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

Clio Rental Market Overview

Clio is a 0.86-square-mile town in Marlboro County, in South Carolina's Pee Dee region. As of September 2026, this guide's research could not identify a single apartment or multi-family rental community operating inside town limits -- the two sources checked, City-Data.com's housing and economic profile for the town and Clio's own official website (cliosc.com), surfaced none. A 2024 Census American Community Survey estimate, as presented by City-Data.com, puts Clio's town-wide median gross rent at $619 a month -- a statistical model built from the town's existing housing stock rather than a published asking rent from any specific landlord or property.

Common Lease Terms in Clio

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

• City-Data.com's 2024 ACS-based estimate puts Clio's median household income at $37,946 -- roughly half of South Carolina's statewide figure of about $72,350 -- alongside a 29.2% poverty rate, notably higher than several other small South Carolina towns this guide has covered
• 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 Clio tenancy where the lease itself is silent
• Checked against the Census Bureau's public geocoder, Clio Town Hall (114 S Main Street) resolves cleanly inside the incorporated Town of Clio -- the one address this guide could confirm; a second candidate address returned no match at all rather than a conflicting one (see Local Tenant Protections below)
• City-Data.com's 2024 estimate puts the town's median house value at $123,269, well below South Carolina's statewide median and consistent with a cost-of-living index (79.1) notably below the national average

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but Clio 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 Clio, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property
• No searchable code of ordinances could be located for Clio on Municode as of September 2026, and this guide's review of the town's own website (cliosc.com) found no published zoning map, business-license fee schedule, or code of ordinances beyond council-meeting and utility-payment information
• Checked against the Census Bureau's public geocoder, Clio Town Hall (114 S Main Street) resolves cleanly to "Clio town" -- the one address this guide could confirm cleanly
• A second candidate address, Clio Elementary/Middle School on Highway 9 East, returned no match at all in the geocoder, rather than a conflicting jurisdiction -- a data-coverage gap for that rural highway segment, not evidence the school sits outside town. A specific address near a town's edge is still worth checking individually rather than assumed either way

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

Mandatory Fees at Clio Rentals

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

• City-Data.com's housing profile and the town's own website returned no property-level data for Clio, so neither publishes an application fee, pet fee, or deposit amount for any specific property in town
• No business-license fee schedule or rental-registration ordinance could be located for Clio on Municode or the town's own site
• South Carolina law sets no statutory cap on application fees, pet fees, or administrative fees -- whatever a specific lease states is what governs

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

A 44-Year Population Decline, a Real Cotton Festival, and Three Spots on the National Register

The U.S. Census Bureau's decennial counts show a steadier decline for Clio than this guide has found in most comparable small South Carolina towns, many of which show a growth period followed by a later reversal. Clio instead fell in every single count since 1980: 1,031 residents that year, down to 882 by 1990 (-14.5%), 774 by 2000 (-12.2%), 726 by 2010 (-6.2%), and 608 by 2020 (-16.3%) -- a cumulative 41.0% loss with no decade of growth in between. A 2024 current-year estimate, as presented by City-Data.com, puts the population at 574, continuing the same trend (-5.6% since 2020) and bringing the cumulative loss since 1980 to roughly 44.3%. Clio's median age of 38.8 years runs slightly younger than South Carolina's statewide 40.7, which is at least consistent with a town that has not seen the kind of in-migration of older residents some declining small towns experience.

Three Clio-area properties -- the Clio Historic District, the McLaurin House, and the McLaurin-Roper-McColl Farmstead -- carry National Register of Historic Places listings, per the town's Wikipedia entry, a notable concentration of federally recognized historic sites for a town this size. Unlike some informally circulated small-town festival claims this guide has had to flag elsewhere in South Carolina as unconfirmed, the town's own website (cliosc.com) directly lists the Clio Cotton Festival among its current events, alongside a separate "Taste of Society" event -- a real, currently active local festival, though this guide's research did not independently confirm its specific date, history, or attendance. Clio's school-age population was served in part by Marlboro School of Discovery, a magnet school within the town that has since closed, per Wikipedia; Clio Elementary/Middle School, on Highway 9 East, remains part of the Marlboro County School District.

Economically, City-Data.com's 2024 ACS-based estimates show manufacturing as Clio's largest employment sector by a wide margin at 34.5% of employed residents, followed by health care and social assistance and other services (both 11.7%) and public administration (9.3%) -- a manufacturing concentration similar in scale to several other small Pee Dee and Lexington-area towns this guide has covered, though no specific named employer or address behind it could be identified. Median household income runs $37,946, roughly half of South Carolina's statewide figure of about $72,350, with a 29.2% poverty rate -- notably higher than most other small South Carolina towns this guide has covered -- and an April 2026 unemployment rate of 6.7%, nearly double the state's 3.6% average.

Common Issues Renters Face in Clio

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

• No apartment or multi-family rental community could be confirmed operating inside Clio from the sources this guide checked, so a prospective renter should not assume the town has no options at all -- only that none could be independently verified
• Clio's population has declined in every Census count since 1980, a steadier and more uninterrupted pattern than most comparable small South Carolina towns this guide has covered, worth knowing when evaluating how much rental demand -- and how much landlord flexibility on terms -- a specific property might carry
• Clio's median household income ($37,946) and poverty rate (29.2%) both point to a notably lower-income rental market than several other small South Carolina towns this guide has covered, worth factoring into any affordability assessment of a specific unit's rent and fees
• One of the two addresses this guide checked against the Census Bureau's geocoder (Clio Town Hall) resolved cleanly inside town limits, while a second returned no match at all rather than a clear answer -- a reminder that a specific address near a town's edge is worth checking individually, since a "no result" is different from a confirmed mismatch

Negotiating Your Lease in Clio

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and Clio's rental market has no identified apartment community or leasing office to benchmark a specific offer against.

• A full written lease, rather than a verbal or partial agreement, is especially worth requesting in a market like Clio's, where the counterparty is more likely an individual property owner than a company with a standard template already in place
• Comparing a specific quote against nearby Bennettsville (the Marlboro County seat) or McColl, both covered elsewhere on this site, can help gauge whether a Clio rent or fee fits regional Pee Dee norms
• Confirming a specific address's actual jurisdiction using the Census Bureau's free public geocoder is worth doing for any Clio-area property, given that one of the two addresses this guide checked returned no match at all rather than a clean confirmation

A market with no identified rental community isn't automatically a red flag -- but with no comparison listing to check a quote against, confirming every fee, deposit amount, and lease term directly with the landlord, in writing, matters more here than in a market with visible competition.