Buying a Home on the Grand Strand: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Conway, Carolina Forest, Surfside Beach and What Horry County Is Building

On August 15, 2026, the Army Corps of Engineers finished pumping more than 2.15 million cubic yards of new sand onto the Grand Strand (Horry County, September 9, 2026). The work ran nearly 28 miles, through North Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach and Garden City, and it cost $72 million. The county under all of that sand is Horry, pronounced "OR-ree," with the H silent. It is named for Peter Horry, an officer who served under Francis Marion in the Revolution. For generations the rivers and swamps around it cut it off from the rest of the state so completely that it called itself the Independent Republic of Horry (Wikipedia: Horry County). The coast it fronts got its own name on November 19, 1949, when a column headed "From the Grandstrand" ran in the Myrtle Beach Sun. The Grand Strand is what the 60-odd miles from Little River south to Winyah Bay have been called ever since (Wikipedia: Grand Strand).

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in South Carolina through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work out of Bluffton, down the coast in Beaufort County, and this page is for anyone weighing a move to the Grand Strand or to the inland side of Horry County. The whole Myrtle Beach metro is Horry County, and a home buyer chooses among the beach cities of the Grand Strand, Conway at the county seat, Carolina Forest and Socastee, and the small towns west of the Waccamaw River. I go part by part through those places first, then the roads, the schools, the hospitals and the employers. After that I get to the items worth looking up on any address here before you compare it with another one. Everything below comes from public sources, cited beside the facts that matter most, and it was researched in September 2026.

How fast is the Myrtle Beach area growing?

By the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates, Horry County had 427,551 people on July 1, 2025, up 21.8% from its 2020 count of 351,036 (U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Sorted by growth since 2020, the Bureau's metro-area file puts Horry ahead of every other metropolitan area in the country, just in front of Wildwood-The Villages in Florida at 21.6% (U.S. Census Bureau, CBSA file). The county added 13,244 people between July 2024 and July 2025 alone.

Inside the county, Conway grew 22.2% since 2020, to 30,627 people, Loris grew 20.0%, to 2,935, the City of Myrtle Beach grew 14.7%, to 40,937, and North Myrtle Beach grew 13.3%, to 21,346 (U.S. Census Bureau, SC places file). Horry is also the largest county in South Carolina by land area, at 1,133 square miles, and about 38% of that land is wetland (Sun News via Yahoo, April 8, 2026). Those two facts are behind most of the planning debates below.

What should you know about each part of Horry County?

Myrtle Beach

Downtown, the city calls the block bounded by Main Street, Broadway Street, Oak Street and Ninth Avenue North the Superblock, and it is the center of the Arts & Innovation District. The city's plan puts new city offices, a library, a performing arts center and a city square there. It also moves US 501, which comes into downtown on Main Street, over to Seventh Avenue North, paid for with RIDE 3 money. RIDE is the name for Horry County's road programs, each paid for by a local tax that voters approve, and I explain them further down (City of Myrtle Beach). The former Broadway Theater is being turned into a 300-seat performing arts center with Coastal Carolina University (Visit Myrtle Beach). On August 25, 2026, City Council approved two one-year pilot programs for the district that started September 1. One is a facade grant that matches half of a project's cost, up to $10,000, and the other reimburses permit and inspection fees for vacant storefronts (MyHorryNews, August 29, 2026).

At Broadway at the Beach, local reports in September 2026 described a surf park planned for the former Palace Theatre site at 21st Avenue North and the US 17 Bypass, at about $150 million. Council gave it first-reading approval on September 8, with a city incentive of up to $20 million and a target opening of March 1, 2030 (Post and Courier, September 8, 2026). Pelicans Ballpark is getting a $20 million renovation (Visit Myrtle Beach, 2026). Up the coast in Arcadian Shores, Margaritaville Vacation Residences broke ground on June 6, 2026 on 271 condos at 235 Fins Up Circle, with the first two buildings due by late 2027 (MyrtleBeachSC News, June 10, 2026).

The city maintains 143 public beach access points. Its published list marks which ones are fully accessible rather than ramp-only walkways, such as the street ends at 9th Avenue South, 38th Avenue North and 64th Avenue North (City of Myrtle Beach). Matt Hughes Skate Park is a concrete park with street features, and the city calls it the only one between Wilmington and Charleston (Myrtle Beach Parks).

