Is average rent for 1-bed apartment in Myrtle Beach under $1,000? Here’s what we found
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The average price of a one-bedroom apartment in Myrtle Beach in December 2023 dropped to under $1,000, a price that may seem too low to be true.
Apartment List released its average rent prices for hundreds of areas across the country. For Myrtle Beach, the average one-bedroom is $974 a month and Horry County is $930.
A search on Zillow or Apartments.com shows very few apartments under $1,000, which raises the question if the rent price is accurate.
Conversations with property managers and apartment searches show that an average rent of $974 is somewhat true.
Chris Walker, a Booe Realty long-term property manager, said Apartment List’s average seemed low. She sees one-bedrooms rent for $1,000 to $1,300 in the Myrtle Beach area. Recently, she’s also seen an oversupply in higher end apartments.
Prices can vary depending on size and location, said Penny Rose, the property manager in charge at Chicora Rentals. She’s seen properties rent for $650 while others reach up to $1,300 a month.
While it’s possible to find an inexpensive apartment, it’s not always a one-bedroom. Some of the cheaper apartments at Chicora Rentals are efficiency studios, not one-bedrooms, Rose said. Efficiency apartments tend to be smaller than studio apartments, sometimes having 300 square feet and a kitchenette instead of a full kitchen, according to Property Club.
Efficiency apartments available on Zillow and Apartments.com typically cost between $900 and $1,000, which would fit with Apartment List’s average — but these are not one-bedroom apartments. It’s unclear if studios are counted as one-bedroom apartments in Apartment List’s data set.
Another reason Apartment List’s data set may be cheaper than Zillow listings could be because it includes rental prices for occupied apartments. Prices for available one-bedroom apartments could be higher than one-bedroom apartments that have been occupied for years.
Sometimes owners don’t hike up rent for long-time tenants, keeping prices low, Rose said. These tenants will then stay because they can no longer afford the rent increases of other apartments.
Considering all the factors, Rose said she’d estimate average rent for a one-bedroom in the Myrtle Beach area to be around $1,000, which is not far from Apartment List’s Myrtle Beach estimate.
