Coastal & luxury homes in Charleston

Folly Beach

18 sales at $1.5M+ · median $1.88M

Folly is the beach town of the bunch: a city on Folly Island with Center Street's shops, bars and restaurants in the middle and houses running up and down the island. At the high end you're looking at oceanfront homes and houses on the river and marsh side, built up to meet the city's flood rules. It feels like a town, not a resort.

• Government: City of Folly Beach
• Access: SC 171 (Folly Road) is the only road onto the island
• Short-term rentals: City license; investor licenses capped at 800, new ones frozen since Aug. 2026
• Flood rule: New construction sits 4 ft above base flood elevation

Watch for: One road in and out, every lot in Evacuation Zone A, and short-term rental rules that are tied up in court right now.

Isle of Palms

109 sales at $1.5M+ · median $2.35M

Isle of Palms is a city that covers the whole island, from the Front Beach area to Wild Dunes on the northeast end. The high end here is oceanfront and Intracoastal Waterway frontage. Short-term rentals are licensed with no cap, so expect vacation rental activity on a lot of streets.

• Government: City of Isle of Palms
• Access: IOP Connector from Mount Pleasant, or Breach Inlet from Sullivan's Island
• Short-term rentals: City license, no cap
• Height limit: 40 ft in most zoning districts

Watch for: Summer traffic on the IOP Connector, a 40-foot height limit in most zoning districts, and Evacuation Zone A.

Wild Dunes

Wild Dunes is the gated resort and residential community on the northeast end of Isle of Palms. You get oceanfront homes, golf-course and marsh lots, condos and villas around two Tom Fazio courses and the resort. If you want the beach plus golf behind a gate, this is the Isle of Palms version.

• Gated: Yes; main gate open 24/7 for residents and guests
• Golf: Links and Harbor courses, both Tom Fazio
• Public play: One of the two courses is open to the public each day
• Government: City of Isle of Palms

Watch for: Resort traffic and rentals sit inside the same gates, and club memberships are a separate purchase from the house.

Sullivan's Island

31 sales at $1.5M+ · median $4.75M

Sullivan's Island is a small town at the mouth of Charleston Harbor, and it is the least commercial of the beach towns by design. Most of the island is single-family homes, one house per lot, with older cottages, historic homes and newer raised houses on the beach and back side. There's no hotel, and the business district is a short stretch of Middle Street.

• Government: Town of Sullivan's Island
• Access: Ben Sawyer swing bridge (SC 703) from Mount Pleasant, or Breach Inlet from Isle of Palms
• Rentals: Under 28 consecutive nights is illegal
• House size: 2,400 sq ft cap on lots up to 5,000 sq ft, plus 10 sq ft per extra 100 sq ft of lot

Watch for: No vacation rentals, a cap on house size tied to lot size, a 38-foot height limit and Design Review Board approval in the historic overlay.

Kiawah Island

56 sales at $1.5M+ · median $2.58M

Kiawah is a gated barrier island town with about 10 miles of beach. The high end runs from oceanfront homes to river, marsh and golf frontage, plus homesites, and much of it sits around the resort's courses or the private Kiawah Island Club. It's the most resort-oriented address in the area.

• Gated: Yes; KICA runs the Main and Vanderhorst gates
• Government: Town of Kiawah Island
• Public beach access: One: Beachwalker County Park
• Short-term rentals: Town license; 20% cap in R-1 and parts of R-2

Watch for: Gate rules, an Architectural Review Board for any exterior work, a 27-mile drive to downtown, and Club membership that only comes with certain purchases.

Seabrook Island

44 sales at $1.5M+ · median $2.24M

Seabrook is Kiawah's smaller neighbor, a gated town where most homes sit behind the property owners' association gate. You'll find oceanfront, river and marsh homes, golf-course homes and villas, all tied to the member-owned Seabrook Island Club. Bohicket Marina on Bohicket Creek is just outside.

• Gated: Yes; SIPOA gate on Seabrook Island Road
• Government: Town of Seabrook Island, incorporated 1987
• Club: Membership required for new owners since Jan. 1, 2005
• Short-term rentals: Town permit; caps of 557 in the overlay, 110 elsewhere

Watch for: Club membership is required for every new owner, the beach is private to residents and guests, and the drive out runs through Johns Island.

South of Broad

145 sales at $1.5M+ in ZIP 29401 · median $3.38M

South of Broad is the residential tip of the Charleston peninsula, down to the Battery. The high end here is historic houses inside the city's oldest protected district, the first of its kind in the country. You're buying a piece of the city's history, and you're buying the rules that come with it.

• Government: City of Charleston
• Design review: Board of Architectural Review, created 1931
• Short-term rentals: Owner's primary residence only; historic-building rules on the peninsula
• Evacuation zone: Zone B (southern peninsula)

Watch for: Board of Architectural Review approval for visible exterior work and any demolition, tidal flooding, and owner-occupied-only short-term rentals.

Old Village

The Old Village is the original Mount Pleasant, on Charleston Harbor next to Shem Creek. The top of the market here is harbor-front and marsh-front homes, plus older homes inside the historic district. It's one of the few places in Mount Pleasant where the houses predate the suburbs around them.