Market Common

Market Common is on the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (Wikipedia: Myrtle Beach). Warbird Park on Farrow Parkway keeps aircraft from the base beside the Wall of Service (Myrtle Beach Parks). Grand Park pairs a kayak launch and fishing access with a fitness trail, and Thunderbolt Park adds a bike repair stand off Farrow Parkway (Myrtle Beach Parks). RIDE 4, the county road program described below, lists Kings Highway from Farrow Parkway to 31st Avenue North among its projects, which is the stretch between Market Common and downtown.

Carolina Forest

Carolina Forest is unincorporated Horry County, so a home there is outside any town's limits and pays the county fire and solid waste levies instead of a town levy. McLeod Health Carolina Forest, a 48-bed, four-story hospital near International Drive and SC 31, was scheduled to open at the turn of September into October 2026, pending state inspections. It is the first inpatient hospital in Carolina Forest, and its cost rose to $90 million from the $56 million announced in 2024 (MyHorryNews, August 28, 2026). Two elementary schools opened here in August 2025, each built for 1,200 students: Pine Island Elementary on Ronald McNair Boulevard and Ten Oaks Elementary on Carolina Forest Boulevard (Horry County Schools). Carolina Forest Boulevard itself was widened under RIDE 3.

The Horry County Bike & Run Park runs seven miles of trail across 70 acres along the Intracoastal Waterway, and its parking lot is South Carolina's first East Coast Greenway trailhead (Horry County Parks). Amazon is expanding a delivery facility in the Carolina Forest area, with more than 100 jobs expected (MyHorryNews, September 11, 2026). Year to date through August 2026, the median single-family home here sold for $475,000, up 8.8% from 2025, while the number of closed sales fell 27.2% (Coastal Carolinas Association of REALTORS, August 2026 Local Market Updates).

Conway

Conway is the county seat, and it grew 22.2% between 2020 and 2025, to 30,627 people. The Riverwalk runs a mile and a half of paved path and boardwalk along the Waccamaw River (City of Conway). A block off Main Street, the Horry County Museum fills the restored 1905 Burroughs School, and admission is free (Horry County Museum). Coastal Carolina University is here, and its preliminary fall 2026 enrollment of 12,252 was a record for the fourth straight year (Coastal Carolina University, September 17, 2026). On SC 544 beside campus, a 35 mph limit, a pedestrian signal and new markings are due by the end of 2026. A $12 million pedestrian overpass is in development there, with no timeline yet (Post and Courier, September 14, 2026). Horry-Georgetown Technical College, also based in Conway, named Dr. Lori Heafner its next president, taking office January 4, 2027 (MyHorryNews, September 18, 2026).

The biggest development question in Conway this fall is Mill Pond Road. Rise Partners wants to rezone about 67 acres at Mill Pond Road and Lochwood Lane near US 501 for 236 apartments and about 270,000 square feet of retail, with a big-box anchor and a grocery store, targeting 2029. The plan would fill nearly five acres of wetlands, and the Coastal Conservation League and the SC Environmental Law Project oppose it (Post and Courier, September 4, 2026). As of mid-September the Planning Commission had not yet voted. On the dining side, the family behind Magnolia's at 26th, which closed in Myrtle Beach, is opening Magnolia's Cafe at 6017 Highway 701 North in Conway, aiming for Thanksgiving 2026 (MyHorryNews, September 17, 2026). Year to date, Conway's median single-family sale was $311,788 across 1,575 closings, the most closings of any area in the CCAR report.

North Myrtle Beach

North Myrtle Beach is made up of named sections, Cherry Grove, Crescent Beach and Windy Hill among them, along with the Ocean Drive business district. Ingram Dunes Nature Preserve keeps a half-mile trail through the last maritime forest in the city, with native dunes standing 30 feet tall (City of North Myrtle Beach Parks). Heritage Shores Nature Preserve is seven acres of boardwalk on an island in the Cherry Grove marsh, and the Cherry Grove boat ramp is a two-lane launch that reaches the ocean through Hog Inlet (City of North Myrtle Beach Parks). Two small towns are inside this stretch of coast: Atlantic Beach, which keeps its own oceanfront between the Windy Hill and Crescent Beach sections, and Briarcliffe Acres, with 585 residents in 2025.

