Moving to Myrtle Beach:
your first 45 days.

The direct answer

The whole move, on one screen

Each step links to its details.

The three deadlines that cost money if you miss them

First, 45 days from the day you move to get a South Carolina driver's license and to register every vehicle you own. The DMV charges about $305 per car, and the county charges its annual vehicle tax before the DMV will hand you a plate. Second, the 4 percent legal residence application for your new home, which Horry County wants by May 31; without it your first property tax bill is calculated at the 6 percent second-home rate. Third, voter registration, which closes 30 days before any election.

Devin, who wrote this page, moved here from Ohio three years ago, missed the 45 day license window, and did not learn about the free resident beach parking until his second year. This is the checklist he wishes someone had handed him.

Before the truck leaves

What to bring, because the DMV will ask for it

Every step below asks for the same short stack of paper. Pack it in the car, not the moving truck.

Week one

Insurance, then the county, then the DMV: the order matters

South Carolina charges an annual property tax on cars, paid a year in advance to the county, and the DMV will not register a vehicle until it is paid. So the sequence is fixed. Get South Carolina auto insurance. Take each vehicle's registration or title and proof of your Horry County address to the county Auditor, who writes the vehicle tax notice. Pay it at the county Treasurer. Take the paid receipt to the DMV.

In Myrtle Beach the county Auditor and Treasurer are at 1201 21st Avenue North and the DMV branch is at 1200 21st Avenue North, across the street. In Little River the county office and the DMV share 107 Highway 57 North. Conway has the county offices at 1301 Second Avenue and the DMV at 4103 Highway 701 North. Offices run weekdays; the DMV opens at 8:30 and at 9:30 on Wednesdays. There is no DMV branch in Surfside, Socastee, or Carolina Forest.

What each vehicle costs

At the DMV: a one-time $250 infrastructure maintenance fee (this is South Carolina's version of vehicle sales tax, and you pay it once, on arrival, in place of tax on a car you already own), a $15 title fee, and $40 for a plate and registration that lasts two years. That is $305 per standard passenger vehicle. Owners 65 and older pay $36 for the plate instead of $40.

At the county: the vehicle tax, which New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio do not charge and which surprises almost everyone who arrives from them. It is not only cars: the county also bills boats and campers every year, so count them when you budget. Vehicles are assessed at 6 percent of value and then taxed at the local millage, and it comes due every year with the plate renewal. Horry County publishes a vehicle tax estimator on its vehicle tax page. A high-mileage discount exists, but only in the month the tax is due, so ask the Auditor about it at the counter.

The license itself

Same visit if you brought the paperwork above. An eight-year license is $25. Expect a vision test; if your old license has been expired nine months or more, expect the knowledge and road tests too. Military members and students living here temporarily can keep their home-state license.

The one that saves real money

File the 4 percent legal residence application by May 31

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Deadlines and required documents change. Confirm your own situation with the Horry County Auditor or a tax professional before you rely on any of it.

Horry County taxes an owner-occupied home at a 4 percent assessment and everything else at 6 percent, and the 4 percent rate also removes the school operating tax. On the same house the difference is roughly three to one. Nobody applies for you. Our Horry County property tax page has the calculator and the full explanation; here is the deadline logic.

Apply online through the county's tax-payer services page. It asks for a South Carolina driver's license or state ID for every owner-occupant and their spouse, showing the new address; South Carolina registration for every vehicle you own, showing the new address; and redacted copies of your most recent federal and state income tax returns, or an SSA-1099. If you still own a home in another state, you also send that county's tax bill showing no owner-occupied exemption there. That is why the license and registration come first: they are attachments to this form.

Horry County asks for the application by May 31 so the bill mailed in the fall prints at 4 percent. File later and you can still qualify for that year, but you will be dealing with a corrected bill or a refund instead of a right bill the first time.

Homestead exemption at 65: not in year one

South Carolina exempts the first $50,000 of a legal residence's value for owners who are 65 or older, totally and permanently disabled, or legally blind. It requires the 4 percent status and one full year as a South Carolina legal resident as of December 31, so a retiree who moves this year applies for it next year, at the county Auditor.

