Commentary: Beaufort County’s housing crisis merits more attention — and action

Beaufort County constitutes one of our country’s most unaffordable housing markets, worse than major U.S. metro areas including greater Boston, Denver, and Washington, D.C.

The median home costs 6.6 times the median income in the Hilton Head Island metropolitan statistical area, according to 2025 data mapped by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

By that metric, the only less affordable housing markets on the East Coast are Cape Cod, South Florida, and metro New York City.

After stumbling upon this, I dug into the numbers and interviewed leaders of the Beaufort-Jasper Housing Trust.

COVID-19 fueled a population boom, but supply is the root problem. Meager home construction set the stage for a shortage, and restrictive policies are now compounding an affordability collapse on the Palmetto State’s southern coast.

Beaufort County built less housing as its population spiked, and one of its towns is trying to ban multifamily buildings — the housing that would most benefit struggling families.

The solution is complex but not complicated: Allow more homes to be built to reduce prices. This will make housing more affordable for essential workers and families with deep local roots, allowing them to stay and thrive in their community.

The Hilton Head metropolitan statistical area comprises two counties: Beaufort has a large, growing population and extremely expensive housing. Jasper’s population is much smaller, but it is the fastest-growing county in the country, partially because it is affordable — especially relative to Beaufort.

Beaufort County’s population grew 8.8% from 2021 to 2025, equivalent to more than 16,600 new residents.

The county’s home price index rose a staggering 73.9% percent in that period.

Even under ideal conditions, a region would struggle to absorb so many more people so quickly.

Unfortunately, Beaufort County’s local governments issued fewer permits for new housing, down from 2,827 in 2021 to 1,219 in 2025, for a county of about 204,000 residents.

Jasper County saw more housing permits in the period, but its skyrocketing population is still much smaller.

Demographics largely explain metro Beaufort’s housing crunch. It attracts affluent retirees and seniors, adding upward pressure to housing prices.

Many live on accumulated wealth, with little current income, so income-to-home-price ratio technically overstates the affordability problem. But most households, particularly young working people, lack accumulated wealth. And regardless, the metro area’s home price index rose almost 90% since the pandemic.

Wealthy newcomers can afford such costs, while many folks raised in the region cannot.

Workers who serve older, affluent residents — hospitality and retail workers, medical workers including nurses, firefighters and police officers — struggle to live near their jobs.

One complication is the large number of military personnel stationed in the region, who receive justly generous housing allowances that bid up rents and home prices. And topography is a constraint. Much of the region is low-lying, limiting the land that can be safely developed.

Some Gullah Geechee residents face potential displacement due to the region’s acute housing crisis. This African American community has lived for hundreds of years on the Palmetto State’s coast and sea islands. Gullah culture and traditions enriched my Lowcountry childhood.

These households sometimes lack air conditioning or face poor water quality.

Some struggle to document and legally establish ownership of property their family has held for generations. And restrictive regulations are another obstacle to better housing for people who need it. A housing market’s segments are directly connected.

Affluent people unable to find a home eventually direct their search elsewhere — a primary cause of low-income residents being priced out.

SC needs an alternate route to less traffic and more housing

Limiting population growth is not a viable solution.

My family moved to Mount Pleasant when I was 3; my father researched cancer at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Newcomers contribute to South Carolina. People should have the freedom to create the housing the state’s communities need.

Unfortunately, local housing policy appears likely to increase scarcity and prices.

Port Royal in Beaufort County is pursuing a six-month moratorium on new large-scale multifamily housing development, after a 12-month moratorium that was extended to 18 months and ended in November 2025.

This response will directly worsen the housing shortage and affordability crisis. My hometown, Mount Pleasant, enacted a similar ban for seven years that coincided with an increase in the traffic congestion it was supposed to tame.

New political coalitions will be required to pare back onerous regulations and build more housing for retirees and, yes, multifamily buildings for the workers who keep the region going.

That will be difficult, to put it mildly, but better housing policy starts with allowing less expensive housing to be built in the first place.