Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC
**Army Cyber Command + Masters Tournament — the military-healthcare bi-state metro.** Augusta runs HPI **+59.6% over 5yr** with **YoY +5.55%** strong sustained. **P/I 3.11 moderate, R/I 25.0% moderate, Cap proxy 4.74% workable**. MHV $207K. FMR 2BR $1,261. 7 counties across GA and SC. **Permits 6.23/1k strong**. Permit YoY +15%. Migration +694 (+0.11% steady). **Unemployment 4.3%**. Anchored by **Fort Eisenhower** (Army Cyber Command, Signal Corps, NSA/CSS Georgia), **Augusta National Golf Club** (The Masters), **Augusta University / AU Health**, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, Textron Specialized Vehicles.
The numbers that matter most
What an investor checks first when sizing up a new metro — affordability ratio, rent vs income, cap rate proxy, and where the market is moving. Each metric shown vs. state and national medians for instant context.
moderate
Price to income
3.11×
The single most-cited 'is this market still cheap' check. Below 3× and you're in an affordability tailwind.
- vs Georgia
- 3.16×-0.04
- vs U.S.
- 3.43×-0.32
Benchmark
ACS median home value ÷ median HHI
comfortable
Rent to income
22.7%
What share of a typical household's income goes to rent. Below 30% means tenants can absorb modest rent increases.
- vs Georgia
- 24.5%-1.8
- vs U.S.
- 23.3%-0.6
Benchmark
(HUD FMR 2BR × 12) ÷ median HHI
deal-by-deal
Cap rate proxy
4.7%
Rough first-pass yield assuming a 35% expense ratio. Not an underwriting number — a 'is this even worth modeling' filter.
- vs Georgia
- 4.8%
- vs U.S.
- 4.4%+0.4
Benchmark
(FMR 2BR × 12 × 0.65) ÷ ACS median home value
steady
Net migration
+0.11%
Forward-looking demand signal. Positive net migration drives rent growth and absorbs new supply.
- vs Georgia
- 0.11%=
- vs U.S.
- 0.04%+0.08
Benchmark
IRS net migration ÷ population
pipeline growing
Permit pipeline
6.23
permits per 1,000 residents
Forward-supply indicator. Above ~5 means the metro is building meaningfully relative to its size; below 2 means supply is tight.
- vs Georgia
- 5.61+0.62
- vs U.S.
- 3.49+2.74
Benchmark
Census BPS permits TTM ÷ population × 1,000
softening
Unemployment
4.3%
Tighter unemployment means higher wages, more rental demand, lower vacancy.
- vs Georgia
- 3.4%
- vs U.S.
- 3.9%
Benchmark
BLS LAUS, latest month
Section index — click any row to jump
What the data says about Augusta
Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC is home to 612,898 residents in 7 counties spanning Georgia and South Carolina — Richmond (GA), Columbia (GA), Aiken (SC), Burke (GA), McDuffie (GA), Lincoln (GA), and Edgefield (SC). The metro pulled 3,820 building permits over the trailing twelve months according to the Census Bureau Building Permits Survey — 6.23 per 1,000 residents, well above the national pace of 3.49. The cap rate proxy sits at 4.74% — workable — and the price-to-income ratio is 3.11 moderate. Median household income is $66,713, the median home value is $207K, and the BLS LAUS unemployment rate is 4.3%.
The structural story is the Army Cyber Command + Masters Tournament bi-state metro. Augusta sits on the Savannah River, with Georgia on the west bank and South Carolina on the east. The anchor stack is military + nuclear + healthcare + The Masters:
- Fort Eisenhower (formerly Fort Gordon) — home of U.S. Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER), the Army Signal Corps (founded here in 1941), NSA/CSS Georgia, and the Cyber Center of Excellence. Fort Eisenhower is the largest military cyber installation in the world, with ~28,000 military, civilian, and contractor personnel.
- Augusta National Golf Club — home of The Masters Tournament, one of the four major championships in professional golf. The Masters week in April generates hundreds of millions in economic impact.
- Augusta University / AU Health — the state's only public academic health center, the largest employer in the metro after the military.
- Savannah River Nuclear Solutions — the management and operations contractor for the Savannah River Site (SRS), the DOE's primary nuclear weapons materials production facility. Located in Aiken County, SC.
- Textron Specialized Vehicles in Augusta — manufacturer of E-Z-GO, Cushman, and Arctic Cat vehicles.
The metro ran HPI +59.6% over five years with YoY +5.55% — strong and sustained. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency HPI, Augusta has avoided the Sun Belt cooldown entirely — military payroll smooths the cycle.
Construction runs 6.23/1k strong with permit YoY +15%. The bi-state structure means Georgia and South Carolina tax and regulatory regimes both apply — investors need to know which county (and which state) they're operating in. Net IRS migration is +694 returns (+0.11% steady) — modest but positive. Owner-occupancy 66%, vacancy 9.4%, bachelors 29.5%, median age 35.5.
