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

Furman Rental Market Overview

Furman is a 3.12-square-mile town in Hampton County, South Carolina, on U.S. Route 601 about 14 miles from Hampton, the county seat, and roughly 45 miles from Savannah, Georgia. As of October 2026, this guide's research could not identify a single named apartment or multi-family rental community operating inside town limits, and no reliable median gross rent figure specific to Furman is published anywhere this guide could find -- the American Community Survey's 5-year estimate for the town carries margins of error too wide to treat as a usable number. The town's historical identity is tied to a rail stop on the old Charleston and Savannah line (later Southern Railway), which carried passenger and freight traffic from 1899 until service was abandoned in stages between 1963 and the early 1980s.

Common Lease Terms in Furman

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

• DataUSA's and Census Reporter's 2024 ACS 5-year estimates put Furman's median household income at $71,875, close to South Carolina's statewide median household income of $72,350 -- but that estimate carries a margin of error of roughly $52,000, so it should be treated as a rough range rather than a precise figure for a town this small
• 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 Furman tenancy where the lease itself is silent
• Checked against the Census Bureau's public geocoder, Furman Baptist Church (121 Rabon Street) resolves cleanly inside the incorporated Town of Furman -- a clean jurisdiction result, though the town's own Town Hall address returned no match at all in the same geocoder, a data gap rather than a confirmed mismatch
• The same 2024 ACS estimate puts the town's median housing value at $94,700 and the median resident age at 30.2 years -- both well below South Carolina's statewide median house value of $299,500, with the age figure notably younger than the state's median age of 40.7

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but Furman 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 Furman, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property
• Furman appears to administer its own business licensing -- local-government directories list a Local Business License Renewal Center for the town -- but this guide could not locate a published zoning ordinance specific to Furman anywhere online, a contrast with Hampton, the county seat, which publishes a detailed zoning and land-development ordinance of its own
• Furman's name is a recurring source of search confusion: Furman University, a private college roughly 150 miles northwest in Greenville, SC, has no connection to this town, and a public middle school also named "Furman Middle School" sits in Sumter, SC, an entirely different town -- a prospective tenant should confirm any cited rule directly with Furman, SC's own Town Hall rather than trust a search result without checking which "Furman" it describes
• Furman's population has declined in most decades since a 1940 peak of 380, though the most recent Census decade (2010 to 2020, -6.3%) shows a milder drop than the decade before it (2000 to 2010, -16.4%), and a 2024 current-year estimate of 223 looks essentially flat against the 2020 count

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

Mandatory Fees at Furman Rentals

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

• No reliable property-level or town-wide median gross rent figure is published for Furman, so no application fee, pet fee, or deposit amount for any specific Furman property could be sourced either
• The town's own business-license framework may reach a residential-rental registration rule, but this guide could not confirm any such requirement from the sources checked
• 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 Hampton County Rail Stop Whose Name Keeps Getting Mistaken for Somewhere Else

The U.S. Census Bureau's decennial counts show Furman declining across most of the past 80 years: from a peak of 380 residents in 1940 down to 348 by 1980, 286 by 2000, 239 by 2010, and 224 by the 2020 Census -- a 6.3% drop in that final decade, notably milder than the 16.4% drop in the decade before it. City-Data.com's 2024 current-year estimate puts the town at 223, essentially flat against the 2020 count, which reads as the decline leveling off rather than continuing at its earlier pace. The town sits on a 3.12-square-mile footprint in southwestern Hampton County, on U.S. Route 601, about 14 miles from Hampton (the county seat) and roughly 45 miles from Savannah, Georgia.

Furman's identity has long been tied to the railroad: the town was a stop on the Charleston and Savannah route, later absorbed into the Southern Railway system, which carried passenger and freight traffic from 1899 onward. Southern Railway abandoned the stretch of track between Furman and Hardeeville between 1963 and 1970, and all remaining service to the town had ended by the early 1980s -- a decline in rail infrastructure that roughly tracks the town's own population decline over the same half-century. The 2000 Census recorded a median household income of $23,125 and a poverty rate of 30.7%, figures that paint a much harder economic picture than the town's more recent ACS estimates, which this guide treats with real caution given how wide their margins of error run for a town this size.

A specific finding from this guide's own research: Furman's name creates search confusion on two separate fronts, not just one. Furman University, a well-known private college roughly 150 miles northwest in Greenville, South Carolina (home to NCAA Division I athletics and a long academic history), has no connection to this small Hampton County town of 224 people. Separately, a public school also named "Furman Middle School" sits in Sumter, South Carolina -- a different town, in a different part of the state, also unrelated to the Town of Furman. Checked against the Census Bureau's public geocoder, Furman Baptist Church (121 Rabon Street) resolves cleanly inside the actual incorporated Town of Furman, so the town's own jurisdiction checks out where it could be tested -- but a general search for "Furman, SC" is genuinely likely to surface one of these two unrelated namesakes before this small rail town.

Common Issues Renters Face in Furman

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

• No apartment or multi-family rental community could be confirmed operating inside Furman 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
• A general search for "Furman, SC" can surface Furman University in Greenville or a Sumter middle school of the same name before this actual Hampton County town -- a renter or small business should confirm directly with Furman's own Town Hall rather than trust the first search result
• A federal 5-year population estimate (673) for Furman runs three times higher than the 2020 Census count (224) for the identical place, a gap this guide attributes to the unreliability of small-area ACS estimates rather than any real population surge -- worth knowing before citing either figure as current
• No published zoning ordinance specific to Furman could be located online, unlike neighboring Hampton, which publishes a detailed one of its own -- a prospective tenant or small business should confirm directly with Furman's Town Hall what, if anything, applies

Negotiating Your Lease in Furman

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and Furman'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 Furman'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 Hampton, Varnville, or Brunson, all covered elsewhere on this site and all within or near Hampton County, can help gauge whether a Furman rent or fee fits regional norms
• Confirming a specific address's actual jurisdiction using the Census Bureau's free public geocoder is worth doing for any Furman-area property, and confirming which "Furman" a search result actually describes is worth doing for any zoning or business-license question -- this guide's own research found both Furman University and a Sumter school surfacing under the same name

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.