Renting in Campobello? Here's What You Need to Know Before You Sign

Campobello Rental Market Overview

Campobello is a small town in northwestern Spartanburg County, centered on the intersection of U.S. Highway 176 and S.C. Highway 357, with scenic S.C. Highway 11 passing through the town's northern edge on its way to Interstate 26 -- three miles away at Exit 5, per the town's own 2023 Comprehensive Plan. The 2020 Census puts the town's land area at 2.78 square miles, though the 2023 Comprehensive Plan describes current town limits as "approximately 3.51 square miles," consistent with annexation since the last Census measurement that this guide could not independently date. As of September 2026, this guide's research could not identify a single apartment or multi-family rental community operating inside Campobello: RentCafe reports "no rentals found near Campobello, SC," and ApartmentList shows zero active listings for the town. That absence sits oddly alongside the town's own planning data -- the 2023 Comprehensive Plan estimates that multi-family structures of 20 to 49 units made up 15.4% of Campobello's housing stock as of the 2014-2019 ACS 5-Year Estimates, the second most common housing type in town after single-family detached homes. This guide could not resolve which side of that contradiction is closer to current reality.

A related finding came from checking the town's own listed businesses against the Census Bureau's public geocoder. Of the four Dollar General stores carrying a "Campobello, SC" mailing address, only one -- at 55 Pine Street Ext -- resolves inside the incorporated Town of Campobello. The other three, at 14055 Highway 11, 1895 Prison Camp Road, and 9420 Highway 9, all resolve to unincorporated Spartanburg County. Town Hall (406 North Main Street) and the town's own Gib Gosnell Park (117 Landford Street) both check out cleanly inside actual town limits, so a "Campobello, SC" mailing address is a real but imperfect guide to whether a specific property falls under the town's own authority.

Common Lease Terms in Campobello

With no identified apartment community or leasing office to source a specific lease from, what follows is pieced together from housing-stock data and county-level benchmarks rather than a single property's own paperwork:

• Per the town's own 2023 Comprehensive Plan, Campobello had 266 housing units in 2020, of which 242 (91%) were occupied -- 83.7% owner-occupied and 16.3% renter-occupied, meaning roughly 40 households citywide rented as of that count
• A 2024 ACS estimate (via City-Data.com) puts Campobello's town-wide median gross rent at $1,420 a month -- a real, comparatively high figure among the small South Carolina towns this guide has covered, though it remains a statistical model built from the town's housing stock rather than a published asking rent from a specific property
• South Carolina's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (S.C. Code Title 27, Chapter 40) supplies the default lease terms -- notice periods, entry rules, deposit handling -- for any Campobello tenancy where the lease itself is silent
• No application fee, pet fee, deposit amount, or administrative charge is published anywhere online for a Campobello rental, since this guide could not identify a specific property to check one against

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but Campobello may have additional local ordinances that affect your lease.

• South Carolina law preempts local rent control statewide (S.C. Code §27-39-60) -- no South Carolina city or county, including Campobello, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property
• The Town of Campobello maintains a real, current Zoning Ordinance (dated August 7, 2023) and a 2023 Comprehensive Plan, both published on the town's own official website, establishing an R-3 Multi-Family Residential District and a separate R-3A Mobile Home and Mobile Home Park District, among others -- a more developed regulatory record than several other small South Carolina towns this guide has researched
• The ordinance regulates one rental-adjacent activity specifically: a short-term rental of a primary dwelling for 15 to 72 days a year requires a Town of Campobello business license and remittance of state and local accommodations and sales taxes, with the property assessed at a 4% rate by the county assessor
• No general rental-registration or landlord-licensing requirement covering ordinary, longer-term leases could be located in the ordinance text, on Municode, on eCode360, or on American Legal as of September 2026
• Town Hall (406 North Main Street) resolves cleanly inside the incorporated Town of Campobello via the Census Bureau's public geocoder, but three of the town's four "Campobello, SC" addressed Dollar General stores do not -- worth knowing before assuming a Campobello mailing address means the Town of Campobello has jurisdiction over a specific property

For full South Carolina statewide tenant rights, see our South Carolina tenant rights guide.

Mandatory Fees at Campobello Rentals

No fee schedule could be independently confirmed for a Campobello rental, since this guide could not identify any leasing office or managed rental community operating inside town, as of September 2026.

• RentCafe and ApartmentList both show no active listings for Campobello, so neither source publishes an application fee, pet fee, or deposit amount for any specific property
• South Carolina law sets no statutory cap on application fees, pet fees, or administrative fees -- whatever a specific lease states is what governs
• The town's own Fee Schedule (Ordinance 8.504) sets municipal permit and licensing fees, not lease-related charges; the one rental-adjacent figure it touches is the 4% county-assessor property tax rate applied to short-term rentals operating under a Town business license

A town with no identified rental community isn't automatically a red flag -- but it does mean every fee, deposit amount, and lease term needs confirming directly with the landlord, in writing, before signing anything.

