Counties / South Carolina / Marion County

Marion County, SC

FIPS 45067 · population 28,664 · outside every metro area

$144k
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
$144k
▼ 4.2% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$669
occupied-unit survey; not current asking rent
Census ACS · surveyed
Gross yield
n/a
gross yield cannot be computed without measured market rent
requires both measured price and measured rent
HUD 2-bed standard
$902
the Section 8 payment 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+62.2%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06−4.2%FHFA HPI2025+4.3%
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$93k
Surveyed gross rent$669
Rent burden 30%+49.2%
Median year built1982
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
16.1%vacant
14,505estimated housing units
Occupied tenure37.4% renter
owner 62.6%renter 37.4%
Structure mix59.7% single-family
Single-family 59.7%20+ units 0.0%Mobile home 32.3%Other 8.0%
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 jobs7,067▲ 0.0% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments466annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$925▲ 3.0% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities31.2% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+0.0%WEEKLY WAGE+3.0%Trade, transportation, and utilities31.2%
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

Marion County's decision tension is a $144,197 observed home-value reading versus unverified income and potentially slower exits. Cash-flow buyers should investigate achieved rents and insurability; buyers dependent on rapid resale should be cautious. Zillow's 2026-06 county reading fell 4.16% year over year. FHFA's repeat-transaction HPI rose 4.29% in its 2025 annual reading. These measures differ in method and vintage: FHFA is not a home value, so they cannot be blended into a unified appreciation result.

02Housing economics

Market rent is not published, so gross yield cannot be calculated. HUD's supplied FMR of $902 is a payment standard, not measured asking rent, and cannot fill that gap. The 0.47% effective property-tax rate is a documented carrying-cost input, but total ownership cost remains unresolved because insurance, repairs, vacancy, utilities, and property-level assessments are not published.

03Demand & competition

Demand evidence is mixed and mostly listing-side. Realtor.com's 2026-06 MLS median marketing time was 77 days, with 17.94% of listings reduced and a 32.37% pending-to-active ratio. These are active-listing supply, marketing-time, concession, and pipeline signals—not closed-sale prices or stand-alone proof of buyer demand. QCEW's 2025 annual workplace data show effectively flat covered employment while average weekly wage increased 3.01%; Trade, transportation, and utilities was the largest disclosed private supersector, not the entire economy. Migration was nearly balanced, while incoming movers reported higher average income than outgoing movers; this does not establish household growth. The reported investor share was 6.45% of purchase mortgages; the record separately lists 217 total purchases, so this is a participation indicator rather than a count of all buyers.

04Risk & next checks

Hurricane is the dominant hazard, and modeled annual climate loss equals 0.31% of building value; it is modeled loss, not a site-specific insurance quote or dollar loss. The record lacks property condition, flood-zone and elevation detail, insurance quotes, debt terms, and closed-sale history. Together with missing measured rent, those gaps prevent yield, resilient operating-cost, financing, and resale underwriting. Next checks are achieved rents, insurer terms and deductibles, parcel hazard exposure, tax bills, and recent closed transactions.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Marion 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
Marion city6.2KMullins city3.9KDaviston CDP262Nichols town240Sellers town192Centenary CDP191Rains CDP84Zion CDP76
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

8 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Marion cityIncorporated place
    6,206
  2. 02
    Mullins cityIncorporated place
    3,914
  3. 03
    Daviston CDPCensus-designated place
    262
  4. 04
    Nichols townIncorporated place
    240
  5. 05
    Sellers townIncorporated place
    192
  6. 06
    Centenary CDPCensus-designated place
    191
  7. 07
    Rains CDPCensus-designated place
    84
  8. 08
    Zion CDPCensus-designated place
    76

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 hazardhurricane

0.314% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.47%

$436 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-1

629 in · 630 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$1,703

$38,393 arriving · $36,690 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors6.5%

14 of 217 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 listings87▼ 9.9% year over year
Median days on market77▲ 16.8% year over year
Listings price-reduced17.9%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▼ 1.0% year over year

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

No rent index is published for this county.Zillow’s county rent series does not cover every county, and estimating one from a neighbouring county would be a guess wearing a number’s clothes. Everything above is measured here; no wider market is mapped for it either.
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Achieved rents, vacancy, and operating costs could produce a materially different cash-flow result than price and tax inputs suggest.
  2. Property-level hurricane exposure and insurance availability may differ substantially from the county modeled loss ratio.
  3. County-wide listing, migration, and workplace employment measures may not hold for the target neighborhood or property type.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can gross yield be calculated from the supplied record?

No. Market rent is not published, and HUD FMR is a payment standard rather than market rent.

How should the investor share be interpreted?

It measures non-occupant purchase mortgages, not all buyers; total purchases are reported separately.

What does the QCEW labor evidence measure?

It measures annual average covered employment at workplaces in the county and covered-worker wages, not resident employment or unemployment.