Buying a Home in the Savannah, GA Area: The Squares, the Islands, Pooler, Richmond Hill and the Effingham Towns

Downtown Savannah gives its directions by the square. There are 22 of them, laid out on James Oglethorpe's plan with each square at the center of its own ward, and the city kept adding wards and squares as it grew. Chippewa Square is the one where the bus bench scenes in Forrest Gump were filmed, Johnson Square was the first one laid out, and Monterey Square is the southernmost on Bull Street (City of Savannah parks). The nickname is the Hostess City, and when locals poke fun at the pace of the place, Slowvannah (Visit Savannah).

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in Georgia through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. My office is in Bluffton, on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, so this is the Georgia metro closest to home for me. The Savannah area is the city and its squares, the islands, Pooler and west Chatham, Richmond Hill in south Bryan and the Effingham towns up GA 21, spread across Chatham, Bryan and Effingham counties. The growth is in the ring around the city, and two things drive it, the Port of Savannah and the Hyundai Metaplant, and both come up below. The places come first below, then the roads, the schools and the hospitals, and then what to look up on any address before you compare it with another. The facts here come from public sources, cited beside the ones that matter most, and they were checked on October 2, 2026.

Is Savannah in the Lowcountry or the Coastal Empire?

Savannah is in the Coastal Empire. That is the local name for southeast Georgia's lower coastal plain, the barrier islands, the marsh and the flat land behind them, and it is the name the local news and the chamber use. The Lowcountry is the South Carolina term. It runs south from the Santee River down to Savannah, so Savannah is at the far southern edge of it, and locals do not use it for the city (Palmetto Bluff, "Lowcountry explained"). I live on the Lowcountry side, in Bluffton, and the name changes when I cross the river.

The Gullah Geechee culture runs through both. In Georgia, the communities distinguish Freshwater Geechee on the mainland from Saltwater Geechee on the Sea Islands (Visit Savannah).

Downtown, the islands, west Chatham, Bryan and Effingham, part by part

Downtown and the Historic District

The Savannah College of Art and Design, SCAD, occupies close to 70 restored 18th and 19th century buildings spread through the downtown squares, and it had 18,550 students in fall 2024. Forsyth Park covers about 30 acres at the south end of the district, between Gaston Street and Park Avenue. The Forsyth Farmers' Market sets up on Saturdays at the Park Avenue end, where Bull Street meets the park (Forsyth Farmers' Market). The Telfair Academy and the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters are both National Historic Landmark buildings run by the Telfair Museums, and the Jepson Center on West York Street holds the contemporary galleries (Telfair Museums).

The Savannah Convention Center on Hutchinson Island finished a $276 million expansion in February 2025, which doubled the exhibit hall to 200,000 square feet and added a 40,000 square foot ballroom (Clark Construction). Enmarket Arena opened in February 2022 on Stiles Avenue with 9,500 seats. It is home to the Savannah Ghost Pirates of the ECHL, and the Savannah Steel, a women's basketball team in the UpShot League, began play there in May 2026 (Enmarket Arena). Chatham Area Transit runs the Savannah Belles Ferry between River Street and the Trade Center on Hutchinson Island, and it does not charge a fare.

In April 2025, City Council voted 7 to 2 to let developers build larger multi-family buildings in areas zoned for smaller homes, as long as affordable units are included. The change targets the Victorian District, Metropolitan, Thomas Square and part of Live Oak (The Current, April 26, 2025). If you are looking at a home in one of those neighborhoods, the lot next door may be able to hold more than it could before.

Ardsley Park, Chatham Crescent and Starland

Ardsley Park and Chatham Crescent were laid out in 1909 and 1910 by Harry Hays Lattimore and William Lattimore on a strict grid, with one-acre landscaped parks placed at regular intervals along Abercorn Street. The Historic Savannah Foundation calls them Savannah's first suburb (Historic Savannah Foundation). Daffin Park, from 1907, runs about 80 acres between Victory Drive and Washington Avenue in midtown, and the Truman Linear Park Trail is being built to link it to Lake Mayer Park (City of Savannah).

