This is how much apartment space $1,500 will get you in these SC cities in 2023
Apartment hunting can be exhausting.
And not just from the physical work of visiting apartments to see if they’ll fit your needs — the mental strain of trying to find a place that’s available and within your budget can be exhausting too.
In South Carolina, that strain has been intensified in recent years through a combination of high demand and inflation.
RentCafe, a nationwide apartment search website, recently determined how much apartment space $1,500 a month can get you in 100 small U.S. cities, including Columbia and Charleston. The analysis shows that while you can’t get the best bang for your buck in the two Palmetto State cities, they are other similarly-sized cities that are far worse.
For a full breakdown of the report, click here.
Apartment rent report highlights
Columbia
- Columbia ranked 38th for the space that $1,500 can rent.
- For $1,500 a month, a renter can get a generous amount of living space, 1,119 square feet.
- Average rent: $1,350
- Average apartment size: 1,007 square feet
Charleston
- Charleston ranked 56th for the space that $1,500 can rent.
- For $1,500 a month, a renter can get 797 square feet.
- Average rent: $1,881
- Average apartment size: 962 square feet.
Nationwide
- By comparison, the Southern cities where $1,500 will get the most apartment space are Columbus, GA (1,545 square feet), McAllen, TX (1,471 square feet) and Jackson, MS (1,545 square feet).
- Nationwide, $1,500 a month will get an average of 782 square feet of apartment space.
SC housing demand and cost
There have been fewer apartments to go around in South Carolina and rental prices have jumped in recent years.
South Carolina was the third fastest growing state in 2022, Census data shows. Also, for example, the average rent price of a one-bedroom apartment was up 2% year-over-year in Columbia as of Sunday, according to rent.com. In Charleston, one-bedroom apartment rent was up 8%, year-over-year.
Report methodology
RentCafe calculated the apartment space you can rent for $1,500 a month using price per square foot, derived from the average rents and average size of apartments by city in multifamily properties of 50 or more units, using Yardi Matrix data. RentCafe defined small cities as those with less than 225,000 people.