Utilities

Who provides what depends on which side of a line you are on

There is no single utility for the Grand Strand. Which company serves your house depends on the address, and neither electric provider publishes a street-level map. The fastest way to find out is to ask the seller for a recent bill or ask the closing attorney. Failing that, call and give them the address.

Electricity

Two providers cover almost all of Horry County. Santee Cooper, the state-owned utility, serves the City of Myrtle Beach and the other coastal municipalities. Horry Electric Cooperative, which is member-owned, serves most of the unincorporated county, including Carolina Forest, Socastee, Longs, and the rural areas.

Both run a credit check and may want a deposit. Santee Cooper sets its deposit from the two highest consecutive bills at that address, with a floor of $100, and refunds it after 13 months of on-time payments; a prepaid option costs $70 up front and skips the deposit and credit check entirely. Horry Electric charges $35 in one-time fees to open an account, a $5 membership, a $10 application and a $20 connection, and adds a deposit only if the credit check calls for one. Both want proof you own or rent the place, so have the settlement statement or lease handy.

One thing to know before your first bill lands. On their published 2026 residential schedules, both Santee Cooper and Horry Electric Cooperative bill a demand charge as well as the power you use, which means part of what you pay is set by your single highest hour of use rather than your monthly total. The peak window is 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. from April through October and 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. from November through March. Running several heavy appliances at once inside that window sets a charge that applies to the whole month, so it is worth spreading the load. Our cost of living page has the rates.

Water and sewer

Outside the city limits, most of the coast is served by Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority, which asks for 24 hours notice before it turns anything on. Apply on a Friday and you are waiting until Monday, so make this call before the truck arrives, not after. Its new service fee is $40, and deposits run $40 to $90 for owners and $60 to $140 for tenants depending on whether you need water, sewer, or both.

Inside city limits you deal with the city. Myrtle Beach bills water, sewer, sanitation, and stormwater on one monthly statement and sets the deposit by meter size. North Myrtle Beach charges a meter deposit, $180 for the common three-quarter-inch meter, plus a $50 service charge. Conway runs its own utility billing. On the Georgetown side, Pawleys Island and Litchfield are served by the Georgetown County Water and Sewer District.

Gas, internet, and the rest

Natural gas is not everywhere. Dominion Energy is the gas utility, but the mains reach only some neighborhoods, so availability is checked address by address. Plenty of homes here are all electric or run propane, which matters if you were planning on a gas range.

For internet, HTC is a member-owned fiber cooperative covering much of the county, with published starting prices around $50 for 500 Mbps and about $75 for a gig. Spectrum is the incumbent cable provider and advertises lower first-year promotional rates that step up afterward. Brightspeed has fiber in parts of the city. Budget roughly $40 to $75 a month depending on the speed you need and whether you are still inside a first-year promotion.

The one nobody warns you about

Outside the city limits, no truck comes for your trash

Inside the City of Myrtle Beach, trash is easy: about $34 a month on the same utility statement as water and sewer, which buys a garbage cart, a recycling cart, and two cubic yards of bulk and yard waste a week, all collected the same day. Carts go out no earlier than 6 p.m. the night before and come in by 11 p.m. on collection day, and that is a code the city actually enforces. Yard waste has to be in paper bags, not plastic.

In unincorporated Horry County there is no curbside collection at all. The county solid waste authority says so plainly, and nothing starts automatically when you close. You either haul your own to one of the 25 recycling and convenience centers, which are open to unincorporated residents only and cap you at four cubic yards a day, or you hire a private hauler, or your neighborhood association has a contract that covers it. Ask which of those three applies to the specific address before you close. People move here from cities and discover this on the second weekend.

One more line item: sales tax runs 9 percent inside the City of Myrtle Beach and 8 percent everywhere else in Horry County. Unprepared groceries are taxed at zero either way.

