Mortgage Payment Estimates for South Carolina by Home Price

Why the South Carolina payment looks the way it does

Between the two non-financing costs on a $300,000 home — the price point closest to the statewide median — insurance edges out property tax in South Carolina: $207/mo against $130/mo. Annual premiums here average $2,484 and sits close to the national average ($2,543 nationally). Property tax is the standout figure here: South Carolina has one of the lowest effective property tax rates in the country — the 44th-lowest of 51.

South Carolina's median home price was essentially flat over the past year (-0.8%, per Zillow), so the price figures used throughout this page are unlikely to be stale in either direction. Prices vary widely by metro: Hilton Head at $720,000, Charleston at $582,000, Greenville at $328,000, Columbia at $248,000, all per Redfin estimate 2026.

The math, step by step

Using the price point closest to South Carolina’s own median — $300,000 — here is how every line item adds up to the monthly payment:

Start with financing. At Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey's 2026-06 rate of 6.4% on a standard 30-year fixed loan, a $240,000 loan (20% down on a $300,000 home) amortizes to a principal-and-interest payment of $1,501/mo. Put down only 10% instead and the loan grows to $270,000, which raises principal and interest to $1,689/mo — $188 more every month for a loan that's $30,000 larger, before tax, insurance, or PMI enter the picture.

Property tax adds $130/mo, derived by applying South Carolina's 0.5% effective rate (Tax Foundation, statewide average across all taxing jurisdictions) to the home's assessed value and dividing by twelve. That statewide figure hides real county variation: Florence County taxes at 0.7% against 0.3% in Horry County (Myrtle Beach) — a 2.2x spread between the two, so the true monthly tax line on any specific property in South Carolina depends heavily on which county it sits in. How that assessed value itself gets set also varies: Every 5 years with assessment updates between cycles. Legal residence assessment ratio of 4% vs. 6% for non-legal-residence is the key homeowner benefit. And the $130/mo figure above is the pre-exemption number: an owner-occupant can bring it down further — Owner-occupied primary residences are assessed at 4% of market value (vs. 6% for investment properties and 10.5% for commercial). This legal residence classification significantly reduces the effective rate. Homeowners 65+ or permanently disabled are exempt from the first $50,000 of assessed value for school operating levies.

Hurricanes and tropical storms and 3 other named risks are the kind South Carolina insurers price into every policy — the reason the $2,484/yr average premium (÷12 = $207/mo) sits where it does; this is the same per-price-point figure the table above sums, so the two always agree by construction. Unlike principal and interest, that line is flat: it doesn't move with the down payment. Note: this is an earlier snapshot of the same Insurance.com series RealCostIQ now publishes at $2,870/yr in the Insurance section below — the PITI math above hasn't been rebuilt against the newer figure yet, so treat the monthly line here as the modeling basis and the figure below as the current published rate.

Those three lines total $1,838/mo at 20% down — matching the table above, since 20% down clears the PMI threshold here. 20% down ($60,000) skips PMI. 10% down ($30,000) adds it at 0.85%, or $191/mo — $2,217 total instead of $1,838. It cancels automatically around month 94, at a $240,000 balance — roughly $17,978 paid in before then.

At this $300,000 price point specifically: qualifying at 20% down takes $78,781/yr under the 28% rule ($61,274/yr under the looser 36% rule); at 10% down it's $95,019/yr — $16,238 more, a meaningful jump — dropping to 10% down doesn't just mean a smaller check at closing, it raises the bar to qualify. A household earning South Carolina's own median income of $60,965 falls short of the 20%-down bar at this specific price point, by $17,816 — this price point requires an above-median income here. At 10% down, where the higher loan amount raises the bar further, that same median household falls short by $34,054.

What financing costs across the price range

Total interest over the full 30-year term at 20% down runs from $200,291 on a $200,000 South Carolina home to $751,093 on a $750,000 one — both figures assume the loan is held to term with no extra principal payments. At the $300,000 price point used throughout this page, that works out to $300,437 in interest on a $240,000 loan. At 10% down instead, PMI adds $11,985 in total premiums on the $200,000 home before it cancels, and $44,944 on the $750,000 home — cost that buys nothing but the right to put down less cash up front, and that a 20%-down buyer avoids at either price.

At 20% down and the 28% front-end DTI rule, a $200,000 home in South Carolina needs $55,478/yr to qualify, while a $750,000 home needs $183,644/yr. That's the binding number for a buyer with no other debt. Once other debt is added to the picture, the 36% back-end ratio is the one that governs, and it takes less income to clear — $43,149/yr and $142,835/yr for the same two homes — but only because it's now competing with a car payment or student loan for that same 36%, not because the home got cheaper to finance. That statewide range plays out locally too: Columbia's median of $248,000 and Hilton Head's median of $720,000 sit on opposite ends of the same qualifying-income curve.

