Does Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach have a ‘cool’ real estate market? What we know

Does the Myrtle Beach area have a slow real estate economy in 2024? According to one metric, it does.

Realtor.com grades metro areas on a 1-100 scale on its Market Hotness Index, with 90-100 considered “very hot” and 0-10 “very cool”. Of the 300 metro areas measured on Realtor.com’s scale, the Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Conway metropolitan area scored 22.74.

Considered “slightly cool,” the Grand Strand area was 250 out of 300 metro areas measured in the United States—on par with cities like Monroe, La., and Montgomery, Ala. Realtor.com’s data isn’t surprising considering the performance of the 2023 real estate market.

The Sun News reported in February 2024 that houses stayed on the market longer, mortgage rates remained high, dissuading home buying, and homeowners seemed reluctant to put their homes on the market. Compared to 2021 and 2022, when the Grand Strand real estate economy was booming, 2023 was a down year. Along the Grand Strand, fewer homes were sold for less revenue than in 2022.

While new home construction was still strong, the overall Grand Strand real estate economy was down in 2023. However, the Grand Strand did avoid a rise in foreclosure rates in 2024, which is currently impacting other cities in The Palmetto State, such as Columbia and Spartanburg, S.C.

Real estate professionals with the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors believe 2024 is a bounce-back year from 2023, and Realtor.com’s assessment supports this conclusion.

While they rate the Grand Strand real estate economy as slightly cool, Realtor.com pointed out that the area’s real estate economy is “heating up slightly” compared to 2023. Indeed, residents from the northeast and Florida continue to move to the Myrtle Beach area, looking for lower costs of living and better climates that drive growth.

In Florida, extreme weather is driving residents from The Sunshine State into the open arms of South Carolina and Myrtle Beach.