Bluffton, South Carolina.
Typical home $498,273 (-0.3% in a year), asking rent $2,096 (+1.4%). Hilton Head Island-Bluffton, SC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,463 (+127%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $1,373 -0%
- $499,646$498,273 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $115,958 +30%
- $382,315$498,273 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Bluffton$2,615
- South Carolina$1,597
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Bluffton, SC fell 0.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Bluffton, SC rose 1.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Bluffton runs $1,251/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,419 in Nov 2023.
That is $3,347 a month against $2,096 rent: a $2,615 mortgage payment, plus $198 property tax and $533 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Bluffton
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$3,347
- Renting$2,096
- Mortgage only$2,615
Property tax · $198/mo 0.48% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Beaufort County, SC
Insurance & upkeep · $533/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Bluffton, Beaufort County, South Carolina
Bluffton is a town of 27,716 people in Beaufort County. Half its households earn more than $111,281 a year and half less, against $86,573 across Beaufort County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 83% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 17% are rented. Unemployment in Bluffton was 3.4% in August 2026, and Beaufort County had 1.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Bluffton is a town in Beaufort County where households earn more than the county as a whole, and where far more homes are lived in by their owners than rented. Typical home values are high, and the people who live here tend to be somewhat older than the national average. Few residents live below the poverty line, and a large share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild and short, with little or no snow, summers are hot, and the year brings a fair amount of rain.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, shops, and professional and business services. Among the largest workplaces in Bluffton are Palmetto Bluff Investments, which runs country clubs, Right at Home, a home care agency for older people, and Publix Super Markets. The unemployment rate is lower than a year ago, and across Beaufort County there are slightly more jobs than there were the year before. Commutes are fairly long, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. The closest of the places nearby is Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to Fort Pulaski National Monument, a fort, and to Forsyth Park, a park. Telfair Museums, also a longer drive away, offers a museum visit for a quieter day.
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- 12,987households
- 52%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 16%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Beaufort County had 72,257 jobs in 2025, 1.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 61° and lows near 40°; warmest in July, with highs near 92° and lows near 74°. About 48 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Savannah International Airport weather station, 17 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Bluffton
- Palmetto Bluff InvestmentsCountry clubs394
- Right at Home - Hilton HeadHome care of elderly, medical255
- Kroger Atlanta KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores211
- Publix Super MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores181
- Publix Super MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores174
- Publix Super MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores159
- BrightviewLandscaping services114
- Kroger Atlanta KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores113
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 23 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,192 people in all. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- HurricanesVery high
- LightningVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsrelatively high in parts of BlufftonRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Bluffton’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Beaufort County and the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton, SC metro.
Bluffton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bluffton$498,273
- South Carolina$304,319
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Bluffton listings, and the typical home goes pending in 51 days — the market is heating up.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Bluffton27.54%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Bluffton51
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Bluffton819
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Bluffton176
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Bluffton$532,360
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Bluffton96.87%
Zip codes with a Bluffton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bluffton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Bluffton
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29910 | Bluffton | 53,019 | $1,986 | $521,908 |
| 29909 | Okatie | 24,003 | $2,715 | $483,541 |
| 29915 | Daufuskie Island | 619 | — | $672,840 |