What salary do you need to live in Hilton Head Island, SC?

Rent, home values and prices in Hilton Head Island

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $1,446, $1,575 and $1,651 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, SC. The largest of those is 14% more than the smallest.

On the ownership side, the typical owner-occupied home is valued at $439,500. With median household income at $83,304, a typical home costs 5.3× a typical income, close to the middle of the range across US metros.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 98.0 here. Below 100 means a paycheck stretches further: $100,000 in Hilton Head Island has the buying power of roughly $102,023 at national average prices.

Hilton Head Island: the pre-tax income for each grade

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $55,000, Okay at $110,000 and Comfortable at $221,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 9% of income and the median home is 2.0× income.

Reaching Royal takes $630,000 — 2.9× the Comfortable line — because the last points come slowly once rent is already a small share.

These lines come straight from the calculator's formula: the income is raised until the two-bedroom score crosses each cutoff, then rounded up to the next $1,000.

Scores at $50K, $75K, $100K and $150K in Hilton Head Island

At $75,000 home size barely changes the picture: one, two and three bedrooms all grade Tight, with scores from 33 to 36.

None of the four salaries reaches Comfortable for two bedrooms; even $150,000 scores 54, Okay, which fits the $221,000 line above.

Hilton Head Island on the national list

Ranked against all 387 metros, Hilton Head Island sits 114th on overall price level and 58th on the two-bedroom rent median, counting from the most expensive. Its median home value ranks 54th.

Next to Hilton Head Island on the national rent ranking: Bend, OR ($1,576) and Ann Arbor, MI ($1,565).

Hilton Head Island in a South Carolina context

Compared with South Carolina as a whole, two-bedroom rent in Hilton Head Island is 37% higher ($1,575 vs. $1,148) and the median home is 70% higher ($439,500 vs. $259,000).

Run South Carolina's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $132,000; Hilton Head Island's line is +67% from that.

Looking for somewhere comparable without leaving South Carolina? Charleston-North Charleston, SC, Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC, and Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC have the closest mix of rent and overall prices.

Where the typical Hilton Head Island household lands

A household at the Hilton Head Island median income of $83,304 would see a two-bedroom score of 37 — Tight — with rent at 23% of income. That falls $137,696 short of the $221,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. For South Carolina as a whole, the median household income of $69,324 scores 47 against statewide rents. A household figure may pool several earners, unlike a single salary.

Treat every number here as a pre-tax, public-data estimate rather than financial advice.