- BIG STORY: S.C. has too many people, too few homes
- MORE NEWS: S.C. Democrats attack McMaster’s ‘reckless’ Guard deployment
- LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: The end is near
- BRACK: Might take awhile for Statehouse to change, but it’s coming
- MY TURN, McCorkle: McMaster is playing dangerous political game with Guard
- MYSTERY PHOTO: Interesting desk
- FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
S.C. has too many people, too few homes
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | Two issues increasingly dominate the South Carolina headlines: massive population growth and a lack of affordable housing.
In the moderate-sized Upstate town of Fort Mill, for instance — which has seen its population explode by almost 80% since 2018 — concerns over growth led its town council in June to impose a moratorium on new annexations and rezonings through the end of the year.
Meanwhile in the Lowcountry, where the average value of a house now sits at almost $600,000, Charleston Mayor William Cogswell presented an ambitious, 3,500-unit affordable housing plan to city council on Aug. 21 — a plan his administration has estimated will cost $800 million between now and 2031.
“I believe very strongly that the lack of affordable housing in our community is the biggest social, cultural and economic issue we face,” Cogswell told council members, in a city with long-term flooding problems that make national news on a regular basis.
In interviews this week, policy experts told Statehouse Report that those two issues — growth and affordability — are deeply intertwined. And that the way we resolve them will ultimately determine whether either gets any better.
How we got here
Concerned about the state’s growing housing crisis, the S.C. General Assembly in 2022 directed state housing officials to work with the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business to get to the bottom of the problem.
USC economist Joseph Von Nessen, a nationally recognized expert in housing economics and residential real estate markets, led the team that produced a study in June 2023.
“What we found was a supply and demand imbalance that’s been growing over the past 15 years,” Von Nessen told Statehouse Report on Aug. 20. “Basically, we’ve been underbuilding since 2008, and we’ve accumulated a supply debt going all the way back to the Great Recession.”
According to Von Nessen, the numbers tell the story. From 2000 to 2007, new housing in S.C. was growing at 5.3% a year, keeping prices stable. But after the national economic collapse forced builders to cut back, the rate of growth from 2008 to 2021 fell to 3.1% — even as the state’s population surged by 650,000 between 2010 and 2022.
Or put simply, there weren’t enough houses and apartments for all the people who wanted one.
“What we saw over the period was very low levels of supply compared to the demand that was being generated by our strong population growth,” Von Nessen said, noting that the problem has actually accelerated since the pandemic. “We’ve been in the top five among all U.S. states for population growth since 2020.”
Further complicating that picture, he said, is the fact that all of those new residents have settled in just half the state’s counties, with the other half seeing population declines over the same period. That localized demand pressure is why the average price of a home in a hot market like the Charleston area essentially doubled in less than a decade, from about $300,000 to almost $600,000.
“The cumulative effect in these areas is that demand remains high relative to the available supply,” he said. “And that’s continued to put upward pressure on prices, creating affordability challenges for many South Carolinians.”
The result? According to the study, more than half of all S.C. renters and a quarter of all home mortgage holders are “cost-burdened” — or what your grandparents would probably have simply called “house-poor.”
Are state and local rules part of the problem?
In an Aug. 21 interview, S.C. Home Builders Association Executive Director Mark Nix called the state’s housing deficit a “sore subject” as he’s watched his adult children struggle over the past few years to find housing they can afford.
“I’m a true believer and I’m proud of what our members do,” he said. “The thing is, I want the people who serve and work in a community to be able to live in that community as well, and right now most of them can’t.”
And from his members’ perspective, he said, that affordability problem starts with state and local laws that drive up the price of new houses and slow new construction to a crawl.
“In South Carolina, about 10% of the price of a new house is just government permitting fees,” he said. “And up to a third is regulatory costs — more inspections, more studies, more zoning requirements that just add to the price.”
Further contributing to the problem, he said, is a failure of basic planning by local governments, which leaves residents furious when new housing is proposed in areas that are already dealing with traffic headaches and overburdened water and sewer systems.
“What we’ve seen is poor planning,” he said. “People are against new housing mostly because of congestion, but then we just end up adding to the congestion because people have to move further and further out.”
Next year, state lawmakers are expected to take up legislation that supporters say will bring those two competing priorities — new housing construction and resident quality of life — into better balance.
