Jasper County

Jasper County sits at a median home price of $400,100 against median rent of $1,620, producing a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0486 percent and a cap rate of 3.16 percent. Those numbers place it squarely in appreciation territory on paper, except the appreciation story isn't working either: home prices fell 5.7 percent year-over-year. The modeled underwrite at 6.85 percent interest, 20 percent down, yields negative $1,044 per month in cash flow and a cash-on-cash return of -13.61 percent. An affordability index of 44 tells you local renters are stretched, which puts a ceiling on how aggressively you can push rents. Ranked 761st out of 1,000 counties nationally, sitting at the 3rd percentile, and 39th out of 46 counties in South Carolina, Jasper is a market that is failing on nearly every measurable axis simultaneously: prices are high enough to compress yield, but not high enough to signal durable appreciation demand.

The cash-flow buyer gets punished here. At $400,100 median with rent at $1,620, there is no path to positive cash flow at current financing rates without a substantial discount to market or an all-cash purchase that still only clears a 3.16 cap. The appreciation buyer faces a market that just gave back 5.7 percent in twelve months, with an overall score of 38 out of 100 and a stability score of only 50. The value-add operator is the only buyer who might find an angle, and only if acquisitions can be sourced meaningfully below the $400,100 median. Even then, rent levels in a county of 29,444 people limit the upside on repositioned assets. The cash-flow score of 43 and appreciation score of 14 summarize the situation cleanly: this market is mediocre at generating income and genuinely poor at generating price gains.

No economic anchor data was provided for Jasper County, so no employer-level analysis is offered here. What the population figure of 29,444 does signal is a thin renter pool. A small county with limited population depth means vacancy exposure is real and concentrated. If a handful of tenants turn over simultaneously, there are fewer replacement renters in the funnel than you would find in a larger market. Rental demand stability, reflected in that stability score of 50, is middling at best, and a small population base makes it harder to absorb that risk.

On the tax and insurance side, Jasper County is one place where the carry costs do not compound the pain further. The state-average effective property tax rate is 0.57 percent, flagged as low, which is a genuine tailwind relative to high-tax states. Combined with an insurance rate of 0.34 percent, the monthly tax and insurance burden comes to $303, part of the $567 in total estimated monthly expenses. That is a real cost advantage worth keeping in your underwrite, though the caveat applies: this is a state-average estimate from Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual county or township rates in Jasper may differ. Coastal South Carolina property insurance has been tightening, and Jasper's proximity to the Georgia border and tidal lowcountry means you should get actual insurance quotes before finalizing any pro forma.

The neighboring county comparison is where the picture becomes most instructive. Charleston County, directly adjacent, carries a median home price of $598,246 and median rent of $2,023, with a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0406 and an overall score of 39, essentially identical to Jasper's 38. Jasper is cheaper in absolute terms but not cheaper in yield terms: its 0.0486 rent-to-price ratio edges out Charleston's 0.0406, which is the one metric where Jasper looks comparatively better. Hampton County at $149,786 and Barnwell County at $150,265 both come in at dramatically lower price points, and while their overall scores are 37 and 40 respectively, the capital efficiency at those prices is fundamentally different. An investor who can source deals in Hampton or Barnwell at those medians enters with far less exposure and a more achievable path to cash flow. Abbeville County at $200,450 and an overall score of 42 sits between those extremes and outscores Jasper on the composite while requiring roughly half the capital. Jasper makes sense over its neighbors in exactly one scenario: an investor already operating in the Charleston market who wants to pay less per door while staying in the same general corridor, and who is buying far enough below the $400,100 median to rebuild the yield math. Outside that narrow use case, the capital deployed here buys a worse risk-adjusted outcome than what Hampton, Barnwell, or Abbeville can offer at less than half the price.