Pawleys Island

The test is statutory, and Pawleys Island sits in Georgetown County, which § 38-75-310(5) defines separately: the coastal area runs between the Harrell Siau Bridge and the Horry County border, east of a line paralleling US 17. The beaches and everything east of 17 are inside it, where wind and hail can legally be excluded from a homeowners policy and bought separately; west of 17 is outside, where wind stays inside the homeowners policy on one deductible. 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 — Pawleys Island is in Georgetown County, which is why several of the answers above name a different county than they would forty minutes north. Georgetown assesses and bills the property taxes, its Register of Deeds holds the recorded HOA documents, and its own definition of the statutory coastal area governs the wind question. The state-law assessment ratios are identical; the county you deal with is not. Best Places to Live on the Grand Strand →