Beaufort County named best place in SC to save money. But is it really?

Beaufort County was named the best place in South Carolina to save money by financial technology company SmartAsset this week.

The website looked at each county’s median income and cost of living to determine “purchasing power” and then factored in taxes to rank counties across the nation.

Some residents might take issue with the site’s conclusions.

The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette previously reported on the county’s workforce crisis, a situation building as workers necessary for the hospitality industry are unable to afford housing on Hilton Head Island.

Some businesses have had to cut back on hours, and some communities have had to outsource services because of a lack of workers.

In 2016, rent and mortgage payments on Hilton Head were found to be 9 percent higher than the national average and at least 30 percent more expensive than in Greenville, Columbia or Myrtle Beach, according to the annual cost-of-living index developed by the Council for Community and Economic Research and compiled by the S.C. Department of Commerce.

That index, which put Hilton Head’s cost of living as the highest in the state, factors in the costs of housing, transportation, grocery items, utilities, health care, and miscellaneous goods and services.

Hilton Head Island’s median list price for a home in 2017 was highest in the state at $300,000 according to the South Carolina Realtors’ annual market report released this week. For Beaufort, that median list price was the state’s third highest at $210,000.

It’s not just hospitality workers squeezing budgets to afford living expenses, either.

Beaufort County’s turnover rate for teachers is blamed in part on the area’s high cost of housing, food and other necessities. Many teachers have to take second — or more — jobs to make ends meet.

Best places to save study

Here’s how SmartAsset came up with its data: “First, we calculated the average cost of living in each county for a household with two adults (one working). We then created a purchasing power index for each county,” the website says.

Researchers created a tax-rate index for each county as well, using the example of a family making $50,000 a year. Then, they calculated a weighted average — three-fourths purchasing power and one-fourth tax rates — to score the best places to save overall.

Here’s a sample of the data:

Statewide, researchers determined the median household income was $45,483, and the cost of living was set at $29,748.

Jasper County ranked 27th in the state with a $37,141 median income and $30,187 cost of living.

Williamson, Tennessee, was called the best place to save in the nation. Median household income there was $96,565, and cost of living was $31,736.

A close second place was Los Alamos, New Mexico, with median household income of $101,934 and cost of living of $32,586.

Los Alamos had a slightly higher tax rate than Williamson did.

The study used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the MIT Living Wage Study.

This story was originally published January 30, 2018 at 1:24 PM with the headline "Beaufort County named best place in SC to save money. But is it really?."