Union County

Union County sits at a median home price of $136,006, which is one of the more striking entry points you'll find anywhere in South Carolina. The 3.78% year-over-year price appreciation tells you the market is moving, and the affordability index of 100 confirms you're buying at the floor of what the data considers accessible. The dataset does not supply a cap rate or gross rent multiplier for Union directly, so any yield projection requires you to build your own rent comparable set. What the data does give you is a top-line appreciation score of 82 out of 100 and a national ranking of 14th out of 1,000 counties, landing Union in the 98th percentile nationally. That is not a cash-flow story being told here, at least not one the data can confirm numerically. It is an affordability and price-trajectory story, with the cash-flow side left to your own underwriting.

The investor this market fits is someone playing a long entry game: buy cheap, hold for appreciation, and accept that the rent coverage math has to be stress-tested independently. At $136,006, the absolute dollar exposure is low enough that even modest rent income can cover carry costs without requiring aggressive rent assumptions. A value-add operator willing to acquire distressed stock in a sub-$150K market and force appreciation through renovation could also find a workable thesis here, given the price floor and the upward price trend. The stability score of 50 out of 100 is the number that should give a pure cash-flow buyer pause. It signals meaningful volatility or concentration risk relative to other markets, and a buyer who needs reliable occupancy to service debt should weight that carefully. The appreciation score of 82, by contrast, rewards the patient holder who can absorb short-term friction.

The carry cost picture is one of the cleaner parts of this underwrite. South Carolina's state-average effective property tax rate is 0.57%, which the Tax Foundation flags as low, and that is a genuine tailwind at this price point. On a $136,006 purchase, that translates to roughly $775 annually in property tax. Insurance runs an estimated $462 per year. Combined, monthly tax and insurance comes to approximately $103, which is a lean number that keeps your fixed overhead down even when gross rent is modest. The standard caveat applies: these are state-average estimates and your actual county or township rate may differ, so pull the Union County assessor data before you close. But directionally, the tax burden here is not the line item that will break your deal.

The data does not include economic anchor employers or a local economy note for Union County, so specific employer analysis is outside what can be supported here. What the stability score of 50 does suggest is that the local demand base may be narrower or more cyclical than the appreciation score implies. A 27,158-person county is a small market, and small markets carry concentration risk by definition. Tenant demand can shift meaningfully with a single employer, and the absence of a diversified employment base in the data is worth treating as a flag rather than an oversight. Diligence on who the major local employers are and how stable their headcounts have been over the past five years is not optional here.

Compared to the neighboring counties provided, Union's case becomes clearer. Richland County prices at $238,959 with an overall score of 66. Aiken County comes in at $226,755 with a score of 65. Florence County sits at $196,261 with a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0747 and a score of 70. Every neighbor with price data attached costs significantly more to enter and scores lower overall. Union is the only county in this peer set hitting an overall score above 75, and it does so at a purchase price that is $60,000 to $103,000 below its neighbors. The tradeoff is that Florence, Richland, and Aiken all carry rent data showing ratios in the 0.075 to 0.078 range, which gives you a firmer yield baseline to underwrite against. Union's missing rent data means you carry more uncertainty into the analysis. Choose Union over a neighbor when your primary goal is lowest-cost market entry with appreciation upside and you are prepared to do your own rent discovery. Choose Florence or Richland when you need a documented rent-to-price ratio to anchor your financing assumptions.