Isle of Palms, SC land: flood and parcels

Acres on the roll: County tax roll, counted on our map built Oct 17, 2026.

In a FEMA flood zone: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, as of Sep 27, 2026; counted on our map built Oct 17, 2026.

South Carolina Code of Laws 12-45-70, 12-45-180 and 12-60-2510. Checked Oct 20, 2026.

FEMA flood zone (A or V): FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, as of Sep 27, 2026; counted on our map built Oct 17, 2026.

Parcels at least 25% wetland: USFWS National Wetlands Inventory, as of Oct 1, 2026; counted on our map built Oct 17, 2026.

Area statistics for buildings with NFIP flood insurance, not any one parcel: a lot that never had an insured building has no claims to count. Claims counted from 1978 to Sep 2026.

Source: OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, as of Sep 2026.

Middle half: the middle half of premiums on single-family NFIP policies that took effect Sep 2025–Sep 2026, by the flood zone each policy is rated in. It is what insured homes here pay, not a quote for any one building.

Full-risk median: the median of FEMA's own full-risk premium for the same policies (Risk Rating 2.0). A discounted policy rises toward it a step each year, within the law's cap on yearly increases.

Source: OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Policies v3, as of Sep 2026.

Counted in the 5 census block groups that lie mostly inside Isle of Palms, so the edges may reach past the town line.

Hurricanes and tropical storms: the National Hurricane Center's final storm tracks for the 1950–2025 seasons. A storm counts when its center came within 50 miles of Isle of Palms's limits (its Census place boundary). NHC records a storm's position every six hours; the path between those points is filled in with straight steps every ten minutes. A storm counts as a hurricane if it was one (winds of 74 mph or more) while within 50 miles, otherwise as a tropical storm (39 mph or more; subtropical storms included). A storm that had already lost its tropical status is not counted. A storm's status (hurricane, tropical storm or neither) holds until NHC's next position records a change. The category is the Saffir-Simpson category at the storm's highest wind within 50 miles.

Tornadoes: the Storm Prediction Center's tornado records, 1950–2025. Each tornado counts once for a county when SPC lists that county for it or its recorded path (a straight line from touchdown to lift-off) crosses the county. Ratings use the Fujita scale (F) before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale (EF) since; tornadoes with no rating are left out of the rating figures.

These are counts of past storms, not a forecast. They are a different measure from federal disaster declarations, which name every county a storm affected, wherever its center went.

Sources: NOAA National Hurricane Center, HURDAT2 best tracks (Atlantic and Northeast Pacific files, through 2025); NOAA Storm Prediction Center, Severe Weather Database (tornadoes) (through 2025). Public domain.

This tracks home values, not land values. Land buyers read it as a sign of demand nearby: where homes gain value, builders and buyers follow. A vacant lot can move differently.

How: the change in FHFA's annual county index from 2020 and 2024 to 2025, rounded. The index follows repeat sales and refinance appraisals of the same single-family homes with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgages. It is in today's dollars, not adjusted for inflation, and FHFA calls these local indexes developmental. Where FHFA's sample is too small it publishes no figure, and none prints here.

Source: FHFA House Price Index, all-transactions, annual county index, 2025, last updated March 31, 2026. Method: Bogin, Doerner and Larson, “Local House Price Dynamics: New Indices and Stylized Facts”, FHFA Working Paper 16-01.

FHFA publishes no index for Isle of Palms itself; this is Charleston County's, which includes it.

This is an area figure, not any one property's bill. A parcel's own tax depends on its taxable value, its exemptions and the taxing districts it sits in; parcel pages estimate that separately where the county publishes what is needed.

How: the Census place's median yearly property-tax bill divided by its median home value, both for owner-occupied homes (about 1,910 here) as owners report them in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, 2020–2024. Owners estimate their home's value, and the survey has a margin of error; we show the figure only where the area has at least 250 owner-occupied homes and the margin is narrow. Median bill $3,480; median home value $1,581,300.

Source: Census ACS 2020–2024 5-year, tables B25103 and B25077, released January 2026.

Counted for the Census place of Isle of Palms (inside its limits or, for an unincorporated place, its Census boundary).

Counted inside the Census place boundary of Isle of Palms city. Counted from USGS Annual NLCD land cover (2015, 2020 and 2025; 30 m squares on a 240 m grid, so edges are approximate). A square counts when it was forest, shrub, grassland, pasture, cropland or wetland in the start year and developed in 2025 (NLCD's developed classes, from lawns and roads to dense buildings). A satellite land-cover map misses some changes and mislabels a few; read it as a guide.