On US 17, SCDOT began intersection work in September 2026 at 46th Avenue South, Windy Hill Road and 37th, 33rd and 27th Avenues South: concrete medians and signal upgrades, mostly overnight, with completion by June 2027 (MyHorryNews, September 17, 2026). Replacing the swing bridge into Barefoot Landing is on the RIDE 4 list. New places this year include AlleyOops, a dining, bowling, arcade and mini-golf spot at 3607 Highway 17 South, which opened September 18, 2026 as the chain's first location outside Maryland. In Windy Hill, 2 Lucky Pups Cantina opened at 3612 South Ocean Boulevard on July 28 (MyrtleBeachSC News, September 17, 2026). Year to date, the median single-family sale here was $569,716, the highest of any Horry area in the CCAR report.

Little River, Longs and Loris

Little River is the north end of the Strand, where SC 31 ends at SC 9. Grand Strand Health opened a freestanding emergency room at 1586 US 17 in June 2026, according to local reports, after announcing it for May (MyHorryNews, November 20, 2025). In January 2026, Horry County Schools approved buying the Harbour View par-3 golf course on Horseshoe Road, 36.78 acres for $5.96 million, as a future school site (WMBF, January 15, 2026). Vereen Memorial Historical Gardens has three miles of trail and boardwalk across 115 acres of forest and marsh, and a segment of the colonial Kings Highway still runs at the front of the property (Horry County Parks). Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers opened at 2504 SC 9 East on August 4, 2026.

Loris, inland on SC 9, grew 20.0% since 2020, and El Patrón Mexican Restaurant held its grand opening at 4914 Broad Street on July 18, 2026 (MyHorryNews, July 19, 2026). CCAR reports Loris and Longs together: 1,227 single-family closings year to date, up 18.9% from 2025, with new listings up 32.7% and a median of $310,000. In Longs, new box culverts at 57th Place are one of the county's grant-funded stormwater projects for 2026 (Horry County, December 29, 2025).

Surfside Beach

Surfside Beach rebuilt its pier after Hurricane Matthew, and the $20 million redesigned pier reopened in 2024. The town is now updating its comprehensive plan for the first time in more than a decade, and Mayor Robert Krouse put the town's position in four words: "We're not Myrtle Beach" (Post and Courier, September 18, 2026). A 127-room Hampton Inn & Suites broke ground at 1100 US 17 Business on July 29, 2026, targeting spring 2028 (MyrtleBeachSC News, July 28, 2026). The town keeps 36 beach accesses along its strand, several with shower towers and beach walking mats (Town of Surfside Beach), and the pier lot does not honor resident parking decals (Town of Surfside Beach). The planned south end of SC 31, in the roads section below, is meant to reach the US 17 Bypass near here.

Socastee, Burgess and the south end

Socastee and Burgess are unincorporated communities at the south end of the county, along SC 707 and the Intracoastal Waterway. The largest proposal on that corridor is HarborTrace, on SC 707 between Blackmoor Golf Club and St. James High School: 1,426 acres, with the plan cut to 2,000 homes from nearly 4,000 in 2021. Current zoning already allows 1,400 townhomes there, and the developers are offering a $90 million fund for the area, which they call a Residential Investment District fund, along with 686 acres of wetland conservation. About 60 people attended an opposition meeting on August 27, 2026 (Post and Courier, September 4, 2026).

St. James Elementary is being replaced with a 1,200-student school. The modular classrooms of phase one were finished in summer 2026, major construction starts in January 2027, and completion is set for August 2028 (WMBF, August 25, 2026). Conway Medical Center is building an eight-bed, $20.5 million emergency room at 6010 Highway 707, planned to open before the end of 2026 (MyHorryNews, October 31, 2025). Socastee Recreation Park covers 91 acres off Enterprise Road (Horry County Parks), and the county keeps landings onto the Waterway at Socastee Landing on Peachtree Road and Enterprise Landing on Bay Road (Horry County Boat Landings). The Socastee median single-family sale was $360,000 year to date.

