Has McBee's population been growing or shrinking?

Both directions within the same generation. The U.S. Census Bureau's decennial count puts McBee at 715 residents in 1990, essentially flat at 714 in 2000, then a real 21.4% jump to 867 in 2010, followed by a 12.6% drop back to 758 in 2020 -- a swing this guide's research found no documented explanation for, whether annexation or a specific development. More recent single-year ACS estimates for 2024 are unusually close to each other for a town this size: City-Data.com puts the population at 812, DataUSA at 818, a 6-person spread far narrower than the gaps this guide has found researching other small Chesterfield County towns.

Is McLeod Farms -- McBee's best-known landmark -- actually located inside town limits?

Not based on what this guide could check. McLeod Farms, a certified roadside market on U.S. Route 1 at 25455 US Highway 1 known locally for its Strawberry Festival (early May), Peach Festival (early July), and Fall Festival (late October), carries a McBee mailing address and is the town's most nationally visible attraction. But checked against the U.S. Census Bureau's public geocoder, that address returns no match in the Incorporated Places layer at all, meaning it sits on unincorporated Chesterfield County land, not inside the Town of McBee's own boundary -- a finding the farm's own website corroborates by branding its location as "Odessa," a nearby unincorporated community, rather than McBee. Town Hall (38 W. Juniper Ave.), by contrast, resolves cleanly to "McBee town" in the same check.

Does McBee have a municipal code or zoning ordinance?

Yes, more fully than several other small Chesterfield County towns this guide has researched, but with one real gap. The Town of McBee publishes 21 codified ordinance categories on its own website -- covering administration, buildings and fire prevention, health and sanitation, mobile homes, and utilities among others -- plus a real, NAICS-code-based business license system (license year May 1 to April 30). But no dedicated zoning ordinance or permitted-use table could be located among those categories; the town's own Planning & Inspections page describes its role narrowly, as enforcing dwelling-standards ordinances and condemning hazardous buildings, not zoning administration. No landlord-tenant-specific ordinance was found either, so South Carolina's statewide Residential Landlord and Tenant Act remains the only confirmed baseline for a McBee tenancy.

What is McBee, SC known for?

A railroad namesake, a landmark peach farm just outside its own limits, and a federal wildlife refuge headquartered inside them. The town was founded October 8, 1901 and named for V.E. "Bunch" McBee, a railroad executive who built the Columbia-to-Hamlet, North Carolina rail line; its 1914 depot now houses the McBee Depot Library and Railroad Museum, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. McLeod Farms' Strawberry, Peach, and Fall festivals draw regional visitors to U.S. Route 1 despite the farm itself sitting outside town limits (see above), and the Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge -- a 45,348-acre U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service property established in 1939 -- runs its headquarters from McBee, about 4 miles from the refuge's own main entrance. Nestlé Waters North America opened a bottled-water facility in town in 2016, creating 27 jobs; the parent company has since restructured twice, first into BlueTriton Brands in 2021 and then into Primo Brands via a 2024 merger, though this guide could not independently confirm the McBee facility's current operating status under either successor name.

Does South Carolina or McBee have rent control?

No. South Carolina law preempts local rent control statewide (S.C. Code §27-39-60): no city or county, including McBee, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property. South Carolina's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act sets the baseline tenant protections that apply in McBee instead.

Renting in McBee, SC: Lease Guide & Tenant Rights

McBee Rental Market Overview

McBee is a 1.31-square-mile town in southwestern Chesterfield County, in the Sandhills region of the Carolinas, where U.S. Route 1 crosses South Carolina Highways 151 and 145 through the town center. Florence sits about 36 miles southeast, Columbia roughly 62 miles southwest, Cheraw 28 miles northeast, and Camden about 27 miles southwest along US-1. As of September 2026, this guide's research could not identify a single apartment or multi-family rental community operating inside McBee. Affordablehousing.com's listing search returned no functioning results for the town, RentCafe's market-rent tracker returned a server error rather than any tracked-building data, and Apartments.com blocked automated access during this research, so its inventory, if any, could not be independently verified. A 2024 Census American Community Survey estimate, as presented by City-Data.com, puts McBee's town-wide median gross rent at $804 a month -- a real figure, and one of the more internally consistent this guide has found for a small South Carolina town (DataUSA's independent 2024 population estimate for McBee, 818, sits within 6 people of City-Data.com's 812, a far tighter spread than several neighboring Chesterfield County towns this guide has covered) -- but still a statistical estimate built from the town's existing housing stock rather than a published asking rent from any specific landlord or property.

