All homes and bedroom counts
Markets / South Carolina / Columbia
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Columbia, SC
Columbia merits investigation by yield-focused buyers who can underwrite new competition and flood exposure; buyers dependent on rapid rent or job growth should avoid it.
Median price$258k
Median rent$1,555
Gross yield7.2%
Job growth▲ 0.3%
Composite Market ScoreRank #448 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Columbia, SC?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,555 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 1.36% from a year earlier.
Occupied rental units paying rent
Two-bedroom standard
These figures are not averaged together. Zillow and Realtor describe asking-rent markets, ACS measures rent paid by surveyed households, and HUD publishes administrative bedroom standards.
Exact county schedules
HUD rent benchmarks inside Columbia
Every row keeps its own county FIPS schedule. No county is selected as a metro proxy and no synthetic metro FMR is calculated.
| County | Studio | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richland County, SCFIPS 45079 | $1,032 | $1,164 | $1,276 | $1,623 | $1,911 |
| Lexington County, SCFIPS 45063 | $1,032 | $1,164 | $1,276 | $1,623 | $1,911 |
| Kershaw County, SCFIPS 45055 | $844 | $849 | $1,009 | $1,214 | $1,458 |
| Fairfield County, SCFIPS 45039 | $1,032 | $1,164 | $1,276 | $1,623 | $1,911 |
| Saluda County, SCFIPS 45081 | $1,032 | $1,164 | $1,276 | $1,623 | $1,911 |
| Calhoun County, SCFIPS 45017 | $1,032 | $1,164 | $1,276 | $1,623 | $1,911 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Columbia merits investigation by yield-focused buyers who can underwrite new competition and flood exposure; buyers dependent on rapid rent or job growth should avoid it. The median home value is $257,718, median asking rent is $1,555, and the reported gross-yield fraction is 0.0724. That combination offers an income case, but not a strong growth case.
Demand signals are positive but restrained. CES employment and asking rents increased, while tax filings show net migration of 1,943 households. Rent-to-income is 0.273 and price-to-income is 3.77; this affordability profile does not offset the market's slow demand indicators.
The central risk is supply: 8,380 permits indicate possible competitive pressure on occupancy and pricing. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, although the reported annual building-value loss ratio is 0.001275. Investigate submarket vacancy, concessions, insurance, and flood exposure before treating the headline yield as durable.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
Is household migration positive?
Tax filings show 18,328 households moved in and 16,385 moved out, for net migration of 1,943.
How much purchase activity involved non-occupant mortgages?
The non-occupant share of purchase mortgages was 0.0567, and the record lists 12,053 total purchases.
How does median asking rent compare with the two-bedroom fair-market rent?
Median asking rent was $1,555, while the two-bedroom fair-market rent was $1,276.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 7.2%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 1.36%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 5.7%
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Climate Exposure: FEMA NRI
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Put the evidence to work
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Columbia as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
Run cash flowStarts with this market's measured price and rentSave to shortlistCompare this metro with up to four other placesCheck rent by ZIPMove from metro context to a local rent benchmarkFind a comparison marketRead a curated two-market decision analysisShare this analysisEmail the canonical link without adding page scriptsReport a data issueSend the figure, source and release period to review
Market pulse
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
Months of supplyn/aRedfin unavailable
Median days on marketn/aRedfin unavailable
Listings with price dropsn/aRedfin unavailable
Sale-to-list ration/aRedfin unavailable
Home value growth▲ 1.5%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 1.36%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield7.2%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▲ 0.3%CES · 12m to 2026-06
Release-to-release evidence
What actually changed
This comparison exists because at least one underlying source period advanced. Rebuilding the same data never creates a new observation.
Published score held steady37→37
0 ptsThe published component scores did not move in this release.
Weights were unchanged at metro-2026-07-v2-omb2023, so the movement comes from refreshed evidence and percentile ranks.
The named source periods advanced, but the measured values on this page held steady.
The one chart
Rents versus prices, indexed to 2019
Both series start at 100. The gap between the lines is the investment case, and which line is closing it tells you what kind of market this is.
Reindexed Price vs. Rent Growth
2019 = 100 · annual · 2019–2026
Since 2019, prices are up 59% and rents 51%. Prices running ahead of rents is what compresses yield. ✓ recomputed from series
Composite breakdown
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
Published arithmeticComponent × weight = points
37| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 57 | 30% | 17.10 |
| Rent trend | 22 | 25% | 5.50 |
| Affordability | 34 | 15% | 5.10 |
| Supply pressure | 1 | 15% | 0.15 |
| Climate risk | 61 | 15% | 9.15 |
| Published score | 37 | ||
Columbia, SC scoreRank #448
37Job growth57/100
CES employment growth is positive but slight -> labor-market momentum provides limited support for rental demand.
Rent trend22/100
Asking-rent growth is positive but slight -> aggressive revenue assumptions have little support from current rent momentum.
Affordability34/100
Rent-to-income is 0.273 and price-to-income is 3.77 -> both tenant burden and acquisition pricing should remain explicit in underwriting.
Supply pressure1/100
Permits total 8,380 -> incoming supply could increase competition for occupancy and rents.
Climate risk61/100
Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the loss ratio is 0.001275 -> property-level flood and insurance review is necessary.
The numbers
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
ZHVI Median Price
$258k
YoY ▲ 1.5%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,555
YoY ▲ 1.36%
Gross Rental Yield
7.2%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,555 × 12 ÷ $257,718
Job Growth (YoY)
▲ 0.3%
CES payrolls
Job signal 57/100
Median Household Income
$68k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
27.3%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
3.8x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,276
Market rent 121.9% of FMR
Historical affordability context
Compare aligned 2019 and 2024 asking-rent and nominal household-income endpoints across the direct-overlap metro set.
