MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Horry County’s rapid growth is usually seen in communities like Carolina Forest, but a lot more houses are also being built in the city limits.
They’re hard to miss driving through most of Myrtle Beach. New houses and developments are being built all around the city.
City spokesperson Mark Kruea says like the city’s overall economy, the housing market is also doing well.
“We’ve seen a lot of new residential construction, in fact, last year, more residential construction than commercial construction inside the city of Myrtle Beach,” Kruea said.
The city’s construction services department issued 585 permits last year for crews to build single-family homes. That’s 200 more permits than were given out the year before. The city says most of those homes are being built in the Grande Dunes or Market Common areas.
With a lot of new developments in the last decade, groups like the planning commission check if proposed construction fits into the city’s designs.
“We need to make sure that everything is zoned correctly, that we’ve got the roads in place, the utilities, the water and sewer in place, the stormwater,” said Kruea.
The city is also looking at new rental opportunities like the proposed Gateway Galleria on North Ocean Boulevard, which could break ground as soon as this fall.
Whether new residents choose to live inside or outside Myrtle Beach’s city limits, the city says many are coming for the same reasons.
“Our metropolitan statistical area is the second-fastest growing in the country,” Kruea said. “Obviously, people want to move here. They want to live here. The housing prices are affordable if you’re coming out of the Northeast or the Midwest.”
The city also says homes are also being built in neighborhoods in between Ocean Boulevard and Kings Highway.
While Grande Dunes still has much more room for homes, The Market Common’s housing area is about 90 percent complete.