Myrtle Beach — The City That Bans the Opposite STR Move

What Makes Myrtle Beach Different

Myrtle Beach is a single incorporated city with its own mayor and council -- not a hub sitting over a cluster of smaller communities the way this site treats the 30A corridor or Cape Cod. It runs a council-manager government in place since 1974, with the mayor serving as a council member-at-large who presides over meetings rather than holding separate executive authority. Its politics are live right now: in the November 2025 municipal election, Mark Kruea -- the city's own former Public Information Officer for nearly 26 years, who'd retired in 2024 -- won the mayor's office with 51% of the vote in a five-candidate field, defeating two-term incumbent Brenda Bethune, who took just 28%. Kruea campaigned against what he called excessive downtown "Arts and Innovation District" investment at the expense of neighborhoods, and made public safety central, telling an October 2025 debate that "Myrtle Beach's reputation is at stake because of the crime problems facing the city" (per the Post and Courier). He was sworn in for a four-year term beginning January 2026. Confirm the current council roster directly with the city given how recently the mayor's office changed hands.

The city's population is genuinely disputed, not a rounding error. Wikipedia cites the 2020 Census at 35,682; worldpopulationreview.com's 2026 estimate runs to 42,816; southcarolina-demographics.com's 2024 ACS-based estimate lands at 38,371 with a separate 2026 projection of 41,033; USAFacts describes "approximately 40,500 residents as of 2024." State it as a range -- roughly 35,700 at the 2020 Census to the low-40,000s by 2026 depending on source and methodology -- rather than picking one number. The metro-area figure is even more scattered, and this research traced a real, dated structural cause: on July 21, 2023, the federal Office of Management and Budget redrew Metropolitan Statistical Area boundaries, moving Brunswick County, NC out of the Myrtle Beach MSA and back into the Wilmington, NC MSA -- converting Myrtle Beach's federally defined metro into a single-county (Horry County) area overnight. That plausibly explains why citypopulation.de states the MSA at 413,391 (as of July 2024), DataUSA states a lower 383,016, Wikipedia's own city page states a notably higher 479,426, and USAFacts separately estimates Horry County alone at roughly 427,600 in 2025 -- four sources that don't reconcile to one number, tied to whichever geographic vintage each is using. Growth rankings tell a consistent direction with inconsistent framing: the Census Bureau's April 2025 report put the metro's 2023-2024 growth at 3.8%, ranking it the nation's second-fastest-growing metro (behind Ocala, FL); South Carolina's own Department of Employment and Workforce described that same 3.8% as ranking "third" in the nation; and U.S. News & World Report's five-year-migration methodology named Myrtle Beach the #1 fastest-growing place in America for three straight years as of a 2025 report, with Assistant City Manager Brian Tucker describing the city's push to diversify its job base beyond seasonal tourism: "a key component of making this a year-round livable place is to diversify our job base."

The tourism scale dwarfs the resident population: the Post and Courier's 2025 reporting cites more than 18 million visitors in 2024, and Wikipedia separately states "over 20 million visitors each year" -- both several times the area's entire year-round population. That said, a genuine 2025-2026 softening is worth disclosing rather than glossing over: per Post and Courier reporting on a February 2026 tourism conference, summer 2025 hotel occupancy fell roughly 3% year-over-year with another 3% worst-case decline forecast for 2026, and city council workshops reported accommodations-tax revenue down 10.8% in Q3 2025 (from $5.6 million in 2024 to $4.99 million in 2025). Visit Myrtle Beach President Stuart Butler attributed the softness to "four consecutive years of increased [summer] precipitation," reduced Canadian visitation amid trade tensions, and broader economic uncertainty -- a real counter-narrative to the boom-town framing, even as South Carolina overall posted a record tourism year in 2025 led by the less coastal-dependent Upstate/Greenville region.

