23 new marshfront homes are coming to Hilton Head. Here’s where and how much they cost
Twenty-three new homes will rise off Hilton Head Island’s Marshland Road beginning in May.
Crews are moving trees and debris at the mid-island site near the Napa Auto Parts store, according to Leslie Ehlers, the marketing coordinator for site developer Village Park Homes.
The homes — called The Marshes at Broad Creek — will be priced in the mid-$400,000s, and homebuyers have a choice of five different floor plans, she said.
Ehlers said there is no anticipated construction end date because it depends on “the pace of sale” of the new houses.
She said the planned construction comes at a time when island space is at a premium.
“Land is becoming scarcer,” she said, “which means new construction opportunities are scarcer.”
The price tag is generally in line with the average home sale price on the island — $405,760 in 2018, according to the Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors.
Hilton Head housing issues
The construction comes at a time when the town is struggling with the lack of workforce housing and a shrinking middle class.
Hilton Head hired a housing consultant in 2018 to study the availability of homes for a workforce that is increasingly having to commute long distances to work on the island.
Lisa Sturtevant and Associates found that the median yearly wage for employees of the island’s workforce ranged from $20,850 for employees in the administrative support and waste management industry to $51,359 for employees in the finance and insurance industry.
Using the median wage, the consultant team calculated what “affordable homeownership” would look like for each industry.
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The consultants classified “affordable” as housing that ranged in cost from around $145,950 to $359,513.
However, on an island where one in five homes is priced at $1 million or more, the new marshfront homes may appeal to the middle class that the Sturtevant team warned is “hollowing out” due to a widening income gap.
This story was originally published January 9, 2019 at 4:07 PM.