Garden City and Murrells Inlet

Garden City is in Horry County, and Murrells Inlet straddles the line with Georgetown County, so two homes with the same Murrells Inlet address can get their tax bills from two different counties. The Garden City Streetscape project along Waccamaw Drive and Atlantic Avenue puts utilities underground and adds drainage and flood work. Construction started September 8, 2026, and completion is expected in 2029 (Horry County, September 3, 2026). The county keeps 16 beach accesses in Garden City, with free year-round parking at the oceanfront ones (Horry County Beach Accesses). Stanley Drive Landing, at the Garden City end of the inlet, is the county's only boat landing that reaches the Atlantic directly (Horry County Boat Landings). Grand Strand Health's Murrells Inlet emergency room at 4533 Wesley Road, on the Georgetown County side, is planned to open in October 2026 (MyHorryNews, October 6, 2025).

Aynor and the west side of the Waccamaw

Aynor had 1,068 people in 2025, up 9.8% since 2020, and its 131 single-family closings year to date were up 89.9% from 2025, on a median of $317,900 (CCAR). The pavilion at the center of Aynor Town Park hosts the weekly farmers market and the Harvest Hoe-Down (Town of Aynor). Horry County Schools bought 66.7 acres on Enoch Road, between upper Conway and lower Aynor, in August 2025 for about $1.4 million (Post and Courier, February 26, 2026).

The county's Industrial Corridors plan matters most on this side of the river. It designates 84,812 acres for industry, all of it west of the Waccamaw except the SC 31 extension toward North Carolina. Council passed it unanimously on second reading in September 2026, with a third reading still to come (MyHorryNews, September 16, 2026). Survey respondents preferred placing the corridors around Aynor and Loris (Post and Courier, July 7, 2026). Amazon, FedEx, DC Blox and Pepsi Bottling Ventures have all opened facilities in the county since 2019. RIDE 4's SC 22 Extension would start at US 501 near Aynor.

What is RIDE, and which roads is it building?

RIDE is the name Horry County gives its road programs, each paid for by a local tax that voters approve. RIDE 1 ran from 1996 to 2018 on a hospitality fee and built SC 22, SC 31 and the Fantasy Harbour bridge. RIDE 3 ran from 2017 to April 2025 and included the Carolina Forest Boulevard widening and the US 501 frontage roads (Horry County, October 8, 2024). RIDE 4 is a one-cent capital projects sales tax that took effect May 1, 2025 and runs to 2050. It is a sales tax, so it does not add a line to a property tax bill. Its biggest items are the SC 22 Extension at $1.56 billion, a new Waccamaw River crossing at Conway at $860 million, the SC 90 widening at $745 million, a $450 million share of I-73 and $299 million for mass transit. The list also includes an SC 31 interchange at Augusta Plantation Drive, US 17 in Windy Hill, 38th Avenue North and the Barefoot Landing swing bridge. It pays for paving 200 miles of dirt roads and resurfacing 400 more as well (Horry County RIDE 4).

SC 31, the Carolina Bays Parkway. The existing road runs 28.1 miles from SC 707 in Socastee to SC 9 at Little River, six lanes and limited access, opened in phases in 2002, 2005 and on November 7, 2019. It is also dedicated as the John B. Singleton Parkway (Wikipedia: SC 31). On July 14, 2026, County Council gave second-reading approval to a revised agreement with Pulte for a connector from SC 31 to the US 17 Bypass near Surfside, largely paid for by the developer and possibly built within seven years. In exchange, the Pine Ridge tract is capped at about 2,000 homes, down from 2,500 (WPDE, July 14, 2026). In August, council approved the plan after dropping a planned overpass that had drawn more than 80 complaints (WFXB, August 20, 2026).

I-73. SCDOT has bought 99% of the land the road needs from I-95 to US 501, and 95% of it from US 501 to the Little Pee Dee River. It is still buying from the river to SC 22 (WMBF, February 10, 2026). After a pledge of federal funding at an August 2026 rally in Myrtle Beach, SCDOT said it still has to identify the money before construction can start (WIS, August 26, 2026). Published cost estimates run from about $1.6 billion to $2 billion. RIDE 4's $450 million share is released only if SCDOT has contracts in place to complete the road from Horry County to I-95 (Horry County Roads).

SC 22 and the Southern Evacuation Lifeline. SC 22 is the Conway Bypass, also called Veterans Highway, and it opened May 4, 2001 (Wikipedia: SC 22). Its extension is known locally as SELL, the Southern Evacuation Lifeline. The environmental studies are funded under RIDE 3, and the county lists them as not yet started. The county is working toward a federal Record of Decision, which is the written federal approval that closes the environmental study and lets the county move the project forward (Horry County Roads). Building it is RIDE 4's largest line.

Conway Perimeter Road. Four lanes plus a multi-use path from US 378 at El Bethel Road to US 701 South, under RIDE 3, with an $18.4 million budget. Construction had not started as of September 2026 (Horry County Roads).

Which schools are being built, and where is the district buying land?

Horry County Schools is one district for the whole county, with more than 47,000 students, the third-largest in South Carolina, and it is the county's largest employer at more than 6,300 people (MyHorryNews, September 11, 2026). The two Carolina Forest elementaries that opened in August 2025 cost about $65.7 million and $62.3 million, and the St. James Elementary replacement is due in August 2028. The district uses the term "red zone" for a school projected to be over its functional capacity. For 2026-27, 20 schools carry that label, including all five in the North Myrtle Beach attendance area, and Carolina Forest High, with 2,825 students, is projected at 120% of capacity (Post and Courier, February 26, 2026).

The district has been buying land for the schools that follow: the Little River golf course and the Enoch Road acreage near Aynor, both described above. It added 60.73 acres on SC 90 near Bear Bluff Road, approved March 23, 2026 for $6.3 million (WPDE, March 24, 2026). The money comes in part from the one-percent education capital sales tax, which voters renewed 68% to 32% in November 2022 and which runs through 2039. Horry County Schools gets 80% of it, Coastal Carolina University 13.3% and Horry-Georgetown Technical College 6.7% (Horry County Schools). Attendance lines move when a new school opens, so for any address you are considering, the district's current zoning map is the place to check.

Where are the hospitals and emergency rooms going in?

Three health systems are building in Horry County at once, and a fourth is changing hands.

• McLeod Health is opening the 48-bed Carolina Forest hospital described above, which McLeod describes as its first new hospital in the county since McLeod Seacoast opened in Little River in 2011 (McLeod Health).
• Grand Strand Health, part of HCA, is spending more than $350 million. South Strand Hospital on the US 17 Bypass, with 59 beds, four operating rooms and an emergency room, broke ground in February 2026 and is due in late 2027. The program also includes $55.2 million in upgrades at the main campus and a $30 million parking garage with 742 spaces. Another $45 million goes to the three freestanding emergency rooms in Little River, Murrells Inlet and Conway, the last at Church Street and Millpond Road (WMBF, February 9, 2026).
• Conway Medical Center is building the Socastee emergency room above and an $18 million freestanding emergency room at Highway 90 and Highway 22, reported as the first phase of a new campus.
• Tidelands Health, based in Georgetown County with sites in Horry, is coming under MUSC. The state approved MUSC's takeover in August 2025 (Coastal Observer, August 28, 2025), and Jay Hinesley became Tidelands' CEO on July 1, 2026 (MUSC). Tidelands has a 36-bed Socastee hospital in its plans. With Intuitive Health, it also plans combined emergency and urgent care centers in Forestbrook, on US 501 in Conway and at River Oaks, with no opening dates yet (WMBF, June 19, 2025).

Only some of these doors are open yet. If you are looking at a home in Carolina Forest, Socastee or Burgess, the nearest emergency room in 2027 may be a different one from the nearest one today, so it helps to know both.

Who are the big employers, and how do people get here?