The Starland District and Thomas Square became one National Register Historic District in the year 1997, and the homes there are Queen Anne, Greek Revival and Craftsman (Visit Savannah). Memorial Health has announced a $265 million expansion beside its main hospital tower on Waters Avenue in midtown, with 90 beds and a six-story parking garage of more than 1,000 spaces (WSAV).

Skidaway Island, the islands and Tybee

The Landings is a private gated community on Skidaway Island with about 4,000 homes, six golf courses and two deep-water marinas, Landings Harbor and Delegal Creek (The Landings). It is run by a property owners' association, so its dues and its rules come with the home, and the association's resale documents list them. Skidaway Island State Park covers about 588 acres on the Intracoastal Waterway with more than six miles of trail, and the Sandpiper Trail there runs a boardwalk out over the salt marsh (Georgia State Parks). The UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium is on Ocean Science Circle on the same island.

East of the city on US 80 are Wilmington, Whitemarsh and Talahi islands, and then Tybee. Fort Pulaski National Monument stands on Cockspur Island in the river, and the McQueen's Island Trail runs about six miles on the old Savannah and Tybee railroad bed between Bull River and the fort (Explore Georgia). If a boat is part of the plan, the public ramps on this side are Turners Creek off Johnny Mercer Boulevard and Frank W. Spencer Park on the Islands Expressway, which also has a fishing pier (Georgia DNR).

On Tybee, the Light Station was built in 1773, it is Georgia's oldest and tallest lighthouse, and visitors climb 178 steps to the top. Fort Screven operated on the island from 1897 to 1945 (Tybee Island Light Station). US 80 is the only road on and off the island. The Bull River and Lazaretto Creek bridges on it are being replaced under a federal project of about $105 million that also widens the highway. Each new span is designed 52 feet wide, with a barrier-separated bike and walking lane (GDOT project handout). The beach is getting sand this winter. The Army Corps of Engineers first left Tybee out of its 2026 work plan. Then $12 million in federal money came through for a $20 million project that places about 1.3 million cubic yards of sand, with placement expected to begin in December 2026 (WTOC, September 16, 2026). If you are counting on rental income from a Tybee home, the rental section below has the 2026 rule changes.

Pooler, Bloomingdale, Garden City and Port Wentworth

Pooler is the west Chatham city where the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force is at 175 Bourne Avenue. The Eighth Air Force was founded in Savannah (Mighty Eighth Museum). Tom Triplett Community Park spreads over about 200 acres around a 19 acre lake, with a lighted paved loop and an 18 hole disc golf course. Its dog park is split into a run for small dogs and a larger one (Chatham County Parks). The named master plans here are Savannah Quarters, with a Greg Norman golf course and neighborhoods called Westbrook, Easthaven and Westbrook Retreat, and Godley Station, near Jimmy DeLoach Parkway and Benton Boulevard, where builders are still releasing phases (Savannah Quarters).

Pooler's Comprehensive Plan 2046 was in final draft in May 2026 with adoption expected in October (City of Pooler). The city is also adopting its first impact fee ordinance, O2026-3.C, which held a public meeting on April 29, 2026. An impact fee is a one-time charge on new construction that helps pay for what growth needs, and Pooler's would cover public safety, parks and recreation, and transportation (City of Pooler Impact Fee FAQ). The fee reaches you through a new home's price, and the city's page has the adopted schedule once it is final. In April 2026 the Planning and Zoning board voted 4 to 1 to recommend denying a rezoning of about 116 acres near Pooler Parkway and Pine Barren Road, called The District. Staff cited traffic on Pine Barren Road (WTOC, April 14, 2026). The new high school planned for west Chatham is in the schools section below.

Garden City Terminal is the Port of Savannah's container terminal and the largest industrial site in the region. In May 2026, Rep. Buddy Carter announced $53 million in federal port infrastructure grants for a lay berth there. A lay berth is a dock where a ship can tie up and wait its turn without taking up a working berth (Rep. Buddy Carter). Port Wentworth banned semi-trucks from its downtown corridor on Coastal Highway, with enforcement starting July 1, 2026 (City of Port Wentworth). In Bloomingdale, a new $64 million elementary school opened on August 1, 2025, with 64 classrooms, a broadcast studio, STEM and energy labs and a solar array (School Construction News).