Source: USGS Annual NLCD Collection 1.2, public domain, DOI 10.5066/P94UXNTS.

How: the frost dates are NOAA's 50% dates for 32°F: in half of the years 1991–2020 the last spring frost came before the first date, and in half the first fall frost came before the second (a date in January or February means the following winter). The growing season is NOAA's typical count of frost-free days, worked out year by year, so it can differ by a few days from the gap between the two dates (by more where frost is rare). Hot days, rain (with melted snow) and snowfall are 1991–2020 yearly averages. A town's station is the nearest NOAA station within 25 miles whose winter lows match the place's (within 5°F on the hardiness map's coldest-night figure), so a valley station is not used for a hilltop town. A low spot or a hillside on your own land can frost earlier or later.

Hardiness zone: the 2023 USDA map, which sorts places by the average coldest night of the year (1991–2020) into 10°F zones split into 5°F halves. It is read at the town's center (the Census Bureau's point for the place).

Sources: NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020 (Sullivans Island, station USC00388405, 5 ft; Charleston City, station USW00013782, 10 ft); USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, 2023 (USDA Agricultural Research Service and Oregon State University PRISM). Compiled October 30, 2026.

U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2025 (May 2026); U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year (B19013) (Jan 2026); U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (Sep 2026).

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates (tables B01003, B19013, B25077, B25064, B08013, B08012, B08301), Census Summary File.

ACS figures are survey averages over five years (money in 2024 dollars), not a count. Home value is what owners told the Census their home would sell for, not a market estimate, so it can sit below Groundwork’s single-family estimates, which follow recent sales. ± is the Census 90% margin of error; a figure whose margin is more than about half its size (a CV over 30%) is not shown. The average commute is total travel time divided by the workers who travel to work, as Census computes it. Places under 2,500 people show no figures.

Census figures for the whole place of Isle of Palms, inside its Census boundary.

Shortage designations: HRSA Health Professional Shortage Areas (primary care, mental health, dental), HRSA data, as of October 2026. Hospitals: CMS Care Compare hospital list (hospitals that report an emergency department), July 2026, located by the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder or, where it found no match, the USGS National Structures Dataset hospital point (a few hospitals neither finds are placed from their street address, or by their ZIP code's center only where that cannot change the count or the names shown); distances from the Census Bureau's center point of the county or town (2026 Gazetteer).

A Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) is the federal government's finding that an area, or a group of people in it, has too few primary-care doctors, dentists or mental-health providers for its population. A geographic designation covers everyone in the area; a population designation (for example “Low Income Population HPSA”) covers only that group. Some designations cover only some census tracts or county subdivisions (the “areas” counted). The designation types and statuses are HRSA's own words; a designation HRSA has proposed for withdrawal stays on its list until it is withdrawn, and only designations with status “Designated” are in the summary sentence. A designation is about how many providers there are, not the quality of care. Hospitals counted are acute-care, critical-access and rural emergency hospitals that report an emergency department to Medicare, under the name filed with Medicare or the hospital's current name; one Medicare listing can cover more than one campus. Veterans', military, children's and psychiatric hospitals are not counted, and no ratings are shown.

The shortage designations are Charleston County's; the hospital count is measured from the Census center point of Isle of Palms.

Service area: the territory polygon that holds the Census Bureau's center point of Isle of Palms, from the HIFLD electric retail service territories (frozen 2025 copy) (U.S. DHS HIFLD / ORNL (HIFLD Open retired 2025-08-26; copy last edited 2025-08-21)); the federal map is approximate. The utility for a given address is the one whose territory it sits in: confirm with the utility. 1 other utility reports serving Charleston County to EIA.

Prices: average home price per kWh for each utility's own (bundled) home service in South Carolina, home revenue divided by kWh sold, fixed monthly and fuel charges included; your bill depends on your use and rate plan. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, 2025: Sales to Ultimate Customers and Service Territory (utilities by county). Public domain.

School locations: NCES public school locations (EDGE), school year 2024-25 (U.S. Department of Education, public domain): open, regular public schools, not charter or online schools, the same list the parcel pages use. A school counts at a level when it teaches any of its grades (elementary K-5, middle 6-8, high 9-12). Distances are straight lines from the Census Bureau's center point of Isle of Palms (U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer files (place internal points)), not road miles; schools more than 30 miles away are not named.

These are the nearest buildings, not attendance zones. No ratings or test scores are shown.