Habitat Chat

Pickens County Is in the Top Tier of the Greenville Housing Market. That’s a Problem.
A new report from the Index-Journal just ranked the most expensive housing markets in the Greenville metro area. Out of 33 cities, six are in Pickens County. That alone should be a wake-up call.
The real shock? We took the top two spots.
Here’s the breakdown:
#1 – Sunset: $1,295,646
#2 – Six Mile: $433,739
#3 – Clemson: $409,275
#10 – Easley: $318,473
#16 – Central: $282,662
#18 – Pickens: $270,365
Sunset is expected. It’s a lake market and always has been. What matters is the rest of the list. Six Mile pushing past $430,000 isn’t normal growth. It’s a shift. So is Pickens City crossing $270,000. So is Liberty hitting $244,000 and ranking #26 out of 33.
These aren’t isolated numbers. Over the past five years, home values in these towns have risen between 50 and 112 percent. Not one of them saw income growth in the double digits. And when home prices jump that far ahead of wages, what you get isn’t prosperity. It’s replacement.
We’re not seeing more families build wealth. We’re seeing more families priced out of the only places they’ve ever lived.
The narrative still floating around is that Pickens County is affordable. It isn’t. Not if you’re a school employee. Not if you clean houses, work a cash register, run cable lines, or prep meals in a restaurant. Not if you don’t already own.
Across the country, home prices have hit record highs. First-time buyers are older than they’ve ever been. Fewer families are moving because they have nowhere they can afford to go. And in Pickens County, we’re watching those national trends play out on a smaller, sharper scale. The difference is we still pretend it’s not happening.
Here’s the truth: the entry-level housing market doesn’t exist anymore. And the people we rely on every day to keep our schools running, our grocery shelves stocked, and our power on are being pushed further from the communities they serve.
This report didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. It just put numbers to what we’ve been watching for years.
Pickens County has become a top-tier market. But without new construction at the lower end, without real investment in affordability, we won’t just lose buyers. We’ll lose neighbors.
Source: https://www.indexjournal.com/cities-with-the-most-expensive-homes-in-the-greenville-metro-area/article_3ca6b3ac-6e32-5096-a787-101997b29b19.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawLsqrdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHtQ0kxSk0xZXs496hthZpZJcIx3VmU7rXmeDBmnLP2e3ouQS-ipKWsLk_BWc_aem_XwMuLOBHCZaxHWxeF_Tvrg