Beaufort County, South Carolina Eviction Risk: Very Low

Beaufort County, South Carolina scores 2.2/10 (Moderate) across its 14 tracked cities, placing it at rank 37 of 46 South Carolina eviction laws counties, meaning 36 counties carry more eviction risk and only 9 are more landlord-friendly. For investors, that is a genuinely middle-of-the-road market: not the coastal stress of a high-density urban county, but not a sleepy rural landlord's paradise either. Average rent runs $1,678 per month, renter cost burden sits at 30.9% of income, and renters make up 31% of the county's 118,230 residents, a moderately thin renter pool that keeps vacancy pressure real.

The more important headline for operators is the intra-county spread. Scores range from 2.6 to 4.9, a gap of 2.3 full points between the county's safest and riskiest submarkets. Picking the wrong neighborhood by a few miles can shift your effective risk profile by the equivalent of moving from a calm market to one of the more challenging spots in South Carolina. Underwriting at the county average will mislead you; underwriting at the city level is the only defensible approach.

The cities inside Beaufort County

The highest-risk concentration sits in the county's smaller inland and military-adjacent communities. Burton scores 4.9/10, the county's peak, with a population of 6,912. Port Royal and Beaufort both come in at 4.7/10, with Port Royal home to 15,579 residents and Beaufort to 13,747. Bluffton, the county's second-largest city at 33,157 people, scores a still-elevated 4.4/10, meaning even the fast-growing suburban corridor carries above-average friction relative to the county average.

At the other end of the spectrum, Laurel Bay registers the county's lowest score at 2.6/10, and Seabrook comes in at 3.2/10. Hilton Head Island, the county's largest city at 37,911 residents, sits at a comparatively moderate 3.8/10, which explains much of its appeal to higher-end rental investors. Risk is genuinely hyper-local here: the difference between Laurel Bay and Burton is larger than the difference between Beaufort County's average and several of its peer counties statewide.

State-level laws that apply here

All landlords in Beaufort County operate under S.C. Code § 27-40 (Residential Landlord and Tenant Act). For nonpayment of rent, South Carolina requires only a 5-day written notice before filing; lease violations carry a 14-day cure-or-quit notice, and no-cause terminations at end of term require 30 days. Understanding the South Carolina eviction process before acquiring here matters: an uncontested case typically resolves in 21 to 45 days, while a contested filing can stretch to 45 to 100 days. Court filing fees run $110 to $200, sheriff lockout fees add $25 to $100, and attorney fees commonly fall in the $500 to $2,500 range, so a single contested eviction can represent a significant cost event on a lower-rent unit.

South Carolina state law prohibits rent control statewide and preempts any local ordinance that would impose it, so no Beaufort County municipality can cap rents. Just cause for termination is not required under state law. Source-of-income discrimination is not a protected class under the state fair housing framework. Landlords should review South Carolina eviction costs in full before projecting operating budgets, because the per-unit legal cost varies widely depending on whether a tenant contests the filing. Landlord entry requires a minimum 24-hour advance notice under state statute.

With a county poverty rate of 9.5% and renters making up 31% of the population, Beaufort County's aggregate risk stays moderate, but the city-by-city grid above shows where that average masks the sharpest local divergences, from Laurel Bay's 2.6 to Burton's 4.9.