What is the average rent in Williston, SC?

This guide could not verify a single apartment community in Williston with its own published rent or fee schedule, as of September 2026. A public affordable-housing listing aggregator names four candidate communities inside the town -- Cottonwood Apartments, Country Trend, Williston Elderly Apartments, and Willow Run Apartments -- and all four confirm to Williston town limits under the U.S. Census Bureau's geocoder. Every one of the four is flagged by that aggregator as income-based, voucher-accepting, or subsidized housing, where rent is set by household income rather than a published market rate. No sitewide average rent figure can be responsibly published for Williston on that basis.

Are there apartment complexes in Williston, SC?

Four named communities turn up in research for this guide: Cottonwood Apartments (61 Cottonwood Circle), Country Trend (201 Harley Rd), Williston Elderly Apartments (25 Camden Ct), and Willow Run Apartments (55 Harley Rd). All four confirm to Williston town limits under the U.S. Census Bureau's geocoder, and all four are flagged as income-restricted, voucher-accepting, or subsidized by the aggregator that lists them. Separately, the South Carolina Regional Housing Authority No. 3's own property listing names a fifth Barnwell County development, Lincoln Park, as located in Williston -- but SCRHA3 discloses no street address for it, so this guide cannot confirm whether Lincoln Park is one of the four communities above under a different name or a distinct fifth property. None of the five publishes rent or fees on its own site.

How did the Savannah River Site affect Williston, SC?

Substantially, according to the town's own published history. On November 8, 1950, Williston learned the Atomic Energy Commission would build what became the Savannah River Site across parts of Aiken, Allendale, and Barnwell counties. Two communities in the site's footprint, Dunbarton (Barnwell County) and Ellenton (Aiken County), were evacuated, and many of those displaced families relocated their homes, churches, schools, and even cemeteries to Williston. The construction workforce peaked at an estimated 10,000 or more region-wide, and Williston's own population nearly tripled from 896 residents in 1950 to 2,722 by 1960. DuPont's operation of the site and new industries drawn to the area afterward helped stabilize the town's population through the 1970s.

Does Williston have rent control or a local tenant-protection ordinance?

No rent control -- South Carolina law preempts it statewide (S.C. Code Section 27-39-60). No Williston-specific rental-registration or landlord-licensing ordinance was found in the town's own Code of Ordinances. The town does regulate rental-adjacent matters beyond the state baseline: a 1999 ordinance (Ord. 99-11) adopted the 1991 edition of the Standard Housing Code as the basis for determining whether a dwelling is fit for human habitation, a separate utility ordinance bills multi-family buildings for water and sewer service at 90 percent of total units regardless of vacancy and applies its $25 account setup fee to landlords and property management companies by name, and a manufactured-homes ordinance (ch. 50) requires a town permit and a permanent foundation before a mobile home can be occupied on a lot outside a licensed mobile home park.

What is Williston, SC known for?

Railroad history and its role in the Savannah River Site's construction era. Williston sits along the historic Charleston-to-Hamburg rail line associated with the Best Friend of Charleston, one of the earliest steam locomotives in regular U.S. passenger service; the tracks through town were removed in the 1990s, and the corridor is now part of the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor. The Ashley-Willis House on West Main Street was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Most consequentially, when the Atomic Energy Commission announced the Savannah River Site in 1950, Williston absorbed relocated families, buildings, and even cemeteries from the evacuated communities of Dunbarton and Ellenton, nearly tripling its population by 1960 and reshaping the town's economy around DuPont's operation of the site and the industries that followed it.