Richmond Hill and south Bryan

Bryan County is in two pieces. Fort Stewart was established in 1940, and the federal government took more than a third of the county's land for it, leaving an upper section and a lower one. Pembroke, the county seat, is in the north, and Richmond Hill, the county's largest city, is in the south. Locals say North Bryan and South Bryan, and you do not drive from one to the other without going around the base.

Heartwood is the big plan in Richmond Hill: 7,000 acres that Raydient is building out as one planned community, with homes, apartments, shops and a hotel approved together under a single master plan, over 20 to 25 years. The Preserve at Heartwood, 302 apartments, opened for leasing in September 2025, and a hotel and a commercial district are planned (WSAV, Savannah CEO). St. Joseph's/Candler has a campus on Belfast Keller Road inside the development (Bryan County News). The new Richmond Hill High School opened in August 2025, built for 3,500 students at a cost above $100 million (Bryan County Schools).

For the outdoors, Fort McAllister State Park covers about 1,725 acres on the south bank of the Ogeechee River around a Confederate earthwork fort, and the Redbird Creek Trail loops about three miles inside it (Georgia State Parks). J.F. Gregory Park, 335 acres on Cedar Street, has a three mile trail along the dike of a rice field older than the Civil War (City of Richmond Hill). The Demeries Creek ramp on GA 144 has a wide single lane, courtesy docks and restrooms.

Ellabell and the Metaplant corridor

Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America is in Ellabell, in north Bryan County, about 25 miles west of downtown along I-16. National coverage calls it "in Savannah," but the plant is in Bryan County. It cost $7.6 billion, covers 2,284 acres, began building cars in October 2024, and had more than 3,200 workers as of October 2025. It builds the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 9, and the Kia Sportage Turbo-Hybrid became its third vehicle, the first Kia and the first hybrid on the line (Bryan County News). Under the 500,000 vehicle plan the campus would employ upward of 8,500 people directly, with about 6,900 more at nearby suppliers, and a battery joint venture with LG Energy Solution is under construction at a separate site (Georgia.org). St. Joseph's/Candler opened a $10 million, 40,000 square foot campus in Ellabell with primary care, urgent care and industrial medicine (WSAV).

Rincon, Springfield and Guyton

Effingham County is north of the city up GA 21, and it runs its own school district. Guyton led the county in new-home closings in April 2026, with 62 in that month, more than Rincon and Springfield combined. Rincon approved three townhome developments, which is new for a city built almost entirely as detached homes, and Springfield is upgrading its wastewater plant to support about 3,300 more homes, with the capacity expected online in 2028 (Effingham Herald). If you are buying a newly built home in the county, the county's 2026 Schedule of Fees lists a water connection charge and a sewer development fee per residential unit, due before the home connects. A builder pays them and prices them into the home. The schedule was amended on August 4, 2026 (Effingham County).

Project Camellia is a $20 billion OpenAI data center campus near the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub. It covers 1,400 acres, with four buildings totaling 4.4 million square feet, and it opens in phases from 2028. The project is contracted with Georgia Power for 3.2 gigawatts, delivered between 2028 and 2032, and the state released the full regional impact report on September 16, 2026 (The Current, WTOC). The county approved a 50% property tax abatement for 15 years, and the project is still expected to become the county's largest taxpayer. The Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub itself is about 2,600 acres in Rincon, developed by Broe with the county's industrial authority, and Kyungshin America took space there to feed automotive parts to the Metaplant (Effingham County Development Authority). Macomber Park in Rincon has eight ball diamonds and a disc golf course, and the Effingham County Museum fills the 1935 county jail on North Pine Street in Springfield.

The roads and bridges that change a commute

The Brampton Road Connector opened July 16, 2026. It is a $126 million four-lane road from Gate 3 of Garden City Terminal to I-16, and it takes port trucks and at-grade rail crossings off local streets. The Georgia Ports Authority describes it as completing a cargo beltway around Savannah (Georgia Ports Authority). It is the last piece of a 12-year, roughly $600 million port road program that also rebuilt the I-16 and I-95 interchange for $295 million and widened Jimmy DeLoach Parkway for $129 million (CDLLife).

