Santee, South Carolina.
Typical home $245,953 (+3.6% in a year). Orangeburg, SC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$750 (+139%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,573 +4%
- $237,379$245,953 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $49,697 +25%
- $196,256$245,953 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.
- Santee$1,291
- 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 Santee, SC rose 3.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Santee, Orangeburg County, South Carolina
Santee is a town of 797 people in Orangeburg County. Unemployment in Orangeburg County was 5.7% in August 2026, and the county had 2.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Orangeburg County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Santee is a very small town in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, where household incomes across the county run below the national picture. Homes here are valued at a level that sits within reach of many buyers by national standards. Winters are mild and cool rather than harsh, summers are hot, and rain and melted snow arrive in good measure through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and transport and warehousing also employing many. A small share work from home. Across Orangeburg County, unemployment has eased compared with a year earlier, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before. Among the biggest workplaces in Santee are Thompson Construction Group, Food Lion and Santee National Golf Club.
Things to do. Santee State Park lies in or beside town, and Santee National Wildlife Refuge and the Santee Indian Mound and Fort Watson, an archaeological site, are a short drive away. For a longer outing, Lake Marion is a large reservoir a longer drive away, as is Congaree National Park.
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- 364households
- 5%work from home
What people in Orangeburg County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Orangeburg County had 27,181 jobs in 2025, 2.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 58° and lows near 35°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 70°. About 50 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Holly Hill Southwest weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Santee
- Thompson Construction GroupIndustrial building construction87
- Food LionGrocery stores83
- Floco FoodsGrocery stores37
- Santee National Golf ClubGolf and country clubs31
- Santee Building SolutionsResidential construction, multifamily, general contractors23
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 261 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
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Santee’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 Orangeburg County and the Orangeburg, SC metro.
Santee home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Santee$245,953
- South Carolina$304,319
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Santee listings — 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.
- Santee19.50%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Santee49
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Santee6
Zip codes with a Santee address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Santee — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.