Myrtle Beach, SC
Investigate Myrtle Beach only if strong employment and migration can offset weak affordability, heavy construction, and hurricane exposure.
Why this market scores where it does
Written from the figures on this page and then checked against them: every number below had to appear in the source record or recompute from two that did, or the text was rewritten.
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?
What do the pricing and rent figures imply for an acquisition?
How much leverage might a buyer have, and what could weaken it?
Investor Quick Takeaways
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Myrtle Beach as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
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.
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.
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.
| 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 | ||
CES employment growth of 1.59% -> labor demand supports renter demand, but the record does not show which industries or neighborhoods captured the gains.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
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.
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.
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.
Move from the metro average to local evidence
County pages carry tax, migration, listing and hazard records. City pages appear only where direct city price, rent and Census evidence pass the publication gate.
Metros 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.
| Metro | 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% |
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 | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-07-31 |
| 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 |
| 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 2025 | 2026-07-28 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| 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 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-23 | 2026-07-27 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-27 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| 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 — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |