Buying a Home in Carolina Forest, SC: The Paper Company's Road, Lewis Ocean Bay, McLeod's New Hospital and a Community With No Town Hall

The first mile and a quarter of Carolina Forest Boulevard was paved by a paper company. International Paper had owned this pine land since 1937, when it bought about 30,000 acres called the Buist Tract from Burroughs & Chapin. By the mid-1990s it was ready to sell the timberland for homes, and no public money was available for a road into it, so the company built the road itself. Wikipedia's Carolina Forest article, drawing on The Sun News, has the first 1.25 miles open by November 1995. The full Boulevard was finished in December 1996, and River Oaks Drive followed in December 1997. Together they make an 11-mile loop. Before any of that, from 1942 to 1947, this land was part of the Conway Bombing and Gunnery Range.

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 from Bluffton, down the coast in Beaufort County, and I wrote this page for a client weighing a home in Carolina Forest. If you are buying in Carolina Forest, you are buying in unincorporated Horry County, in a planned community of 23,342 people that has no town government and grew out of International Paper's timberland. That population is the 2020 Census count, on about 17 square miles. My Myrtle Beach area page already covers Horry County's growth, the road programs, the 4% and 6% tax rates, flood and the county's impact fees, so I will not repeat them here. This page is about the community itself and the few things I would look up on an address in it. The facts come from public sources, named beside them, and I checked them on October 13, 2026.

The land International Paper sold, and the agreement it made with the County

The schools came before the homes. In June 1994, International Paper sold 125 acres of the Buist Tract to Horry County Schools, and that land became the site of Carolina Forest's first school. Wikipedia's article, drawing on The Sun News, has that sale. Then on December 2, 1997, Horry County Council agreed to freeze the zoning rules on about 11 square miles of Carolina Forest for 20 years. In exchange, International Paper gave land for parks and roads. A 2014 MyHorryNews headline says the County pushed for the agreement to get land for SC 31. The agreement did not require the company to widen Carolina Forest Boulevard or River Oaks Drive to four lanes. So the four lanes you drive on Carolina Forest Boulevard today were the County's own work, finished in 2021, and I come back to that below.

Lewis Ocean Bay next door: Venus flytraps, black bears and burn days on International Drive

Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve borders Carolina Forest on the SC 90 side. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, SCDNR for short, manages it, and its June 2025 release says the preserve holds the largest group of Carolina bays in South Carolina. A Carolina bay, if you have not heard the term, is one of the shallow, oval depressions found along the coastal plain, many of them wetlands, and the preserve is named for one of its own. The same release says the state's largest and only long-term viable population of Venus flytraps is centered there, along with the highest number of black bears in the state.

The preserve grew in 2025 because a hospital did not get built. Conway Medical Center wanted a 50-bed hospital on 353 acres along International Drive, and officials said the alternative for that land could be about 3,000 homes. SCDNR and conservation groups opposed the hospital because buildings full of patients would limit the prescribed burns the preserve depends on. WMBF reported in February 2024 that Conway Medical Center told County Council it no longer wanted to build there. SCDNR then bought the 353 acres and dedicated them to the preserve on June 10, 2025. MyHorryNews put the preserve at 10,788 acres after that addition. If you buy along International Drive, those 353 acres stay woods rather than becoming a hospital campus or a few thousand new neighbors.

Those burns reach the road. SCDNR burns the preserve on purpose to keep its habitat healthy, and Horry County closes International Drive while it does. WMBF covered one of those closures in February 2024, about five miles of the road. If you are looking at a home off International Drive, a closed road on a burn day is part of life there.

In March 2025 a wildfire in Carolina Forest reached 2,059 acres, and the South Carolina Forestry Commission said at 30% containment that no homes had been lost and no one had been hurt. WMBF's April 2026 report says nearly 100 agencies helped protect homes while crews worked that fire for nearly three months. If you are buying here, I would get a homeowners insurance quote on the specific address early, so that number is in your payment before you write an offer.

Twenty-three thousand people and no town hall

Carolina Forest has no mayor, no town council and no town tax, so if you are coming from a place with all three, Horry County Council is your local government here. Residents have argued about that. Around 2023, ABC News 4 covered a push by some residents to incorporate, on the argument that the community had too little representation on County Council. As of my research, the community is still unincorporated, and your tax bill will show no town line.

The Post and Courier wrote in 2023 that Conway, the county seat next door, was weighing whether to annex land along US 501 reaching the Kroger center. MyHorryNews reported in 2024 that the City of Conway agreed to hold off until road questions along Postal Way were answered. I found no source showing that Conway or the City of Myrtle Beach has since annexed any Carolina Forest parcel. So if the home you want is near US 501, I would read the parcel's tax district on the county's property record, because a city line would show up there first.

Postal Way, River Oaks and the plans the County said yes and no to

Postal Way is the road behind Tanger Outlets that you pass on US 501. In 2023 a plan for more than 1,100 homes plus offices and retail on land there came before the County. WMBF reported that the Planning Commission recommended it in April 2023. The Post and Courier reported that County Council then voted it down in November 2023, after residents objected and after looking at what the roads could carry. So if you are looking near Postal Way, the big mixed-use project you may have read about did not get the County's approval.

River Oaks Golf Club, inside the community, was the other big one. In 2022 Diamond Shores LLC asked to put about 550 homes on the course. The Post and Courier reported in October 2022 that Diamond Shores had withdrawn its request after residents objected over traffic, green space and flooding. So if you are looking at a home near the course, that 550-home plan was pulled, and I found no newer plan for the course in any public source.

Some plans did pass. The Post and Courier covered Council's 2021 approval of 330 townhomes at Postal Way and Glenbriar Drive. The Post and Courier reported that on February 6, 2026, Horry County and Amazon confirmed a delivery facility on a 27.6-acre lot on Postal Way, with no opening date yet. I looked for a Carolina Forest subdivision approved or under construction in 2025 or 2026 and did not find one in a public source. If you are looking near Postal Way and want to know what else is coming, the Horry County Planning Commission's agendas are the place to check.

McLeod's hospital, the library and the rec center

McLeod Health Carolina Forest is the first inpatient hospital in the community, and it opened in two steps. McLeod Health announced that its first four licensed beds began admitting patients on January 21, 2025. The four-story, 48-bed hospital has a 24-hour emergency room and a fifth floor left empty so it can expand later. WMBF covered its ribbon cutting on August 27, 2026. By October 13, 2026, I had not found a source confirming when all 48 beds began taking patients. So if a hospital close by matters to you, please check with McLeod before you count on it as your nearest one.

The library and the recreation center share a site at 2250 and 2254 Carolina Forest Boulevard, with a gym, an indoor climbing wall and the Palmetto Adventure Land playground. WMBF covered the first Carolina Forest Day there in October 2023, with live music and a 5K, and the second was held in October 2024. The Carolina Forest Civic Association's calendar is where you will find this year's date.

The roads: International Drive, Carolina Forest Boulevard and US 501

RIDE is Horry County's name for its road programs, each paid for by a local tax that voters approve, and my Myrtle Beach page lists what RIDE 4, the current one, is building. Two earlier rounds built the roads you will drive here. International Drive runs about five miles from Carolina Forest to SC 90, four and five lanes wide with a path alongside, and RIDE 2 paid for it. SCDNR required protections for the preserve's black bears along it, and conservation groups fought the road in court over the bears. MyHorryNews reported that the last of those suits was dismissed in 2017. If you buy on that side of the community, it is the road you will take to SC 90.

Carolina Forest Boulevard went from two lanes to four between Gateway Drive and River Oaks Drive under RIDE 3, and all four lanes opened on July 31, 2021. The County's project page lists it as completed. RIDE 3 is also widening US 501 to six lanes, with the stretch from Gardner Lacy Road to SC 544 starting in the fall of 2022. If you commute to Conway or to the beach, you will live on US 501 and Carolina Forest Boulevard, and the County has rebuilt one and is widening the other.

The schools, from the 1997 Education Center to the two new elementaries

The land the district bought in June 1994 opened in the fall of 1997 as the Carolina Forest Education Center, for grades 6 through 10. The school's principal's message says it became Carolina Forest High School. Pine Island Elementary and Ten Oaks Elementary are the two newest schools, and MyHorryNews covered their ribbon cuttings on July 31, 2025. Each was built for 1,200 students, to relieve Carolina Forest, River Oaks and Ocean Bay elementaries, and their attendance lines were set on December 9, 2024. Attendance lines move when a school opens. So once you have an address in mind, please look it up on the district's current zoning map, because the school a home was zoned for last year may not be the one it is zoned for now.

Things to look up on a Carolina Forest address

Every Carolina Forest address is in unincorporated Horry County, and that shapes what you will see on your bill. Your property tax bill will show Horry County's own line, the school lines, and the county's fire and solid waste lines, and there is no town line because there is no town. The rates, the stormwater and road fees and the 4% legal-residence application are on my Myrtle Beach area page, and they are the same across the unincorporated county. The county also has a few special tax districts, a watershed district for one, that add a line to some bills and not others. I have not gone through that list parcel by parcel, so the surest step is to read the actual bill on the home you want, and I am glad to go through it with you.

On drainage, the County's stormwater manager told MyHorryNews in 2018 that most of Carolina Forest was built to a 25-year storm standard. In plain words, the pipes, ditches and ponds that carry rain away from a home here were sized for a rain with about a one-in-25 chance of falling in any year. A heavier rain than that can back up and spill over. BelleGrove flooded in 2015 and again in October 2016, when 14.54 inches fell. The County finished a drainage project in BelleGrove in 2017. The County's Flood Map App tells you, address by address, if the home you want is in FEMA's high-risk flood zone. If it is, flood insurance is required on your loan, and I put that premium in the payment I qualify you on.

Water and sewer come from Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority, which MyHorryNews describes as the only water provider in Horry County apart from the small Bucksport system. I did not find a source that says which electric utility serves which part of the community, so please ask the seller for a recent power bill and for how their trash is picked up. Your fire protection comes from Horry County Fire Rescue. IMAGINE 2040 is the County's long-range plan. It lists a new fire station for Carolina Forest among six the County means to build over the next two decades, with no date or budget attached yet.

The wind pool is the South Carolina Wind and Hail Underwriting Association, a state-created association that writes wind and hail coverage for homes near the coast. In Horry County, state law draws its area east of US 17 or the US 17 Bypass, whichever is farther west. I found no source that places any part of Carolina Forest inside or outside that line. Please ask your insurance agent about the specific address, and I will put whatever they quote into your numbers. The wind coverage may come from the pool or be included in your regular homeowners policy. Either way, that premium is part of your monthly payment, so I want the quote before we settle on a price range.

The named communities each have their own association. Plantation Lakes, which the Home Guide Myrtle Beach site dates to 2001, is built around a 180-acre lake. Wikipedia's article traces Hunters Ridge to International Paper's 1993 and 1994 land sales. BelleGrove, South Creek, Cameron Village, Berkshire Forest, Spring Lake and Covington Lake are the other names you will see. I found no public source for any of their dues or transfer fees. So please ask for the association's budget, its covenants and its resale documents early, all pages, because the dues are part of the monthly payment I run for you.

Your mortgage on a Carolina Forest home

The 2026 conforming and FHA limits for Horry County are in the box below this article, and they are the same in Carolina Forest as on the oceanfront. Those are the largest loans Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA will take here. In Carolina Forest, the payment I qualify you on carries the county's tax lines, your homeowners policy and the association's dues. It also carries wind coverage if the address needs a separate policy, and flood insurance if the home is in the high-risk zone. On a new townhome at Postal Way or Glenbriar Drive, the county's impact fee reaches you through the builder's price instead.

Once you have an address in mind, I can run the payment with that parcel's tax bill and that community's dues in it. Getting pre-approved in South Carolina explains what I'll ask you for and what you get back. You'll see pricing for your scenario, choose a rate option, which you can change later, and the application opens from there. If you served, VA loans in South Carolina covers entitlement, the funding fee and the attorney closing. If you already own here, maybe from when Spring Lake or Plantation Lakes was new, refinancing in South Carolina is where I would start on your rate, and a cash-out refinance covers using the equity. The South Carolina page covers attorney closings and the rest of the state's rules.

Nothing here is a loan approval, a denial or a commitment to lend, and it is not tax advice. The Horry County Assessor sets the value used for a specific property and decides whether it gets the 4% rate, and the parcel's record is what confirms its tax district. Please confirm both before you rely on either.

Common questions

Is Carolina Forest a city or a town?

Neither. Carolina Forest is a planned community in unincorporated Horry County, counted by the Census Bureau as its own place since 2020. It has no mayor, no town council and no town tax, and Horry County Council is its local government. Residents pushed to incorporate around 2023, and as of October 2026 the community is still unincorporated.

Is Carolina Forest in Myrtle Beach or Conway?

In neither city. It is unincorporated county land off US 501 between the two, with the mailing ZIP code 29579. The City of Conway has looked at annexing parcels along US 501 near the Kroger center, and the parcel's tax district on the county's property record shows whether any address has been taken into a city.

Is the new McLeod hospital in Carolina Forest open?

In part, as of my October 2026 check. McLeod Health Carolina Forest began admitting patients to its first four licensed beds on January 21, 2025, and the four-story, 48-bed hospital with a 24-hour emergency room held its ribbon cutting on August 27, 2026. I had not found a source confirming when all 48 beds began taking patients, so please check with McLeod directly.

Which schools opened in Carolina Forest in 2025?

Pine Island Elementary and Ten Oaks Elementary, which cut their ribbons on July 31, 2025. Each was built for 1,200 students to relieve Carolina Forest, River Oaks and Ocean Bay elementaries, with attendance lines set on December 9, 2024. Lines move when a school opens, so please look up a specific address on the district's current zoning map.