Independent rent evidence
One market, several legitimate rent benchmarks
These releases observe different homes and different moments. RentMarker keeps them separate: ZORI remains the scoring baseline, while the other sources test how sensitive the market story is to bedroom mix and measurement method.
Monthly benchmark4 of 4 reported values
Zero-based scale$1,555Primary RentMarker baseline
2026-06-30
All homes and bedroom counts
A smoothed metro rent index for observed rentals; it is the primary rent used by RentMarker scores and career ratios.
View source release ↗$1,164−$391 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
One-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,276−$279 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
Two-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,193−$362 vs ZORI
ACS 2024 5-year
Occupied rental units paying rent
A five-year survey estimate of contract rent plus applicable tenant-paid utilities; it is not a current asking-rent index.
View source release ↗Take the next step
Keep Columbia as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Direct local rental evidence
Recent leases and rental-market liquidity in Columbia, SC
These Apartment List observations match the exact metro CBSA code 17900. They are kept separate from Zillow asking rent, Census occupied-home rent and property-level comparables.
Direct recent-lease rent history
Monthly overall-rent index; missing observations are not filled from another geography.
Recent-lease rent$1,2232026-07 · +0.7% year over year
Rental vacancy6.1%2026-07 · +0.6 percentage points year over year
Time on market19 days2026-07 · +1.5 days year over year
Measured rent retention
How much of gross yield survives the first two measured deductions?
This bridge subtracts direct rental vacancy and effective property tax only. It is not net yield, NOI, cap rate or property cash flow.
measured retention property tax vacancy
- Gross yield
- 7.2%
- Vacancy
- 6.1%
- Effective tax
- 0.6%
- Retained yield
- 6.2%
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Columbia
BEA compares each category with the United States, which equals 100. This is a 2024 price-level comparison—not annual inflation.
BEA Regional Price Parities · 2024US = 100
Occupation wage lens
How asking rent sits against major local occupations
Annualized Zillow asking rent is divided by each BLS annual median wage. This is a screening ratio for one wage, not a household budget or affordability verdict.
Six largest published major groupsannual rent ÷ median wage
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$43,520 median wage
42.9%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$37,230 median wage
50.1%
Sales and Related Occupations$34,730 median wage
53.7%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$27,980 median wage
66.7%
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations$77,870 median wage
24.0%
Business and Financial Operations Occupations$74,660 median wage
25.0%
Supply pipeline
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
National supply context
Compare this authorization pipeline with asking-rent growth, jobs and for-sale liquidity across the evidence-complete metro set.
Building permits by structure type
units per year · latest year annualised
8,340 units authorised in 2026, 43% of them in 5+ unit buildings. A meaningful share is apartments, which discount first when they lease up. ✓ recomputed from series
Who is arriving, and who is buying
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
Net Household Move
+1,943
18,328 in vs 16,385 out (IRS SOI)
▲ 10.6% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
+$1,194
Arriving $60,216 vs leaving $59,022
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
5.7%
683 of 12,053 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.128% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Mecklenburg County · Sumter County · Orangeburg County · Charleston County · Aiken County
✓ 18,328 in − 16,385 out = 1,943 netDirect market links
Where tax-return households moved from and to
These are the largest flows where both counties map to a RentMarker market area. They are a documented subset of the all-US IRS totals above.
Leading inbound markets
- Charlotte, NC1,411 arriving
- Charleston, SC923 arriving
- Augusta, GA711 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Charlotte, NC1,275 leaving
- Charleston, SC942 leaving
- Greenville, SC829 leaving
The other side
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- CES employment growth is positive but slight, providing limited evidence of strong demand expansion.
- The 8,380 permits could add competition for occupancy and rents.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, leaving property-level loss and insurance exposure to verify.
Inside this metro area
Move from the market-area average to local evidence
Use the available county and city pages to add local price, rent, housing, migration and hazard context to the market-area view.
County records
Cities in this market
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Columbia
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Market area | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia, SC (Target) | 37 | $258k | $1,555 | 7.2% | ▲ 0.3% |
| Augusta, GA | 51 | $254k | $1,506 | 7.1% | ▲ 0.5% |
| Baton Rouge, LA | 40 | $250k | $1,403 | 6.7% | ▼ 0.0% |
| Little Rock, AR | 42 | $233k | $1,277 | 6.6% | ▲ 0.2% |
| Scranton, PA | 59 | $236k | $1,334 | 6.8% | ▲ 0.1% |
Provenance
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income and gross rent | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — historical household income | direct | ACS 2019 and 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Apartment List Rent Estimates — recent-lease rent index | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquidity | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancy | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| BEA County Personal Income — income and population | direct | 2024 County Personal Income (released 2026-02-05); history 1969-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BEA Regional Price Parities — metropolitan price levels | direct | 2024 Regional Price Parities (released 2026-02-19); history 2008-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS OEWS — occupation employment and wages | direct | May 2025 OEWS estimates (released 2026-05-15) | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-08-02 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA | 2026-08-08 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI history 1975-2025; latest 2025 | 2026-08-02 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD CHAS — renter burden by HAMFI income band | direct | HUD CHAS 2018-2022 ACS 5-year (released 2025-12-23) | 2026-08-03 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD-USPS ZIP-to-county residential-address crosswalk | direct | HUD-USPS 2026Q1 | 2026-08-09 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-30 | 2026-08-06 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-06 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Realtor.com Rental Report — top-50 asking rents | direct | top-50 rental asking rents 2026-05 | 2026-08-05 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supply | direct | ZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-03 | 2026-08-12 |
| USDA ERS — Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | direct | USDA ERS 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | 2026-08-02 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI - metro market rents, not seasonally adjusted | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv | 2026-08-15 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-08-08 |