16@95. The I-16 and I-95 interchange rebuild, with I-16 widened to three lanes each way between I-95 and I-516, reached its final alignment in 2025. Lighting, signs and corrective work continue into fall 2026 (WSAV).

Effingham Parkway. This 6.4 mile, $74.8 million road from SR 30 to Blue Jay Road has been pushed back more than once, with drainage design changes coordinated with the Army Corps given as the reason. As of early September 2026 a portion was expected to open in the fall and full completion was expected next year (WTOC, September 1, 2026). If you will commute from Rincon or Guyton on GA 21, that is the road to watch.

The Talmadge Memorial Bridge. GDOT screened 27 options for replacing the 185 foot bridge over the Savannah River and recommended two: a new 230 foot bridge beside it, estimated at about $1.17 billion, or a two-tube tunnel bored at least 109 feet down. Construction on either would run 9 to 11 years and the total could pass $2 billion (AJC, ENR). The reason is ship size. Ports measure a ship by how many twenty-foot containers it carries, a TEU, and the current clearance passes ships of about 15,000 TEU while the newest ones reach 23,000. GDOT also has a separate, shorter project to replace the suspension cables and raise the bridge's clearance. It was planned as a three-year job starting in early 2026, and GDOT has the current schedule.

The airport. Savannah/Hilton Head International carried more than 4 million passengers in 2024. Its $26 million concourse expansion adds four departure gates, taking the total to 19, and it was reported close to its next milestone in September 2026 (WTOC, September 2, 2026).

Buses. Chatham Area Transit changed several fixed routes on August 31, 2026, with earlier end times and fewer buses on some lines (WTOC, August 18, 2026).

The schools being built, and the sales taxes that pay for them

Georgia school districts here build with ESPLOST, a one-penny sales tax for education that voters renew. You will also see SPLOST, the general-purpose version, and TSPLOST, the transportation version. The three are separate taxes, and each one gets its own ballot question. The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System's ESPLOST V passed on March 18, 2025 with 64% of the vote (WSAV). Its flagship project is a new high school for western Chatham County on 100 acres, which would be Pooler's first. The plan also consolidates West Chatham Elementary and West Chatham Middle into a new K-8 school (SCCPSS ESPLOST V). Windsor Forest Elementary is being rebuilt for $51.6 million, with design starting in late 2026 and a 2031-32 opening (SCCPSS Long-Range Facility Plan).

In Effingham, Creekside Elementary is a $41 million school on Blue Jay Road in the Rincon area, built for more than 1,200 students. The district's plan had it opening for the 2026-27 school year, and the district redrew attendance lines for it during spring 2026 (Effingham County Schools). So for any Effingham address you are considering, the district's current attendance map is the one to read. In Bryan, the district put an ESPLOST renewal and a bond question on the May 19, 2026 ballot to fund a proposed new Bryan County High School opening in August 2029. The district's bond page has the status of that vote and of the project (Bryan County Schools).

The emergency rooms and hospitals on the way

Memorial Health, owned by HCA Healthcare, won state approval in 2020 for freestanding emergency rooms in Pooler and Richmond Hill, spent more than five years in appeals, and got the go-ahead in September 2025. At that approval, the plan was for both $42 million ERs to open in 2026, each with trauma bays, stroke care and full imaging, open around the clock. Memorial's newsroom carries the opening dates as they are announced (WTOC, September 3, 2025). Until they open, if you are comparing a Pooler address with a Richmond Hill one, the drive to the emergency rooms that are open today is worth checking from each. The other system is St. Joseph's/Candler, with the Ellabell and Richmond Hill campuses above, and both systems are among the region's largest employers (Savannah Chamber).

