Second homes: Golf, sun and sand for less in Myrtle Beach

		Carolina riviera: The Grand Strand is a 60-mile-long swath of beach anchored by the bustling resort of Myrtle Beach, with smaller, quieter communities to the north and south. Myrtle Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau

Second homes: Golf, sun and sand for less in Myrtle Beach

Greater Myrtle Beach has over 100 golf courses and is synonymous with bargain-priced golf (not to mention mini-golf). But the area's low cost of living is not limited to hotels and greens fees: it is also a very reasonably priced second-home destination, as many buyers have discovered.

Home of the "shag" dance, Myrtle Beach was already booming as a beach resort by the 1950s. Today the city is the anchor of twelve adjoining municipalities that comprise the Grand Strand, a 60-mile crescent-shaped section of coastal beaches — with a staggering 1,700 restaurants and over 400 hotels and motels. The city is the Grand Strand's heart, with many restaurants, bars, live entertainment venues, malls, and other tourist attractions, while the surrounding towns are smaller and sleepier.

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Golf is omnipresent here, and although low priced, the quality is high: About half the courses are rated four stars or better by Golf Digest. Most courses have condos or homes, while most residential developments have at least one course — or several. But the beaches were the original draw, and remain the primary influence on real estate prices.

"We call ourselves the golf capital, but it is really all about the beaches," says Al Heath, a broker with Prudential Burroughs & Chapin Realty. "The Grand Strand runs up and down the coast, so in every town you have a broad range of prices, varying greatly based on how far you are from the ocean." The Intracoastal Waterway parallels the ocean several miles inland, a second coastline that is "very popular with boaters, lots of marinas and restaurants."

"One of the appeals is that real estate is inexpensive for a resort area," says Heath. "It's not Aspen. You can get a golf-course condo in the city for $129,000."

A look at three Greater Myrtle Beach neighborhoods

City of Myrtle Beach: The downtown is full of theme restaurants, nightclubs and malls. It's also home to the most desirable real estate, such as Grande Dunes, a 2,200-acre development that runs from the ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway, with two golf courses, nine restaurants, a beach club, marina and resort hotel. While Grande Dunes has oceanfront luxury condos averaging over $2 million, it also offers condos from $200,000 and single-family houses in the $300,000s (grandedunes.com). Elsewhere in the city, condos begin around $130,000.

North Strand: Communities north of Myrtle Beach proper, stretching all the way to the North Carolina border, include Atlantic Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Little River. "It's quieter, more old-fashioned beach towns, and Little River is a real fishing town," says real-estate agent Al Heath. "It's even more affordable than the city; you can get single-family homes less than 5 miles from the beach for $170,000."

South Strand: The south end is quieter, with the fishing hamlet of Murrell's Inlet. While it has the same low-priced offerings as the north, it also has some higher-priced luxury enclaves, especially on Pawley's Island. Litchfield Plantation is a 600-acre low-density community with custom homes from $550,000 to $850,000, about half of which are second homes (litchfieldplantation.com). Just south of the city is Surfside Beach, offering homes from around $170,000 with convenient access to the action of Myrtle Beach.