South Carolina assesses owner-occupied legal residences at 4% of fair market value, while every other class of real property -- second homes, rental property, commercial property, vacant land -- is assessed at 6%, per Horry County's own tax FAQ. That means a $300,000 non-owner-occupied property carries a 50% larger taxable base than an identical owner-occupied home before any millage is even applied -- centrally important here given how much of Myrtle Beach's housing stock is second-home or investment property. A $50,000 homestead exemption is available to qualifying owner-occupants (typically age 65+, totally and permanently disabled, or legally blind) under SC Code Section 12-37-250, though this research could not independently confirm Horry County's specific current filing deadline. The most current county-wide millage compilation found (tax year 2023, via Ownwell) totals 216.2 mills for the unincorporated-county baseline -- County 56.2, School 128.1, Fire 23.2, Waste Management 8.7 -- but the City of Myrtle Beach almost certainly layers its own municipal operating millage on top for in-city properties, and this research could not independently confirm that city-specific rate. Confirm both the exemption deadline and the true in-city millage directly with the Horry County Assessor, Auditor, or City of Myrtle Beach Finance Department before relying on any number here; none of this is tax advice. Separately, Horry County's baseline combined sales tax is 8% (6% state plus a 2% county surtax), but Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach both add a further 1% municipal levy, bringing the in-city rate to 9%.

The genuinely distinctive regulatory story here is the inverse of what almost every other Tier 1 market on this site has documented. On December 10, 2024, Myrtle Beach City Council approved an ordinance creating a "short-term rental conversion overlay zone" covering essentially the entire primary tourism corridor -- everywhere east of Kings Highway from 29th Avenue South to 82nd Avenue North -- inside which owners are banned from converting short-term rental units into long-term rentals (a lease exceeding 89 days counts as long-term and can't convert back). The ordinance followed an April 2024 moratorium during which the city commissioned an urban-planning impact study finding that converting just 1,000 rental rooms to long-term use would cause a $7.6 million total revenue loss -- $2.5 million to the city, $1.2 million to the county, $3.9 million to the state -- through lost accommodations tax, prepared food-and-beverage tax, and business-license-fee revenue. Assistant City Manager Brian Tucker explained the rationale directly: "the planning commission recognizes...that everything east of Kings Highway is our main tourism component." Where other beach towns fight to restrict short-term rental growth, Myrtle Beach's government is using its regulatory power to lock short-term-rental use in place, precisely because that tax revenue is now load-bearing for the municipal budget. Layered on top: every rental property, short-term or long-term, needs a city business license (fees on gross receipts, license year running June 1-May 31); the state imposes a 2% accommodations tax with municipalities allowed up to a further 3% local-option tax; and Myrtle Beach separately adds its own 0.5% Local Accommodations Tax plus a 1% City Hospitality Fee, with Horry County layering on a 1.5% County Hospitality Fee. Combined with the 9% in-city sales tax, this research's own arithmetic suggests a combined nominal room-night tax rate somewhere in the 15-17% range -- but that figure is this page's own estimate, not a single number stated by any primary source, so confirm the true all-in rate with the SC Department of Revenue or Horry County Treasurer before relying on it.

Real estate figures disagree by tens of thousands of dollars depending on source and metric, which is itself worth knowing before trusting any single number. Zillow's ZHVI ("typical home value") puts Myrtle Beach at $323,460, down 0.5% year-over-year -- flat-to-softening, not a hot seller's market -- with a separate Zillow median sale price of $274,357 (May 2026) and median list price of $267,633 (June 2026), 55 median days to pending, and 3,026 active listings. housingdata.report gives a different figure entirely: a median home price of $315,047 as of February 2026, down 2.9% year-over-year, describing prices as having "dropped for the 11th straight month" though the decline had slowed and roughly flattened since December 2025. By ZIP: 29577 (downtown/central) sits at $275,146 median with $1,675 median monthly rent; 29572 (Grande Dunes/northern) at $312,710 with $1,459 rent; 29588 (Socastee/southern) at $318,604 with $1,722 rent; and 29579 (Carolina Forest, the newer inland master-planned community) at the highest of the four, $353,726, with $1,766 rent. New construction shows a genuine deceleration: Horry County issued 17,552 building permits in fiscal year 2023-24 valued at $1.54 billion -- only a 1% increase in permit count (the lowest growth rate since 2019-20) and a 6% decline in total construction value from 2022-23's $1.63 billion -- with local builders describing conditions as "stable but unspectacular" and some projects "canceled or delayed due to interest rates." No source found for this page broke out an exact single-family-versus-condo inventory split, or gave a single-sourced days-on-market or price-per-square-foot figure specific to single-family homes -- an honest gap to fill with a direct Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors data pull before publication.

