Best PlacesIsle Of Palms, SC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Isle Of Palms, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Isle Of Palms ranks 2,284th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Isle Of Palms
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.
Isle Of Palms' strengths and weaknesses
Where Isle Of Palms ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$175,882 median, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 97% of towns
Where Isle Of Palms ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Cheap childcare$923 a month, better than only 34% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Isle Of Palms
A household needs to earn about $346,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Isle Of Palms home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $175,882, 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 Isle Of Palms' effective rate of 0.30%, 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 Isle Of Palms
Isle Of Palms 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 Isle Of Palms.
Who works in Isle Of Palms, and how
Work in Isle Of Palms centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 64%
- Work from home 32%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Isle Of Palms
Isle Of Palms has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns. The coast is about 3 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Isle Of Palms and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Isle Of Palms, month by month
Isle Of Palms sees roughly 109 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs February through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 50° | 42° |
| April | 76° | 66° | 57° |
| July | 90° | 82° | 75° |
| October | 78° | 68° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Isle Of Palms
Charleston AFB/International sits about 17 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.2 million passengers in 2025, with 95 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Isle Of Palms
Schools across Isle Of Palms average an A+, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Montessori Community SchoolA · 70% proficient
- St. James Santee Elementary-middleD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Thomas C. Cario MiddleA+ · 75% proficient
- Laing MiddleA+ · 72% proficient
- Moultrie MiddleA+ · 71% proficient
Top high schools
- Wando HighA+ · 81% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Isle Of Palms school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Isle Of Palms 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 Isle Of Palms against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Isle Of Palms
Is Isle Of Palms a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Isle Of Palms ranks 2,284th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, high incomes, and an educated workforce, and lowest on an overheated housing market and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Isle Of Palms expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,421,699. The overall cost of living runs about 32% above the national average. Set against a $175,882 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Isle Of Palms safe?
Isle Of Palms is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $382 per resident a year.
Compare Isle Of Palms with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Isle Of Palms. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Isle Of Palms 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.
Isle Of Palms detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Isle Of Palms: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Isle Of Palms: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Isle Of Palms: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Isle Of Palms: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Isle Of Palms 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.