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Horry County Tax Sale: 1,990 Properties on the Block Tuesday, December 1

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The sale, in numbers

Horry County — the Myrtle Beach market — runs the largest South Carolina tax sale of the fall season. The published list opened at 2,343 properties; 353 have already been withdrawn, redeemed or sold out, leaving 1,990 live for the December 1 sale. Combined published minimum bids come to $9,696,985. The median parcel sits at $2,464; the list runs from $109 up to $273,089. Those figures are the county's published numbers, exactly as released — the starting point for bidding math, never a statement of what a property is worth.

• 1,990 properties live on the published list (2,343 originally published)
• $9,696,985 combined published minimum bids — median $2,464, smallest $109, largest $273,089
• Sale date: Tuesday, December 1, 2026 — in person — see the county page for the venue exactly as published

How this South Carolina sale works

South Carolina sells redeemable tax deeds, and the bidding is premium (highest bid wins) — it is not a bid-down interest auction. If the owner redeems within 12 months of the sale, the buyer gets the bid back plus interest that steps up the longer redemption takes: 3% in the first quarter, then 6%, 9%, and 12% in the final quarter. Critically, that interest is capped at the taxes-and-costs amount — every dollar of premium you bid above it earns nothing, which is why disciplined ceilings matter more in South Carolina than almost anywhere else.

Before Tuesday: how to work this list

Start from the full list on the Horry County page linked below and work it down to a bid list before sale day: screen for the areas and property types you actually buy, verify each finalist against county records, and confirm registration, deposit and payment rules with the county tax sale office well before December 1. The sale is on December 1; the buyers who win it are the ones who did the sorting in advance, not the ones scrolling on sale day.

Questions

Is the published minimum bid the price of the property?
No. The minimum bid is the floor the county published — taxes, interest, penalties and costs rolled into one figure. Competitive bidding decides the final price, and the minimum says nothing about the property's market value.

When does the buyer get the deed?
Not at the sale. The owner has 12 months from the sale date to redeem by repaying the bid plus tiered interest (3% to 12%). Only if the property is not redeemed does the successful bidder receive a tax deed after the period expires.