This South Carolina City Has the Most Million-Dollar Homes
One South Carolina city has among the most million-dollar homes in America. That’s pretty wild to think about. So, if you’re looking for an expensive home, this city might be a good spot for you to start. Or, if you want to avoid buying an expensive home, you might want to find a different city in which to make roots.
Million-Dollar Homes Abound in South Carolina Spot
Newsweek has a feature out about the cities in America with the most million-dollar homes. “Rising house prices in the U.S. are driving affordability issues, especially for first-time buyers,” they note. “This surge is fueled by low inventory and high demand, pushing many out of the market.” They added that in 2023, about one in 10 homes were worth at least $1 million, per real-estate analysis firm Redfin. Also, about 8.2% of homes in the U.S. were valued at $1 million or more as of June 2023, which was down from 8.6% in June 2022.
Before we get to our area, it’s worth noting that San Francisco has the most homes valued at $1 million or more at 81%. Not far behind is San Jose at 80%. I think that makes sense, because these cities are both close to the San Francisco Bay Area, which traditionally has high real estate values and high-paying jobs. The rest of the top 10 are packed with California towns, and the first non-California town to make the cut is Honolulu, Hawaii, at 38%.
Newsweek actually didn’t list any South Carolina cities on their tally. But, in separate story per Forbes, which uses data from the Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey to find South Carolina’s richest cities, the publication discovered the cities with the highest median home value, and a lot of those homes are worth more than $1 million. “Many coastal areas made up the top 10, where one island getaway took the throne for richest community in the state,” they noted. “An Upstate town was also listed among the top 20.” In the story, Forbes stated that Kiawah Island is the state’s richest city. I don’t think anyone is surprised by that. The city’s median home value at $1,442,000, per the study. The Forbes study also stated that the area’s median property taxes were more than $8,000 per year.
In a separate feature, Visual Capitalist looked at the states with the most cities with million-dollar homes. In the feature they noted that “million-dollar homes are becoming more common, with the U.S. having 621 cities where a typical home is worth $1 million or more.” They add that “while high interest rates have caused commercial real estate prices to fall, it hasn’t had the same impact on the residential market.”
No. 1 on the tally for the states with the most million-dollar homes, of course, was California, followed by New York. South Carolina was actually No. 15, and North Carolina was No. 16.