The idea is to create what the bill’s sponsors call “concurrency” — that is, a system in which needed infrastructure is in place before development moves forward. And while everyone agrees it makes sense in principle, opponents worry it would give local governments the power to impose dramatically higher costs on home builders — or in response to resident pressure, just shut down new construction completely.
The concurrency debate
James Island Democratic Rep. Spencer Wetmore, one of the concurrency bill’s bipartisan sponsors in the S.C. House, told Statehouse Report the logic behind the legislation is just common sense.
“This bill stands for the simple proposition that infrastructure has to come first,” she said. “Because if we’re not careful, the entire state is going to be in a traffic jam like Charleston.”
To ensure that doesn’t happen, she explained, the bill would empower local governments to deny building permits when it determined that services in the area — police, fire, roads, stormwater and the rest — couldn’t handle the influx of new residents.
That way, state, county and municipal officials would have to get on the same page regarding minimum service levels, rather than blaming other levels of government for the problems.
“Everyone points fingers,” she said. “And the citizens get left holding the bag, when all they’re trying to do is live here and be able to flush their toilets.”
But opponents like the Home Builders Association’s Nix argue that municipal governments, which are notoriously sensitive to neighborhood-level complaints, can’t be trusted with that much power.
In fact, he said he’d favor specific impact fees on developers to cover improvements such as new fire systems or sewer lines over the concurrency bill. At least then, he argued, home builders wouldn’t be forced to go to every city department head for a sign-off, with the fees adding up every step of the way.
“With the impact fees you have to do a study to prove it’s a real need,” he said. “But under this concurrency bill, it’s just a push for [legal] graft.”
In response, Wetmore noted she’s reached out to home builders to get their feedback on the bill’s language. What’s more, she said, based on their concerns she’s already offered an amendment to require local governments to approve a plan to address infrastructure shortcomings before they stop a development from moving forward.
She added that she’s not opposed to further changes as the bill moves forward, as long as the “infrastructure first” principle is protected.
“It’s not that people hate new housing,” she said. “It’s that they get upset about the overcrowding that comes with it when we don’t control the timing.”
S.C. Dems attack McMaster’s ‘reckless’ Guard deployment
Staff reports | In a state where tropical storms and military honor are serious business, S.C. Democrats were quick this week to criticize Gov. Henry McMaster’s Aug. 16 decision to deploy about 200 National Guardsmen to Washington, D.C., during the hurricane season.
“Sending our National Guard troops away when S.C. families face the constant threat of hurricanes is reckless and irresponsible,” Greenville Democratic Sen. Karl Allen said in an Aug. 17 statement. “This is a dangerous political stunt that prioritizes Washington over the safety of South Carolinians.”
On Aug. 11, President Trump declared a “public safety emergency” in Washington, federalizing local police and putting National Guard troops on the streets. McMaster deployed S.C’s. troops in support of that mission, saying the state was “proud to stand with President Trump as he works to restore law and order to our nation’s capital.”
But with criticism mounting throughout the week — including an editorial in the state’s largest newspaper that called the move “political theater” — McMaster addressed the issue with reporters on Aug 21.
“The 200 [Guardsmen] we sent were not part of our hurricane response plan,” he said. “We have hundreds allocated for hurricane duty, and they remain here, ready to respond if needed.”
But state Democrats weren’t buying it.
“Sending 200 SC National Guard troops to DC for a non-emergency is reckless,” Charleston Democratic Sen. Ed Sutton said in an Aug. 21 social media post. “Our Guard should be on standby for real disasters at home, not deployed for partisan optics.”
McMaster has said he plans to call S.C.’s troops home in the event of an emergency. – Jack O’Toole
S.C. Ports announces change in leadership after CEO resigns
After three years of leading the S.C. State Ports Authority as president and CEO, Barbara Melvin suddenly announced her resignation Thursday, citing personal and professional reasons.
Melvin first joined the Ports Authority in 1998, serving in several roles and leading major initiatives before ascending to her leadership role in 2022.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to have served South Carolina and the Ports Authority over these many years,” Melvin said. “However, for personal and professional reasons, I want to pursue other opportunities. I take pride in what has been accomplished by the Port while I have served it in multiple roles. Knowing the resiliency of the Ports Authority and its people, I have no doubt even more success is in its future.”
Bill Stern, chairman of the S.C. Ports Board of Directors, accepted her resignation.
