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

Hemingway Rental Market Overview

Hemingway is a 0.86-square-mile town in Williamsburg County, in South Carolina's Pee Dee agricultural region. As of September 2026, this guide's research could not identify a single named apartment or multi-family rental community operating inside town limits -- City-Data.com's housing and economic profile for the town, the primary source checked, surfaced none. A 2024 Census American Community Survey estimate, as presented by City-Data.com, puts Hemingway's town-wide median gross rent at $916 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 Hemingway

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 Hemingway's median household income at $54,792 -- roughly 76% of South Carolina's statewide figure of about $72,350 -- alongside a 7.4% poverty rate, notably lower than several comparably sized 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 Hemingway tenancy where the lease itself is silent
• Checked against the Census Bureau's public geocoder, Hemingway Town Hall (110 S Main Street) resolves cleanly inside the incorporated Town of Hemingway -- confirmed, not just assumed
• City-Data.com's 2024 estimate puts the town's median resident age at 42.5 years, close to South Carolina's statewide median of 40.7, and an April 2026 unemployment rate of 6.2%, above the state's 3.6% average

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but Hemingway 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 Hemingway, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property
• Hemingway's own website confirms both a real zoning ordinance (adopted December 21, 1999, prepared jointly by the Hemingway Planning Commission and the Waccamaw Regional Planning and Development Council) and a business-license requirement administered through the state's standardized renewal portal -- a more complete administrative framework than several comparably sized South Carolina towns this guide has covered
• Checked against the Census Bureau's public geocoder, Hemingway Town Hall (110 S Main Street) resolves cleanly to "Hemingway town"
• A second checked address, the town's former Tupperware manufacturing plant (248 Tupperware Road) -- Hemingway's largest employer for most of its 48-year run -- returned a valid address match but no Incorporated Places result at all, meaning the plant sits on unincorporated Williamsburg County land rather than inside the Town of Hemingway itself. That is a real cross-boundary mismatch on an economically significant property, not simply a data-coverage gap, and a reminder that a specific "Hemingway, SC" address is 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 Hemingway Rentals

No fee schedule could be independently confirmed for a Hemingway 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 returned no property-level data for Hemingway, so it publishes no application fee, pet fee, or deposit amount for any specific property in town
• The town's confirmed business-license requirement applies to businesses operating in Hemingway, not to residential rental registration specifically -- no separate rental-registration ordinance or fee schedule could be located
• 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 Rare Population Rebound, a Jurisdiction Split at the Town's Biggest Employer, and a Pee Dee Farming Legacy

The U.S. Census Bureau's decennial counts show Hemingway moving in both directions within two decades: 573 residents in 2000, dropping to 459 by 2010 (-19.9%), then rising to 504 by 2020 -- a real 9.8% increase, unlike most of the small South Carolina towns this guide has covered this session, nearly all of which have declined in every count since 2000. A 2024 current-year estimate, as presented by City-Data.com, puts the population back down at 466, suggesting the 2010-2020 rebound did not continue uninterrupted. This guide's research could not confirm a single documented driver behind the 2010-2020 increase -- no specific housing development, annexation, or employer expansion tied to that decade turned up in the sources checked -- so it is noted here as a real, Census-confirmed fact rather than an explained trend.

Hemingway was founded in 1911 by Dr. W.C. Hemingway, growing out of a crossroads community then known as Lamberts, specifically to secure a depot on the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad -- the rail connection that enabled its growth as an agricultural market center, per Wikipedia. Cotton was the area's original cash crop until the boll weevil arrived in 1921, after which flue-cured tobacco became the region's primary money crop, a Pee Dee-region identity Hemingway shares with several neighboring Williamsburg and Florence County towns this guide has covered. Textile manufacturing later became significant locally but has since declined substantially. The town's most economically significant modern employer was a Tupperware manufacturing plant that opened in April 1976 and ran for 48 years before closing in 2024-2025, laying off close to 150 workers as production moved to Lerma, Mexico -- Tupperware's only remaining US factory at the time of closure. This guide independently confirmed, via the U.S. Census Bureau's public geocoder, that the plant's own address (248 Tupperware Road) sits on unincorporated Williamsburg County land rather than inside the incorporated Town of Hemingway itself, despite being universally described in national press coverage as a "Hemingway, South Carolina" facility -- a real, documented jurisdiction gap on the town's single largest economic landmark, not a uniform result either way, since Hemingway Town Hall (110 S Main Street) resolved cleanly inside the incorporated town by the same check.

Economically, City-Data.com's 2024 ACS-based estimates show manufacturing as Hemingway's largest employment sector at 15.7% of employed residents, followed by retail trade (15.1%) and health care and social assistance (13.0%). Median household income runs $54,792, roughly 76% of South Carolina's statewide figure of about $72,350, with a 7.4% poverty rate -- notably lower than several comparably sized South Carolina towns this guide has covered -- and an April 2026 unemployment rate of 6.2%, above the state's 3.6% average. Hemingway is also the hometown of two nationally recognized figures: Rodney Scott, a James Beard Award-winning pitmaster, and Sylvia Woods, who co-founded the well-known Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem, per Wikipedia.

Common Issues Renters Face in Hemingway

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

• No apartment or multi-family rental community could be confirmed operating inside Hemingway 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
• Hemingway's population rose 9.8% from 2010 to 2020, a genuine reversal of the prior decade's decline, but a 2024 current-year estimate suggests that rebound did not continue uninterrupted -- worth knowing when evaluating how much active rental demand a specific property might carry
• The town's largest-ever employer, the former Tupperware plant, closed in 2024-2025 and is confirmed to sit outside Hemingway's own incorporated jurisdiction -- a landlord or listing citing it as evidence of continued local economic activity is referencing an address outside the town and a facility that no longer operates
• One of the two addresses this guide checked against the Census Bureau's geocoder (the former Tupperware plant) resolved outside the incorporated town despite being described as a Hemingway facility, while the other (Town Hall) resolved cleanly inside -- a concrete reminder that a specific address is worth checking individually rather than assumed either way

Negotiating Your Lease in Hemingway

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and Hemingway'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 Hemingway'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 Kingstree, Johnsonville, or Lake City, all covered elsewhere on this site, can help gauge whether a Hemingway 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 Hemingway-area property, given that this guide's own check found a real split -- one address confirmed inside town, another confirmed outside it

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.