Living in Hilton Head & Beaufort Lowcountry

This southernmost coastal South Carolina region centers on Hilton Head Island, named the #1 island in the United States by Conde Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards for eight consecutive years through 2025 -- a real, internationally recognized resort brand carried by a genuinely small, aging full-time population (median age 59.8) and a housing market where only about 2,500 of 34,665 total units are considered affordable. Bluffton offers the same Lowcountry coastal-village lifestyle at a real, if modest, discount, anchored by Sun City Hilton Head, South Carolina's largest active-adult community. Beaufort combines a nationally recognized historic antebellum downtown with major, currently active military significance -- Parris Island, Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, and Naval Hospital Beaufort together inject an estimated $2.4 billion annually. Hardeeville, South Carolina's fastest-growing city by percentage, is driven directly by an influx of retirement-age residents into large, named 55-plus communities (Latitude Margaritaville Hilton Head, Sun City Hilton Head). Every member place shares a real single-vehicle-route hurricane-evacuation structure via US 278/Beaufort County's evacuation zone, and a living Gullah heritage predating the resort era by a century, anchored by Mitchelville -- the first self-governed town of formerly enslaved people in the United States, founded on Hilton Head Island in 1862.

Explore Hilton Head & Beaufort Lowcountry in depth

• Cost of Living & Housing in Hilton Head & Beaufort Lowcountry
• Best Places to Live in Hilton Head & Beaufort Lowcountry
• Moving to Hilton Head & Beaufort Lowcountry
• Climate & Lifestyle in Hilton Head & Beaufort Lowcountry

Places we've researched in Hilton Head & Beaufort Lowcountry

• Hilton Head Island -- Beaufort County
• Beaufort -- Beaufort County
• Bluffton -- Beaufort County
• Hardeeville -- Jasper County