Property Tax in Beaufort County, South Carolina

What the Beaufort County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Beaufort County homeowners pay more than $2,022 a year and half pay less. The exact bill for any one home depends on its assessed value, exemptions, and which school, municipal and special districts cover it.

Set against the median home value of $407,600, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.50%. That rate is an estimate computed from the two medians — no county publishes a rate calculated this way — but it adjusts for home prices, which makes comparisons between counties more meaningful.

The key figures for Beaufort County

For context, the South Carolina medians are $1,199 of tax on $236,700 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Beaufort County at a glance

• Median tax rank in South Carolina: #1 of 46 counties
• Median home value rank in South Carolina: #2 of 46
• Population rank in South Carolina: #10 of 46 (192,123 residents)
• Population density rank: #7 of 46 (334 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in South Carolina: #26 of 46 (576 sq mi, 1.9% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $168; per $1,000 of home value: $0.50

How Beaufort County compares

Of the 46 South Carolina counties with published data, 0 have a higher median property tax bill than Beaufort County's $2,022, putting the county at #1 in the state. Its bill is about 69% higher than the state median of $1,199 and about 32% lower than the national median of $2,969.

Rates and values pull in opposite directions: an expensive housing market can produce big bills at ordinary rates. Here the derived rate is 0.50%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #2 within South Carolina.

Some extra context for Beaufort County: the median bill works out to about $168 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $496 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 192,123 people — the #10 most populous county in South Carolina, spread over 576 square miles, a density of about 334 people per square mile. Its median home value, $407,600, ranks #2 among the state's 46 counties with data.

Nationally, Beaufort County's median bill of $2,022 ranks #1049 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 33% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 3.7% of South Carolina's population, its median home value is about 72% above the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 4.96% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Beaufort County to the most expensive county, Beaufort County ($2,022), is $0 a year.

Counties nearest Beaufort County in the South Carolina ranking

Beaufort County and its population peers

Counties of a similar size can tax very differently. The table below shows the counties closest to Beaufort County in population across the United States, with their median bills and home values. Within the group of 9, Beaufort County ($2,022) ranks #7 of 9 by median tax paid.

The closest population match is El Dorado County, California (192,299 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $4,510 on a median home value of $640,500 — $2,488 less than Beaufort County pays.

Beaufort County's nearest population neighbours within South Carolina are Berkeley County (238,723 residents, median tax $1,343 on a median value of $280,300); Anderson County (207,218 residents, median tax $985 on a median value of $212,500); Aiken County (171,949 residents, median tax $862 on a median value of $199,500); Dorchester County (164,322 residents, median tax $1,710 on a median value of $294,400). Comparing them is a reminder that even inside one state's rules, the bill follows local home values and local district rates more than anything decided at the state level.

How the tax is worked out

Think of the final bill as three ingredients: the assessed value of the property, the exemptions subtracted from it, and the combined rate of every district the property sits in. Beaufort County's medians imply a derived rate of 0.50%; applied illustratively, a $400,000 home would owe about $1,984 a year, or around $165 a month spread evenly. Individual properties depart from the illustration in both directions.

Illustrative bills in Beaufort County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.50% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Beaufort County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.51% and the US figure of 0.98%:

Illustration only: real bills are computed from the assessed value, exemptions, and the combined rates of the property's actual taxing districts.

Checking your assessment in Beaufort County

Believe your assessment is too high? The practical order of attack is: obtain your record card and audit it line by line; collect comparable recent sales in Beaufort County; ask the assessor's office to correct anything plainly wrong; and, if the value still seems off, lodge a formal appeal ahead of the deadline printed on your assessment notice. Windows are short — often 30 to 90 days — and late appeals are usually rejected outright, however strong the case.

More South Carolina counties

• Anderson County, SC — $985
• Aiken County, SC — $862
• Dorchester County, SC — $1,710
• Berkeley County, SC — $1,343
• Florence County, SC — $724
• Pickens County, SC — $821

Frequently asked questions