County housing data

Williamsburg County, SC housing market data

Median home values, rents, income, property tax, and affordability for Williamsburg County, South Carolina — built from Census ACS, FHFA HPI, and HUD Fair Market Rent, cross-checked and disclosed by data vintage.

The read

Williamsburg County, SC leans favorable for buying: a price-to-rent ratio of 11.7 favors owning at the median, and modeled investor cash flow is negative, so this is owner-occupant math — not a claim of strong rental yield.

Key takeaways
  • The median home value in Williamsburg County, SC was $123,865 as of April 2026, up 2.4% year over year (FHFA HPI applied to the Census ACS county median).
  • The typical market rent in Williamsburg County, SC was $885/mo as of November 2026, a current modeled estimate (HUD Fair Market Rent, FY2027, bridged from Census ACS gross rent).
  • Williamsburg County, SC has a price-to-rent ratio of 11.7 — a reading that favors owning (owner-occupant math — not automatically strong investor cash flow). (Computed by Areal from the figures above.)
Median home value

$123,865

Likely range $104,500–$123,865

ACS 2024 5-year estimates · FHFA HPI through 2026-04-01 · modeled+2.4% YoY · +45.4% · 5yr
Median market rent

$885/mo

Likely range $765–$885

HUD FY2027 · modeledModeled current estimate — no public trend
Price-to-rent ratio

11.7x

Favorable for buying — price-to-rent favors owning (modeled investor cash flow is negative, so this is owner-occupant math — it is not a claim of strong rental yield)
Median household income

$46,213

EstimateACS 2024 5-year estimatesPop 30,282
Crime (property)

1,586/100k/yr

FBI CDE · as of 2026State of South Carolina, Oct 2024–Sep 2026, FBI CDE

HUD Fair Market Rent (2-BR)

$885/mo

HUD FY2027 · Williamsburg County

Property tax

0.66%

Effective rate — Census ACS county effective rate 0.66% ($687 tax ÷ $104,500 ACS median), applied to current value · county median tax bill $687/yr

Cash flow at county medians

20% down, 6.75% interest, 30-year loan, 1 unit · estimates only · Insurance: state-level estimate (SC avg 0.72%/yr)

Coastal/wind-exposed properties can run well above the state average.

Monthly cash flow

$-121

Cash-on-cash return

-5.9%

Cap rate

5.1%

Annual cash flow

$-1,453

Stress test

Resilience not scored — baseline already negative

A resilience score measures how many shocks a cash-flow-positive deal survives — with the baseline at −$121/mo there is nothing to protect, so there is no score (worst case −$223/mo). The rows below show how much deeper underwater each shock pushes the deal; the break-even math (rent, price, down payment, rate) lives in the cash-flow panel above.

Rent drops 10%−$66/mo deeper

Standard assumption · cash flow −$187/mo

Vacancy stretches to 8%−$27/mo deeper

Standard assumption · cash flow −$148/mo

Insurance costs rise 25%−$19/mo deeper

Standard assumption · cash flow −$140/mo

If financed at 8.25% instead−$102/mo deeper

Fixed-rate comparison — the deal if you'd borrowed at a higher rate today; your actual fixed payment never resets · cash flow −$223/mo

Worst market shock in available history (since 1991-01-01) (home values −7.6% over 12 months)−$50/mo deeper

History-derived proxy: worst decline found in any window of up to 12 months in the state FHFA home-value series, 2010-01-01 → 2011-01-01, applied to rent · cash flow −$172/mo

Each scenario re-runs the same verified cash-flow engine with one shock applied, then re-checks the cash-flow identity before display. Standard shocks are fixed assumptions; the history-derived scenario is this market's own worst observed 12-month decline. Estimates only — not a guarantee of performance.

Report integrity

Every headline figure is independently re-derived from its raw inputs (cash-flow identity, cash-on-cash, cap rate, price-to-rent, and closed-form buy-vs-rent compounding) — the same checks the interactive analyzer runs.

Report integrity — internal re-derivation

16/16 verified
home value freshnesslatest 2026-04-01 (227d old — current for quarterly cadence)
home value card↔chartcard matches chart
home value growth windowgrowth matches the 5.0yr available window
rent freshnesslatest 2026-11-01 (13d old — current for monthly cadence)
rent card↔chartcard matches chart
cash flow identityNOI − P&I = cash flow
cash-on-cashannual CF ÷ down matches
cap rateNOI×12 ÷ price matches
price-to-rentprice ÷ (rent×12) matches
income plausibilitywithin expected range
price-to-incomeprice ÷ income matches
buy-vs-rent: home value at termcompounds at 7.8%/yr
buy-vs-rent: total rent paidgeometric series matches
buy-vs-rent: equity builthome value − loan balance matches
buy-vs-rent: net costoutlay − equity gain matches
buy-vs-rent: savings & verdictsavings = rent − net cost, verdict matches
How the integrity pass works

Every headline figure is re-derived from the raw inputs (NOI − P&I = cash flow, CoC, cap rate) and the data feed's age is checked before the report is shown. This validates our own arithmetic — it is not independent source validation; the cross-dataset check is the data-confidence card above. An entry marked “by design” (e.g. price-to-rent) is the expected split between market rent and your rent estimate — two deliberately separate reads, not an arithmetic error.

