Laurens, South Carolina.
Typical home $196,013 (+0.3% in a year), asking rent $1,085 . Greenville-Anderson, SC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$401 (+64%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $671 +0%
- $195,342$196,013 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $8,832 -4%
- $204,845$196,013 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.
- Laurens$1,029
- South Carolina$1,597
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Laurens, SC rose 0.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Laurens, Laurens County, South Carolina
Laurens is a city of 9,335 people in Laurens County. 46% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 54% are rented. Unemployment in Laurens County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Laurens is a small South Carolina city where the population skews older than the typical American community, and where fewer homes are lived in by their owners than across much of the state. Rents and home values are modest, though a good share of residents live below the poverty line. Winters are mild and rarely snowy, summers are hot, and rain falls fairly evenly through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, shops and professional and business services. The largest workplaces in Laurens include Laurens 55 Schools, Walmart and Martha Franks Retirement Community. Jobs across Laurens County grew slightly last year, and unemployment has eased compared with a year earlier.
Things to do. A short drive away, Lake Rabon is the closest spot for time on the water, and Bailey Memorial Stadium is nearby for local games. A longer drive brings you to Ninety Six National Historic Site, a protected area with deep roots in the history of the South Carolina backcountry. Sumter National Forest and Lake Greenwood are also a longer drive away, for walking, boating and quiet time outdoors.
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- 3,925households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 25%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Laurens County had 20,405 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 53° and lows near 30°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 70°. About 1 inches of snow and 47 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Laurens weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Laurens
- Laurens 55 SchoolsSchool district926FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters292
- Martha Franks Retirement CommunityHomes for the aged with nursing care195
- National Healthcare of LaurensNursing homes178
- Milliken Gilliland PlantTextile products made in warp or weft knitting mills176
- Ingles MarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores156
- Laurens CPWDistribution of natural gas79
- NIPG LaurensPanels, prefabricated metal building, manufacturing45
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,236 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- LightningVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Laurens’ 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 Laurens County and the Greenville-Anderson, SC metro.
Laurens home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Laurens$196,013
- South Carolina$304,319
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Laurens listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Laurens25.60%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Laurens75
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Laurens20
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Laurens address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Laurens — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.