Best PlacesRitter, SC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ritter, 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.
Ritter ranks 48,495th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ritter
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.
Ritter's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ritter ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Cheap childcare$581 a month, better than 80% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 78% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 71% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 103 pleasant days a year, better than 70% of towns
Where Ritter ranks low
- Short commute46.8 minutes each way, better than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 5% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ritter
A household needs to earn about $30,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ritter home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,116, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Ritter's effective rate of 0.50%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Ritter
Ritter 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 Ritter.
Who works in Ritter, and how
Work in Ritter centers on hospitality & food and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Ritter
The coast is about 51 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Ritter, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ritter, month by month
Ritter sees roughly 103 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and September through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 48° | 39° |
| April | 77° | 64° | 53° |
| July | 91° | 80° | 72° |
| October | 78° | 66° | 57° |
Flying in and out of Ritter
Charleston AFB/International sits about 35 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 Ritter
Schools across Ritter average a D, better than 5% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cottageville ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- Hendersonville ElementaryD− · 11% proficient
Top middle schools
- Colleton County MiddleD · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Colleton County HighD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ritter school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ritter 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 Ritter against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ritter
Is Ritter a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ritter ranks 48,495th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, affordable childcare, and low property taxes, and lowest on long commutes and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ritter expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $118,093. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $71,116 median income, cost of living beats 19% of towns.
Is Ritter safe?
Ritter is safer than 4% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $926 per resident a year.
Compare Ritter with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ritter. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ritter 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.
Ritter detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ritter: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ritter: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ritter: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ritter: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ritter 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.