Can a median-income household actually afford this?

A household earning South Carolina's median income of $60,965 falls meaningfully short — $19,692, or 32% — of the $80,657/yr needed to buy the median-priced home at 20% down under the standard 28% DTI rule. Lenders check two DTI thresholds, not one: the 28% front-end ratio covers housing costs alone ($78,781/yr at this page's price point), while the looser 36% back-end ratio also counts other debt and takes less income to clear on housing alone — $61,274/yr here. The catch: that 36% is shared with a car payment or student loan, so a buyer carrying other debt can end up needing MORE total income than the 28% figure suggests, not less. The price a median-income household can actually afford under the 28% rule is $222,259 — $83,541 below the statewide median of $305,800. That gap is not uniform statewide: Beaufort County, Richland County, Charleston County price out median earners fastest, while Allendale County, Marion County, Marlboro County stay within reach on a median income.

Cash to close

South Carolina's closing costs sit at the high end of typical for the country — 2.2% of the purchase price (Near average — mandatory attorney but low home prices in most markets). On this $300,000 home that's $6,690. Title insurance ($1,300) is a relatively small slice of that figure — the rest is lender, escrow, and recording fees. Layered on top of the down payment, total cash to close runs $66,690 at 20% down or $36,690 at 10% down — the closing-cost portion is identical either way; only the down payment changes. Unlike property tax — which runs 0.7% in Florence County versus 0.3% in Horry County (Myrtle Beach) — closing costs don't swing nearly as much by county; the figure above is a reasonable statewide planning number wherever in South Carolina the home sits. Deed Recording Fee: $1.85 per $500 of consideration (0.37%), paid by the seller (S.C. Code 12-24-10); the buyer owes $0 in transfer tax under current law. Some counties may add nominal recording fees. South Carolina is an attorney-state — a real estate attorney is required at closing, typically adding $800 on top of the figures above. Once the sale closes, South Carolina homeowners can file for the homestead exemption described in the property-tax section above — it isn't automatic, and it only reduces the tax line going forward, not any cost at the closing table itself.

Insurance and flood risk

South Carolina homeowners pay an average of $2,870/yr for homeowners insurance at $300,000 dwelling coverage ($239/mo), per Insurance.com — Average homeowners insurance rates by state (Rate Analysis 2026) — against a national average of $2,765/yr. The named factors — each explained below — are hurricanes and tropical storms, flooding, tornadoes, extreme heat and humidity. That ranks 20th most expensive of the 51 states and D.C. — 104% of the national average. The private insurance market has not seen the large-scale carrier exits reported in some higher-risk states. Flood risk is high in parts of the state, notably Grand Strand coast (Horry County — Myrtle Beach area), Lowcountry coastal plain (Beaufort, Jasper, Colleton counties), Charleston peninsula and coastal Charleston County. Hurricane Helene (2024) caused catastrophic inland flooding across the Upstate and Midlands. The 2015 South Carolina floods — dubbed a 1,000-year event — dropped 26 inches of rain in 48 hours, causing $12B in damage and exposing massive coverage gaps inland. The average NFIP premium runs $892/yr, and lenders require coverage in FEMA Zones Zone A, Zone AE, Zone V, Zone VE. Premiums vary sharply by county: Oconee County (~$1,300/yr), Pickens County (~$1,400/yr), Cherokee County (~$1,500/yr) run cheapest, while Horry County (~$4,200/yr), Georgetown County (~$4,000/yr), Beaufort County (~$4,500/yr) run highest — the statewide average above blends both ends. Private flood insurance is available in South Carolina alongside the NFIP, giving buyers outside a mandatory-purchase zone a second option for coverage. 195,000 NFIP policies are currently in force statewide.

Hurricanes and tropical storms — Atlantic and Atlantic-facing coast; Dorian 2019 impacts; Matthew 2016 flooding are a catastrophic, low-frequency event that insurers reinsure against separately — it drives the premium far more than it drives claim frequency in an ordinary year. Flooding — coastal storm surge; inland river flooding after hurricanes is a catastrophic, low-frequency event that insurers reinsure against separately — it drives the premium far more than it drives claim frequency in an ordinary year. Tornadoes — inland SC; significant spring frequency are a narrow, high-severity damage path rather than a broad one — insurers price it as a probability-weighted catastrophe even though any single property's odds of a direct hit are low. Extreme heat and humidity are a slow-moving risk that shows up in foundation and roofing claims over years rather than in a single event.