So what does an investor do?
- If you're hunting cash flow — Augusta is a clean Mid-South cash-flow setup. The cap proxy at 4.74% with a $207K median home value and $1,261 Fair Market Rent pencils. Focus on Columbia County GA (Evans, Grovetown — closest to Fort Eisenhower) and Aiken County SC (North Augusta — SC side of the river).
- If you're playing appreciation — Augusta compounded +59.6% over 5 years and the YoY +5.55% shows no cooldown. The Army Cyber Command expansion is structural — cyber is the fastest-growing branch of military funding. Buy and hold for the Cyber Command decade.
- If you already own here — hold and add. The military + nuclear dual anchor makes Augusta one of the most recession-resistant metros in the queue.
Where prices are and where they've been
FHFA House Price Index — repeat-sales index across the metro, sized against this metro's median household income and benchmarked against the Indiana metros average and U.S. metros average.
5-year price appreciation
+59.6%
FHFA HPI · Q1 2020 → Q4 2025
+5.6% YoY
$207,300 median home value
Augusta home prices climbed 59.6% over the last 5 years according to the FHFA repeat-sales index — a steady appreciation pace for a Midwest metro of this size. The 1-year change of 5.6% is still running hot.
See the chart below for how the metro's appreciation curve stacks up against the Indiana metros average and the U.S. metros average. The gap between the metro and the national line is the "catch-up" or "lag" signal — and the slope tells you whether the gap is widening or closing.
How to read it
- 01Augusta ran **+59.6% over five years** — strong Sun Belt territory, beating the U.S. metros average (+34.3%) by 25 points.
- 02**Recent YoY is +5.55%** — strong, sustained. Augusta has avoided the Sun Belt cooldown entirely — military payroll anchors the cycle.
- 03Inside Georgia, Augusta ranks top third by HPI — anchored by Fort Eisenhower (Army Cyber Command).
- 04U.S. metros ran **+34.3%** over the same window. Augusta outperformed by ~25 points — top-tier for a military metro.
- 05The takeaway: Augusta is the **Army Cyber Command + Masters Tournament metro** — Fort Eisenhower anchors the structural demand, and the Masters brings a global tourism economy one week per year.
Where the value tier sits — top 5 counties by home value
| County | Median home value | Median HHI | Price-to-income | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia County | $287,400 | $96,122 | 2.99× | affordable |
| Aiken County | $199,500 | $67,940 | 2.94× | affordable |
| Edgefield County | $194,300 | $67,092 | 2.90× | affordable |
| Lincoln County | $163,600 | $50,688 | 3.23× | moderate |
| Richmond County | $163,300 | $53,197 | 3.07× | moderate |
How to read the FHFA House Price Index
FHFA HPI is a repeat-sales index — it tracks the price change of the same properties over time, smoothing out new construction and luxury transactions. It's built from the mortgage data the GSEs (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) already see, which makes it free of MLS survey error and immune to listing-feed gaps.
- 01Repeat-sales method. Tracks the same properties over time, so new construction and luxury transactions don't skew the trend.
- 02Federally sourced. Built from GSE mortgage data — no MLS survey error, no commercial license required to publish.
- 03Slope, not level. Watch the slope of the line, not the absolute index value — a steepening curve is a more reliable buy signal than the level.
The rent ladder
HUD Fair Market Rent by bedroom count, sized against this metro's median household income and benchmarked vs Indiana and the U.S.
Typical 2-bedroom rent
$1,261
/ month · HUD FMR FY 2026
22.7% of median HHI
A typical 2-bedroom in costs the median household 22.7% of their income — 0.6 points below the U.S. average (23.3%) 1.8 points below Georgia (24.5%).
HUD calls anything above 30% "rent-burdened." This metro sits comfortably under that line, which means tenants can absorb modest rent increases — and landlords have headroom on rent hikes before pushing tenants out of the market.
Fair Market Rent — by bedroom count
| Bedroom | Monthly | Annual | % of median HHI | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 BR | $1,114 | $13.4K | 20.1% | comfortable |
| 2 BR | $1,261 | $15.1K | 22.7% | comfortable |
| 3 BR | $1,627 | $19.5K | 29.3% | moderate |
Why HUD Fair Market Rent matters
FMR is HUD's 40th-percentile rent estimate by bedroom count — refreshed every fiscal year, sourced from Census surveys (not commercial listing data), and used as the cap for Section 8 voucher payments. Three things investors should know:
- 01Defensible benchmark. Federal source, no commercial license required to publish or compare against.
- 02Section 8 ceiling. A property at or below FMR is voucher-eligible — government-paid rent at the FMR cap.
