Myrtle Beach area’s hottest real estate spot is far from the coast, known for chicken bog | Myrtle Beach Business

LORIS — Horry County’s hottest real-estate spot is a former tobacco-farming hub known for its annual chicken bog contest.

Loris, along with the area stretching down S.C. 9 to Longs, saw 2021 home sales rise by 33 percent versus a year earlier — most of anywhere in Horry and Georgetown counties, according to an analysis of Coastal Carolina Association of Realtors data. 

Median home sale prices in Loris/Longs rose by 25 percent last year, a much faster pace than the 18 percent for the overall Myrtle Beach-area market.

The current movement toward the northwestern parts of Horry County is due to price increases, lack of available homes and developable land along the coast, said Ron Jackson, president of Coastal Carolina Association of Realtors.

“You can get a little bit more for your value,” Jackson said.

The 30 minute drive to the beach from the rural areas, like Loris, is not an obstacle to homebuyers arriving from larger cities with heavy traffic, he said.

Developers also are taking notice of this trend as well with land in the rural areas cheaper per acre than along the Grand Strand, Jackson said. 

Proposed developments near Loris have come up recently before the Horry County Planning Commission meetings, including 259 single-family homes next to the Porter’s Bay subdivision as well as 231 homes along Camp Swamp and Fries Bay roads.

“The big push is supply and demand,” Jackson said. “That’s why the inventory issue is the way it is. We have more buyers than we have available property. Development if it is not available on the coast, it will move inland where there is available product to produce.”

The real estate uptick in Loris-Longs is part of westward movement in developing rural parts of Horry County, the state’s fastest-growing county.

The shift started in the late 1990s with Carolina Forest, where thousands of homes were built 10 miles west of Myrtle Beach, to create an area with close to 25,000 residents.

After Carolina Forest became more populated, areas north of Conway along S.C. 90 and S.C. 905 began attracting development with thousands of homes approved on former farmland in recent years.

The lure in those rural areas is the same as Loris-Longs with homebuyers getting bigger residences for a fraction of beach prices. Median home prices in Loris-Longs were $140,000 less than Myrtle Beach in 2021, according to Coastal Carolina Association of Realtors data.

Much of the growth along S.C. 9 has come in Longs, which is east of Loris and closer to the beach.

The number of housing units in the Longs area rose by 46 percent between 2010 and 2020, almost five times faster than the housing growth rate in all of Horry County, according to Census data.

Still, Loris and nearby surrounding areas, about 25 miles from the coast, have added 500 homes in the past decade.

Loris Mayor Todd Harrelson said he understands why homebuyers would drive growth in areas near his town of 2,500, but he wants the city to maintain its image of being a place where everyone never meets a stranger.

“It’s better than not being a popular place,” Harrelson said. “I think it’s ideal that we want people to live here. I just want to keep the small-town charm that we have.”

Part of the atmosphere is the Loris Bog-Off, the annual event held each October featuring a cooking contest for the best combination of chicken, rice and sausage that is a staple of Horry County. 

With downtowns disappearing across the nation, the opposite has been happening in Loris. Harrelson said there was a big push a few years ago to start a Christmas tradition of placing a large canopy of lights over Main Street, which attracted new visitors and those interested in starting new businesses.

“It really took off and got people started,” Harrelson said. “More businesses are coming here, including restaurants, shops.”

The former movie theater that was once the heartbeat of the downtown area is being transformed into a museum and event venue by the Loris Historical Society.

Harrelson said the city is also trying to attract families to move into the area, recently purchasing 38 acres of land to increase its recreation facilities.