How much do Myrtle Beach homeowners spend on insurance compared to other SC cities?

For any homeowner, certain expenses come with having a property for yourself and your family.

Homeowners’ association fees, gas or electric, WIFI, and homeowners insurance are expenses associated with living in your abode. Depending on where you live, particularly in the Myrtle Beach area, further insurance against flooding might be required.

Indeed, Myrtle Beach homeowners pay quite a bit for their homeowners’ insurance, and according to recent data, much more than the national average. In March 2024, Nerdwallet, a finance company that helps consumers make better decisions, published a report about home insurance in South Carolina.

The report said that the national average cost of homeowners insurance is $1,915 per year, while South Carolina’s average is $2,250 per year. However, Nerdwallet also compared 25 cities in the Palmetto State to see which one paid the most per year for homeowners insurance. Of the cities listed, Myrtle Beach homeowners spent an average of $4,820 a year on their insurance—more than $400 more than the second most expensive city for homeowners insurance, Mount Pleasant.

Myrtle Beach residents also spent $700 more than Charleston homeowners paid.

Nerdwallet also reported that Conway homeowners spent an average $3,780 annual rate on homeowners insurance, the fourth most expensive city in South Carolina. For context, the financial services firm Bankrate lists each month’s average home insurance rates by state if a homeowner has $300,000 worth of coverage for their home.

According to Bankrate, South Carolina homeowners paid the 18th-highest average annual insurance premiums. However, on average, only Florida and Nebraska homeowners spent more per year on homeowners insurance than Myrtle Beach homeowners.

Bankrate lists the national average cost of homeowners insurance as slightly higher than Nerdwallet’s at $2,230.

Like Nebraska and Florida, Myrtle Beach’s weather could play a factor. Nebraska resides in Tornado Alley , and Florida faces more extreme weathe r in part due to climate change , leading some insurers to pull out of the state and some homeowners to forgo insurance.

The Myrtle Beach area is also prone to severe weather events, such as hurricanes . According to Horry County’s flood map , much of the Grand Strand resides within flood plains.

Indeed, Myrtle Beach homeowners and residents could be due for a more severe hurricane season than usual. In May 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its report on the Atlantic hurricane season, predicting the highest number of named storms ever.

Steven Pfaff is the meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service’s Wilmington Office and said the uncharacteristically high ocean temperature at this time of year predicts a potentially rough hurricane season. He added that the Myrtle Beach area is due for a hurricane comparable to 1989’s Hurricane Hugo, although he did not predict or forecast such a storm would occur in 2024.

“This is what frightens me. We haven’t had the wind monster storm since you, Hugo,” Pfaff said in a July 2024 interview. “We’re way overdue for a wind monster storm ... This is going to be an extremely eye-opening experience. I hate to sound like an alarmist, but it’s hard to dispute the law of averages.”