Tourism is the largest industry. In 2025, 17.8 million visitors spent $13.3 billion on the Grand Strand (Tourism Works for the Grand Strand), and the area supported about 82,000 tourism jobs in 2024 (Myrtle Beach Area CVB). Horry County Schools is the largest single employer, and Coastal Carolina University's record enrollment is above. The Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation counted $225 million in new capital investment and 130 jobs in 2025. The projects included Ocean Craft Marine in Bucksport, at $10.8 million and 93 jobs, and a $10 million sawmill at Galivants Ferry with 18 jobs (MyHorryNews, January 9, 2026). The county has about 190 industries, and its unemployment rate was 4.4% in July 2026 (FRED, BLS).

Myrtle Beach International Airport finished a $93.5 million terminal expansion with a ribbon cutting on December 2, 2025, adding six gates for 18 in all. It handled about 3.53 million passengers in 2025 (Myrtle Beach International Airport). Spirit Airlines stopped flying on May 2, 2026, and the airlines still serving the airport are Allegiant, American, Avelo, Breeze, Delta, Frontier, Porter, Southwest, Sun Country and United (Myrtle Beach International Airport, May 2, 2026). If you will be flying in to look at homes, that is the list to book from.

Is the home your legal residence? The 4% and 6% question

South Carolina taxes an owner-occupied legal residence, with up to five contiguous acres, on "four percent of the fair market value." Everything else, in the words of the statute, "shall be taxed on an assessment equal to six percent of the fair market value" (S.C. Code § 12-43-220). The same section sets the rental line: an owner keeps the 4% ratio if the residence "is not rented for more than seventy-two days in a calendar year." So a home rented out for more than 72 days, or one that is not your legal residence, is assessed at 6%.

The 4% rate is something you apply for. Horry County asks that the application be completed by May 31 so that the year's bill goes out at the 4% rate. The county's guide lists the result of not filing as an automatic 6% assessment (Horry County, April 30, 2025; Guide to Assessment). The application asks for a South Carolina driver's license or ID and a South Carolina vehicle registration at the address, for every owner-occupant and for a spouse, plus redacted federal and state tax returns (Horry County 4% instructions). For active-duty military, the county accepts orders and a leave and earnings statement (LES) instead, and it takes licenses and registrations "regardless of where licensed or registered" as its instructions put it. A 4% home is also exempt from the school operating levy, which is the largest line on a Horry bill, while every home pays the school debt levy.

Horry reassesses the whole county every five years. Increases from a reassessment are capped at 15% over five years, but that cap does not apply after a sale, so a purchase brings the home's taxable value up to date (Horry County Assessor, Guide to Assessment).

How does the tax bill add up in Horry County?

Horry publishes its tax rates in mills. A mill is one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value, and a levy is a rate stated in mills. The assessed value is the 4% or 6% share of the home's value from the section above. Horry County's own levy is 52.1 mills, the school operating levy is 109.1 mills (4% homes are exempt), and the school debt levy is 10.0 mills (SC Association of Counties, 2025 Property Tax Rates by County, February 2026 revision).

If the home is inside a city or town, that town's levy is added. From the 2025 table: Loris 108.0 mills, Conway 98.1, Myrtle Beach 83.4, Atlantic Beach 82.0, Aynor 65.8, North Myrtle Beach 45.0, Briarcliffe Acres 45.0 and Surfside Beach 43.0. Myrtle Beach also has a 10.0-mill municipal improvement district and a few special tax districts of its own.

A home outside every town, in unincorporated Horry, pays none of those and instead pays the county fire levy of 20.2 mills, a fire apparatus levy of 1.5 mills and a solid waste levy of 8.1 mills. Murrells Inlet has its own fire district at 28.0 mills in place of the county fire levy, and watershed districts such as Arcadian Shores at 27.7 mills are extra where they apply. Unincorporated homes also pay an $89 stormwater fee per single-family residence, and the county charges a $50 road maintenance fee per vehicle.

The numbers below are made up to show the arithmetic for one home in unincorporated Horry, outside any special district:

Home value (invented)                          $400,000

As your legal residence, 4%:
  Assessed value                                $16,000
  County 52.1 + school debt 10.0 + fire 20.2
  + apparatus 1.5 + solid waste 8.1 = 91.9 mills
  Tax before fees                             $1,470.40

As a second home or rental, 6%:
  Assessed value                                $24,000
  Same levies + school operating 109.1 = 201.0 mills
  Tax before fees                             $4,824.00

The same home carries about three times the tax as a second home, which is why the 4% application above is worth filing on time. The value reset from a purchase lands on your second tax bill after closing rather than the first. The Bluffton property tax page walks through that timing, and it is the same across South Carolina.

