Moving from New York
to Myrtle Beach.

The short answer

What changes when you move

The table compares the two states for the 2026 tax year. Each line is explained below.

Rates are the 2026 tax year. Property figures are the most recent federal survey data. The calculator on our cost of living page runs the full comparison against your income.

Side by side

What New York taxes you now, and what South Carolina would

It opens on a real example. Change any line to your own numbers and press Calculate. It estimates the income tax, the local income tax where your town charges one, and the property tax on both ends, and the difference in home price. Estimates, not facts. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

An estimate, not a fact. Rates, brackets and retirement rules come from each state's own department of revenue and statutes for 2026, and the Myrtle Beach property tax uses Horry County's 2026 certified millage for an owner-occupied home outside the city limits, with the 4 percent residential ratio, the school operating exemption and the 65 and older homestead exemption. Left out on both sides: federal tax, car taxes, insurance, and any credit that depends on your own return. Where a state rule is too detailed to model we leave it out, and almost every one of those left out would RAISE the bill in the state you are leaving, not lower it: Connecticut's tax recapture, New York's supplemental tax, and the exemption phase-outs in Maryland and Ohio. Three would LOWER it, and we name them: Pennsylvania's tax forgiveness and the Massachusetts senior circuit breaker are low-income credits we do not apply, and Florida caps how fast a homesteaded home's assessed value can rise, so a long-held Florida home's real bill is below our estimate. If one of those is you, your bill in the state you are leaving is lower than we show. Insurance is a separate cost to check on this coast, usually higher here than in the states up north; coming from coastal Florida it is priced address by address, in both directions. The coastal insurance page has the real numbers. Your accountant gives you the final answer, and we will sit down and go through it with you.

Property tax

Property tax depends on which part of New York you leave

Long Island, Westchester and Rockland

The drop is large. Those counties carry effective property tax rates of roughly 1.6 percent in Suffolk, 1.7 percent in Nassau, 1.8 percent in Westchester and 2.1 percent in Rockland. Horry County averages about 0.38 percent on a primary home. The federal survey stops counting at $10,000, so the published medians for those counties are floors rather than actual figures. The real median bill in all four is above $10,000. On a comparable house here you are usually looking at a bill in the low thousands.

One client of ours left a house worth about $1 million and a property tax bill over $20,000 a year. They bought a similar sized house here for about $700,000, beachfront in North Myrtle Beach with ocean views, near the restaurants they wanted and near the waterway, because they own a boat and finally wanted to use it. The county bill on the house is about $3,200. Those are one household's rounded numbers, not a promise, but they show the scale of the gap.

Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx

The math is different in the boroughs. Effective rates are about 0.56 to 0.88 percent, because the city's assessment caps hold assessed values far below market value. That is already close to South Carolina's rates. You still gain on the purchase price. Do not expect a big drop in property tax.

The 4 percent rate, and why you apply for it

South Carolina assesses a primary home at 4 percent of value and everything else at 6 percent. The 4 percent rate also removes the school operating tax, so the difference on the same house is roughly three to one. You have to apply for it. If you buy here before you sell in New York, or keep the New York house, this is the detail to get right. The property tax page has the calculator and the deadline.

Pensions

How South Carolina taxes a New York pension

New York does not tax New York State and local government pensions, federal pensions or military pensions. There is no dollar cap and no age test. If you retired from a New York school district, a police or fire department, a municipality or the state, New York taxes that pension at zero.

South Carolina treats it differently. Military retirement pay stays fully exempt at any age. A New York government pension is not military pay, so here it counts as ordinary retirement income. The shelter is smaller: a retirement income deduction of up to $3,000 a year before 65 and up to $10,000 from 65. There is also a separate age-65 deduction of up to $15,000 against any income, reduced by whatever retirement deduction you already claimed.

For a large public pension, that can mean paying South Carolina tax on income New York was not taxing at all. The cheaper house and the lower property tax usually outweigh it, but not always. Run the numbers before you move, not after. Social Security is untaxed in both states.

Private pensions, 401(k)s and IRAs compare better. New York's exclusion for that income is capped at $20,000 per person from age 59 and a half, and withdrawals count against that cap. We are not tax advisers, and this is the point to bring one in. We can tell you the housing side precisely.

Two costs that go up

The car tax and the residency rule

South Carolina taxes vehicles every year

New York charges a registration fee every two years and no property tax on cars. South Carolina charges a county property tax on every vehicle, every year, at 6 percent of the car's value, and the bill must be paid before your plate will renew. A $30,000 car is taxed roughly $360 a year outside the city limits and closer to $460 inside Myrtle Beach, plus a $50 county road fee. Arriving costs more still: a one-time $250 fee per vehicle, and you have 45 days from your move to register. A two-car household should plan on roughly $500 to $1,000 a year that did not exist in New York, and about $600 in one-time fees. The steps are on our new resident checklist, in order, because the county has to bill you before the DMV will issue a plate.

New York can keep taxing you after you leave

This is the expensive one when it goes wrong. New York holds that your domicile does not change until you can show, in its words, with clear and convincing evidence that you abandoned it. There is a second test. Even after a genuine move, New York taxes you as a full-year resident if you keep a permanent home there for substantially all of the year and spend 184 days or more in the state.

Keep the Long Island house for the kids and spend half the year visiting, and you can end up filing and paying as a New York resident. If you plan to keep the northern property, or expect to spend much of the year back there, talk to a tax professional before you decide how the year will look. It also affects the 4 percent application here, which asks where you live.

Before you pick a neighborhood

The mistake we see New York buyers make most

It is not a tax mistake. It is buying into a neighborhood whose rules do not fit how you plan to live. Most homes here are inside an HOA, and the covenants decide how you can use the property. They decide whether a boat or a trailer can park at the house, whether a golf cart can get you anywhere, and whether you can rent the place out. They also decide whether the pool and the social calendar you pictured exist there.

Buyers who skip the documents find out after closing. We read them with you before you offer. Start with our HOA guide and how to read HOA documents.

What the proceeds buy

What your New York sale buys here

Overall prices here are about 17 percent below the New York metro area, and housing about 44 percent below. Utilities land about 31 percent lower, everyday goods about 13 percent lower, and other services about 7 percent lower. Typical rent is roughly $1,700 a month against about $3,600. The number most people care about is the house: about $342,000 typical here against about $737,000 there, in July 2026.

That means a Nassau or Suffolk sale often pays for a Grand Strand purchase outright. That is why so many buyers here pay cash, and why an offer backed by a strong pre-approval matters if you are financing. What you should not do is assume the whole difference is yours to keep. Insurance is higher, the car tax is new, and the first year is when people overspend. That trade is covered honestly on our pros and cons page.

The proceeds also buy differently town by town. Myrtle Beach on this page includes the towns around it: North Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, Garden City, Murrells Inlet and Pawleys Island. The same budget buys a different house in each one, and seeing three towns in an afternoon is a normal showing day here, not a special request. The town by town page sets out how they differ.

One pattern comes from someone who deals with New York buyers weekly. People arriving from the Northeast tend to expect the pace and the directness they are used to, and it takes a season to adjust. Transactions here move differently, neighbors talk to you, and the summer is busy in a way winter is not. None of that shows up in a tax table, and all of it shapes whether the move sticks.

Common questions

New York to Myrtle Beach FAQ

Sources: New York Department of Taxation and Finance, South Carolina Department of Revenue, Tax Foundation property taxes by state and county, BEA regional price parities, Zillow research data. We are not tax advisers; rates change and your situation decides the answer. Verify with a professional before you plan around any of it.