A new report says Myrtle Beach rent has gone down in 2023. But has it?
Myrtle Beach, SC, and the surrounding area have grown tremendously recently.
New development projects are going on across the Grand Strand, from new multi-use luxury apartments and others with plenty of amenities, and the building of apartments is apparently impacting renters’ pocketbooks.
In 2023, the supply of new apartments grew in Myrtle Beach by six percent compared to one year ago. The ballooning of supply caused a simultaneous drop in rent by about 3.7 percent during the same time period. The data was compiled by RealPage, a platform that tracks rental space data and was reported by Bloomberg.
The price of apartments still varies widely, even within the complexes themselves. The Lively Grande Dunes has four-floor plans for one-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $1,294 to $2,165 a month.
RealPage also reported Oct. 11, 2023, that the Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Conway areas also saw a drop in occupancy from a high of around 98 percent to 92.4 percent.
The firm’s report said that the supply of apartments in the Grand Strand area has risen concurrently and further claimed the drop in renters was “the nation’s most significant apartment occupancy loss in the past year.”
RealPage did not return a request for comment before publication. There are conflicting reports on whether renters are paying more in the Myrtle Beach, SC area.
Apartment List, an online apartment-finding service, reported Oct. 30, 2023, that rent in Myrtle Beach was up 34.5 percent since March 2020, but year-to-year rent had declined about eight percent. Columbia and Charleston, S.C. also saw rents decrease year over year, as the average monthly rate for a one-bedroom apartment in Myrtle Beach is $1,068 compared to $1,496 in Charleston and $1,086 in Columbia, according to Apartment List.
Rent.com also reported decreases in rent in Myrtle Beach, SC for studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments in 2023 and said average rent was between $1,371 and $1,874.
Other reports said rent across the Grand Strand is going up, though. In April 2023, The State newspaper reported the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $1,670 an 18 percent increase year-over-year.
The online real estate marketplace Point2 reported as of July 2023 the average apartment rent was $1,601, and while rent was below the national average, compared to last year renters paid 2.1 percent more. Furthermore, the rent information service RentCafe reported in July that Myrtle Beach rent had almost doubled since March 2020. Compared to other cities in South Carolina, RentCafe also reported that only Charleston, Fort Mill and Ladson had higher rents than Myrtle Beach in the state.
