All homes and bedroom counts
Markets / South Carolina / Myrtle Beach
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Myrtle Beach, SC
Investigate Myrtle Beach only if strong employment and migration can offset weak affordability, heavy construction, and hurricane exposure.
Median price$341k
Median rent$1,708
Gross yield6.0%
Job growth▲ 1.6%
Composite Market ScoreRank #448 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Myrtle Beach, SC?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,708 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 1.42% 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 Myrtle Beach
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horry County, SCFIPS 45051 | $1,145 | $1,229 | $1,465 | $1,805 | $2,111 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Investigate Myrtle Beach only if strong employment and migration can offset weak affordability, heavy construction, and hurricane exposure. Buyers seeking tight supply or low climate risk should avoid it. Jobs grew 1.59%, while tax filings show net migration of 5,933 households, giving landlords a meaningful demand signal.
The opportunity is income production rather than demonstrated appreciation: median asking rent is $1,708 and gross yield is 6%, while home values fell 0.18%. However, rent absorbs 30.64% of median household income, and the 5.1 price-to-income ratio limits the affordability cushion. Underwrite rents conservatively and distinguish achievable lease rates from asking rents.
The clearest risk is competition. Permitting reached 17.42 units per thousand residents, inventory stands at 5.7 months, and homes take 98 days to sell. That combination gives buyers room to scrutinize pricing, but it also warns that new and existing supply may compete for tenants and future buyers. Hurricane wind exposure adds a separate property-level risk requiring insurance and resilience review.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
Does current demand justify further investigation despite the market's risks?
The demand evidence is positive but incomplete: CES employment grew 1.59%, and tax filings recorded 15,027 households moving in versus 9,094 moving out. Incoming movers also had average income of $82,989, compared with $55,207 for outgoing movers. These figures support investigation of renter depth, but they do not identify neighborhood demand, vacancy, lease-up speed, or employment composition.
What do the pricing and rent figures imply for an acquisition?
The median home value is $341,312, median asking rent is $1,708 per month, and the published gross yield is 6%. Home values declined 0.18% while asking rents rose 1.42%, so recent signals favor rental income over price momentum. The record does not publish operating expenses, vacancy, taxes, insurance, financing costs, or net yield, so the gross figure is not a cash-flow result.
How much leverage might a buyer have, and what could weaken it?
Homes spend a median 98 days on market, inventory equals 5.7 months of supply, and 24.65% of listings have price drops. Those indicators support careful negotiation rather than urgency. However, the record does not publish concessions, sale-to-list ratios, property-condition differences, or neighborhood-level inventory, so leverage must be verified for the exact asset.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 6.0%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 1.42%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 14.4%
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 Myrtle Beach 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 supply5.7 mo.unchanged from a year ago
Median days on market98 days▲ from 92 days a year ago
Listings with price drops24.6%▼ from 26.7% a year ago
Sale-to-list ratio97.5%2026-05-01
Home value growth▼ 0.2%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 1.42%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield6.0%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▲ 1.6%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 56% and rents 47%. 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 | 92 | 30% | 27.60 |
| Rent trend | 22 | 25% | 5.50 |
| Affordability | 16 | 15% | 2.40 |
| Supply pressure | 2 | 15% | 0.30 |
| Climate risk | 6 | 15% | 0.90 |
| Published score | 37 | ||
Myrtle Beach, SC scoreRank #448
37Job growth92/100
CES employment growth of 1.59% -> labor demand supports renter demand, but the record does not show which industries or neighborhoods captured the gains.
Rent trend22/100
Asking rents grew 1.42% to $1,708 while gross yield was 6% -> income is still rising, though the modest rent gain leaves limited room for underwriting error.
Affordability16/100
Rent consumes 30.64% of median household income and the price-to-income ratio is 5.1 -> tenant affordability and buyer entry cost both constrain pricing flexibility.
Supply pressure2/100
Permits equal 17.42 per thousand residents, with 5.7 months of inventory and 98 median days on market -> buyers may have negotiating room, but landlords face substantial supply competition.
Climate risk6/100
The hurricane wind loss ratio is 0.003802 of building value annually -> insurance terms, deductibles, construction quality, and property-specific exposure are central underwriting items.
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
$341k
YoY ▼ 0.2%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,708
YoY ▲ 1.42%
Gross Rental Yield
6.0%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,708 × 12 ÷ $341,312
Job Growth (YoY)
▲ 1.6%
CES payrolls
Job signal 92/100
Median Household Income
$67k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
30.6%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
5.1x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,465
Market rent 116.6% 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$1,708Primary 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 ↗$1,229−$479 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 ↗$1,465−$243 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 ↗$1,255−$453 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 Myrtle Beach as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Direct local rental evidence
Recent leases and rental-market liquidity in Myrtle Beach, SC
These Apartment List observations match the exact metro CBSA code 34820. 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$1,1392026-07 · -1.1% year over year
Rental vacancy8.7%2026-07 · -1.3 percentage points year over year
Time on marketn/an/a
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
- 6.0%
- Vacancy
- 8.7%
- Effective tax
- 0.3%
- Retained yield
- 5.2%
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Myrtle Beach
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
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$28,250 median wage
72.6%
Sales and Related Occupations$33,180 median wage
61.8%
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$38,920 median wage
52.7%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$36,300 median wage
56.5%
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations$78,410 median wage
26.1%
Educational Instruction and Library Occupations$53,950 median wage
38.0%
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
6,672 units authorised in 2026, 1% of them in 5+ unit buildings. This is a single-family building cycle, so the competition is other houses, not new apartments. ✓ 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
+5,933
15,027 in vs 9,094 out (IRS SOI)
▲ 39.5% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
+$27,782
Arriving $82,989 vs leaving $55,207
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
14.4%
1,442 of 10,044 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
hurricane
0.380% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: wind
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Georgetown County · Suffolk County · Brunswick County · Mecklenburg County · Orange County
✓ 15,027 in − 9,094 out = 5,933 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
- New York, NY1,538 arriving
- Charlotte, NC654 arriving
- Washington, DC480 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Charlotte, NC428 leaving
- Charleston, SC408 leaving
- Wilmington, NC292 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
- High permitting and available resale inventory could intensify competition, making it harder for a property to achieve its assumed rent or exit price.
- Rent already claims a substantial share of median household income, so tenants may resist increases or trade down when leases reset.
- Hurricane wind exposure could produce losses or unfavorable insurance costs and terms; property-level premiums and coverage are not published in the record.
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 Myrtle Beach
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Myrtle Beach, SC (Target) | 37 | $341k | $1,708 | 6.0% | ▲ 1.6% |
| Bakersfield, CA | 46 | $366k | $1,776 | 5.8% | ▲ 1.6% |
| Greenville, SC | 51 | $317k | $1,570 | 5.9% | ▲ 1.4% |
| Auburn, AL | 63 | $354k | $1,728 | 5.9% | ▲ 1.8% |
| Tyler, TX | 59 | $274k | $1,426 | 6.3% | ▲ 1.5% |
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 |