Sunset, South Carolina.
Typical home $1,395,207 (+10.0% in a year). Greenville-Anderson, SC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$5,200 (+245%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $126,955 +10%
- $1,268,252$1,395,207 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $622,605 +81%
- $772,602$1,395,207 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.
- Sunset$7,323
- South Carolina$1,597
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 6 years.
Typical home values in Sunset, SC rose 10.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sunset, Pickens County, South Carolina
The Census does not count Sunset on its own, so the figures here are Pickens County's. Half the county's households earn more than $61,064 a year and half less; 17% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 71% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 29% are rented. Unemployment in Pickens County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.8% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Pickens County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sunset is a small town in Pickens County, in the hilly upstate of South Carolina. Most homes across the county are lived in by their owners, and typical home values there run far above what local incomes would suggest. Winters are cool and summers are warm, and rain and melted snow fall through much of the year, so the countryside stays green. Many residents are older, and the county's median age is well above that of a typical young town.
Work. Many people work in schools, hospitals and social care, or in manufacturing, while others work in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, or in shops. Unemployment in the county has eased over the past year, and jobs have been growing. A minority of adults hold a four-year degree, and few people work from home.
Things to do. Table Rock State Park is a protected area a short drive away, with the outdoors as its main draw. Gorges State Park is another protected area a short drive off, and Rainbow Falls, a waterfall, is also a short drive away. Visitors often combine a walk to a waterfall with time in one of the parks.
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- 52,414households
- 36.2median age
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 17%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What people in Pickens County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Pickens County had 40,585 jobs in 2025, 1.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 52° and lows near 28°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 66°. About 69 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Table Rock weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Pickens County
- Clemson UniversityUniversity or college6,281
- Pickens 01 SchoolsSchool district2,283FTE
- Reliable Automatic Sprinkler - South CarolinaSprinkler systems, automatic fire, manufacturing886
- AramarkFood service contractors719
- King AsphaltPavement, highway, road, street, bridge or airport runway, construction550
- PH Baptist Easley HospitalGeneral hospital422FTE
- Yokohama Industries Americas South CarolinaAutomotive, truck and bus steering assemblies and parts manufacturing372
- Allsource EnterprisesFirefighting equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers340
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 68 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 9,991 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Pickens County, 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 Pickens County and the Greenville-Anderson, SC metro.
Sunset home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sunset$1,395,207
- South Carolina$304,319
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Sunset 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.
- Sunset19.33%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Sunset67
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Sunset8
Zip codes with a Sunset address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sunset — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.