ZIP code 29401

ZIP 29401 is a mid-size town in Charleston County, South Carolina, with 9,210 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #174 of 424 ranked by population — larger than 59% of them. The median age here is 34.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in ZIP 29401 earn a median of $90,074 a year, 14.7% above the national figure of $78,538. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 17.7% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 29401 is valued at $1,165,900, 284.3% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,838 a month, 30.7% above the national figure, or roughly $22,056 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 24.5% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 12.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 57.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Home values sit at 12.9× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere. Median income runs above the national figure while poverty also runs above it — a split distribution, not a uniformly comfortable place. Averages hide that; the two numbers together do not.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.

ZIP 29401 is tabulated inside Charleston County, South Carolina, one of 26 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 424 across South Carolina. Population sits in the small-town band, typically one main street plus the addresses that feed into it. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 29401 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 29401 reports a median household income of $90,074, 7% above the $84,531 county median, and 57% above the $57,227 typical SC ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $1,165,900, 159% above the county figure and 600% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,838 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

A taxable purchase made inside 29401 carries 9% at the register, assembled from the Charleston jurisdiction stack: the South Carolina state rate plus every county, municipal and special district levy that reaches this address. Because those district boundaries were drawn for schools, transit and hospital funding rather than for mail delivery, two addresses inside 29401 can legitimately fall under different totals — the rate shown here is the one that applies to the dominant jurisdiction.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 29401 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.