Charleston rents are now nearly $500 a month higher than Savannah

Charleston and Savannah get grouped together constantly as they're both similar size, have a similar history, share the same stretch of coast, and have the same tourist economy.

Their rents have stopped being similar though and it isn't close anymore. Charleston is at $2,293 a month after rising 10.2% over the past year, and Savannah is at $1,798 a month after rising 2.3%. That's a $495 monthly gap between the two similar cities.

The Charleston metro is pricing like a coastal California town

Mount Pleasant, just across the Cooper River, is the most expensive city in the group at $2,450, with a one-bedroom at $2,265 that costs more than a one-bedroom in Charleston itself. That's the signature of a supply-constrained suburb, the same pattern we found in suburbs that cost more than the city they orbit.

North Charleston is where the pressure escapes, and it's the trade most people miss. At $1,742 it undercuts Charleston by $551 a month while sitting inside the same metro, and its one-bedroom at $1,488 is $431 below Charleston's. For anyone working in Charleston who doesn't need a peninsula address, that's the trade worth running.

Why Savannah stayed cheap

Savannah has most of what drives Charleston's prices, including the tourism, the historic district and the port. What it hasn't had is the same wave of in-migration and job growth, and rent tracks that far more closely than it tracks charm.

The practical read for renters is that Savannah currently buys more. A one-bedroom there costs $1,435 against $1,919 in Charleston, a difference of $484 a month or $5,808 a year for a comparable unit in a comparable city.

Columbia is the genuine budget option in South Carolina at $1,478, though you're trading the coast for an inland state capital, which is a different life rather than a cheaper version of the same one.

Worth flagging that Charleston's 10.2% is the kind of number that rarely repeats. Markets running at that pace tend to either slow sharply or overshoot and correct, and we've tracked both outcomes in cities that are still below their peak rent. A renter signing in Charleston today is buying near the top of a fast run.

Sources

• RentDataNow rent data for Charleston, Savannah and surrounding cities, by bedroom size, anchored to the Zillow Observed Rent Index, June 2026