Apartment or Rental Communities Identified in Town

-12.6%

Population Change, 2010-2020 Census

Landlord-Favored

Market Type (SC Statutory Baseline)

Common Lease Terms in McBee

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:

The town's 2024-estimated housing stock shows a wide gap by type: a mean value of $164,105 for detached single-family houses against just $54,446 for mobile/manufactured homes (per City-Data.com's Census-based estimates), and the town's own code of ordinances carries a dedicated "Mobile Homes" category -- one of 21 codified sections -- consistent with manufactured housing making up a meaningful share of McBee's actual rental stock
DataUSA's presentation of 2024 ACS data puts McBee's homeownership rate at 57.8%, implying roughly 42% of occupied housing units are renter-occupied -- a real rental population without an organized complex to represent it in any listing this guide could check
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 McBee tenancy where the lease itself is silent
Town Hall (38 W. Juniper Ave.) confirms cleanly inside the incorporated Town of McBee via the Census Bureau's public geocoder, but the town's best-known landmark, McLeod Farms, does not -- a reminder to check a specific address rather than assume from a "McBee" mailing address alone (see Local Tenant Protections below)

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but McBee 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 McBee, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property
The Town of McBee publishes a real, 21-category code of ordinances online -- including Administration, Buildings and Fire Prevention, Health and Sanitation, Mobile Homes, and Utilities -- plus a functioning NAICS-code-based business license system (license year May 1 to April 30), more complete than several other small Chesterfield County towns this guide has researched, but no dedicated zoning ordinance or landlord-tenant-specific section could be located among those categories
Checked against the Census Bureau's public geocoder, Town Hall (38 W. Juniper Ave.) resolves cleanly to "McBee town," but McLeod Farms (25455 US Highway 1) -- the town's most nationally visible attraction -- returns no incorporated-place match at all, meaning it sits on unincorporated Chesterfield County land despite its McBee mailing address; the farm's own website independently corroborates this by branding its location as "Odessa" rather than McBee
Absent a locatable zoning or rental-specific ordinance, South Carolina's statewide Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is the only confirmed baseline for a lease inside McBee

South Carolina statewide baseline

Security deposit cap: No cap
Deposit return: 30 days
Landlord entry notice: 24 hours
Rent regulation: None statewide

Statutory basis: S.C. Code §27-40-410/-530. Figures verified June 2026 against the primary statute. Statutes change — a lawyer in South Carolina can confirm what applies to a specific tenancy.

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

Mandatory Fees at McBee Rentals

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

Affordablehousing.com returns no functioning listings for McBee and RentCafe's market-rent tracker returned a server error rather than building-level data, so neither source publishes an application fee, pet fee, or deposit amount for any specific McBee property
The town's housing stock leans on a mix of detached single-family houses (mean value $164,105, 2024 estimate) and lower-cost manufactured homes (mean value $54,446), and this guide found no source publishing a standardized fee schedule for either kind of rental arrangement
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 needs confirming directly with the landlord, in writing, before signing anything.

A Railroad Namesake, a Peach Farm Outside Town Limits, and McBee's Real Economic Base

McBee's Census-reported population has moved in two directions within the same generation: 715 residents in 1990, essentially flat at 714 in 2000, then a real 21.4% jump to 867 by 2010, before dropping back 12.6% to 758 in 2020 -- a swing this guide's research found no documented cause for, whether annexation or a specific development. More recent single-year ACS estimates for 2024 are unusually close for a town this size: City-Data.com puts the population at 812, DataUSA at 818, a 6-person spread far tighter than the gaps this guide has found researching neighboring Chesterfield County towns like Jefferson and Turbeville. The town was founded October 8, 1901 and named for V.E. "Bunch" McBee, a railroad executive born July 26, 1849 in Greenville County who built the Columbia-to-Hamlet, North Carolina rail line; the town's 1914 depot, its second, now operates as the McBee Depot Library and Railroad Museum, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, and U.S. Route 1 through town was designated Blue Star Memorial Highway Number 6 in 1945.

