This South Carolina beach town was ranked as the number one U.S. city for veterans
A list of the top ten places for veterans to live in the United States for 2025 was reported last week by Realtor.com and features Myrtle Beach, SC at the top.
According to data from Veterans United Home Loans, the largest veteran lender in the United States, Myrtle Beach is the best city for veterans to live in.
Director of Veterans Affairs for Horry County Ronald Elvis, said the county has seen an increase in the number of veterans moving to the area.
“The Horry County area has one of the fastest-growing veteran populations in the country,” he said.
Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette holds town hall tonight at Veterans Café & Grille
Tonight, South Carolina’s Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette will join with local elected Grand Strand leaders at the Veterans Café & Grille at 3544 Northgate Drive for a Town Hall event.
It’s scheduled to take place from 5:45 to 7:15 p.m. with doors opening at 5:15 p.m. and will be hosted by America’s Future Trust and Republican State Leadership Committee, according to event organizers.
Top cities for U.S. Veterans to retire
To compile their top 10 cities for U.S. veterans, the company surveyed more than 599 veterans and considered financial factors such as cost of living and home affordability, according to the report .
The report also includes Conway and North Myrtle Beach as part of the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area. It states that this area of northeastern South Carolina is already home to to over 28,000 veterans, helping the area rank seventh for community support and fourth for quality-of-life infrastructure.
Owner of the Veterans Café & Grille and Air Force Veteran, Scott Dulebohn, said this region is “pretty fantastic” to its veterans.
Dulebohn said there’s about one in ten who currently live in Horry County are veterans.
“So it makes things a little easier cause there’s so many people that are excited about us and everything that we’re doing,” he said about the veteran community. “It’s different when I go back to Ohio or go somewhere else where’s there’s not as much, you can definitely tell the support that the veterans get here is second to none.”
Dulebohn said he’s noticed an increase in the veteran population from 2003 when he first moved to the area before enlisting to 2019 when he returned back.
“It’s very enticing, because South Carolina takes care of the veterans,” he said. “It’s really cool that folks care and want veterans here.”
South Carolina offers veterans full property tax exemption for those with disabilities and no tax on military retirement pay, which helped land the Grand Strand in the study’s number one spot.
When asked if there’s anything better the surrounding area could be doing better for veterans, Dulebohn paused to think before saying, “not right off the top of my head.”
“It’s pretty fantastic if you’re a veteran in Horry County,” he said.
A key factor that was also included in the real estate report’s ranking is Myrtle Beach’s Veterans Affairs outpatient center in Market Common.
Chief of Stakeholder Relations, Public Affairs and Congressional Relations for the Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System in Charleston said in an emailed statement that the Myrtle Beach services are provided by 217 Community-Based Outpatient Clinic employees who provide care for 16,800 veterans at that site, previous reporting states.
The median home price for the area is $300,000, Realtor.com wrote in its findings.
Here is the full list of the top 10 best cities for veterans to retire in in the United States from Realtor.com:
- Myrtle Beach, SC
- Atlantic City, NJ
- Lawrence, KS
- Sioux Falls, SD
- Battle Creek, MI
- Decatur, IL
- Cleveland, OH
- Altoona, PA
- Rapid City, SD
- Lawton, OK
Editor’s note: This story was updated to clarify that Realtor.com used a report from a lending company. (Updated June 3, 2025 at noon).
This story was originally published June 3, 2025 at 10:52 AM.
