Folly Beach, South Carolina.
Typical home $1,073,799 (+4.2% in a year). Charleston-North Charleston, SC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$3,580 (+174%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $43,136 +4%
- $1,030,663$1,073,799 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $217,795 +25%
- $856,003$1,073,799 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.
- Folly Beach$5,636
- South Carolina$1,597
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Folly Beach, SC rose 4.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Folly Beach, Charleston County, South Carolina
Folly Beach is a city of 2,078 people in Charleston County. 95% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 5% are rented. Unemployment in Charleston County was 3.5% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Charleston County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Folly Beach is a small coastal city where residents are older than in most towns, and nearly everyone owns the home they live in. Homes here are worth far more than the typical American home, and few residents live in poverty. A large majority of adults hold a four-year degree, and incomes in the county as a whole run above what most of the country sees.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, with shops close behind. The largest workplaces in town are Avocet Hospitality Group, the City of Folly Beach and Folly, a grocery store. Unemployment across Charleston County has eased over the past year, and the county has added jobs.
Things to do. Winters are mild, with January days that stay cool rather than cold and nights that rarely feel harsh, while summers run hot, and rain falls steadily through the year. A short drive away are Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie, among the best known forts in the area, and the USS Yorktown, a museum ship. The Angel Oak, a protected old tree, is also a short drive away, and the H. L. Hunley museum is a longer drive.
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- 619households
- 65%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
What people in Charleston County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Charleston County had 283,985 jobs in 2025, 2.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 58° and lows near 44°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 77°. About 44 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Charleston City weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Folly Beach
- Avocet Hospitality GroupHotels108
- City of Folly BeachExecutive offices, federal, state, and local86
- Harris Teeter Supermarkets, Inc.Supermarkets and other grocery stores61
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 255 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
- Coastal floodingVery high
- HurricanesVery high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Folly Beach’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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 Charleston County and the Charleston-North Charleston, SC metro.
Folly Beach home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Folly Beach$1,073,799
- South Carolina$304,319
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Folly Beach listings — 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.
- Folly Beach16.16%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Folly Beach64
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Folly Beach11
Zip codes with a Folly Beach address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Folly Beach — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.