Renting in Williston, SC: Lease Guide & Tenant Rights

Williston Rental Market Overview

Williston, SC is a difficult market to research online, as of September 2026. A public affordable-housing listing aggregator names four rental communities inside the town: Cottonwood Apartments (61 Cottonwood Circle), Country Trend (201 Harley Rd), Williston Elderly Apartments (25 Camden Ct), and Willow Run Apartments (55 Harley Rd). Every one of the four is flagged by that aggregator as income-based, voucher-accepting, or subsidized housing rather than open-market rental. All four addresses confirm to Williston town limits under the U.S. Census Bureau's geocoder -- along with the town's own Town Hall (13112 Main Street), the Police Department (12710 Main St.), and the National Register-listed Ashley-Willis House (13227 W. Main St.). None of the addresses tested for this guide turned up the mailing-address-versus-jurisdiction mismatch that this project has found in a number of other South Carolina towns, including neighboring Barnwell; every "Williston, SC" address checked so far genuinely sits inside the town.

A fifth property is worth flagging for a different reason. The South Carolina Regional Housing Authority No. 3 (SCRHA3)'s own property listing names "Lincoln Park, Williston" as one of its Barnwell County developments -- separately from the four communities above -- but SCRHA3's listing discloses no street address for it. This guide cannot confirm whether Lincoln Park is one of the four communities already named under a different name, or a distinct fifth property, without contacting SCRHA3 directly. None of the five communities identified for this guide maintains a discoverable website of its own disclosing rent or fees.

2,877

2020 Census population, down from 3,139 in 2010 (U.S. Census Bureau)

0 of 4

Candidate communities with rent or fees disclosed on their own site (Sept. 2026)

Landlord-Favored

Market Type (South Carolina statewide baseline)

Common Lease Terms in Williston

With no verified market-rate multi-family community to check lease terms against, this section reflects what's generally true of a small South Carolina town's rental market rather than a specific community's published terms.

All four candidate communities identified for this guide are flagged as income-based, voucher-accepting, or subsidized housing -- lease terms at properties like these typically follow a HUD-governed public-housing or project-based rental-assistance lease rather than a standard market lease
Terms, deposit amounts, and fees at any of Williston's rental communities vary property to property since no market-rate published schedule exists to check them against
A renter placing a mobile home on a rented lot takes on obligations under the town's own manufactured-homes ordinance (see below) that exist independently of whatever the lease itself says

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but Williston may have additional local ordinances that affect your lease.

No Williston-specific rental-registration or landlord-licensing ordinance was found in the town's own Code of Ordinances (available as a single searchable PDF on the town's website, current through Ordinance 2025-04)
A 1999 ordinance (Ord. 99-11, codified at §§ 38-75 through 38-81) adopted the 1991 edition of the Standard Housing Code as the basis the town's director of inspections uses to determine whether a dwelling is fit for human habitation, with a hearing before the director and a final appeal to a housing board of adjustment -- notably an older code edition than neighboring Barnwell's 2024 adoption of the International Property Maintenance Code
The town's own utility ordinance (§§ 74-96 through 74-98) defines any building with three or more independent dwelling units as "multifamily" and bills water and sewer service on a formula of 90 percent of the building's total units regardless of how many are actually occupied (45 percent for the first six months after new construction); its $25 "account setup and administrative maintenance fee" applies, by its own terms, "to all customer types and classes, including landlords and property management companies"
A separate ordinance (ch. 50, Manufactured Homes and Trailers) requires a town council permit ($5, plus a $5 transfer fee on any change of ownership) and a permanent foundation before a mobile home can be occupied on a lot outside a licensed mobile home park, and limits most lots to one mobile home each
No local rent control; South Carolina law preempts it statewide

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.

Fees You May Encounter in Williston

Because no community in Williston with its own published market-rate fee schedule could be verified, there's no sitewide fee table to publish here. Two fees specific to Williston's own municipal ordinances are worth knowing regardless of which unit a lease covers:

Williston runs its own water and sewer utility, and its $25 "account setup and administrative maintenance fee" applies to any new customer opening service in their own name -- including a tenant, a landlord, or a property management company (§ 74-98(d))
A multi-family building on a shared meter is billed at 90 percent of its total unit count regardless of actual occupancy (45 percent for the first six months of a newly built complex) -- worth asking a landlord how that cost is allocated if utilities are billed separately from rent (§§ 74-96, 74-98)
Placing a mobile home on a rented lot carries its own $5 town permit (plus a $5 transfer fee on ownership changes) and a permanent-foundation requirement, on top of anything the lease itself sets (ch. 50)
No statutory cap applies to lease-set fees like application, deposit, or pet fees in South Carolina; the lease itself sets the amount (see the state baseline above)

A verbal quote isn't a disclosure -- with no published fee schedule anywhere in this market to check a number against, confirming every fee in writing is the only way to know what a specific unit actually costs.