The port, the base and the other big employers

The Port of Savannah moved 5.67 million TEU, twenty-foot containers, in its fiscal year ending June 30, 2026, against 5.7 million the year before, and June 2026 alone was up 18% from a year earlier (Georgia Ports Authority). The Ocean Terminal is halfway through a roughly $1.6 billion conversion that takes it from 200,000 to 1.75 million TEU of annual capacity. Its second berth was due in June 2026 in the ports authority's reporting, which would let the terminal work two large ships at once. The authority's ten-year plan runs to $5 billion with five new container berths in Savannah (gCaptain).

Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield together employ more than 25,500 people and put about $6 billion a year into the coastal Georgia economy (Savannah Chamber). Hunter Army Airfield is inside the city limits, with about 5,500 soldiers, airmen, Coast Guard members and Marines on station, including the 3rd Infantry Division's aviation brigade and a Ranger battalion (Stewart and Hunter). If you are moving on orders to either post, how VA loans work in Georgia covers entitlement, the funding fee and what an attorney closing changes. Gulfstream Aerospace is headquartered in Savannah as a General Dynamics subsidiary, and the chamber's list of major employers also names SCAD, the school board, Walmart and the Georgia-Pacific Savannah River Mill.

The county, the tax bill and the Stephens-Day filing

Georgia taxes 40% of a home's fair market value, takes the exemptions off, and applies the millage to what is left. A millage rate is a tax rate stated in mills, and a mill is one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value (Georgia Department of Revenue). The Georgia page covers how the statewide bill is built and what an attorney closing changes, and do I have to apply for the Georgia homestead exemption myself covers the standard homestead application.

The Stephens-Day exemption is Chatham County's own homestead exemption, on the books from 1999 on, and it freezes the taxable value of your home at the base year, the first year you own and occupy it. No other county in the metro has one like it. Each year the exemption equals the difference between the current value and that base-year value. The base year resets only when the home is sold, transferred or improved. To get it, you must own and occupy the home as your primary residence on January 1 of the year you apply. It offsets value increases on the county portion of the bill. The school, city and state portions work differently, and the school district adds a CPI percentage to the base-year value each year (Chatham County, Stephens-Day explained, Board of Assessors exemptions). The year you file sets the value the freeze starts from, so the Board of Assessors at 222 West Oglethorpe Avenue is the place to ask about timing before you file. Locals use it as a verb: "did you file your Stephens-Day?"

Georgia copied the idea statewide. HB 581, effective January 1, 2025, caps how much a homesteaded home's taxable value can rise each year to the inflation rate, and it was modeled on Stephens-Day. Counties, cities and school districts could opt out by March 1, 2025, and the Savannah-Chatham school system did (City of Savannah, HB 581). The tax commissioner for an Effingham or Bryan address can tell you whether the cap applies there.

Chatham mailed its 2026 assessment notices on June 16, and the appeal deadline was July 31, 45 days from the postmark, using the state's form PT-311A (Chatham County Board of Assessors). Each county mails on its own schedule, and the 45 days always run from the notice date.

The 2026 millage, county by county

• Chatham County set a tentative general rate of 10.518 mills for 2026, a 3.24% increase, plus 6.502 mills for the Special Service District that covers the unincorporated county and 0.940 for Chatham Area Transit (Chatham County).
• The City of Savannah kept its rate at 11.749 mills, its lowest since 1987. The rollback rate, the rate that would bring in the same revenue as last year on the new values, was 11.402, so state law required the unchanged rate to be advertised as a tax increase (City of Savannah).
• Effingham County cut 6 mills across its layers for 2026, with the county down 2, the school district down 2 and the industrial authority suspending its 2 mill levy. It is described as about a 30% reduction on 2026 bills, and the Project Camellia land sale funds it. The school board's rate went from 18.018 to 16.45 (Effingham Herald, WTOC, August 31, 2026).
• Bryan County adopted 5.770 mills for 2025, a rollback for the ninth year in a row, and the county posts each year's rate on its news page (Bryan County).

So two homes of the same value, one in Rincon and one in Pooler, carry different county and school lines, and the reliable way to compare them is the two actual tax bills side by side.