Free beach parking

The resident parking decal, and who actually qualifies

The City of Myrtle Beach gives residents a free parking decal that covers every city-owned paid space: the on-street meters and pay stations, the street-end beach accesses, the decal-only areas in The Avenues, and events at the convention center. It does not cover the Pavilion garage or any private lot. What you can actually do on the sand once you park, town by town, is on our beach rules page. Given that beach access parking runs $3 an hour or $15 for the day in season, it is worth doing in your first month. Devin lived here more than a year before he learned the decal existed.

Fewer people qualify than assume they do. It is not for all Horry County residents. It is for vehicles that live inside the city limits and on which city vehicle property tax has been paid. The city treats that tax as your parking payment. If you live in Carolina Forest or Socastee or Surfside, you do not qualify, no matter how close you are.

Apply in person the first time, at the parking office in the Pavilion Parking Garage, 914 North Kings Highway, at the Ninth Avenue North entrance; the number is 843-626-7275 and hours are worth a call first. Renewals can be done online. Bring, for each vehicle, your South Carolina registration, your driver's license, and the current Horry County vehicle tax receipt, and note that the address on the license has to match the address on the tax receipt. Golf cart owners bring the state permit number too. The decal runs two years and replacements cost $20.

The other towns work differently and the details do not transfer. North Myrtle Beach has no physical decal at all; enforcement reads your license plate, registration renews every year, and its paid season runs March through October, 9 to 5. Myrtle Beach's paid season is shorter, March through September, but runs 9 a.m. to midnight. North Myrtle Beach does sell a limited number of annual passes to Horry County residents who live outside its limits, but the allocation is small and sells out early in the year, so it is not something to count on.

Getting around

Golf cart rules, because this is a golf cart town

Many neighborhoods here run on golf carts, and the rules changed in 2025. To drive one on a public road you need a $5 state permit from the DMV, good for five years or until you move; proof of ownership and liability insurance; a driver who is at least 16 with a valid license; and the registration and insurance in the cart. Statewide, a permitted cart may run in daylight, on roads posted 35 mph or less, within four miles of the address on the permit (or of the gate, in a gated community), and may cross a faster road at an intersection. Every passenger under 12 must be belted.

Towns can add rules, and three of them have. North Myrtle Beach allows carts sunrise to sunset on 35 mph roads and lets them cross, but not drive along, Ocean Boulevard, 27th Avenue South, Highway 17, and Sea Mountain Highway; the fine is $100 and up to 30 days. Surfside Beach is the exception on hours: carts with permanently mounted headlights and taillights may run at night, carts without lights only from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. The City of Myrtle Beach keeps daylight hours, bars carts from sidewalks and multi-use paths, and closes Ocean Boulevard to carts over Memorial Day weekend. Outside city limits the state rules apply.

Before you buy in a neighborhood because it is “golf cart friendly,” check the posted speed limits on the roads between the house and wherever you plan to drive. A 45 mph road you cannot cross at an intersection ends the trip.

Once the license is done

Register to vote, then look up your evacuation and flood zones

Voter registration closes 30 days before an election. You can register online at scvotes.gov once you have a South Carolina license or DMV ID, which is why it sits after the DMV step; the DMV license and golf cart forms also offer to pass your address to the election commission. Horry County's elections office is at 1515 Fourth Avenue in Conway. There is no residency waiting period and no party registration.

While you are on the county sites, look up two things for your new address: your hurricane evacuation zone on the state's Know Your Zone map, and the flood zone on FEMA's map service center. Both matter for insurance and both are on our coastal insurance page, along with what a wind and flood policy actually costs here. Our hurricane page covers every storm since 1989 and which areas flooded.

Common questions

Moving to Myrtle Beach FAQ

Sources: SCDMV moving to SC, Horry County tax payer services, Horry County Solid Waste Authority, City of Myrtle Beach parking, SC Votes, Horry County boats and watercraft. Fees, deadlines and utility deposits change. Every figure here was read at the source; confirm the current one before you rely on it.