What's Shaping Williston's Rental Market

Williston's modern identity traces to a single announcement. On November 8, 1950, the town learned that the Atomic Energy Commission would build a massive nuclear-materials complex -- what became the Savannah River Site -- across parts of Aiken, Allendale, and Barnwell counties, according to the town's own published history. Two communities inside the project's footprint, Dunbarton in Barnwell County and Ellenton in Aiken County, were evacuated entirely, and many of the displaced families relocated their homes, churches, schools, and even cemeteries to Williston. Construction drew an estimated 10,000 or more workers region-wide at its peak, with trailer camps springing up around town; Williston's own population went from 896 residents in 1950 to 2,722 by 1960, nearly tripling in a decade. DuPont operated the completed site, and the town's own account credits "several new industries" drawn to Williston afterward with stabilizing the population through the 1970s -- a very different origin story than the site's more commonly cited connection to neighboring Barnwell, which sits closer to the site's developed core.

Williston's older identity is railroad history: the town lies along the historic Charleston-to-Hamburg line associated with the Best Friend of Charleston, one of the earliest steam locomotives used in regular U.S. passenger service, and the corridor is now part of the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor even though the tracks through town were removed in the 1990s. Against the backdrop of the 1950s construction boom and its aftermath, Williston's population has since receded from that mid-century peak and continued a slower decline into the 21st century -- 3,139 in 2010 to 2,877 in 2020, an 8.3 percent drop -- though the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 estimate (2,879) suggests that decline has leveled off in the years since.

Common Issues Renters Face in Williston

These are the most frequent lease-related considerations for a market like Williston's, based on the research for this guide:

No apartment community in Williston publishes rent or fees on its own website, so comparison-shopping is limited to phone calls and direct inquiry rather than a published rate sheet
All four candidate communities surface only through a public affordable-housing listing aggregator, not a government or owner-operated source, and each is flagged as income-based, voucher-accepting, or subsidized rather than open-market
A fifth property, Lincoln Park, is named on a government source (SCRHA3's own listing) but without an address, leaving its relationship to the four aggregator-named communities unconfirmed
A multi-family building's water and sewer bill in Williston is tied to its total unit count rather than actual occupancy -- worth understanding before assuming utilities are cheap in an under-occupied building

Negotiating Your Lease in Williston

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and Williston's opaque rental market means there's no published community pricing to benchmark a specific unit against.

Confirm income and eligibility rules at any of the four candidate communities before assuming a market-rate lease applies -- each functions as income-restricted, voucher-accepting, or subsidized housing based on the research for this guide
Contacting the South Carolina Regional Housing Authority No. 3 directly (803-259-3588) is the only way to pin down Lincoln Park's address and terms rather than assuming it matches one of the four communities already named
Asking how a multi-family building's water and sewer costs are allocated among units is worth doing before signing, since Williston bills these buildings on total unit count rather than actual occupancy
Confirming who is responsible for the town's mobile-home permit and foundation requirement matters before renting a lot intended for a manufactured home
Requesting the full fee schedule in writing covers the gap left by no published community-wide schedule to check it against

A "Williston, SC" mailing address on a listing is worth double-checking against actual jurisdiction in most South Carolina towns this guide has covered -- though every address tested for this page, including all four rental candidates, held up as genuinely inside Williston town limits.

