Market screen · county data · updated October 18, 2026

Augusta, GA: a typical house comes in at 0.96x; houses under about $171,500 clear 1.20x

At the HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent ($1,326 a month), a house at the area's typical value ($220,100) has a full monthly payment of $1,386: principal and interest on a 75% loan at 7.5% over 30 years, plus property tax and insurance. The rent covers 0.96x of it. At the 3-bedroom figure ($1,669) it would be 1.20x. Run the house you are looking at on its own rent.

The numbers

Typical home value

$220,100

County medians weighted by households (Census ACS).

Rent: HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent

$1,326

A government floor, not a house rent.

Rent: HUD 3-bedroom Fair Market Rent

$1,669

The high end of the range.

Payment that clears 1.20x

$1,105

Rent ÷ 1.20, taxes and insurance included.

Price that clears 1.20x

$171,500

At this rent, 25% down, 7.5%, 30 years.

Rent-to-price

7.2%

A year of rent over the typical value.

Effective property tax

0.68%

Median tax over median value, owner-occupied homes (Census ACS); a rental can be taxed higher.

Insurance, median

$1,280 a year

What owners report paying (Census ACS); a landlord policy can differ.

Rental vacancy

9.3%

Unemployment

4.1%

Jobs up 2.3% over a year (federal labor statistics).

New homes permitted

17.9 per 1,000 households

Census Building Permits, latest year.

Flood insurance claims

363

NFIP claims since 2005 across the area's counties.

The typical house, worked out

Price$220,100
Loan (75%)$165,075
Principal and interest (7.5%, 30 years)$1,154
Property tax$125
Insurance$107
Full monthly payment$1,386
Rent (HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent)$1,326
DSCR: rent ÷ full payment0.96x

DSCR is the monthly rent divided by the full monthly payment. We use 1.20x as a cushion; many DSCR lenders accept as low as 1.00x. A lender sizes the loan on the lease or the appraiser's rent estimate for the specific house, often the lower of the two, not on an area figure.

The 7 counties in this area

  • Richmond County, GA76,694 households
  • Aiken County, SC69,916 households
  • Columbia County, GA55,149 households
  • Edgefield County, SC9,768 households
  • Burke County, GA9,184 households
  • McDuffie County, GA8,149 households
  • Lincoln County, GA2,997 households

How this screen is made

A market screen is built from official county data only: the HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent and its 3-bedroom figure, Census household-survey values, taxes, insurance and vacancy, Census building permits, federal unemployment statistics and NFIP flood claims. It updates when those sources do. Owner-occupied homes can carry a homestead exemption or assessment cap that a rental does not get, so a rental's tax can run higher, notably in states such as Florida and Texas. It carries no monthly interpretation; markets with a monthly hub get that on their own page. The rent is the HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent, which can sit below what a single-family house rents for, so the ratio here is cautious.