Pawleys Island / Georgetown & Horry Counties, SC
What’s Happening in Horry County Housing: If You Build It, Will They Come? MyrtleBeachSC News (Myrtlebeachsc)
Summary: Horry County’s housing market is sending mixed signals: a new state law fast-tracks evictions for owners, a tennis club in Grande Dunes is being redeveloped into 31 housing units over resident objections, and sales data shows cooling prices and rising inventory. Builders continue to add supply even as median prices dip and days-on-market stretch, suggesting supply may be outpacing demand. The convergence of these trends raises the question of whether local planning approvals are aligned with market absorption capacity.
Why it matters: For residents and investors in the Myrtle Beach area, the disconnect between continued building approvals and softening sales data signals potential downward pressure on property values and a shift in bargaining power from sellers to buyers.
Context: Horry County has seen rapid population growth and construction in recent years, but the post-pandemic housing boom is cooling nationally, and local data now mirrors that trend with increasing inventory and declining prices.
"Put plainly: builders and planning commissions, including the one weighing the Grande Dunes tennis club project, are still approving new units into a market where inventory is climbing, days-on-market are stretching, and prices are drifting down almost everywhere except a couple of inland pockets." — MYRTLEBEACHSC
Commentary: The new anti-squatting law provides a useful legal tool for owners, but it doesn’t address the structural oversupply problem. The conversion of recreational amenities like the Grande Dunes Tennis Club into housing suggests developers are running out of raw land and are now cannibalizing community assets. If the market continues to cool, the next rezoning fight may be less about density and more about who is left holding the bag on overvalued inventory.
Date: July 09, 2026 09:41 AM ET
URL: https://myrtlebeachsc.com/whats-happening-in-horry-county-housing-if-you-build-it-will-they-come
AI Sentiment Score: Negative (55%)
AI Credibility Score: 10.0/10 — High
Scores and text generated by AI analysis of the source article indicated.Severe weather blamed in crane collapse that prompted emergency warnings on Cooper River (Postandcourier)
Summary: A large crane collapsed into the Cooper River near the former Charleston Navy Yard on July 10, attributed by the Coast Guard to severe weather. A safety zone was established, later reduced, and a pollution boom deployed around the crane, which held up to 1,000 gallons of fuel. Commercial traffic resumed by noon Saturday, but salvage planning remains preliminary. The incident follows a similar crane topple near Hilton Head on June 29, raising questions about infrastructure resilience during extreme weather.
Why it matters: For coastal South Carolina readers, this incident underscores the vulnerability of port and industrial infrastructure to severe weather, with direct implications for maritime safety, commercial shipping schedules, and environmental risk in a region heavily dependent on tourism and trade.
Context: The Cooper River is a critical artery for the Port of Charleston, one of the busiest container ports on the U.S. East Coast. The collapse occurred at Pier G, a historic WWII-era structure within the former Naval Base Charleston, which closed in 1996 but remains part of a National Register Historic District.
"NORTH CHARLESTON — A large crane collapsed the night of July 10 into the Cooper River in the area of Pier G, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, prompting warnings to boaters." — POSTANDCOURIER
Commentary: The back-to-back crane collapses in the region suggest that aging waterfront infrastructure may be reaching a stress point under increasingly volatile weather patterns. While no injuries were reported, the 1,000-gallon fuel potential and submerged wreckage create a layered hazard for both navigation and environmental response. The delay in salvage planning points to a coordination gap between port authorities, the Coast Guard, and private operators that could become a bottleneck as storm season intensifies.
Date: July 11, 2026 12:04 AM ET
URL: https://www.postandcourier.com/news/crane-collapses-into-cooper-river-coast-guard-says/article_4477ada7-286f-4227-9cc1-df43661a3ebc.html
AI Sentiment Score: Negative (88%)
AI Credibility Score: 10.0/10 — High
Scores and text generated by AI analysis of the source article indicated.Navy Base project still stalled after 2 years. Here’s the federal snag holding it up. (Postandcourier)
Summary: North Charleston’s Battery Park project, a 50-acre mixed-use development on the former Naval Base, remains stalled two years after the city approved its sale to a joint venture. The hold-up is the Department of the Navy’s failure to terminate two active leases on the site, with final Pentagon approval delayed by internal reorganization. City Council is set to extend the due diligence period to July 2027, a second extension, while awaiting clearance. Separately, a new state law now allows Tax Increment Financing on former military bases to fund affordable housing, a tool developers may eventually leverage.
Why it matters: This delay signals how federal bureaucracy can stall major urban redevelopment projects, even with local political will and a clear vision, and highlights the growing complexity of repurposing military land for civilian use.
Context: The Battery Park project is led by the same team behind the Navy Yard Charleston revitalization, and its principal is Charleston Mayor William Cogswell, whose wife now runs the development firm WECCO.
"The sale won’t be finalized until the leases are terminated, so a new agreement between the city and developers aims to extend the timeline." — POSTANDCOURIER
Commentary: The repeated extensions—now pushing into a third year—suggest that the Pentagon’s ‘reorganization’ is a convenient black box for delays that may reflect deeper institutional resistance to releasing prime waterfront property. The affordable housing TIF amendment is a meaningful policy win, but it remains theoretical until the leases are cleared and the sale closes. For coastal communities watching this, the lesson is that federal land transfer processes are brittle and unpredictable, often outlasting local political tenures.
Date: July 06, 2026 05:00 AM ET
URL: https://www.postandcourier.com/charleston_sc/battery-park-federal-leases-north-charleston/article_22506b83-2254-412b-8da2-516b0480e684.html
AI Sentiment Score: Negative (50%)
AI Credibility Score: 10.0/10 — High
Scores and text generated by AI analysis of the source article indicated.Post ID: 6395fbe4