Chief Financial Officer and Vice President Phillip Padgett has been named as interim CEO, effective immediately. He joined S.C. Ports in 2016 as Controller. As CFO, he is responsible for the financial, risk management and real estate activities of the Port.
“I look forward to continuing serving the Port and leading our team as interim CEO until a replacement is named,” said Padgett. “S.C. Ports remains committed to providing reliable and efficient port service to our customers, and continuing to serve as a trusted partner to the entire South Carolina maritime community.” – Skyler Baldwin
In other recent news
S.C. foreign-born residents reach historic high levels. South Carolina’s foreign-born population, both documented and undocumented immigrants, reached record numbers at the start of 2025, according to a recent report from the Center for Immigration Studies.
2026: Pascoe officially launches bid for S.C. attorney general. Longtime First Circuit solicitor David Pascoe officially launched his bid for South Carolina attorney general Monday with a pledge to root out Statehouse corruption.
May trial delayed until October. A federal judge on Wednesday pushed back the child sexual abuse materials trial of former S.C. Rep. R.J. May until early October, after May’s attorney said the defense couldn’t be ready for the original trial date in September.
Another S.C. legislator resigns. Following three sudden resignations last week, Dorchester County Republican Rep. Chris Murphy on Wednesday became the latest S.C. legislator to step down, calling the decision “bittersweet.” Three other state legislators resigned earlier this month, although one of them is running for another seat.
Legislators to take fresh look at SCDOT as inflation, growth bite. With the S.C. Department of Transportation facing higher costs and more work than ever, S.C. House members say they plan to revisit funding and operational issues when they return in January.
S.C. lawmakers call for urgency, accountability in S.C. man’s innocence case. State legislators from Clarendon County say they want a full review of a South Carolina case after new evidence came to light that casts doubt on his guilt in the 2010 armed robbery for which he’s been imprisoned for 15 years.
S.C. law regulates when and where golf carts can be used. In South Carolina, golf cart laws were updated, enabling local governments to add restrictions to the new state law.
Lack of affordable child care costs S.C. economy $1B annually, chamber study finds. Half of working South Carolina parents missed work at least once in three months for lack of child care. One in 10 reported quitting their job or getting fired, according to a survey by the state Chamber of Commerce.
S.C. can restart electric vehicle charging program again. Federal funding for electric vehicle chargers has been fully restored. States have until Sept. 10 to resubmit plans for spending their share of federal money set aside by Congress to put more fast-charging stations along the interstate system for electric vehicles.
The end is near
Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way. This week, he pokes fun at summer coming to a close – or is it something bigger?
Might take awhile for Statehouse to change, but it’s coming
By Andy Brack | Charleston City Paper senior editor Herb Frazier dug up a report recently that has data that might surprise you – the number of foreign-born South Carolinians has been growing by leaps and bounds.
According to a Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) report using census data, the number of South Carolina’s foreign-born residents, documented and undocumented, has zoomed 10 times from 46,620 people in 1980 to 450,446 residents in 2025. That’s a whopping 909% increase, one of the largest of states in the nation.
So from Walhalla to Daufuskie to Little River and everywhere in between, some 8.3% of the 5.4 million people who now live in South Carolina were born outside of the United States. Wow! What an indicator of how the Palmetto State is changing.
Steven Camarota, CIS’s director of research, told Frazier that Latin Americans make up most of South Carolina’s new arrivals. But immigrants have arrived here from all over the globe in the last four decades, including east Asia, south Asia, the Middle East and Africa. And people can sense the changes.
“The public senses that something fundamentally has changed,” Camarota said, with the nation’s immigrant population reaching a record 16% of the U.S. population. “Even during the great wave of immigration from 1870 to 1920, it never got that high.”
In South Carolina, where paternalistic plantation politics that favor a White privileged class for too long have been the norm, the boost in new immigrants signals a coming potential change politically. While our state legislature is largely White and male, the state distinguishes itself by having a past first-generation governor of Indian descent and a sitting member of the U.S. Senate who is one of the chamber’s five Black officials.
So all of this may make one wonder how long before there’s a tipping point in South Carolina politics for more minority representation at the Statehouse – more Blacks as well as more Latinos, Asians and other people of color. Think of what’s ahead as a kind of political herd immunity from White privilege that eventually will come, although that privileged political class uses gerrymandering to shield the impact of minority populations.