• Government: Town of Mount Pleasant
• Historic district: Mount Pleasant Historic District, National Register 1973
• Boundaries: Charleston Harbor, Shem Creek, Royall Ave. and McCants Dr.
• Evacuation zone: Zone B (Mount Pleasant)

Watch for: Exterior changes, new construction and demolition in the historic district go through the town's preservation commission.

Daniel Island

159 sales at $1.5M+ · median $2.5M

Daniel Island is a planned community of about 4,000 acres between the Cooper and Wando rivers, inside the City of Charleston but in Berkeley County. The high end sits in Daniel Island Park on the north end, built around two golf courses and the Daniel Island Club, with river and marsh frontage. The island has its own I-526 interchange.

• Government: City of Charleston (annexed 1991)
• County: Berkeley
• Size: About 4,000 acres, roughly 2,500 developable
• Golf: Daniel Island Club: Beresford Creek (Fazio) and Ralston Creek (Rees Jones)

Watch for: It's Berkeley County, not Charleston County, so tax bills and county services work differently, and it sits in Berkeley's Evacuation Zone B.

I'On

I'On is a New Urbanist neighborhood in Mount Pleasant, founded in 1995, built around lakes, canals, trails and parks. The high end is the homes on the lakes and canals. If you want an older-town feel in a newer build, this is where I'd look.

• Founded: April 30, 1995
• Homes: About 762 single-family homes at buildout
• Planners: Dover, Kohl & Partners and Duany Plater-Zyberk
• Design review: I'On Design Committee

Watch for: Plans go through the I'On Design Committee and its architectural and landscape guidelines before you build or change the outside.

Johns Island waterfront

76 sales at $1.5M+ on all of Johns Island · median $1.89M

Johns Island is where you find land and water together: river frontage on the Stono, Kiawah and Bohicket, often with room for a dock and a real yard. Rushland sits on about 500 acres along the Stono River, and Fenwick Hall, built around 1730, is on the Stono too. Between Kiawah and Seabrook, Bohicket Marina has deep water at low tide on Bohicket Creek.

• Government: Charleston County or City of Charleston, by parcel
• Stono River: Rushland (about 500 acres); Fenwick Hall (c. 1730)
• Bohicket Creek: Bohicket Marina, about 5 miles from the ocean
• Evacuation zone: Zone B

Watch for: Most of the island is unincorporated county or City of Charleston, so rules change by parcel, and dock depth varies a lot creek to creek.

James Island waterfront

35 sales at $1.5M+ on all of James Island · median $1.74M

James Island has older waterfront neighborhoods close to downtown. Riverland Terrace, where lots first sold in 1925, runs to the Stono River and Wappoo Creek under a live oak allee on Wappoo Drive. On the Folly side, the Secessionville area looks over Clark Sound, where some homes share a dock.

• Governments: Town of James Island, City of Charleston, Charleston County
• Riverland Terrace: Stono River and Wappoo Creek; lots sold from 1925
• Secessionville: Clark Sound marsh and water views
• Evacuation zone: Zone B

Watch for: The island is split among the Town of James Island, the City of Charleston and the county, and low-lying pockets flood.

Wadmalaw Island

7 sales at $1.5M+ · median $2.38M

Wadmalaw is the rural one. It's about 42 square miles between Church Creek, Bohicket Creek, the North Edisto and the Wadmalaw River, and it's home to the Charleston Tea Garden. The high end here is acreage on the water: big tracts, long drives and river or creek frontage. Nearly a third of the island is protected land.

• Access: One bridge, over Church Creek
• Protected land: 8,906 acres, about 31.7% of the island
• Size: About 41.9 sq mi
• County: Charleston

Watch for: One bridge over Church Creek, low-density zoning, and a long drive to anything.

Mount Pleasant waterfront

358 sales at $1.5M+ in all of Mount Pleasant · median $2.13M

Outside the Old Village, Mount Pleasant's established waterfront is the Hobcaw area. The Hobcaw subdivision dates to the 1950s and runs along the Wando River, and Hobcaw Point sits on Hobcaw Creek and Molasses Creek, where some homes have private docks. This is established waterfront, not new construction.

• Government: Town of Mount Pleasant
• Hobcaw: 1950s subdivision on the Wando River
• Hobcaw Point: Hobcaw Creek and Molasses Creek
• Evacuation zone: Zone B (Mount Pleasant)

Watch for: Many homes are older and will need work or a rebuild, and a dock means permits and depth checks before you count on it.

Awendaw and McClellanville

14 sales at $1.5M+ in all of Awendaw · median $2.04M

Up the coast from Mount Pleasant, Awendaw sits between the Francis Marion National Forest and the Cape Romain refuge, and McClellanville, along US 17, is the old fishing village on Jeremy Creek. The high end here is land and marsh frontage, not big subdivisions. Cape Romain's roughly 66,000 acres of refuge are next door.

• Awendaw: Town established 1992; between the national forest and the refuge
• Growth rules: Moratorium on subdivisions over 5 parcels, first adopted March 2024
• McClellanville: Founded 1926; National Register historic district
• Cape Romain: About 66,287 acres, established 1932

Watch for: Awendaw has paused larger subdivisions, Hurricane Hugo hit McClellanville hard in 1989, and you're a long way from town.