A Wartime Tent City, a Beautiful Field, and Campobello's Economic Turnaround

Campobello's name traces to a specific, if slightly embellished, local story. Per the town's own 2023 Comprehensive Plan, a widow named Mrs. Dean was riding from Spartanburg to the family plantation with a group of friends when they stopped at the top of Windmill Hill and someone exclaimed "Campo Bella," Italian for "beautiful field." The name stuck to the plantation home, and after a room there served for years as the area's post office, the town was officially incorporated on February 9, 1882 -- as "Campobello" rather than "Campobella," a change the plan itself attributes to "the poor penmanship of a postal clerk of the day." During World War I, portions of town around Caldwell and Depot Streets served as a U.S. Army staging area and tent city, with recruits marching down Highway 11 to Gowensville to train on firing ranges before deployment. Today's Town Hall, on Main Street, was originally built in the late 1940s as a doctor's office, later became a sales office for a farm-chemical company, and was adapted in 1956 to house the town's first fire truck after Campobello organized a volunteer fire department, per the plan's own account.

The town's population history is a genuine arc, not a straight line. Census figures cited in the 2023 Comprehensive Plan show growth from 99 residents in 1880 to 530 in 1970 -- a 535% increase the plan credits to the same regional forces documented on other Upstate towns this guide has covered -- followed by a 15.3% decline back to 449 residents by 2000, which the plan ties to "the decline of the textile industry in the upstate of South Carolina and a downturn in the regional economy." The rebound since then is real: 502 residents in 2010, 675 in 2020 (a 34.5% increase and, in the plan's own words, "the highest population level ever for the Town"), and 766 to 776 by 2024 depending on the aggregator -- City-Data.com and DataUSA landing within 10 residents of each other, a notably small gap compared to some neighboring small towns this guide has researched. The plan attributes the turnaround directly to regional spillover: "the development taking place in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties has reached the Campobello market." Comparing Campobello to similarly sized Upstate towns, the plan's own table shows Pelzer growing 1,448.3% (driven by a documented 2015 annexation, covered elsewhere on this site) and Reidville 101.5%, with Campobello's 34.5% still well ahead of neighboring Landrum's 10.69% and most of the region's smaller towns.

Economically, the town's own planning data shows a real shift over just a few years. The 2023 Comprehensive Plan, drawing on 2019 ACS 5-Year Estimates, put Campobello's household income at $51,250 -- labeled "median income" in the plan's own income table but "average household income" in the very next paragraph, an inconsistency in the plan's own drafting -- below both Spartanburg County's $52,332 and South Carolina's $74,567 average household income at that time. The same 2019-vintage data showed Services as Campobello's largest employment category (43.4% of workers) ahead of Manufacturing (18.9%, or 44 workers, below the county's 21.8% but above the state's 16.4%). By 2024, separate estimates from City-Data.com and DataUSA put household income far higher, at $91,719 and $86,875 respectively -- now above South Carolina's roughly $72,350 statewide figure rather than below it -- with Educational Services (18.1%, or roughly 71 workers) overtaking Manufacturing and Construction as the leading employment category. This guide could not independently confirm what specifically drove that shift between the two data vintages. The town's own directory of local businesses, concentrated along Main Street and the U.S. 176 corridor, lists roughly two dozen active businesses including a Dollar General, Country Peddler Antiques & General Store, Buck 'N Brew, Coffee Bean Delight, Campobello Self Storage, and Gran'ide Stone Works -- alongside Gib Gosnell Park (117 Landford Street), the town's one confirmed public park, offering ball fields and a playground on a first-come, first-served basis.

Common Issues Renters Face in Campobello

These are the most frequent lease-related considerations identified for Campobello, based on the research for this guide:

• No apartment or multi-family rental community could be confirmed operating inside Campobello despite the town's own planning data estimating 15.4% of local housing stock is multi-family -- a contradiction this guide could not resolve, meaning a prospective renter should not assume a specific in-town complex exists without confirming it directly
• Three of the town's four "Campobello, SC" addressed Dollar General stores actually sit on unincorporated Spartanburg County land, not inside the Town of Campobello -- a reminder that a mailing address alone doesn't establish which government actually has jurisdiction over a specific property or business
• The town's land area is listed as 2.78 square miles by the 2020 Census but roughly 3.51 square miles in the town's own 2023 Comprehensive Plan, consistent with annexation this guide could not independently date
• Household income and employment data disagree meaningfully between the town's 2019 ACS-based Comprehensive Plan figures and 2024 aggregator estimates -- worth knowing before treating any single cited figure for Campobello as current
• 52% of Campobello's renters were cost-burdened (paying more than 30% of income toward rent) as of the 2019 ACS, per the town's own Comprehensive Plan -- higher than both Spartanburg County (46%) and South Carolina statewide (49%)

Negotiating Your Lease in Campobello

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and Campobello's real population growth, paired with no confirmed rental community and a documented history of renter cost-burden, points toward less renter leverage here than in the declining small towns more typical of this guide's South Carolina coverage.

• Requesting a full written lease, rather than a verbal or partial agreement, is especially relevant in a market like Campobello's, where no leasing office or standard template has been confirmed to exist
• Confirming a specific address's jurisdiction using the Census Bureau's free public geocoder is worth doing before assuming a Campobello address means Town of Campobello oversight applies -- the same check this guide ran on the town's own Dollar General stores
• Comparing a specific quote against nearby Landrum, Inman, Chesnee, or Spartanburg, all covered elsewhere on this site, can help gauge whether a Campobello rent or fee fits regional Upstate norms for a similar unit type

A town with real population growth isn't automatically a red flag for renters -- but it does mean a landlord in a thin, undocumented market has less pressure to compete on price, so getting terms confirmed in writing before committing matters more here than in a market with published comparables.