Carolina Forest

The test is statutory: § 38-75-310(5) draws Horry County's coastal area as everything east of US 17 or Bypass 17, whichever runs farther west. Carolina Forest is west of the Waterway and west of the Bypass, which puts it outside — so the wind exclusion the coast lives with is not permitted here, and wind stays inside the homeowners policy on one deductible. Outside does not mean cheaper by rule: a house a few miles from the beach is still a coastal risk to a carrier, and two quotes answer that question where no rule does. A specific address can sit on the far side of that road from the rest of its street, so the declarations page and your insurance agent settle it — not the town name. How wind and hail coverage works here →

That is a per-parcel question, not a per-town one — zones change block to block and sometimes lot to lot. What decides it is the FEMA flood zone for the specific parcel: inside a Special Flood Hazard Area (the A and V zones) federal law directs a regulated lender not to make, increase, extend or renew the loan unless the building is covered for the term of it. Zone X carries no federal mandate, though a lender may still require coverage as a matter of its own policy. Pull the zone for the actual address before you write an offer, never a neighborhood-level impression. Flood zones, decoded →

South Carolina assesses an owner-occupied legal residence at 4% and everything else — second homes, rentals, land — at 6%, under S.C. Code § 12-43-220. Those ratios are state law, so they apply the same in Horry and Georgetown counties. The 4% is not automatic: you have to apply for it, and the Horry County Assessor's guidance is blunt about the consequence of not doing so — an automatic 6% assessment. The rest of the bill depends on the taxing districts the parcel sits in, so ask the county assessor for the real figure on the real address before you rely on any of it. Horry County property taxes, explained →

No. Carolina Forest is an unincorporated, master-planned area of Horry County on the far side of the Intracoastal Waterway from Myrtle Beach, between US 501 and International Drive. There is no town council and no municipal ordinance layer — county government is the government here, which means one fewer set of local rules and also one fewer local body to petition. It has its own elementary, middle and high schools, a county recreation center and a library branch along Carolina Forest Boulevard. Living in Carolina Forest →