Here’s how much you must earn to afford rent now in SC cities, from Columbia to Myrtle Beach

Patrick McCreless
·2 min read
5

A worker must earn about $20 an hour on average to afford a two-bedroom apartment in South Carolina, a new report shows.

In some areas the cost is higher.

Rent costs have skyrocketed in the past year across South Carolina and the rest of the U.S, putting affordable homes out of reach of more residents. A new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, highlights the disparity between low wages and fair market rents.

“Yet dramatic increases in rent prices over the last year have likely exacerbated the problem, making the process of finding and maintaining affordable housing even more difficult for low-income tenants,” the report states.

In South Carolina, the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,004. To afford such rent and utilities without paying more than 30% of income on housing, a household must earn $3,346 monthly — assuming a 40-hour work week, 52 weeks a year, the report states.

For someone earning minimum wage, he or she would need to work 106 hours a week, or 2.7 full-time jobs, to afford that rent.

And in some places in South Carolina, the cost is greater.

The Charleston-North Charleston area was ranked the most expensive, with a person needing to earn $26.38 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment. Beaufort County was listed as second most expensive, with an hourly wage of $24.10 to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

In 294 out of the 345 metropolitan counties tracked by Apartment List across the U.S., rental prices for a two-bedroom apartment increased over $100 between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, the report states. In each of the preceding four years, the number of metropolitan counties experiencing a decrease in rental prices ranged from 31 to 76.

There are some rent and utility assistance programs in the state available for people in need, such as the SC Stay Plus program. It can help households with 12 months of rental and utility assistance.

However, the following seven counties received other funding and are providing their own rental assistance programs: Anderson, Berkeley, Charleston, Greenville, Horry, Richland, and Spartanburg.

For more information on SC Stay Plus or housing assistance programs in the above-listed counties, including how to apply, click here.

These are the hourly wages needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment for South Carolina metropolitan areas.

  • Anderson: $16.02

  • Beaufort County: $24.10

  • Charleston-North Charleston: $26.38

  • Columbia: $19.04

  • Greenville-Mauldin-Easley: $19.08

  • Myrtle Beach-North Myrtle Beach-Conway: $20.42

  • Spartanburg: $16.62

  • Sumter: $16.37

  • Florence: $16