Local Tip for Williston Renters

Anyone opening water or sewer service in their own name in Williston -- tenant, landlord, or property manager alike -- pays the town's flat $25 account setup fee, and in a multi-family building the bill itself is set at 90 percent of the building's total units rather than the units actually occupied. A lease that separates utilities from rent is worth checking against that formula rather than assuming a low estimate from a partly-vacant building will hold. For any of the four candidate rental communities named in this guide, confirming income and eligibility rules directly with the property is the more useful first call than assuming a fixed market rate -- all four research as income-based or voucher housing, not standard market-rate units.

Frequently Asked Questions About Renting in Williston

What is the average rent in Williston, SC?: This guide could not verify a single apartment community in Williston with its own published rent or fee schedule, as of September 2026. A public affordable-housing listing aggregator names four candidate communities inside the town -- Cottonwood Apartments, Country Trend, Williston Elderly Apartments, and Willow Run Apartments -- and all four confirm to Williston town limits under the U.S. Census Bureau's geocoder. Every one of the four is flagged by that aggregator as income-based, voucher-accepting, or subsidized housing, where rent is set by household income rather than a published market rate. No sitewide average rent figure can be responsibly published for Williston on that basis.
Are there apartment complexes in Williston, SC?: Four named communities turn up in research for this guide: Cottonwood Apartments (61 Cottonwood Circle), Country Trend (201 Harley Rd), Williston Elderly Apartments (25 Camden Ct), and Willow Run Apartments (55 Harley Rd). All four confirm to Williston town limits under the U.S. Census Bureau's geocoder, and all four are flagged as income-restricted, voucher-accepting, or subsidized by the aggregator that lists them. Separately, the South Carolina Regional Housing Authority No. 3's own property listing names a fifth Barnwell County development, Lincoln Park, as located in Williston -- but SCRHA3 discloses no street address for it, so this guide cannot confirm whether Lincoln Park is one of the four communities above under a different name or a distinct fifth property. None of the five publishes rent or fees on its own site.
How did the Savannah River Site affect Williston, SC?: Substantially, according to the town's own published history. On November 8, 1950, Williston learned the Atomic Energy Commission would build what became the Savannah River Site across parts of Aiken, Allendale, and Barnwell counties. Two communities in the site's footprint, Dunbarton (Barnwell County) and Ellenton (Aiken County), were evacuated, and many of those displaced families relocated their homes, churches, schools, and even cemeteries to Williston. The construction workforce peaked at an estimated 10,000 or more region-wide, and Williston's own population nearly tripled from 896 residents in 1950 to 2,722 by 1960. DuPont's operation of the site and new industries drawn to the area afterward helped stabilize the town's population through the 1970s.
Does Williston have rent control or a local tenant-protection ordinance?: No rent control -- South Carolina law preempts it statewide (S.C. Code Section 27-39-60). No Williston-specific rental-registration or landlord-licensing ordinance was found in the town's own Code of Ordinances. The town does regulate rental-adjacent matters beyond the state baseline: a 1999 ordinance (Ord. 99-11) adopted the 1991 edition of the Standard Housing Code as the basis for determining whether a dwelling is fit for human habitation, a separate utility ordinance bills multi-family buildings for water and sewer service at 90 percent of total units regardless of vacancy and applies its $25 account setup fee to landlords and property management companies by name, and a manufactured-homes ordinance (ch. 50) requires a town permit and a permanent foundation before a mobile home can be occupied on a lot outside a licensed mobile home park.
What is Williston, SC known for?: Railroad history and its role in the Savannah River Site's construction era. Williston sits along the historic Charleston-to-Hamburg rail line associated with the Best Friend of Charleston, one of the earliest steam locomotives in regular U.S. passenger service; the tracks through town were removed in the 1990s, and the corridor is now part of the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor. The Ashley-Willis House on West Main Street was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Most consequentially, when the Atomic Energy Commission announced the Savannah River Site in 1950, Williston absorbed relocated families, buildings, and even cemeteries from the evacuated communities of Dunbarton and Ellenton, nearly tripling its population by 1960 and reshaping the town's economy around DuPont's operation of the site and the industries that followed it.

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