middle of a subdivision.

Just figure out the rules before you buy the chickens.

If you would rather have more room and fewer neighbors, start with looking for acreage in Onslow County and buying a home with land near Jacksonville.