Myrtle Beach’s Zillow ZHVI typical city home value is $323,460, while Zillow ZORI typical observed market rent is $1,676 a month. That pairing implies a 6.2% gross yield before management, maintenance, insurance, taxes, financing, utilities, vacancy and capital work. The price equals 5.36x ACS median household income, and annual ZORI equals 33.3% of that income, signaling meaningful affordability pressure without establishing what any household or property can support.
Citywide ACS housing-stock context shows a 27.8% vacancy rate and a 39.5% renter share among occupied units. The vacancy measure includes multiple reasons and does not mean that all vacant homes compete for year-round tenants. ACS reports a $388,800 median owner-reported home value and $1,261 median gross rent for surveyed occupied housing; gross rent includes selected utilities. Those ACS measures differ in concept and period from Zillow’s typical value and observed market rent, so they should not be averaged or treated as confirmations.
Direct city indicators add important depth. Among renter households with burden status, 59.4% spend at least 30% of income on gross rent. Single-family homes make up 46.5% of all housing units and large multifamily buildings 20.8%. ACS classifies 4,223 vacant units as seasonal and 1,522 as for rent, underscoring why overall vacancy is not lease-ready supply. Population increased 17.3% between overlapping ACS vintages, a nonannualized comparison potentially affected by boundary changes. Median household income is $60,394, while poverty is 19.0% and unemployment 5.4%. These survey facts cannot establish a specific unit’s tenant pool, lease-up speed or available investment inventory.
For Horry County, county data show a 77-day median listing time and a 20.6% price-reduced share, useful for testing negotiation assumptions but not city measurements. In the broader Myrtle Beach, SC metro, months of supply is 5.7, job growth is 1.59%, and permits total 6,672; metro market balance, employment and construction context have different denominators from city data. At the national level, the national Freddie Mac 30-year mortgage rate is 6.58%, a financing benchmark rather than a Myrtle Beach borrowing quote.
The central underwriting gap is property specificity: none of these sources supplies achievable unit rent, concessions, occupancy, operating statements, insurance quotations, association restrictions, repair condition or financing terms. Before acting, verify title and use rules; inspect the building and major systems; obtain tax, insurance, flood and association documents; test comparable leases and competing listings; and model vacancy, turnover, utilities, management, reserves and debt service under conservative assumptions.