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

Jamestown Rental Market Overview

Jamestown is a 0.61-square-mile town in northeastern Berkeley County, South Carolina, about one mile south of the Santee River along U.S. Route 17 Alternate and within the Francis Marion National Forest, roughly 21 miles east of Moncks Corner, the county seat, and 29 miles west of Georgetown. As of October 2026, this guide's research could not identify a single named apartment or multi-family rental community operating inside town limits, nor any national retail tenant, restaurant, or other commercial business of any kind. No published rent figure exists at the town level or even at the ZIP-code level (29453). This guide's research found no evidence of any economy beyond individually owned residential and forested land, aside from the town's long-documented reliance on traffic-citation revenue (see below).

Common Lease Terms in Jamestown

With no identified apartment community, leasing office, or commercial business to source a specific lease from, what follows is pieced together from county context, a direct jurisdiction check, and the town's own demographic record rather than a single property's own paperwork:

• No apartment, multi-family rental community, or commercial business of any kind could be confirmed operating inside Jamestown from the sources this guide checked
• 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 Jamestown tenancy where the lease itself is silent
• Checked against the Census Bureau's public geocoder, the town's own geographic center resolves cleanly inside Jamestown's incorporated limits, confirming genuine incorporation, though no specific street address inside town could be located to test as a second data point
• Jamestown's population has declined in most Census counts since 2000, falling from 97 residents to 72 by 2010 and 68 by 2020 -- a 5.6% drop in the most recent decade and a 29.9% cumulative decline since 2000

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but Jamestown 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 Jamestown, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property
• This guide could not confirm whether Jamestown has its own zoning ordinance or business-license ordinance; no Jamestown-specific municipal code or working town government website could be found published online, and no Municipal Association of South Carolina member profile could be located to confirm directly
• Checked against the Census Bureau's public geocoder, the town's own geographic center resolves cleanly inside Jamestown's incorporated limits -- a positive jurisdiction confirmation -- but no specific street address inside town could be located to test as a second data point
• Jamestown's population has declined from 97 residents in 2000 to 68 by the 2020 Census, a 29.9% cumulative drop, including a 5.6% decline in the most recent decade alone

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

Mandatory Fees at Jamestown Rentals

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

• No rent, application-fee, pet-fee, or deposit figure has ever been published for Jamestown at the town level, and no ZIP-level (29453) figure could be located either
• Whether Jamestown has its own zoning or business-license ordinance reaching a residential-rental registration rule could not be confirmed either way -- no town-specific ordinance or working town website could be found published online, but that is not conclusive on its own
• 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 or commercial presence 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 Festival, a Road Race, a Speed-Trap Reputation -- and a Name Overshadowed Twice Over

Jamestown's population has fallen in most Census counts since 2000: 97 residents that year, down to 72 by the 2010 Census, and 68 by the 2020 Census -- a 5.6% decline in that single decade and a 29.9% cumulative drop since 2000. No single documented cause (no plant closure, no flood, no highway bypass) could be identified behind the decline, and no current estimate beyond the 2020 Census count could be located to show whether it has continued, leveled off, or reversed.

The town is better known for two annual events than for any commercial activity: the Hell Hole Swamp Festival, held the first full weekend in May since 1972, and the Hell Hole Gator Run 10K, established in 1976 and billed by its own organizers as South Carolina's oldest road race. Jamestown has also carried a long-documented reputation as a speed trap for motorists using U.S. Route 17 Alternate as an alternate route to Myrtle Beach; as of 2009, traffic citations reportedly accounted for roughly 62% of the town's annual operating budget, per Wikipedia's sourced account. This guide could not confirm whether that reliance on citation revenue persists at a similar level today, since no current town budget could be located online.

The town sits on its 0.61-square-mile footprint in northeastern Berkeley County, about one mile south of the Santee River along U.S. 17 Alternate and within the Francis Marion National Forest, roughly 21 miles east of Moncks Corner, the county seat, and 29 miles west of Georgetown. Moncks Corner, Goose Creek, Hanahan, and Georgetown are already covered elsewhere on this site; Jamestown is a small addition to that same coastal-plain coverage.

A naming caution is worth flagging, and it cuts in two directions rather than one, distinct from this project's usual same-name-different-town pattern. Jamestown, Virginia -- the site of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, founded in 1607 -- is overwhelmingly the most historically prominent "Jamestown" and is near-certain to dominate a general search, even though the historic site itself functions today as a National Historical Park rather than a large modern municipality. Separately, Wikipedia's own disambiguation page for "Jamestown" identifies Jamestown, New York as "the largest American city bearing the name" (its own population, roughly 29,000, dwarfs this roughly 70-resident South Carolina town), with Jamestown, North Dakota named as the second-largest. Either Jamestown, Virginia or Jamestown, New York is far more likely to surface in a general search than this town.

Common Issues Renters Face in Jamestown

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

• No apartment, multi-family rental community, or commercial business of any kind could be confirmed operating inside Jamestown from the sources this guide checked, so a prospective renter should not assume the town has no housing options at all -- only that none could be independently verified
• No rent figure exists at the town or ZIP level, so a renter has nothing published to compare a specific offer against and would need to rely on direct comparisons with individual landlords or nearby towns
• Whether Jamestown has a zoning or business-license ordinance reaching residential rentals could not be confirmed either way -- a renter running a home-based business should check directly with Berkeley County rather than assume the answer from a comparable town
• Jamestown's long-documented reliance on traffic-citation revenue along U.S. 17 Alternate is a local-government quirk worth knowing about, even though it has no direct bearing on lease terms themselves

Negotiating Your Lease in Jamestown

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and Jamestown's rental market has no identified apartment community, leasing office, or commercial business of any kind 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 Jamestown's, where the counterparty is overwhelmingly likely to be an individual property owner rather than a company with a standard template already in place
• Comparing a specific quote against nearby Moncks Corner, Goose Creek, Hanahan, or Georgetown, all covered elsewhere on this site and all within the same coastal Berkeley-Georgetown corridor, can help gauge whether a Jamestown 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 Jamestown-area property -- this guide's own check could only confirm the town's geographic center, not a specific street address, so a Jamestown-area address doesn't by itself confirm which parcels fall inside the town's own boundary

A market with no identified rental community or commercial anchor 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.