SC metros
Cost of living across major SC metropolitan areas.
What living in SC costs
Across the 5 SC metros we track, the typical cost-of-living index is 93.2 against a national metro median of 95.7 — about 3% cheaper than the typical US metro. That ranks SC 19 of the 48 states we cover, counting from the cheapest.
The state is not uniform: Spartanburg, SC is the cheapest metro at 90.5, while Charleston, SC runs 101.1 — a spread of 12% between them.
A typical SC home costs $315,285, or about 5× median household income, and typical rent is $1,544/mo.
Taxes in SC
SC levies a state income tax on top of the federal one. Effective property tax runs about 0.5% of home value in a typical SC metro, and combined state and local sales tax is around 7.4%.
Property tax is the one that scales with housing, so it bites hardest in the pricier metros above. Per-metro figures are on each metro page.
| Metro | COL index | Median home | Median rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greenville, SC | 93.1 | $315,285 | $1,544 |
| Columbia, SC | 93.2 | $256,154 | $1,537 |
| Charleston, SC | 101.1 | $435,877 | $2,024 |
| Myrtle Beach, SC | 93.8 | $340,239 | $1,726 |
| Spartanburg, SC | 90.5 | $279,792 | $1,473 |
Cities & towns in SC (50)
Local property tax, home values and school scores for each place.