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

Scranton Rental Market Overview

Scranton is a 0.79-square-mile town in southern Florence County on U.S. Route 52, roughly 20 miles south of Florence, the county seat, and about 3 miles north of Lake City. As of September 2026, this guide's research could not identify a single apartment or multi-family rental community operating inside Scranton. RentCafe's own market-rent tracker lists no buildings at all for the town, Affordablehousing.com returned no usable listings, 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 Scranton's town-wide median gross rent at $917 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 Scranton

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:

• DataUSA's presentation of 2024 ACS data puts Scranton's homeownership rate at just 35.4% -- implying roughly 65% of occupied housing units are renter-occupied, a notably higher renter share than several other small South Carolina towns this guide has covered, despite no identified multi-family complex to represent that renter population in any listing checked
• The town's 2024-estimated housing stock shows a mean detached single-family house value of $183,655 against a mean manufactured/mobile home value of $138,251 (per City-Data.com's Census-based estimates) -- houses valued above mobile homes, the expected ordering
• 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 Scranton tenancy where the lease itself is silent
• Checked against the Census Bureau's public geocoder, every specific Scranton address this guide could identify -- a Dollar General, the town's elementary school, and a long-running restaurant -- resolves cleanly inside the incorporated Town of Scranton, though the town's own ZIP code covers far more ground than the town itself (see Local Tenant Protections below)

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but Scranton 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 Scranton, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property
• This guide could not locate a dedicated Town of Scranton website, nor a searchable code of ordinances on Municode, eCode360, American Legal, or the Municipal Association of South Carolina's own directory, as of September 2026 -- despite the town running a public elementary school and hosting at least one long-running commercial address
• Checked against the Census Bureau's public geocoder, the town's Dollar General (2104 US Highway 52), Scranton Elementary School (1649 US Highway 52), and Schoolhouse BBQ (2252 US Highway 52) all resolve cleanly to "Scranton town" -- a fully clean result on every address this guide checked -- but the town's own ZIP code, 29591, spans roughly 70.5 square miles and about 4,516 residents versus the town's 0.79 square miles and 648 residents, roughly 89 times the land area, so a rural "Scranton, SC" mailing address away from the small US-52 corridor is not automatically an address inside town limits
• Absent a locatable rental-specific ordinance, South Carolina's statewide Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is the only confirmed baseline for a lease inside Scranton

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

Mandatory Fees at Scranton Rentals

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

• RentCafe tracks no buildings for Scranton, and Affordablehousing.com returns no usable listings, so neither source publishes an application fee, pet fee, or deposit amount for any specific property in town
• With roughly 65% of occupied housing estimated as renter-occupied (DataUSA, 2024) but zero identified apartment complex, most Scranton rentals likely involve an individual property owner renting a house or mobile home directly, rather than a leasing office with a standardized fee schedule
• 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 WPA Schoolhouse, a Barbecue Landmark, and Scranton's Steepest Decline Yet

Scranton's Census-reported population held close to flat for three decades before falling off sharply: 861 residents in 1980, down 6.9% to 802 in 1990, up 17.5% to 942 in 2000, down a slight 1.1% to 932 in 2010 -- then down 30.5% to 648 by 2020, the steepest single-decade decline this guide has documented among comparably sized South Carolina towns. Current-year estimates disagree, though less sharply than in several other small towns covered here: City-Data.com's 2024 ACS-based figure (656) sits almost exactly at the 2020 count, while DataUSA's presentation of the same ACS program shows 733, a 77-person spread. Nearby Lake City, three miles south, also lost population over the same 2010-2020 decade, but by a far smaller 11.6% -- suggesting Scranton's decline tracks a broader southern Florence County pattern while running roughly three times as steep. This guide's research found no single documented event -- no reported factory closure, natural disaster, or boundary change -- that explains why Scranton's drop was so much sharper than its neighbor's; the cause, beyond the regional trend, remains unconfirmed.

Economically, City-Data.com's 2024 ACS-based estimates show Scranton's largest employment sectors among residents as accommodation and food services (19.9%), manufacturing (18.4%), health care and social assistance (13.5%), and finance and insurance (12.4%) -- describing where residents work, not necessarily which employers operate inside town limits. Median household income runs $27,344 to $28,600 depending on the aggregator (DataUSA and City-Data.com respectively) -- the two sources agree unusually closely here, both well below South Carolina's roughly $72,350 statewide figure. The poverty rate sits at 33.9% (both sources agree exactly), with an April 2026 unemployment rate of 4.0% against a 3.6% state average. One of the town's few confirmed commercial addresses, Schoolhouse BBQ at 2252 US Highway 52, occupies a building built by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s as the Scranton Colored School; after decades as a school and later a furniture warehouse, it reopened as a restaurant in 1994 and has since drawn visitors including Shaquille O'Neal and Josh Turner, per the SC Picture Project's documentation.

Common Issues Renters Face in Scranton

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

• No apartment or multi-family rental community could be identified operating inside Scranton 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
• An estimated 65% of occupied housing in Scranton is renter-occupied (DataUSA, 2024) -- a notably higher renter share than many comparably sized South Carolina towns this guide has covered -- despite that total absence of any identified managed rental property, worth knowing before assuming a town this size has few renters to protect
• Scranton's population fell 30.5% between the 2010 and 2020 Census, the sharpest decline this guide has found among similarly sized South Carolina towns, with no single documented cause identified; a prospective renter should not assume a specific explanation without confirming it independently
• Scranton's own ZIP code spans roughly 89 times the town's actual land area, so a "Scranton, SC" mailing address away from the small US-52 corridor is worth individually confirming against actual town limits before assuming municipal rules or services apply

Negotiating Your Lease in Scranton

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and Scranton'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 Scranton'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 Lake City (3 miles south) or Florence (the county seat, 20 miles north), both covered elsewhere on this site, can help gauge whether a Scranton rent or fee fits regional norms
• Confirming a specific parcel's actual location relative to the town's small incorporated footprint, rather than relying on its "Scranton, SC" mailing address alone, is a reasonable step given how much larger the ZIP code is than the town itself

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 a parcel's own actual jurisdiction needs confirming directly before signing anything.