Rent vs. buy in South Carolina

The median asking rent in South Carolina is $1,500/mo, putting the statewide price-to-rent ratio at 17.0 — moderate — charleston and hilton head favor renting; columbia and greenville favor buying. On the median-priced home, RealCostIQ's breakeven math puts the point where buying overtakes renting at 4.0 years of ownership, before accounting for any home-price appreciation. Hilton Head (40.0) and Columbia (14.8) sit far enough apart that the statewide ratio above is a poor stand-in for either one specifically.

Loan limits

The 2026 conforming loan limit for a single-unit home in South Carolina is $832,750 statewide — South Carolina has no FHFA-designated high-cost county, so that ceiling applies everywhere in the state. A loan above it is a jumbo loan, which typically carries stricter underwriting and a different rate. A buyer financing the statewide median home at 20% down borrows only about $244,640 — comfortably under the limit, with $588,110 of headroom before jumbo underwriting would apply.

Down payment assistance

South Carolina's primary down payment assistance program is SC Housing Palmetto Heroes / DPA, administered by South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority (SC Housing). It offers up to $10,000 as a forgivable loan, for buyers under 80% of area median income on homes up to $481,176 — comfortably above South Carolina's own median home price, so the cap isn't the binding constraint for a typical buyer here. It forgives in full after 10 years as long as the buyer stays in the home — leave sooner and some or all of it converts to a repayment obligation. 1 additional program exists statewide: SC Homeownership and Employment Lending Program (HELP) (up to $15,000, a forgivable loan). Local programs can generally be stacked with the state program, so a buyer isn't limited to one source of assistance.

First-time buyer mortgage programs

Beyond down payment assistance, South Carolina first-time buyers can also use SC Housing Conventional Forgivable Down Payment Assistance, run by South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority (SC Housing): 30-year fixed-rate conventional mortgage with forgivable DPA. It covers loans up to $832,750 with as little as 3% down, for households under up to $120,000 depending on household size and county. Eligibility requirement: must not have owned a primary residence in the past 3 years; minimum 640 credit score. Available through SC Housing-approved lenders statewide; homebuyer education required. A second program, SC Housing Down Payment Assistance (South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority (SC Housing)), covers forgivable second mortgage — 0% interest, up to $12,000 in assistance. Up to $12,000 for down payment and closing costs.

Beyond PITI: what else the payment doesn’t cover

Isolate just the mortgage — principal and interest, nothing else — and the payment on South Carolina's median-priced home is $1,528/mo. The number a buyer should actually budget to is $2,460/mo, well over half again on top of the mortgage payment (61% higher). The single biggest add-on in South Carolina is maintenance reserves, at $382/mo — ahead of every other non-mortgage line item in the true-cost breakdown, tax and insurance included. Utilities is the runner-up at $210/mo — the two together are the main reason the true-cost figure runs so far above the mortgage-alone number.

PITI is not the full cost of owning. RealCostIQ's true-monthly model adds $382/mo — $4,587/yr — in maintenance reserves (1.5% of home value annually — high humidity drives mold, wood rot, and HVAC wear statewide; coastal communities require periodic inspection for wind and salt air damage), $148/mo in electricity plus $62/mo in gas ($210/mo total, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration), and — for the 0% of South Carolina listings that carry one — an HOA fee averaging $0/mo for single-family homes ($0/mo for condos). Combined, that pushes the true monthly cost of the median home to $2,460 — true monthly cost is 61% higher than mortgage alone — low property tax rate is a major advantage for buyers. That reserve isn't arbitrary: a typical HVAC system here runs 12-15 years (hot humid summers; dual-fuel heat pumps common), and a typical roof runs 18-22 years (wind and rain from Atlantic storm systems are primary wear factors), per Fannie Mae 1-2% guideline; Bankrate Hidden Costs Study 2025 — both figures already price in South Carolina's own climate rather than a national average. The 1.5% reserve rate is sized to replace both on that state-specific schedule, without a special assessment or a credit-card repair. HOAs in South Carolina are governed by South Carolina Homeowners Association Act (SC Code §27-30-10 et seq.), which does not mandate a reserve fund; the main cost drivers are coastal resort and retirement communities, Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head condo market, new construction master-planned communities.

See the full South Carolina homebuyer resource page for property tax by county, first-time buyer programs, and utility costs, or compare payments across all eight price points.