Counties / South Carolina / Cherokee County

Cherokee County, SC

FIPS 45021 · population 56,647 · part of Gaffney, SC

$190k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$190k
▼ 4.7% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$1,057
▲ 4.3% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
6.7%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$902
market rent is 1.17x the standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

The annual signals disagree
FHFA five-year cumulative+63.6%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06−4.7%FHFA HPI2025+9.0%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$142k
Surveyed gross rent$869
Rent burden 30%+45.7%
Median year built1984
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
12.3%vacant
25,150estimated housing units
Occupied tenure26.2% renter
owner 73.8%renter 26.2%
Structure mix62.1% single-family
Single-family 62.1%20+ units 2.0%Mobile home 26.4%Other 9.5%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs18,219▲ 0.9% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments1,010annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$969▲ 4.4% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorManufacturing34.2% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+0.9%WEEKLY WAGE+4.4%Manufacturing34.2%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Cherokee County is a split underwriting case. In the supplied Zillow county observation, the median home value was $190,390, down 4.71% year over year, while median asking rent rose 4.33% to $1,057 per month. Buyers able to validate leaseability, unit condition and flood exposure should investigate; those relying on rapid resale or uniform county demand should be cautious. The value figure is a Zillow home-value measure, not a sale comp, and its supplied period differs from FHFA’s annual observation.

02Housing economics

The published market-rent estimate produces a stated 6.66% gross yield before vacancy, operating costs, financing, insurance and capital work. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR is $902 monthly, a payment standard rather than asking rent; the asking-rent measure is above it. The effective property-tax rate is 0.43%, a carrying-cost input alongside the softer value measure. Insurance, vacancy, maintenance, utility responsibility and property-specific taxes are not published, so net yield and cash flow cannot be underwritten from this record.

03Demand & competition

MLS listing-market evidence in the supplied Realtor inventory observation shows 170 active listings, a 72-day median marketing time, and 15.89% of listings with price reductions. These are visible supply, asking-market time and seller-concession indicators—not closed-sale prices or proof of buyer demand. Tax-return moves show net inflow of 223 households; incoming movers’ average income exceeded outgoing movers’ by $2,561. Investor borrowers accounted for 4.53% of 508 purchases, limiting evidence of broad non-owner buyer competition but not identifying cash buyers or property types.

04Risk & next checks

Risk evidence should govern screening. The dominant hazard is inland flood, and modeled annual climate loss is 0.12% of building value; this is not a parcel-specific insurance quote. FHFA’s annual repeat-transaction HPI rose 9.03%, challenging Zillow’s direction but neither measuring a dollar home value nor sharing Zillow’s period or method. QCEW covers annual covered workplace employment; Manufacturing is its largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. School quality, submarket rents, flood-zone status, insurance quotes and closed-sale comps are not published, preventing parcel-level loss, rent and exit-price underwriting.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Cherokee County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Gaffney city12.6KEast Gaffney CDP2.8KBlacksburg town2.1KChesnee city*896Smyrna town*38Cherokee Falls CDP36
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

6 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Gaffney cityIncorporated place
    12,596
  2. 02
    East Gaffney CDPCensus-designated place
    2,824
  3. 03
    Blacksburg townIncorporated place
    2,063
  4. 04
    Chesnee cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    896
  5. 05
    Smyrna townIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    38
  6. 06
    Cherokee Falls CDPCensus-designated place
    36

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.121% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.43%

$614 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+223

1,398 in · 1,175 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$2,561

$46,161 arriving · $43,600 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors4.5%

23 of 508 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings170▲ 13.8% year over year
Median days on market72▲ 31.2% year over year
Listings price-reduced15.9%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▼ 1.2% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Parcel-level flood exposure and insurance costs could overwhelm the gross-yield screen.
  2. County median asking rent may not be achievable for the target property, location or tenant profile.
  3. Absent closed-sale comps and property-level data could materially change the indicated exit-price and liquidity view.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

What gross yield is supplied for published market rent?

The record supplies a 6.66% gross yield before vacancy, operating costs, financing, insurance and capital work.

What share of purchases involved investor borrowers?

Investor borrowers accounted for 4.53% of 508 purchases; the measure does not identify cash buyers.

Can HUD Fair Market Rent be substituted for market asking rent?

No. HUD FMR is a payment standard, while the published rent figure is a median asking-rent measure.