Economically, City-Data.com's 2024 ACS-based estimates show manufacturing as McBee's largest employment sector among residents (22.1%), followed by educational services (14.5%) and health care and social assistance (9.5%) -- figures DataUSA's independent count corroborates closely (55, 36, and 24 employed residents respectively, out of 248 total) -- describing where residents work, not necessarily which employers operate inside town limits. Median household income sits at $65,880 (City-Data.com) or $63,125 (DataUSA), both below South Carolina's roughly $72,350 statewide figure, with a poverty rate both sources put at 10.1% -- notably lower than several other small Chesterfield County towns this guide has covered -- and an April 2026 unemployment rate of 4.2% against a 3.6% state average. Nestlé Waters North America opened a bottled-water facility in McBee in 2016, creating 27 jobs, per Wikipedia's account; the parent company has since restructured twice, into BlueTriton Brands in 2021 and then into Primo Brands via a 2024 merger, though this guide could not independently confirm the McBee facility's current operating status under either successor name. The town's best-known attraction, McLeod Farms, is a certified roadside market on U.S. Route 1 growing peaches, strawberries, blackberries, and other produce, and hosts a Strawberry Festival (early May), Peach Festival (early July), and Fall Festival (late October) -- but as confirmed via the Census Bureau's public geocoder, the farm's own address sits outside the incorporated Town of McBee entirely, on unincorporated Chesterfield County land (see Local Tenant Protections above). The Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge, a 45,348-acre U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service property established in 1939, runs its headquarters from McBee -- its main entrance sits about 4 miles northeast of town on U.S. Route 1. Chesterfield County School District serves the town through McBee Elementary School (K-6, roughly 401 students) and McBee High School (7-12, roughly 600 students).

Common Issues Renters Face in McBee

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

No apartment or multi-family rental community could be identified operating inside McBee at all, meaning a prospective renter is most likely dealing with an individual property owner rather than a leasing office, with no published rent roll or standard lease template to compare against
A "McBee, SC" mailing address doesn't automatically mean a property sits inside the incorporated town -- this guide's own check found the town's most nationally visible attraction, McLeod Farms, carries a McBee address yet sits on unincorporated Chesterfield County land, so confirming a specific rental address against the Census Bureau's free public geocoder is a reasonable step before signing near the town line
The town's housing stock splits sharply between detached single-family houses and much lower-value manufactured homes, and the town's own code of ordinances carries a dedicated Mobile Homes section, but no dedicated mobile-home-park rental community could be independently located, which may mean fewer options than the housing-stock data alone would suggest
McBee's population swung from a 21.4% jump (2000-2010) to a 12.6% drop (2010-2020) with no documented explanation this guide could find, a reminder that a single historical data point can be misleading for a town this size

Negotiating Your Lease in McBee

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

Requesting a full written lease, rather than a verbal or partial agreement, is especially relevant in a market like McBee'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 Cheraw (28 miles northeast), Hartsville (in neighboring Darlington County), or Chesterfield (the county seat), all covered elsewhere on this site, can help gauge whether a McBee rent or fee fits regional norms
Confirming a specific address's jurisdiction -- Town of McBee versus unincorporated Chesterfield County -- using the Census Bureau's free public geocoder is worth doing before signing near the town line, given how differently that check resolved for Town Hall versus McLeod Farms

A town with no identified rental community isn't automatically a red flag in a market this thin -- but it does mean every fee, deposit amount, and which government actually governs a specific address needs confirming directly before signing anything.

Local Tip for McBee Renters

McBee's population history is genuinely more volatile than it first appears: a real 21.4% jump between 2000 and 2010, followed by a 12.6% reversal back to 758 by 2020, with no documented cause this guide could find for either move. What stands out more is how closely this town's 2024 current-year estimates agree with each other (812 versus 818, a 6-person spread) compared to several neighboring Chesterfield County towns, and how much more complete McBee's own municipal code is than some of its neighbors' -- 21 codified ordinance categories and a real business-license system, even though a dedicated zoning ordinance is still missing from that list. The town's most famous local landmark, McLeod Farms, turns out to sit just outside McBee's own incorporated limits despite its McBee mailing address, the same pattern this guide has found in several small Chesterfield County towns' most prominent institutions. None of that should worry a specific renter directly, but with no identified apartment community and no published fee schedule to check a quote against, getting every term of a McBee lease in writing, and confirming a specific address's actual jurisdiction if it sits near the town line, matters more here than comparison-shopping against listings that don't exist.

