Best PlacesEdisto Beach, SC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Edisto Beach, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Edisto Beach ranks 36,553rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Edisto Beach
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Edisto Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Edisto Beach ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 88% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 88% of towns
- BikingBetter than 87% of towns
- QuietBetter than 84% of towns
Where Edisto Beach ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Edisto Beach
A household needs to earn about $185,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Edisto Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $90,536, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Edisto Beach's effective rate of 0.54%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Edisto Beach
Edisto Beach runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Edisto Beach.
Who works in Edisto Beach, and how
Work in Edisto Beach centers on professional & technical and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 64%
- Work from home 34%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Edisto Beach
Edisto Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 97% of towns. The coast is about 0 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Edisto Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Edisto Beach, month by month
Edisto Beach sees roughly 125 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 50° | 43° |
| April | 76° | 66° | 59° |
| July | 90° | 82° | 76° |
| October | 78° | 69° | 63° |
Flying in and out of Edisto Beach
The nearest airport, Hilton Head, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charleston AFB/International, about 33 miles away.
The best schools in and around Edisto Beach
Schools across Edisto Beach average a C+, better than 52% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Jane Edwards ElementaryD+ · 21% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lady's Island MiddleC · 35% proficient
- Colleton County MiddleD · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Beaufort HighA− · 61% proficient
- Colleton County HighD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Edisto Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Edisto Beach measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Edisto Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Edisto Beach
Is Edisto Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Edisto Beach ranks 36,553rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, cell coverage, and civic engagement, and lowest on an overheated housing market and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Edisto Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $735,400. The overall cost of living runs about 30% above the national average. Set against a $90,536 median income, cost of living beats 41% of towns.
Is Edisto Beach safe?
Edisto Beach is safer than 2% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,151 per resident a year.
Compare Edisto Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Edisto Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Edisto Beach represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Edisto Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Edisto Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Edisto Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Edisto Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Edisto Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Edisto Beach detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.