Golf is the other genuinely singular scale story here: Myrtle Beach is branded the "Golf Capital of the World," with roughly 100 courses in the immediate area per the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, a peak of 4.2 million rounds played in a single year historically, and Tiger Woods reportedly calling it "the mecca of golf" during a 1997 visit -- a course density with no real parallel among this site's other markets. The oceanfront skyline itself is dominated by high-rise condo towers rather than single-family neighborhoods, and South Carolina's own legal vocabulary matters here: state law calls this ownership structure a Horizontal Property Regime (HPR), not simply a "condo," and it's currently the center of the insurance and HOA-fee crisis detailed in the Tide Bar above. Other landmarks: the 1.2-mile Myrtle Beach Boardwalk (opened 2010, ranked #3 on National Geographic's Top 10 U.S. Boardwalks list); the Myrtle Beach SkyWheel (opened 2011, $12 million, height reported as either 187 feet or 200 feet depending on source -- an unreconciled discrepancy); and Broadway at the Beach (opened 1995 on a reported 23-acre core, though Wikipedia separately states the complex's total footprint at 350 acres, also unreconciled). Market Common, meanwhile, is a genuine military-to-mixed-use conversion story: built on the roughly 110-acre site of Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, which closed in 1993, before developer Dan McCaffery built the walkable neo-traditional village that stands there now. Myrtle Beach International Airport recorded a record 3,837,052 passengers in 2024, up nearly 14% year-over-year, and Grand Strand Medical Center (HCA, 403 beds, Level I trauma) anchors the area's healthcare.

This coastline's history includes a chapter most tourism marketing skips, and it deserves the same seriousness this site has given Gullah Geechee history at Hilton Head. Atlantic Beach -- known as "the Black Pearl" -- was founded in 1934 when George W. Tyson purchased 47 acres and built the Black Hawk Night Club, encouraging other African-Americans to buy plots; it incorporated independently in 1966 and flourished during segregation as one of the only beach vacation destinations on this coast open to African-American visitors, hosting national R&B acts. It's described by multiple sources as one of the few remaining Black-owned beach communities in the United States, and its community continues active work preserving Gullah-Geechee heritage; Bikefest, launched in 1980, remains a major annual event today. Immediately adjacent, North Myrtle Beach -- incorporated in 1968 via the consolidation of four previously separate beach communities (Cherry Grove, Ocean Drive Beach, Crescent Beach, and Windy Hill) -- carries its own documented history of Jim Crow-era deed restrictions barring Black ownership; Atlantic Beach declined to join that 1968 consolidation for exactly that reason and remains independent today.

Beyond downtown/the Boardwalk, Market Common, and the Golden Mile (an older oceanfront stretch north of downtown whose deeper history couldn't be independently confirmed for this page), notable areas include Grande Dunes (an upscale community spanning both sides of the Intracoastal Waterway with multiple golf courses), Arcadian Shores (near the Highway 17 "Restaurant Row" corridor), and Carolina Forest (a large inland master-planned community with highly rated schools and, per the ZIP data above, the highest home prices of the four ZIPs checked). Year-round livability carries its own honest counter-narrative: Horry County Schools' enrollment stood at 47,177 students as of a September 2025 report -- roughly 1,000 students short of the district's own 48,291 projection for 2025-26, even as the county's population keeps growing, with a district survey finding real families leaving for charter, private, virtual, or homeschool alternatives. Set against that, the district recorded its highest graduation rate on record in the Fall 2025 state report cards, and Scholars Academy -- a Coastal Carolina University-campus dual-enrollment program -- was independently reported as South Carolina's #1-ranked high school as of October 2024, scoring 99.34 out of 100 for the 2023-24 cycle (whether it repeated that #1 ranking in the Fall 2025 cycle specifically could not be confirmed for this page). Median household income sits at $60,394, below both the state and national medians -- consistent with a resident workforce concentrated in lower-wage, seasonal tourism and hospitality work even as that same tourism economy drives the area's massive visitor numbers. US Highway 17 is the subject of an active widening project described as "nearing completion" as of a June 2026 report after chronic congestion complaints, and Carolina Bays Parkway's proposed extension drew "strong opposition" from North Carolina-side residents at an October 2025 presentation -- a live, cross-border infrastructure fight worth following directly before assuming today's road map is final.