South Carolina rental market data

The statewide metro distribution shows only a narrow median divergence: rents rose 1.59% while home values rose 1.48%, a 0.11-percentage-point spread. Rent-growth data cover 14 metros, compared with 15 for home-value growth, so even that median comparison is not based on identical coverage.

The local gaps are more material. Greenwood’s rent rose 6.9% while its home value fell 0.6%, a calculated spread of 7.5 percentage points; its measured gross yield is 8.3%. Gaffney’s rent rose 4.3% as its home value fell 4.7%, a calculated 9.0-point spread, with a 6.7% gross yield. Sumter’s rent rose 3.8% against 0.1% home-value growth, a calculated 3.7-point spread, with an 8.6% gross yield. These are useful basis-and-rent screens, but asking-rent growth and gross yield do not establish collected rent or net operating income.

Measured metro gross yields run from 5.5% at the 10th percentile to 8.5% at the 90th percentile, with a 6.7% median. The median rent-to-income measure is 28.2%, and the 90th percentile reaches 31.4%. The median asking-rent-to-HUD-Fair-Market-Rent ratio is 1.219, meaning asking rent is 21.9% above the HUD standard by calculation; at the 90th percentile, the calculated difference is 46.2%.

Orangeburg combines a 9.5% gross yield with rent equal to 34.8% of measured income. Sumter pairs an 8.6% yield with a 31.8% rent-to-income measure, while Greenwood’s 8.3% yield comes with a lower 27.6% measure. The combination favors screening for acquisition basis and verified tenant depth together: a high gross yield may reflect attractive rent relative to price, but a high rent burden leaves less evidence for additional rent expansion.

Among 14 metros with resale measures, the medians are 4.35 months of supply, 62.5 days on market, a 30.2% price-drop share and a 97.7% sale-to-list ratio. That combination points to negotiating room, but also warns that a quick resale at the original asking price should not be assumed.

Myrtle Beach records 6,672 permits, or 17.4 per 1,000 residents, alongside 5.7 months of supply and 98 days on market. Spartanburg records 4,838 permits and 12.9 per 1,000, but its 3.8 months of supply and 59 days on market are tighter and faster than the medians; its 42.7% price-drop share is a counter-signal within that relatively firmer inventory picture. Hilton Head Island records 2,660 permits, 11.7 per 1,000 and 4.5 months of supply. Permits indicate a pipeline, not completed competing rentals, so property type and submarket still need separate verification.

Across all 46 counties, the packet records 175,308 people moving in and 145,939 moving out, for net migration of 29,369, or 5.5 per 1,000 residents. Metro job growth is positive at the median, but the distribution is broad: 0.03% at the 10th percentile, 0.7% at the median and 2.2% at the 90th percentile.

The featured employment readings are 2.8% in Seneca, 2.2% in Greenwood and 2.1% in Newberry. Their measured gross yields are 6.2%, 8.3% and 7.7%, respectively. This provides a useful counterweight to the softer resale evidence, especially where yield and job growth appear together. It does not show which counties received the net movers, whether those movers rent, or whether employment growth supports a particular neighborhood or property type.

Across 46 counties, the median all-housing vacancy rate is 15.5%, and the 90th percentile is 21.8%. The median renter share is 26.6%, while 51.5% of renters at the county median spend at least 30% of income on rent. Because the vacancy measure covers the broader housing stock, it cannot be read as the share of rental units currently available to lease.

Fairfield County has an 18.8% vacancy rate and a 61.7% renter-burden measure. Georgetown County combines 27.0% vacancy, a 16.1% renter share and 58.7% renter burden. Richland County presents a different structure: 10.5% vacancy, a 39.7% renter share and 58.5% renter burden. The recurring burden readings constrain assumptions about tenant headroom, while the divergent vacancy and renter-share profiles argue against applying one occupancy assumption across counties.

FEMA assigns inland flood as the mutually exclusive leading-hazard label for 28 counties and hurricane for 18. These counts cover the 46 counties without overlap, but each label identifies only the county’s leading hazard; it is not evidence that every parcel has that exposure. The median county climate-loss ratio is 0.137%, rising to 0.467% at the 90th percentile.

Beaufort County’s climate-loss ratio is 0.562%, with a 0.477% effective property-tax rate and $2,174 median tax. Georgetown County records a 0.554% loss ratio, a 0.411% tax rate and $1,190 median tax, while Jasper County records a 0.552% loss ratio and a 0.569% tax rate. Tax-rate rankings tell a different story from nominal bills: Allendale County has a 0.878% effective rate but a $669 median tax, while Bamberg and Hampton counties have rates of 0.829% and 0.801%. County averages cannot replace parcel-level tax, hazard and insurance quotes.