- 03Conservative estimate. 40th percentile means more than half of actual market rents in the metro come in higher.
Labor market direction
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — LAUS (unemployment) + CES (nonfarm employment), benchmarked against the U.S. average.
Unemployment rate
4.3%
BLS LAUS · latest month
Augusta's labor market is softening, with unemployment running at 4.3% — 0.4 points above the U.S. metros average (3.9%).
For an investor, tighter unemployment means higher wages, more rental demand, and lower vacancy. The trend chart below shows how the metro's unemployment has moved over the last 30 months.
Unemployment rate
4.3%
Nonfarm jobs
—
Median household income
$66,628
ACS 5-year
How to read the labor market
Two BLS series tell you almost everything you need about a metro's labor market: LAUS (unemployment, refreshed monthly) and CES (nonfarm payroll counts, refreshed monthly). LAUS is the tightness signal; CES is the size and direction signal.
- 01Unemployment is rental demand. Tighter labor markets mean higher wages and lower vacancy — landlords have pricing power when employers are competing for workers.
- 02YoY change is the trend signal. A negative pp YoY change means the labor market tightened over the last year — usually a leading indicator for rent growth.
- 03Nonfarm growth is supply absorption. Positive nonfarm payroll growth absorbs new housing supply and supports the rent + price trajectory together.
What's being built
U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey — trailing 12 months, broken out by structure type, with the YoY change as the directional signal.
Total permits TTM
3,818
Census BPS · trailing 12 months
+1.9% year-over-year
6.23 permits per 1,000 residents
Augusta pulled 3,818 building permits over the trailing 12 months, a modest expansion 1.9% year-over-year. That works out to 6.23 permits per 1,000 residents, vs the U.S. metros average of 3.49.
Single-family vs multifamily mix matters: 5+ unit permits are lumpy (developers file for entire projects at once), while single-family permits are smoother and more reliable as a demand signal. The chart below breaks out the monthly mix.
Single family
3,415
trailing 12 months
2–4 unit
49
trailing 12 months
5+ unit
354
trailing 12 months
How to read the supply pipeline
Census BPS publishes building permit counts every month at the county level, by structure type. Single-family permits are the smooth signal — they reflect ongoing builder demand. 5+ unit permits are lumpy and project-level — one apartment approval can spike a month.
- 01Permits per 1,000 residents. The size-adjusted comparison number. Above ~5 means the metro is building meaningfully relative to its population; below 2 means supply is tight.
- 02YoY change is the direction. Year-over-year change in TTM permits tells you whether builders are leaning in or pulling back. Watch this number for trend reversals.
- 03Mix matters for cap rates. Heavy 5+ unit permitting tends to compress cap rates; single-family-dominated pipelines preserve them.
All 7 counties, ranked by population
Census Bureau (population, ACS demographics) + Census Building Permits Survey.
How to read it
- 01Augusta is a **bi-state metro spanning 7 counties across Georgia and South Carolina** — Richmond County GA, Columbia County GA, Aiken County SC, Burke County GA, McDuffie County GA, Lincoln County GA, and Edgefield County SC.
- 02**Columbia County GA** is typically the fastest-growing county — home to Fort Eisenhower (Army Cyber Command) and the Grovetown/Evans growth corridor.
- 03**Aiken County SC** adds the South Carolina dimension — Aiken city, North Augusta, and the Savannah River Site (nuclear).
- 04Augusta runs **6.23 permits per 1,000 residents** — well above the national 3.49.
- 05**Permit YoY +15%** — modest sustained acceleration. The Army Cyber Command expansion at Fort Eisenhower is the structural driver.
How to read the map
- 01Augusta is a **bi-state metro** — the Savannah River divides Georgia (west) from South Carolina (east). The metro spans both sides.
- 02**Columbia County GA** (Evans, Grovetown, Martinez, Fort Eisenhower) is the growth engine — Fort Eisenhower hosts the **U.S. Army Cyber Command**, the **Army Signal Corps** (founded here in 1941), and **NSA/CSS Georgia**.
- 03**Aiken County SC** (Aiken, North Augusta) adds the nuclear economy — the **Savannah River Site** is the DOE's primary nuclear weapons materials production facility.
- 04**Richmond County GA** (Augusta proper) is the urban core — Augusta University, AU Health, the Augusta Riverwalk, and Augusta National Golf Club.
- 05The metro's dual anchor (military + nuclear) makes it unusually recession-resistant.
| # | County | Population | Median HHI | Home value | Permits TTM | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond County | 206,153 | $53,197 | $163,300 | 469 | +32.5% |
| 2 | Aiken County | 169,865 | $67,940 | $199,500 | 1,786 | |
| 3 | Columbia County | 156,921 | $96,122 | $287,400 | 1,208 | +19.6% |
| 4 | Edgefield County | 26,181 | $67,092 | $194,300 | 180 | +4.0% |
| 5 | Burke County | 24,337 | $50,739 | $107,800 | 59 | +7.3% |
| 6 | McDuffie County | 21,715 | $54,058 | $155,100 | 65 | +14.0% |
| 7 | Lincoln County | 7,726 | $50,688 | $163,600 | 51 |
Similar metros nationally
5 metros closest to Augusta by population and median household income — head-to-head on the metrics that matter for an investor.
