Charleston’s current Zillow benchmarks put the typical city home value at $598,419 and typical observed market rent at $2,245 a month. Those figures imply a 4.5% gross yield before every operating cost, financing expense and vacancy loss. The Zillow value is 6.5x ACS median household income, while annualized Zillow rent equals 29.2% of that income benchmark. This frames the trade-off between pre-cost yield and household affordability; neither ratio establishes returns for a specific property.
The city has 77,417 housing units, with a 12.1% citywide vacancy rate and renters occupying 44.4% of occupied units. These broad housing-stock and tenure measures do not show whether a particular unit will rent promptly. ACS reports a $509,700 median value for surveyed owner-occupied housing and $1,722 median gross rent for surveyed renter-occupied housing, with gross rent including selected utilities. ACS and Zillow differ in concept and period, so these figures should not be averaged or treated as direct growth comparisons.
Direct city depth is mixed. Among surveyed renters, 54.5% are cost-burdened; single-family units are 54.6% of all units and units in large multifamily structures are 17.9%. For-rent vacancies account for 32.9% of vacant units, a reason-for-vacancy share rather than available investment inventory. Population rose 14.1% between overlapping ACS five-year vintages, not an annualized change; boundary changes may contribute. Median household income is $92,414, while poverty is 12.3% and unemployment is 3.4%. These citywide descriptors cannot identify tenant quality, achievable property rent or leasing speed.
Berkeley County context reports a 0.451% property-tax rate; it is not a parcel quote. Charleston County context separately reports a 0.389% property-tax rate; it must be used only as county context. The Charleston, SC metro has 3.7 months of supply, 28.3% of listings with price drops and 0.5% year-over-year job growth; these metro indicators describe broader liquidity and labor conditions, not the city alone. The 6.58% national mortgage rate is financing context, not a Charleston borrowing quote.
Underwrite the address rather than the averages. Confirm the address’s county, then obtain actual parcel taxes, insurance and hazard data, title, zoning, lease restrictions, utility responsibility and maintenance history. Validate achievable rent with comparable units and concessions, inspect major systems, and model turnover, management, repairs, capital work and vacancy. Price financing through a current lender and stress lower rent, higher expenses and longer downtime. City, county, metro and national aggregates cannot substitute for these property checks.