What does a new home pay in impact fees?

An impact fee is a one-time charge on new construction that helps pay for the roads, parks and public safety that growth needs, and it reaches you through the builder's price. On July 14, 2026, County Council voted unanimously to raise Horry's fees for the first time since 2021 and to scale them by home size. The tiers, as WPDE reported them, are (WPDE, July 14, 2026):

• 1,000 square feet or less: $995
• 1,001 to 1,500 square feet: $1,615
• 1,501 to 2,000 square feet: $2,050
• 2,001 to 2,500 square feet: $2,392
• 2,501 to 3,000 square feet: $2,668
• 3,001 to 3,500 square feet: $2,902
• 3,501 square feet and up: $3,104

The new schedule took effect in late July 2026 (WMBF, July 21, 2026). Since October 2021 the fees have brought in more than $45 million for parks and recreation, police, fire, the emergency operations center and solid waste (Horry County, June 2, 2026). If you are buying a newly built home, the builder can tell you which tier it fell in.

What about wind, flood and a condo's paperwork?

The wind pool. State law set up the South Carolina Wind and Hail Underwriting Association to write wind and hail coverage in what it calls the "coastal area." For Horry County, the statute defines that as "all areas in Horry County east of U.S. Highway No. 17 or By-Pass 17, whichever is farther to the west" (S.C. Code § 38-75-310). The Department of Insurance has also issued orders expanding the eligible territory over the years, so whether a specific address qualifies for the pool is something an insurance agent checks. Either way, the wind premium is part of the monthly payment a lender qualifies you on.

Flood. Horry County participates in the National Flood Insurance Program, and for a home in a Special Flood Hazard Area, FEMA's high-risk zone, flood insurance is required on any federally related mortgage (Horry County: Know Your Flood Hazard). In plain terms, that covers nearly every home loan, including FHA, VA and conventional loans, so if the home is in that zone the flood premium is part of your payment. The county publishes a Flood Map App through its Flooding pages, so you can look up any address before you write an offer. The same pages handle elevation certificates, the surveyor's form that records how high the home is built compared with the expected flood level (Horry County: Flooding).

Condo towers. Condos are a large share of what sells on the Strand: 3,491 closed year to date through August 2026, with 7.6 months of supply on the market against 4.1 months for single-family homes (CCAR, August 2026 Monthly Indicators). South Carolina has no statewide requirement that an association fund reserves or run a reserve study, as of June 2026. A reserve study is the report that estimates what the building's big repairs will cost and when. There is also no statewide structural inspection mandate (Associa, on the CAI report, July 15, 2026). Two bills would change that, and neither is law: H.3235 would create a study committee on inspecting coastal buildings of six or more floors, and H.5204 would require reserve studies every three years (S.C. Legislature, H.3235; H.5204). So for now, the reserves and inspections on a given tower are whatever its own documents and board provide. When you are buying a condo, please ask for the association's current budget, its reserve study if it has one, the last twelve months of board meeting minutes and any special assessments from the past five years. Please ask early, because the dues are part of your monthly payment.

What do the local names mean?

• Grand Strand: the 60-odd miles of coast from Little River to Winyah Bay, named in a 1949 Myrtle Beach Sun column.
• Horry: pronounced "OR-ree," and the county's nickname is the Independent Republic of Horry.
• RIDE: the county's road programs, RIDE 1 through RIDE 4, each paid for by a local tax.
• SELL: the Southern Evacuation Lifeline, the planned extension of SC 22.
• Carolina Bays Parkway: SC 31, also the John B. Singleton Parkway.
• Conway Bypass, or Veterans Highway: SC 22, opened in 2001.
• Superblock: the downtown Myrtle Beach block that holds the Arts & Innovation District.
• Market Common: the redevelopment of the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.
• Red zone: Horry County Schools' term for a school projected to be over its functional capacity.
• Wind pool: the South Carolina Wind and Hail Underwriting Association.
• 4% and 6%: the two assessment ratios, for a legal residence and for everything else.

