menu

Folly Beach, SC

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.





Overview


Folly Beach is a very small coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of South Carolina. With a population of 2,084 people and just one neighborhood, Folly Beach is the 133rd largest community in South Carolina.

Folly Beach home prices are not only among the most expensive in South Carolina, but Folly Beach real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Occupations and Workforce

Folly Beach is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Folly Beach is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Folly Beach who work in office and administrative support (20.61%), legal occupations (19.18%), and sales jobs (11.84%).

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 28.57% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Setting & Lifestyle

Another notable thing is that Folly Beach is a major vacation destination. Much of the city’s population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependent on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, Folly Beach’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.

It is a fairly quiet city because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Folly Beach has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Folly Beach has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Folly Beach than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Folly Beach may be for you.

Folly Beach is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

One downside of living in Folly Beach, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 30.56 minutes every day commuting to work.

Folly Beach is a small city, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.

Demographics

Folly Beach is one of the most well-educated cities in the nation. 43.57% of adults in Folly Beach have at least a bachelor's degree. Compare that to the average community in America, which has just 21.84% with a bachelor's degree or higher.

The per capita income in Folly Beach in 2018 was $61,847, which is wealthy relative to South Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $247,388 for a family of four. However, Folly Beach contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Folly Beach home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Folly Beach residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Folly Beach include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Scottish.

The most common language spoken in Folly Beach is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.

Real Estate

Do you like a coastal setting? If so, this neighborhood may be to your liking. The neighborhood is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Often such coastal places have amenities and recreational activities on the waterfront that are attractive to residents and visitors alike. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.

In addition, despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 78.9%, which is higher than 99.9% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

People

In a nation where 1 out of every 4 children lives in poverty, the neighborhood stands out as being ranked among the lowest 0.0% of neighborhoods affected by this global issue.

In addition, if you are planning to retire in South Carolina, this neighborhood should be on your must-see list. For many reasons, may be considered a retiree's dream neighborhood. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and metrics, it's peaceful and quiet, has above average safety from crime compared to other neighborhoods in South Carolina, while also offering a diverse range of housing options. This, along with the vibrant mix of very educated seniors and other age groups who choose to live here, makes the neighborhood more retiree-friendly than 97.2% of neighborhoods in SC. If a South Carolina retirement is in your future, this neighborhood should be one of the places you visit.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Scottish and Eastern European ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 8.6% of this neighborhood's residents have Scottish ancestry and 3.2% have Eastern European ancestry.

The Neighbors

How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.

The neighbors in the neighborhood in Folly Beach are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 67.3% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.

A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.

In the neighborhood, 40.8% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 32.2% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (20.4%), and 6.7% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 100.0% of households. Some people also speak Italian (2.9%).

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.

In the neighborhood in Folly Beach, SC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (16.7%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (13.9%), and residents who report Italian roots (11.0%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (8.9%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (8.6%), among others.

Getting to Work

Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (46.2% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.

Here most residents (79.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


Real Estate includes:
Average Home Values
Rental Market
Housing Market Details
Neighborhood Setting
Economics & Demographics include:
Lifestyle & Special Character
Household Types
Commute To Work
Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
Employment Industries & Occupations
Income & Unemployment Rate
Higher Education Attainment
Crime includes:
Neighborhood Crime Index
Crimes Per Square Mile
Property Crime Comparison
Violent Crime Comparison
Schools include:
School Ratings
Schools In District
Public School Test Scores
School District Enrollment
Educational Expenditures

comparable neighborhoods nearby