The new line on a Savannah water bill

If the home is inside the City of Savannah, a stormwater fee started showing up on the utility bill in September 2026. Council approved it 5 to 4 on January 22, 2026, and billing began July 1. The fee is tiered from $2 to $12 a month, and most single-family homes fall in Tier 2 at $4.75 a month, which is $57 a year from 2027 (City of Savannah, WTOC, September 1, 2026). It pays for drainage work, about $8 million a year of it. The City of Charleston put its stormwater fee on the property tax bill this year, and Savannah put its fee on the water bill, so the two cities' tax bills do not compare line for line.

Flood and wind insurance in Savannah

The City of Savannah, unincorporated Chatham County and Tybee Island are all Class 5 in FEMA's Community Rating System. Class 5 gives a 25% discount on National Flood Insurance Program premiums in the Special Flood Hazard Area and 10% in the lower-risk zones outside it, which FEMA labels X (City of Savannah, WTOC, July 1, 2026). The Special Flood Hazard Area is FEMA's high-risk zone, and a lender requires flood insurance on a home inside it. Chatham's flooding comes from the Savannah, Wilmington, Vernon, Forest, Grove and Ogeechee rivers and from the Springfield, Casey, Placentia, Pipemakers and Hardin canals (Chatham Emergency Management Agency), so a map that looks inland can still carry a canal. I explain how to price flood insurance into an offer in buying a home in a flood zone.

A homeowners policy on this coast usually carries a separate windstorm or hurricane deductible, set as a percentage of the home's insured value, commonly 1% to 5%, instead of a flat dollar amount. In Georgia's six coastal counties, Chatham, Bryan, Liberty, McIntosh, Glynn and Camden, a policy often adds a third deductible on top of that, the named-storm deductible. It applies when the damage comes from a storm that was given a name, like a hurricane or a tropical storm. Each of those deductibles is the share of a claim you pay yourself before the policy pays anything. Because that share is a percentage, the more the home is insured for, the more dollars you pay before the policy starts paying. On a home insured for $500,000, a 2% wind deductible is $10,000 out of your pocket. So when you are comparing quotes, please ask what the wind percentage is and whether a named-storm deductible applies on top of it.

Can I short-term rent a home in Savannah or on Tybee?

In the City of Savannah, a whole-home short-term vacation rental is permitted only inside the STVR Overlay District, which is the Downtown Historic District, the Victorian District and the Streetcar District. In the Downtown Historic and Victorian districts, non-owner-occupied rentals are capped at 20% of the parcels in each ward, and a ward is roughly a block plus its surrounding streets (City of Savannah STVR Regulations). A home outside the overlay cannot be a whole-unit vacation rental at all.

Tybee changed its rules twice in 2026. In August, council amended the ordinance to divide the island into sectors with a cap on rentals in each, and to require a designated emergency contact, effective January 1, 2027. On September 10, council adopted tiered annual fees based on each property's maximum occupancy (WTOC, August 28, 2026, Savannah Agenda). The adopted ordinance has the cap for each sector, so please read it for the sector your home is in before you count on the income.

Owning in the Historic District

Every exterior change visible from a public street or lane in the Savannah Historic District needs a Certificate of Appropriateness. The Historic District Board of Review handles additions, new construction, fences, signs and demolition. Staff can approve paint colors, roof replacement, awnings, brick repointing, shutters and windows. Interiors are not reviewed, so kitchens, baths and floor plans only need ordinary building permits (Metropolitan Planning Commission). If you plan to change the outside of a downtown home, the review happens before the work, so it is worth building that time into your plans.

The association, its dues and whether its covenants expire

Georgia's Property Owners' Association Act, from 1994, is voluntary. A community is under it only if the developer chose it in the declaration or the owners later voted in. Under the Act, covenants run forever and unpaid dues carry an automatic lien. Outside it, Georgia covenants expire after 20 years by default, with allowed renewals (Lazega and Johanson). So for a home in The Landings, Savannah Quarters, Heartwood or any Effingham subdivision, the declaration says which law applies, and the association's resale documents list the dues, any transfer fee and any capital contribution due at closing. The dues go into the monthly payment, and a transfer fee or capital contribution goes into your cash to close.