Peer set
5
metros nearest by population + HHI
Augusta is closest in size to Wichita, Toledo, Chattanooga, Scranton.
The table below ranks every metric — green cells mark the best value in the column, rust cells mark the worst. Augusta is highlighted as the focal row.
| Metro | Pop | Med HHI | Home value | P/I | Cap proxy | HPI 5y | Permits/1k | Migration | Unemp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
★Augusta | 0.61M | $67K | $207K | 3.11× | 4.7% | +59.6% | 6.23 | +0.11% | 4.3% |
Wichita, KS | 0.65M | $69K | $188K | 2.73× | 4.6% | +49.6% | 4.67 | +0.01% | 3.7% |
Toledo, OH | 0.64M | $64K | $169K | 2.64× | 5.0% | +50.3% | 1.08 | -0.11% | 4.6% |
Chattanooga, TN-GA | 0.56M | $69K | $246K | 3.58× | 4.4% | +65.9% | 0.02 | +0.02% | 3.2% |
Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA | 0.57M | $64K | $177K | 2.77× | 5.5% | +59.8% | 1.08 | +0.19% | 4.3% |
Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL | 0.68M | $68K | $287K | 4.25× | 4.9% | +52.0% | 8.03 | +1.20% | 5.3% |
How to read this comparison
Peer metros are picked by population + median household income — the closest five matches nationally — so the comparison is apples-to-apples on size and economic class. Sun Belt entrants like Las Vegas and Nashville are included when they fall in range, which is why this peer set spans both the Midwest and the Sun Belt.
- 01Green = best in column. The cell with the most-favorable value for that metric, accounting for whether higher or lower is better.
- 02Rust = worst in column. The cell with the least-favorable value. Combined with the green markers, this is your at-a-glance "where does my metro win and where does it lose."
- 03Cap proxy is the yield lens. Cap rate proxy = (FMR 2BR × 12 × 0.65) ÷ median home value. A first-pass yield filter, not an underwriting number — but it puts the peer set on a single comparable scale.
Where people are moving in from
IRS Statistics of Income — Tax Year 2022. Excludes intra-metro suburban churn.
Net migration
+694
tax returns · IRS SOI · TY 2022
+0.11% of metro population
2,923 from top origin
The IRS data lags by ~2 years (households file taxes the year after they move), but it's the only nationwide county-to-county migration data sourced from administrative records, not survey estimates. The table below shows the top origin counties — the gravitational sources of new residents.
Top origin counties — where new residents are coming from
| Origin county | Tax returns |
|---|---|
| Richmond County, GA | 2,923 |
| Columbia County, GA | 2,087 |
| Aiken County, SC | 1,152 |
| Edgefield County, SC | 388 |
| Lexington County, SC | 345 |
| Richland County, SC | 265 |
Who lives in Augusta
U.S. Census Bureau · American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates · 2019–2023 vintage.
Who lives here
- Median age
- 38.2
- Owner-occupancy
- 68.3%
- Bachelor's+
- 28.8%
Augusta relatively young Midwest metro: Median age 38.2, 68.3% owner-occupancy 28.8% holding a bachelor's degree or higher. Stable, educated, and mostly homeowner-driven.
The catch: 48.0% of renter households are rent-burdened (paying 30%+ of income on rent) — high enough to flag as a constraint on rent growth even though the headline rent-to-income ratio looks comfortable.
- Median household income
- $66,628
- Median age
- 38.2
- Bachelor's+ degree
- 28.8%
- Owner-occupancy rate
- 68.3%
- Vacancy rate
- 15.9%
- Rent burdened (30%+)
- 48.0%
Data sources
| Metric | Source | Type | Vintage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home prices | FHFA — House Price Index | Index | Q4 2025 |
| Fair market rents | HUD — Fair Market Rents | Administrative | FY 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | BLS — Local Area Unemployment Statistics | Survey | Jan 2026 |
| Nonfarm employment | BLS — Current Employment Statistics | Survey | Jan 2026 |
| Building permits | Census — Building Permits Survey | Survey | Mar 2026 TTM |
| Migration flows | IRS — Statistics of Income, Migration Data | Administrative | Tax Year 2022 |
| Demographics | Census — American Community Survey 5-Year | Survey | 2019–2023 |
| Household income | Census — American Community Survey 5-Year | Survey | 2019–2023 |
Page last refreshed: April 9, 2026