Data quality

Cross-checked — sources diverge more than 15% on some metrics; the spread is shown, not averaged away

Estimate
home value (vintage update)

current estimate (ACS county median × FHFA state HPI growth): $123,865 · raw ACS 2023 county median (as measured ~2021): $104,500

Spread +$19,365 · 1.19× ratio

HUD fair market rent

HUD FMR (county): $885 · Census ACS (county gross rent): $765

Spread +$120 · 1.16× ratio

Data quality score

66/100

  • − Sources diverge more than 15% on some metrics — the spread is shown, not averaged away
  • + 2 figures each cross-checked against a second, independent source
  • − current estimate (ACS county median × FHFA state HPI growth) vs raw ACS 2023 county median (as measured ~2021) diverge more than 15% on home value (vintage update) (1.19×) — cross-checked, not verified
  • − HUD FMR (county) vs Census ACS (county gross rent) diverge more than 15% on HUD fair market rent (1.16×) — cross-checked, not verified
  • + Current home value observation (Apr 2026) — current for quarterly cadence
  • + Current rent observation (Nov 2026) — current for monthly cadence

A data-quality score, not statistical confidence — it measures how well independent public sources agree, how consistent the geography is, and how fresh the data is. Survey margins of error (e.g. ACS MOEs) are not part of it. Every point is earned or lost by a reason listed above, so the score itself is auditable.

How we check this — sources, cross-checks and thresholds

Cross-checks compare two separately produced figures — not our own math re-run — and each check names its own basis. Rent: a current ZIP market-rent-index figure is checked against HUD Small Area FMR where one exists, or against Census ACS gross rent inflated to current dollars with the same ACS rent trend the charts use — a raw ~2021 ACS figure is never compared to a current one. Home value: the check pairs our current FHFA-updated estimate against the raw ACS vintage, so its spread mostly reflects price movement since the ACS measurement period (~2021). These sources measure different things (administrative benchmarks vs. rents reported by existing tenants), so disagreement is information, not error. The report shows the spread rather than averaging it away.

FHFA HPI through 2026-04-01 · ACS 2024 5-year estimates · HUD FY2027 · pulled 2026-11-13T22:39Z

Every headline metric is checked against a second figure, and each check names its own basis. The rent and property-price checks pair genuinely independent datasets (HUD FMR vs Census ACS gross rent; your price vs the county estimate). The home-value check compares our current estimate (ACS county median updated by the FHFA state index) against the raw ACS 2023 median — its spread reflects price movement since the ACS measurement period (~2021), not disagreement between unrelated sources. 'Verified' means the two figures agree within 15%; 'Cross-checked' means they diverge more than 15%; 'Divergent' flags a >2x difference. A spread beyond 35% is too wide to defend a single point — the headline shows the source range instead, flagged 'sources disagree'.

Williamsburg County housing market — common questions

Is Williamsburg County, SC a good rental market?

For owning at the median, yes — Williamsburg County's price-to-rent ratio of 11.7 is in the favorable range, but modeled investor cash flow is negative, so it is not a claim of strong rental yield.

What is the median home value in Williamsburg County?

The typical home value in Williamsburg County is about $123,865 (county-level, Census ACS & FHFA state HPI), up 2.4% year-over-year, and up 45.4% over five years.

What is the median rent in Williamsburg County?

The typical rent in Williamsburg County is about $885/mo (county-level, HUD 2-bedroom benchmark bridged from Census ACS gross rent), a current modeled estimate.

Is it cheaper to rent or buy in Williamsburg County?

Over a 7-year horizon, buying is cheaper in Williamsburg County — roughly $72,364 ahead of renting, with about $119,217 in equity built.

Is Williamsburg County affordable for homebuyers?

Williamsburg County's median home value is 2.7x the local median household income — Affordable (≤3x income — historical rule of thumb).

What is the property tax rate in Williamsburg County?

Williamsburg County's effective property tax rate is about 0.66% of home value (Census ACS county effective rate 0.66% ($687 tax ÷ $104,500 ACS median), applied to current value), which on a $123,865 median home is roughly $68/mo.

FHFA HPICensus ACSHUD Fair Market RentZIP Market IndexesFBI Crime Data
Home value and rent are cross-checked against an independent public record before the report renders; income and crime are single-source and labeled as estimates.

Sources

Data vintages: ACS 2024 5-year estimates · HUD FY2027 · FHFA HPI through 2026-04-01. For research only — verify before investing.

Areal provides area-level data for research purposes only — not an appraisal, not financial advice. Verify independently before acting.
Data from published market indexes, FHFA HPI, Census ACS, HUD Fair Market Rent, and FBI CDE — each card discloses its own vintage.

ArealArealReal data. Any area.

Data from published market indexes, FHFA HPI, Census ACS, HUD Fair Market Rent & FBI CDE. For research only — verify before investing.

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