Currently in South Carolina based on 2020 census figures, about 38% of residents are minorities, including 1.3 million Blacks who comprise one in four state residents. How much does that population of non-White South Carolinians have to grow before they get some real political power and potentially change the dynamics of doing things the same ways for generations?
Just look to metro areas like Atlanta and Charlotte in neighboring states where diverse communities have more diverse governing bodies than South Carolina’s legislature. Or look at Mississippi, where the non-White population is 48% and has had the highest percentage of Black elected municipal officials in the nation. Or Florida and Georgia where minority populations are just over 50% and have a lot more minority leaders in positions of power.
Regardless of whether you are Republican or Democrat, our state’s political future holds a great potential for change based on sheer numbers of people who won’t look like most of today’s officeholders. But anyone who wants to see that change must realize that those in power will do everything they can to keep it. Just witness the redistricting messes in Texas and California to imagine the battles that will stretch into the future.
South Carolina might not have its act together to use authentic fairness as a redistricting principle after the 2030 census. But by 2040, be prepared for big changes.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. His weekly column on politics has appeared in South Carolina media for more than 20 years. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
McCorkle: McMaster is playing dangerous political game with Guard
By Will McCorkle | I was in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, filming individuals. On that fateful day when police officers were being beaten by individuals seeking to overturn the election results, President Donald Trump did not think it was necessary to send out the National Guard.
But now, he has decided to militarize our capital. On Aug. 16, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster joined in Trump’s efforts by deploying 200 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, this is not only an unnecessary decision but one driven by political aims. Furthermore, it undermines the values of a free, democratic society that the National Guard is supposed to protect.
Our state’s National Guard is only supposed to be used for emergencies and real crises, not at the whim of the governor or president for whatever political aims they have. Unfortunately, McMaster already has a history of using the National Guard for illegitimate purposes, such as when he sent troops down to the Texas-Mexico border in 2023, even though it was unnecessary.
I talked to one National Guard member here in South Carolina, who informed me that the troops did little but sit around. As someone who worked extensively at the border with asylum seekers, I saw this dynamic firsthand.
While this improper use of the National Guard for a political spectacle at the border was bad, what McMaster is doing with the National Guard now by sending them to Washington threatens our republic. It is giving support to an authoritarian movement by the Trump administration to put the military in our streets and turn us into a nation that more closely resembles Russia, China or Venezuela rather than a free democratic republic.
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There is, of course, no need for troops in the streets of D.C., just like there were not in the streets of Los Angeles a few months ago. Crime in D.C. is at record lows, but it is not about the crime. It is about control. It is about a show of force by an already increasingly authoritarian administration. National Guard troops did not sign up to be a spectacle for a president, or worse, to help him undermine the Constitution.
When the history books are written, it will not just be Trump himself who is condemned for his attempts at authoritarian control. It will also be those who helped bolster him in that effort, like McMaster. South Carolina, unfortunately, has a long history of undermining the ideals of freedom, equality and justice that the United States is supposed to stand upon, from being the first state to leave the union to being one of the last states to fly the Confederate flag.
We are once again defying the values of our nation by using the National Guard as political pawns to curry favor with a lawless presidency. History will not look kindly on such actions.
Will McCorkle is a college educator who lives in Summerville. He frequently writes about immigration issues. Have a comment? Send to feedback@charlestoncitypaper.com.
Interesting desk
Here’s an interesting desk somewhere in South Carolina now. Your only hint is that it’s not an archived picture. What is it and where? Send your best guess to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s mystery photo, “Too hot,” showed what the Royal American on Morrison Drive looked like during business hours on a recent scorching day in Charleston. The sign tells patrons that the garage door, usually open, is closed because it was just too damned hot. Normally, as Texas resident Allan Peel wrote, the door is open for easy access between the bar and deck.
Currently co-owned by John Kenney and Karalee Nielsen Fallert, the dive bar is in a 1950s-era industrial building that formerly housed the “Ole Charleston Forge,” a local commercial iron works business that closed at that location.
Congrats to two other sleuths who guessed the mystery: George Graf of Palmyra, Va., and Jay Altman of Columbia. Yep. It was a tougher one.
- SHARE: If you have a Mystery Photo to share, please send it to us – and make sure you tell us what it is!
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