Our local paper reported some interesting figures from the US Census Bureau tonight.  Seems that most of the Myrtle Beach and Grand Strand area is reporting a sizeable increase in permanent residents.

Although it cautioned that some of the figures are not quite accurate because of retirees buying ahead of time, it still sounded like good news for Myrtle Beach real estate sales, now and in the future.

I'm rounding off the numbers in the interest of space and time...

The census reported an increase of about 7200 permanent residents in Myrtle Beach from 2000 to 2007.  From 22,759 to 29,971.  They also said that 1000 of those new residents came in during 2006 and 2007.  Sounds kind of funny, actually, since that was the main "slow-down" years.  Seems like 2004-2005 would have been the biggies to me.

North Myrtle Beach residents increased to 15,400 from 10,900, about 4500 new North Myrtle Beach homes purchased.

Surfide Beach homes gains were much smaller, increasinging by about 300 new permanent homeowners -from 4425 in 2000 to 4742 in 2007.

Conway, SC was rather vaguely described as having a population growth of 3%, and Georgetown LOST 426 people since 2000.  I think that papermill would make me have to leave there.

It ended the South Carolina report with Loris gaining about 10.5%.  I'm disappointed that Little River was not included in the report.  I think we are having a constant gain there, and that it will increase substantially from now on, due to the soaring taxes and insurance in North Myrtle Beach condos and homes.  I live in Little River Inn Resort, just seconds across the bridge from the beach, and my taxes and insurance are a tiny portion of what the beach residents pay.  We are still seeing many new preconstruction projects up and down 17 in Little River, too.  I'm predicting a substantial increase in the number of residents buying homes and condos in North Myrtle Beach and Little River, SC.

More info can be found at http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/story/515435.html including the nearby North Carolina beaches and their numbers.