Elgin, South Carolina.
Typical home $299,089 (+2.0% in a year), asking rent $1,780 (+0.9%). Columbia, SC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$827 (+111%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,966 +2%
- $293,124$299,089 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $55,346 +23%
- $243,744$299,089 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.
- Elgin$1,570
- South Carolina$1,597
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Elgin, SC rose 2.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Elgin, SC rose 0.9% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Elgin runs $227/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $360 in Jan 2025.
That is $2,006 a month against $1,780 rent: a $1,570 mortgage payment, plus $116 property tax and $320 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Elgin
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$2,006
- Renting$1,780
- Mortgage only$1,570
Property tax · $116/mo 0.47% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Kershaw County, SC
Insurance & upkeep · $320/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 Elgin, Kershaw County, South Carolina
Elgin is a town of 1,634 people in Kershaw County. 93% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 7% are rented. Unemployment in Kershaw County was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had 1.4% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Elgin is a small town in Kershaw County where almost everyone lives in a home they own, and rentals are uncommon. Fewer residents live below the poverty line than is typical across the country. Most adults commute to work, and a good number work from home. Winters are mild, with little or no snow, and summers are hot, with plenty of rain through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, with many others in professional and business services, manufacturing and shops. Food Lion and Floco Foods, both grocery stores, are among the largest workplaces in town, along with the Veterans Benefits Administration. Unemployment across Kershaw County has eased a little over the past year, and the county has added a few more jobs.
Things to do. Sesquicentennial State Park, a protected area, is a short drive away. Farther afield, Congaree National Park is a longer drive away, as is Riverbanks Zoo. Lake Wateree, a lake, is also a longer drive away.
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- 716households
- 27%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 27 mintypical commute
- 13%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kershaw County had 18,585 jobs in 2025, 1.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 56° and lows near 33°; warmest in July, with highs near 92° and lows near 71°. About 46 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sandhill Rsch - Elgin weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Elgin
- Food LionGrocery stores103
- ElginMail and parcel delivery52
- Floco FoodsGrocery stores52
- Veterans Benefits AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs27
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 207 people in all. Federal offices come from OPM's federal workforce data (2026). 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Lightningrelatively high in parts of ElginRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Elgin’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Kershaw County and the Columbia, SC metro.
Elgin home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Elgin$299,089
- South Carolina$304,319
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Elgin listings, and the typical home goes pending in 32 days — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Elgin37.61%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Elgin32
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Elgin184
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Elgin45
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Elgin$303,917
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Elgin99.69%
Zip codes with a Elgin address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Elgin — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.