Frequently Asked Questions About Renting in McBee

What is the average rent in McBee, SC?: No confirmed rent from any specific apartment property -- this guide's research, checked September 2026, could not identify a single apartment or multi-family rental community operating inside McBee. Affordablehousing.com's own listing search returned no functioning results for the town, RentCafe's market-rent tracker returned a server error rather than any tracked-building data, and Apartments.com blocked automated access during this research, so its listings, if any, could not be independently checked. A 2024 Census American Community Survey estimate, as presented by City-Data.com, puts McBee's town-wide median gross rent at $804 a month -- a real, unusually well-supported figure for a town this size, but still a statistical estimate built from the town's existing housing stock rather than a published asking rent from any specific landlord or leasing office.
Has McBee's population been growing or shrinking?: Both directions within the same generation. The U.S. Census Bureau's decennial count puts McBee at 715 residents in 1990, essentially flat at 714 in 2000, then a real 21.4% jump to 867 in 2010, followed by a 12.6% drop back to 758 in 2020 -- a swing this guide's research found no documented explanation for, whether annexation or a specific development. More recent single-year ACS estimates for 2024 are unusually close to each other for a town this size: City-Data.com puts the population at 812, DataUSA at 818, a 6-person spread far narrower than the gaps this guide has found researching other small Chesterfield County towns.
Is McLeod Farms -- McBee's best-known landmark -- actually located inside town limits?: Not based on what this guide could check. McLeod Farms, a certified roadside market on U.S. Route 1 at 25455 US Highway 1 known locally for its Strawberry Festival (early May), Peach Festival (early July), and Fall Festival (late October), carries a McBee mailing address and is the town's most nationally visible attraction. But checked against the U.S. Census Bureau's public geocoder, that address returns no match in the Incorporated Places layer at all, meaning it sits on unincorporated Chesterfield County land, not inside the Town of McBee's own boundary -- a finding the farm's own website corroborates by branding its location as "Odessa," a nearby unincorporated community, rather than McBee. Town Hall (38 W. Juniper Ave.), by contrast, resolves cleanly to "McBee town" in the same check.
Does McBee have a municipal code or zoning ordinance?: Yes, more fully than several other small Chesterfield County towns this guide has researched, but with one real gap. The Town of McBee publishes 21 codified ordinance categories on its own website -- covering administration, buildings and fire prevention, health and sanitation, mobile homes, and utilities among others -- plus a real, NAICS-code-based business license system (license year May 1 to April 30). But no dedicated zoning ordinance or permitted-use table could be located among those categories; the town's own Planning & Inspections page describes its role narrowly, as enforcing dwelling-standards ordinances and condemning hazardous buildings, not zoning administration. No landlord-tenant-specific ordinance was found either, so South Carolina's statewide Residential Landlord and Tenant Act remains the only confirmed baseline for a McBee tenancy.
What is McBee, SC known for?: A railroad namesake, a landmark peach farm just outside its own limits, and a federal wildlife refuge headquartered inside them. The town was founded October 8, 1901 and named for V.E. "Bunch" McBee, a railroad executive who built the Columbia-to-Hamlet, North Carolina rail line; its 1914 depot now houses the McBee Depot Library and Railroad Museum, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. McLeod Farms' Strawberry, Peach, and Fall festivals draw regional visitors to U.S. Route 1 despite the farm itself sitting outside town limits (see above), and the Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge -- a 45,348-acre U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service property established in 1939 -- runs its headquarters from McBee, about 4 miles from the refuge's own main entrance. Nestlé Waters North America opened a bottled-water facility in town in 2016, creating 27 jobs; the parent company has since restructured twice, first into BlueTriton Brands in 2021 and then into Primo Brands via a 2024 merger, though this guide could not independently confirm the McBee facility's current operating status under either successor name.
Does South Carolina or McBee have rent control?: No. South Carolina law preempts local rent control statewide (S.C. Code §27-39-60): no city or county, including McBee, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property. South Carolina's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act sets the baseline tenant protections that apply in McBee instead.

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