Loan limits, assistance programs and the monthly payment

All three counties are at the national FHA floor for 2026, the lowest one-unit FHA limit set anywhere in the country, $541,287. The conforming limit, the largest loan Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will buy, is $832,750 in each of them, and the box below this article has the figures for each county. A veteran with full entitlement, meaning none of their VA benefit is tied up in another VA loan, has no county limit at all.

Georgia runs the Georgia Dream Homeownership Program through the Department of Community Affairs, with options for a first home, for purchases in targeted areas, and for active military, public protectors, educators and healthcare workers (Georgia DCA). The City of Savannah's DreamMaker program helps with down payment and closing costs on a first home inside the city limits, and the city's Housing and Neighborhood Services department has the current terms.

The county and city millage, the Stephens-Day filing, the stormwater fee, flood and wind insurance and any association dues are all inside the monthly payment a lender qualifies you on. Georgia's transfer tax and its intangible recording tax on the loan are in the cash to close, and the Georgia page walks through both. Pre-approval in Georgia covers what the letter is based on. If you are weighing Savannah against the South Carolina side of the river, the Hilton Head-Bluffton page is the one to put beside this, and the Atlanta page covers the other end of the state.

You can run your numbers for a Savannah-area purchase whenever you like: pricing for your scenario and Georgia closing costs, with no credit pull and no account. Choose the option that works best for you, and the application opens from there.

Nothing here is a loan approval, a denial or a commitment to lend, and it is not tax advice. The value a county uses for a specific property, and which exemptions it grants, are set by that county's assessor and tax commissioner, so please confirm them with the county office.

Common questions

Is Savannah in the Lowcountry?

Savannah is in the Coastal Empire, the local name for southeast Georgia's coast, and that is the name the news and the chamber use for the Savannah area. The Lowcountry is the South Carolina term. It runs south from the Santee River down to Savannah, so Savannah is at its far southern edge, and locals do not use the name for the city.

What is the Stephens-Day exemption in Chatham County?

It is a Chatham County homestead exemption, on the books from 1999 on, that freezes the taxable value of the home you live in at the base year, the first year you own and occupy it. The base year resets when the home is sold, transferred or improved. To apply, you must own and occupy the home as your primary residence on January 1 of that year, and the Board of Assessors can walk you through the timing.

Is the Hyundai Metaplant in Savannah?

No. Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America is in Ellabell, in north Bryan County, about 25 miles west of downtown Savannah along I-16. It had more than 3,200 workers as of October 2025, and the campus is planned to employ upward of 8,500 people directly.

Why are North Bryan and South Bryan separate?

Fort Stewart was established in 1940 and took more than a third of Bryan County's land, leaving an upper section and a lower one. Pembroke, the county seat, is in the north, and Richmond Hill is in the south, and the base is between them.

What is the new stormwater fee on my Savannah water bill?

It is the City of Savannah's stormwater utility fee, approved by City Council in January 2026. Billing began July 1, 2026, and it appeared on utility bills in September. It is a tiered monthly charge based on the property, and it pays for drainage and flood-reduction work inside the city.

Can I short-term rent a home in Savannah?

Only inside the STVR Overlay District, which covers the Downtown Historic District, the Victorian District and the Streetcar District. In the Downtown Historic and Victorian districts, non-owner-occupied rentals are capped at 20% of the parcels in each ward. Tybee Island has its own ordinance, amended in August 2026 with sector caps that take effect January 1, 2027.

Is the Talmadge Bridge being replaced?

GDOT has recommended two options, a taller bridge beside the current one or a tunnel under the river, and construction on either would take 9 to 11 years. A separate, shorter project to replace the suspension cables and raise the current bridge's clearance was planned as a three-year job starting in early 2026, and GDOT has the current schedule.

Do I get a flood insurance discount in Savannah?

Yes, if the home is in the City of Savannah, unincorporated Chatham County or Tybee Island. All three are Class 5 in FEMA's Community Rating System, which gives a 25% discount on National Flood Insurance Program premiums in the high-risk flood zones and 10% in the lower-risk zones outside them, which FEMA labels X.