Cities in South Carolina by housing units authorized by building permits

Bluffton, SC had the highest housing units authorized by building permits of 39 cities in 2020, at 1,500. Gaffney, SC had the lowest, at 6. The median was 256 and the figure for South Carolina was 42,340. Source: the U.S. Census Bureau.

Highest1,500Bluffton, SC

Lowest6Gaffney, SC

Median25639 cities

South Carolina42,340History

All cities, 2020

count. Source: Invokely calculation with data from U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	Cities	2020 count	Change on 2019
1	Bluffton, SC Estimated	1,500	+26.1%
2	Greer, SC Estimated	1,482	+74.1%
3	North Charleston, SC Estimated	1,396	-3%
4	Charleston, SC Estimated	1,281	+7.8%
5	Greenville, SC Estimated	1,146	+22.8%
6	Mount Pleasant, SC Estimated	1,136	+107.7%
7	Fort Mill, SC Estimated	1,114	+10.3%
8	Hardeeville, SC Estimated	613	+22.8%
9	Simpsonville, SC Estimated	591	+40.4%
10	Columbia, SC Estimated	545	+15%
11	Mauldin, SC Estimated	526	+415.7%
12	Myrtle Beach, SC Estimated	505	-3.8%
13	Hanahan, SC Estimated	441	-5%
14	Summerville, SC Estimated	432	+102.8%
15	Goose Creek, SC Estimated	380	+4.7%
15	North Myrtle Beach, SC Estimated	380	+29.3%
17	Lexington, SC Estimated	307	+39.5%
18	Easley, SC Estimated	292	+72.8%
19	Florence, SC Estimated	291	-23.8%
20	Fountain Inn, SC Estimated	256	+36.9%
21	Rock Hill, SC Estimated	219	-49.4%
22	North Augusta, SC Estimated	209	+25.9%
23	Conway, SC Estimated	205	-17.3%
24	Clemson, SC Estimated	191	+11%
25	Hilton Head Island, SC Estimated	188	+79%
26	Moncks Corner, SC Estimated	160	-8.6%
27	Port Royal, SC Estimated	157	-75.2%
28	Tega Cay, SC Estimated	150	+36.4%
29	Aiken, SC Estimated	143	+5.9%
30	Anderson, SC Estimated	134	+11.7%
31	West Columbia, SC Estimated	83	-12.6%
32	Beaufort, SC Estimated	67	-9.5%
33	York, SC Estimated	63	-28.4%
34	Spartanburg, SC Estimated	37	+27.6%
35	Newberry, SC Estimated	24	+1,100%
36	Forest Acres, SC Estimated	15	-60.5%
37	Cayce, SC Estimated	9	-25%
38	Orangeburg, SC Estimated	7	+133.3%
39	Gaffney, SC Estimated	6	+50%

Other periods

About this ranking

Number of new privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in the year or month, from the US Census Bureau Building Permits Survey. Annual totals for the nation, states and counties; monthly counts for the nation and states.

Counts housing units, not buildings, starts, completions or sales. Monthly counts are not seasonally adjusted and do not add up exactly to the annual total, which includes later corrections; the national seasonally adjusted annual rate in the monthly New Residential Construction release is a different measure.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the cities are compared on one definition. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

U.S. Census Bureau. Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation. https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2020a.txt. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

U.S. Census Bureau. (2021). Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation (Cities in South Carolina by housing units authorized by building permits, 2020) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2020a.txt

MLA 9

Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation, Cities in South Carolina by housing units authorized by building permits, 2020. U.S. Census Bureau, 3 May 2021, https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2020a.txt. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/south-carolina-cities?period=2020. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

U.S. Census Bureau. 2021. Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation. Cities in South Carolina by housing units authorized by building permits, 2020. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2020a.txt. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/south-carolina-cities?period=2020.

Harvard

U.S. Census Bureau (2021) Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation, Cities in South Carolina by housing units authorized by building permits, 2020 [Dataset]. Available at: https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2020a.txt, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/south-carolina-cities?period=2020 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{census_cities_in_south_carolina_2020,
  author = {{U.S. Census Bureau}},
  title = {{Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation: Cities in South Carolina by housing units authorized by building permits, 2020}},
  year = {2021},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2020a.txt},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/south-carolina-cities?period=2020. Publisher attribution: U.S. Census Bureau. Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation. https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South\%20Region/so2020a.txt. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - U.S. Census Bureau
TI  - Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation: Cities in South Carolina by housing units authorized by building permits, 2020
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/05/03
PB  - U.S. Census Bureau
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2020a.txt
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/south-carolina-cities?period=2020
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/south-carolina-cities?period=2020.
N1  - Publisher attribution: U.S. Census Bureau. Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation. https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/South%20Region/so2020a.txt. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -

Embed this chart

Paste this code into a web page or a blog post. The chart shows the latest figures as they are published, with the source and a link back to this page.

Embed code

<iframe src="https://invokely.ai/embed/rankings/building-permit-housing-units/south-carolina-cities?period=2020" width="760" height="500" title="Cities in South Carolina by housing units authorized by building permits, 2020, chart from Invokely" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"></iframe>

Sites that read oEmbed links, such as WordPress, can show the chart when you paste the link to this page.

Use this data in your AI agent

Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:

Rank Cities in South Carolina by housing units authorized by building permits using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"building_permit_units","level":"municipality","within":"South Carolina","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=building_permit_units&level=municipality&within=South%20Carolina&limit=10

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in one step. The trial answers 25 calls a day without an account.

Questions

Which city has the highest housing units authorized by building permits?

Bluffton, SC, with 1,500 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Which city has the lowest housing units authorized by building permits?

Gaffney, SC, with 6 in 2020.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey: final annual estimates of new privately owned housing units authorized by permit-issuing place, including imputation. Retrieved 2026-10-12.