Sea-level rise (SLR) poses a growing threat to the livability of coastal communities, leading to many projections of out-migration in the coming decades. However, communities’ experiences with and responses to SLR-driven flooding remain poorly characterized, especially in rural areas. Here, we investigate flooding tolerance in Down East Carteret County, North Carolina, a region of 13 unincorporated communities experiencing chronic coastal flooding. We thematically analyze interviews with 36 residents and local experts from June 2024 to June 2025 and triangulate with planning documents and direct observations at community meetings and events. Community members reported wide-ranging impacts from chronic flooding to property, roads, infrastructure, children, and other emerging areas. Despite these impacts, 14 of 18 households wanted to stay forever, calling flooding ‘the price of paradise.’ Leveraging their local knowledge, residents tolerated flooding cognitively, behaviorally, structurally, and institutionally, though they also recognized limits to that tolerance. Desires to stay reflected deep attachment to place and resistance to community change, especially an increase in second homes and in-migration. For those who contemplated moving, chronic flooding amplified concerns about emergency services, aging and health care needs, and more to shape migration intentions. Our findings contribute to a growing literature questioning the inevitability of coastal out-migration, and we highlight how household and community characteristics moderate responses to chronic flooding. In a context of perceived community and landscape change, flooding tolerance and staying in place hold social significance beyond personal safety and property values. To build trust and support residents’ aspirations to stay or leave, resilience planning in rural coastal areas can address uncertainty about government action and supplement existing flooding tolerance strategies.