City guides / Charleston-North Charleston
Endcap Design is a web design agency that designs and builds websites for businesses, with the branding and marketing to match, and works remotely with clients outside Southern California. This guide collects the business numbers, building activity, and South Carolina rules we would look at before designing a site for a business in Charleston or elsewhere in the metro, including Mount Pleasant, Summerville, and Goose Creek.
Updated October 2026 with building permits through August 2026, from U.S. Census Bureau data. Sources are listed at the end of this page.
Endcap is based in Orange County, California, and works remotely with clients outside Southern California by video call, phone, and email.
The market
The figures that shape who a Charleston website is for and what it needs to do. Each figure is the most recent Census release in this guide’s data, with its year shown.
889,263
residents in the metro
Census population estimate, July 2025
+10.7%
population change since 2020
April 2020 to July 2025; the US grew 3.1%
22,892
business locations with employees
County Business Patterns 2023
1,630
real estate businesses
NAICS 531, 2023
257
property management companies
Residential and nonresidential, 2023
5,382
new housing units permitted
January through August 2026
$90,307
median household income
American Community Survey 2024
30%
of households rent their home
107,060 renter households
Business mix
Real estate brokerages are the most concentrated of these businesses in the Charleston metro: 94 for every 100,000 residents, and their share of local businesses is 1.85 times the national share. Self-storage operators follow at 1.44 times the national share. Commercial building owners are less common here than nationally, at 0.76 times the national share.
The chart compares each sector’s share of Charleston-area business locations with its share nationally (a location quotient). 1.00× matches the US; higher means the sector is more concentrated here. County Business Patterns 2023.
Building activity
New buildings mean new properties to lease and new businesses to open. Census Building Permits Survey, August 2026.
Builders in the Charleston metro were authorized to build 5,382 new housing units from January through August 2026, 4% more than the 5,166 in the same months of 2025.
19% of those units are in buildings with five or more homes, against 32% nationally.
Most new construction here is single-family. New subdivisions and the shopping centers that follow them need leasing and community websites as each phase opens.
What this means for your site
What we would plan into a Charleston website, based on the numbers above.
Talk through your siteCharleston has 1.19 times the national share of property management companies, so owners have several firms to compare. A management website needs its services, reporting, and a request for a management proposal where an owner can find them.
Brokerages are 1.85 times as concentrated here as nationally. A brokerage site stands out with closed deals, current listings that stay up to date, and a page for each broker.
The metro grew 10.7% from 2020 to 2025, against 3.1% nationally. People new to an area tend to search online before asking for recommendations, so a page for each service and each area you serve, linked to your Google Business Profile, carries more weight here.
Brokerage websites in South Carolina carry specific disclosure requirements (S.C. Code Ann. § 40-57-135(E) and (F)(2) effective May 15, 2025); S.C. Code Ann. § 40-57-360). We build them into the footer and listing templates, so every page that advertises a property has them.
Every site we build follows WCAG 2.2 AA practice: readable contrast, keyboard navigation, labeled forms, and text alternatives for images. Federal ADA website lawsuits run into the thousands each year, most of them filed in New York, Florida, and Illinois.
South Carolina rules
State rules that change what goes on a business or real estate website in South Carolina, checked against official sources as of October 9, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice; your counsel owns the final wording.
Worth knowing Since May 15, 2025, a South Carolina online real estate advertisement can meet the brokerage-name requirement with a link to the brokerage firm's homepage, under S.C. Code § 40-57-135(E)(2).
Privacy
South Carolina has not enacted a comprehensive consumer data privacy law as of October 9, 2026. This reflects published state privacy-law trackers. Privacy laws in other states, and federal rules, can still apply when a site collects data from their residents.
Real estate advertising
When a South Carolina licensee advertises real estate services or markets property owned by another person in any medium, the licensee must clearly identify the full name of the brokerage firm with which the licensee is employed and supervised. For internet or other electronic advertising, a link from the advertisement to the homepage of the brokerage firm or property management company can satisfy this requirement, which took effect May 15, 2025.
Accessibility
Title III of the ADA covers businesses open to the public, but the Department of Justice has no regulation that sets a technical standard for private business websites. DOJ's web guidance says businesses have flexibility in how they make their websites accessible and points to WCAG as a helpful existing technical standard. Federal appeals courts have not agreed on when a website is covered, so a website's legal status can depend on where a lawsuit is filed and whether the site is connected to a physical location. South Carolina has no separate website accessibility statute for private businesses in our research, so WCAG 2.2 AA is the practical target.
What we design
Ordered by how concentrated each kind of business is in the Charleston metro. We design for every kind of business.
Portfolio
Websites and identities we have designed and built for our clients. See all of our work.
Client words
We own ten homes at Casa De Laguna and were still sending people to a site built in 2013. Noah pulled the photos and details out of the old site, designed a logo from the rooflines and the pond, and put the community, the homes and current availability in one place. It’s the first time the website has looked like the place we actually rent.
“Highly recommend. Great work.”
The Census Bureau counted 1,630 real estate business locations with employees in the Charleston metro in 2023, including 832 offices of agents and brokers and 257 property management companies.
From January through August 2026, the Charleston metro permitted 5,382 new housing units, 4% more than a year earlier, according to the Census Building Permits Survey.
South Carolina has not enacted a comprehensive consumer data privacy law as of October 9, 2026. Privacy laws in other states can still apply when a website collects data from their residents.
When a South Carolina licensee advertises real estate services or markets property owned by another person in any medium, the licensee must clearly identify the full name of the brokerage firm with which the licensee is employed and supervised. For internet or other electronic advertising, a link from the advertisement to the homepage of the brokerage firm or property management company can satisfy this requirement, which took effect May 15, 2025. (S.C. Code Ann. § 40-57-135(E) and (F) (rewritten by 2024 Act No. 204; subsection (E)(2) effective May 15, 2025); S.C. Code Ann. § 40-57-360 (version in force until May 15, 2027, and version effective May 15, 2027))
Yes. Endcap is based in Orange County, California, and works remotely with clients outside Southern California by video call, phone, and email. You review the design and the working site online before launch.
We quote each project after a short conversation, once we know the pages, content, and features it needs. The proposal lists the deliverables, schedule, and price, and we agree on it before work begins.
Most websites take two to four weeks once the content is ready. The proposal confirms the schedule.
Nearby city guides
National rankings: where the US is building, property managers by metro, brokerages by metro, and commercial landlords by metro.
Sources
Figures are for the metropolitan statistical area unless noted. Business counts cover locations with paid employees. Data refreshed 2026-10-10.
Contact Endcap
A website, a brand, or a complete set of materials.
We reply within an hour during business hours, and we only use your details to answer you.
Start a project or call or text Noah at (425) 233-0769
