The typical home sold in the Charleston area this year went for $435,000, according to the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors.

A buyer who put 20% down on that home and took a 30-year fixed mortgage at Freddie Mac’s Oct. 22 average rate of 7.32% would owe about $2,390 a month in principal and interest, before property taxes and insurance. Under a common affordability standard, which holds that those payments should take no more than 25% of a household’s gross income, the buyer would need to earn about $115,000 a year, a Charleston Business Report calculation shows.

The region’s median household income in 2024, the latest year available, was $90,307, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

That gap of about $24,000 has opened in just a few years. A Charleston Business Report analysis of Realtor sales data, census income figures and Freddie Mac mortgage rates found that home prices in the region rose about 50% from 2019 to 2024, while median household income rose about 28%. Over the same stretch, the monthly payment on a median-priced home roughly doubled.

Prices outran paychecks

In 2019, the median sales price in the Realtors’ market was $277,765, or 3.9 times the Charleston metro area’s median household income of $70,505.

By 2022, the ratio had climbed to 5 to 1. It eased to 4.6 to 1 in 2024, when the median price was $416,805 and the median household income was $90,307, as incomes caught up a little and prices rose more slowly.

For most of the previous decade, the ratio held close to 4 to 1. It was 3.8 to 1 in 2012, 4.2 to 1 in 2016 and 4.1 to 1 in 2018.

The median price has kept rising since 2024, though slowly. It was $426,947 for all of 2025 and $435,000 for the first nine months of 2026, up 2.3% from the same months last year. Census income figures for 2025 had not been released as of Oct. 22.

Rates did the rest

Higher prices alone would have strained budgets. Higher mortgage rates multiplied the effect.

In 2019, the average 30-year fixed rate was 3.94%, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey. With 20% down, the principal and interest payment on the median-priced home that year came to about $1,053 a month, or about 18% of the median household’s income before taxes.

In 2024, with the average rate at 6.72%, the same calculation produced a payment of about $2,156 a month, or about 29% of median income.

Rates have since moved higher. Freddie Mac’s average was 7.32% for the week of Oct. 22, up from 6.19% a year earlier.

At that rate, a household earning the 2024 median income could afford a home of about $342,000 under the 25% standard with 20% down, about $93,000 less than this year’s median sales price.

Renters are furthest away

The gap is widest for the households most likely to be shopping for a first home.

The median income of Charleston-area households that rent was $59,685 in 2024, according to the census. Households that own their homes had a median income of $108,107.

At the Oct. 22 rate, the typical renting household could afford about $226,000 under the same assumptions, roughly half the median sales price. That is before saving the 20% down payment, which on a $435,000 home comes to $87,000.

Charleston County stands apart

Affordability varies widely across the three counties, and Charleston County has moved furthest from local incomes, the analysis found.

The county’s median sales price rose 78% from 2019 to 2024, to $615,000, according to the Realtors’ figures. Its median household income rose 31%, to $93,911. The price-to-income ratio went from 4.8 to 1 to 6.5 to 1.

In the first nine months of 2026, the median price of a single-family detached home in Charleston County was $725,000, or 7.7 times the county’s 2024 median household income. Buying one with 20% down at the Oct. 22 rate would take about $191,000 a year in income under the 25% standard. Townhouses and condos in the county had a median of $440,000.

Berkeley and Dorchester counties remain closer to the old norm. Berkeley County’s median price rose 56% from 2019 to 2024 while income rose 25%, and Dorchester County’s rose 53% while income rose 23%. Berkeley ended 2024 at 4.5 to 1 and Dorchester at 4.4 to 1.

This year’s median single-family home sold for $422,894 in Berkeley County and $399,997 in Dorchester County. Buying either would take roughly $106,000 to $112,000 a year in income at the Oct. 22 rate. Median household income in 2024 was $86,658 in Berkeley and $83,907 in Dorchester.

The Realtors’ own measure

The association tracks affordability with an index in which 100 means a household earning the median income has exactly enough to qualify for the median-priced home at prevailing rates. A lower number means less affordable.

The index was 75 in September 2026, down from 80 a year earlier, according to the association’s monthly report. It stood at 99 in September 2019 and 107 in September 2021, when mortgage rates were near record lows, according to the reports for those months. It was 65 in September 2023.

What would change the math

A drop in rates would help, but not close the gap. At a 6% rate, the payment on a $435,000 home with 20% down would fall to about $2,090 a month, which would still require about $100,000 in income under the 25% standard.

Rising incomes would also help. Charleston-area wages are growing; average hourly earnings for private-sector workers in the first nine months of 2026 were 3.9% higher than a year earlier, according to a Charleston Business Report analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. That is only a little faster than the 2.3% rise in the median home price this year.

How we did this

Home prices are median sales prices for all residential property types from the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors’ annual and monthly reports, which use Charleston Trident Multiple Listing Service data. The association’s market-wide figure covers the three counties and some neighboring areas; the three counties made up more than 90% of its sales in 2025. Incomes are median household incomes from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey one-year estimates; the 2024 figures have margins of error ranging from about $3,000 to $9,000. We calculated monthly principal and interest on a 30-year loan for 80% of the median price, using Freddie Mac’s average 30-year fixed rate for the year or the week, then multiplied by 12 and divided by 0.25 to estimate the income needed. The payment excludes property taxes, insurance and association fees, so actual costs are higher.