29576 · Georgetown County
Murrells Inlet
An unincorporated estuary village of about 9,700, built on creeks and marsh rather than oceanfront.
Thirteen miles south of Myrtle Beach and in a different county, Murrells Inlet is an unincorporated village of about 9,700 people built around a saltwater estuary — creeks, marsh and islands rather than oceanfront. Eighty-six percent of people here own their home and the median age is just over 60, which tells you most of what you need to know: this is a settled place, not a resort one. They have called it the Seafood Capital of South Carolina for as long as anyone can remember, and on the half-mile MarshWalk you can see why.
The MarshWalk, and the places locals go instead
- Drunken Jack’s — open since 1979 and the oldest on the boardwalk. The hush puppies with honey butter arrive before you ask, and you look out at the goats on the island.
- The Wicked Tuna — runs its own boats into the Atlantic every week, cleans the catch in its own fish house and serves it inside twenty-four hours.
- The Claw House — a New England lobster house with a raw bar, and a beer garden alongside pouring more than ninety craft taps.
- Dead Dog Saloon — opens at eight in the morning, which no one else on the MarshWalk does, and streams its own stage live.
- Lee’s Inlet Kitchen — one family since 1948, off the boardwalk, voted best seafood restaurant in South Carolina by Southern Living in 2023. Dinner only, closed Sundays.
- Russell’s Seafood Grill — the building was moved across the road and lifted onto pillars after Hugo. The owner calls it the little tree house of Murrells Inlet, and the oaks around it earn that.
- Hot Fish Club — named after a planters’ dining society from the late 1700s, with an outside bar over the inlet.
What’s on your doorstep
- Brookgreen Gardens — founded in the early 1930s by the sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington and her husband Archer on four former rice plantations. More than 550 sculptures, a National Historic Landmark, and a zoo of native wildlife. Nights of a Thousand Candles starts at the end of November and is worth planning around.
- Huntington Beach State Park — 2,500 acres and three miles of beach, with Atalaya, the Huntingtons’ Moorish winter house, open to walk through. Over 300 bird species have been recorded; this is the best birding on the coast.
- Four golf courses in the village — Blackmoor is Gary Player’s only design in the Myrtle Beach area; TPC Myrtle Beach hosts the Dustin Johnson World Junior each year; Wachesaw Plantation East held an LPGA event four years running.
Where you’d look
Collins Creek Landing, Creekhaven, Linksbrook, Bellwood Landing and a dozen more aren’t separate communities — they’re neighborhoods inside Prince Creek, which is one master association. See how it breaks down ↓
Murrells Inlet has no ocean beach of its own. The waterfront is tidal estuary, and getting to sand means Huntington Beach State Park or the Garden City accesses — lovely, but not a walk from your door, and people do get this wrong. Traffic is the other honest issue: Highway 707 ranks second-worst of sixty road segments studied in the region, and it meets Bypass 17 right here. An $8 million state project on US 17 is due to start in autumn 2027 and run about eighteen months. Georgetown County also adopted new flood maps in 2023 and more land fell inside flood zones than before, so check the zone for the specific address rather than the street. Prices tell a calm story — somewhere between $420,000 and $495,000 depending on whose figures you use, about 90 days to sell, and homes closing near 97% of asking.
Neighborhoods
How Murrells Inlet is actually organized
Live from the MLS
What is for sale in Murrells Inlet right now
Straight from the Coastal Carolinas MLS and updated as listings change. Active listings only — nothing under contract, nothing already sold.