How do these facts reach your mortgage?

In August 2026 the median single-family home in the CCAR market sold for $369,900 and the median condo for $230,000 (CCAR, August 2026 Monthly Indicators). Across the county the year-to-date medians run from $569,716 in North Myrtle Beach and $530,000 in Myrtle Beach, through $475,000 in Carolina Forest, to $311,788 in Conway and $310,000 in Loris and Longs. The 2026 conforming loan limit for Horry County, the largest loan Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will buy here, and the FHA limit are in the box below this article.

A lender qualifies you on a full monthly payment, and in Horry County that payment can carry several local lines. It includes the property tax at 4% or 6% and the town levy if the home is inside one. It also includes the wind premium if the address is in the pool's territory, flood insurance if the home is in a high-risk zone, and a condo's dues. An impact fee never appears on that list, because it reaches you through a new home's price instead. For military families, Horry's 4% checklist accepts orders and an LES in place of South Carolina licenses, and VA loans in South Carolina explains the rest of a VA purchase here. Pre-approval in South Carolina covers what the letter is based on, and the South Carolina page covers attorney closings and the rest of the state's rules. If you are weighing the Grand Strand against other parts of the state, I have written the same kind of guide for Charleston, for Hilton Head and Bluffton, where I live, and for Greenville.

When you're ready, you can run your numbers for a Horry County purchase: rates for your scenario and South Carolina 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 the county uses for a specific property, and whether it qualifies for the 4% rate, are set by the Horry County Assessor, so please confirm them with that office.

Common questions

Is Myrtle Beach the fastest-growing metro area in the United States?

By the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates, Horry County, which is the whole Myrtle Beach metro, grew 21.8% from 2020 to 2025. Sorted by percentage growth over that period, it comes out ahead of every other metropolitan statistical area in the country, just in front of Wildwood-The Villages in Florida.

How do I get the 4% property tax rate in Horry County?

You apply to the Horry County Assessor for the legal residence rate, and the county asks that the application be completed by May 31 so the year's bill goes out at 4%. You will need a South Carolina driver's license or ID and vehicle registration at the address for each owner-occupant and for a spouse, plus redacted tax returns. Active-duty military can use orders and a leave and earnings statement instead. Without the application, the county assesses the home at 6%.

Do I pay more property tax on a second home in Myrtle Beach?

Yes. A home that is not your legal residence, or one you rent out for more than 72 days in a calendar year, is assessed at 6% of its value instead of 4%. It also pays the school operating levy that a 4% home is exempt from. Together those two differences make the bill on the same home roughly three times higher as a second home or rental.

What is RIDE 4?

RIDE 4 is Horry County's one-cent capital projects sales tax for roads, which took effect May 1, 2025 and runs to 2050. Its largest projects are the SC 22 Extension, a new Waccamaw River crossing at Conway, the SC 90 widening, a share of I-73 and mass transit. The list also carries the Barefoot Landing swing bridge and the paving of 200 miles of dirt roads. Because it is a sales tax, it does not appear on a property tax bill.

Is Highway 31 being extended to Surfside Beach?

That is the plan. In July and August 2026, Horry County Council approved a revised agreement with Pulte for a connector from the south end of SC 31 to the US 17 Bypass near Surfside. The developer would pay for most of it, and it could be built within seven years. Council dropped a planned overpass from the design after more than 80 complaints.

Does South Carolina require condo inspections or reserve studies like Florida?

No. As of June 2026, South Carolina has no statewide requirement that a condo association fund reserves, run a reserve study or have its building structurally inspected. Two bills that would add a study committee and a reserve requirement were pending in the legislature and had not become law. The reserves and inspections on a given building are whatever its own documents and board provide. So please read the budget, any reserve study, the last twelve months of board meeting minutes and any special assessments from the past five years before you commit.

Which airlines fly to Myrtle Beach?

After Spirit Airlines stopped flying on May 2, 2026, Myrtle Beach International Airport is served by Allegiant, American, Avelo, Breeze, Delta, Frontier, Porter, Southwest, Sun Country and United. The airport finished a terminal expansion in December 2025 that brought it to 18 gates.