Keowee KeySC
It is a town of 3,351 residents in South Carolina.
What should you know before moving to Keowee Key?
A solid town with one catch. Incomes are its strong suit: the median household earns $125K. Keowee Key grades B+ overall, better than 71% of U.S. towns, and ranks 27th of 167 in South Carolina. It is strong on health as well (A−): residents are healthier than four fifths of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. Homes run about $556K for a typical one, 8.9 times the Seneca area’s $62K median household income. What counts against it is walkability. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 82% of U.S. towns. The town has 2 places on the National Register.
Figures: incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · health, CDC PLACES · home values, Zillow · National Register of Historic Places.
What makes Keowee Key stand out
Where Keowee Key beats most towns.
Every workday, about 1,599 people come to Keowee Key for work
Where Keowee Key’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Keowee Key grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within South Carolina), ordered by how far Keowee Key is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Keowee Key: who provides what
Keowee Key is unincorporated, so Oconee County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Sep 12, 2025.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Keowee Key.
Keowee Key is a second-home town and draws workers from Seneca and beyond, but it has homes that cost more against local pay than most of South Carolina.
A smaller share of residents live below the poverty line in Keowee Key than in most of South Carolina or the rest of the country
1,649 jobs are based in Keowee Key, 2.2 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. Jobs based here grew from 388 in 2013 to 1,649.
Among 168 South Carolina towns, just 4 have a higher middle household income than Keowee Key. Since 2013, Keowee Key has added 1,261 jobs, to 1,649 in 2023. Most people who work leave Keowee Key to do it: just 7% work in town. The top destinations are Greenville (10%), Clemson (6%) and Walhalla (4%).
| Keowee Key | South Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $125,000 | $57,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 2.1% | 17% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Fewer of Keowee Key’s adults sleep under 7 hours than in the typical South Carolina or U.S. town
Against the 5,084 U.S. towns with household incomes like Keowee Key’s, it is less healthy than 52%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
Among adults in Keowee Key, 6.7% smoke cigarettes, below both the South Carolina town median (15%) and the median of U.S. towns (14%). Only 2 of the 169 South Carolina towns we compare have a lower share of adults who binge drink than Keowee Key. In addition, the share of adults in Keowee Key who get no exercise outside work: 21%. Against the South Carolina average, Keowee Key comes out ahead on 20 CDC measures out of 32, and behind on 5.
| Keowee Key | South Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 8.7% | 18% | 17% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 15% | 16% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 38% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 23% | 33% | 33% |
| What stands out | Keowee Key | SC |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 3.4% | 13.3% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 2.3% | 8.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 18.6% | 8.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Keowee Key has mild winters and hot summers
The Pickens weather station, 12 miles away, records that the frost-free season runs about 216 days: longer than most of the country, but shorter than 86% of South Carolina places with climate records. The Pickens weather station, 12 miles away, records that about 49 days a year reach 90°: more than most of the country, but fewer than 83% of South Carolina places with climate records.
The range runs from 31° on a January night to 90° on a July afternoon, with about 1 inches of snow a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Moderate risk in Keowee Key, with inland flooding at the top
FEMA puts nearly three fifths of Keowee Key’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding, and 25% to cold waves. For Keowee Key, the FEMA risk score is 52 of 100.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Homes in Keowee Key sell for about $640K
At 8.9 years of the Seneca area’s $62K median household income, the typical home costs more against local pay than in 98% of South Carolina towns; that ratio is one input to its C+ for cost of living. The median property tax bill is $1,964, against $1,251 across South Carolina, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
99% of households own their home in Keowee Key. A home in Keowee Key typically sold within 72 days of listing. In Keowee Key, the typical sale closed at 96.6% of the list price.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Memorial Stadium, Clemson and 25 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Keowee Key. Close and well known come first.
11 mi Stadium & arenaMemorial Stadium, Clemson
2 mi LakeLake Keowee
32 mi ParkwayBlue Ridge Parkway16.5M visitors a year
10 mi LakeLake Jocassee
33 mi MountainCurrahee Mountain
25 mi LakeLake HartwellPhoto credits
Memorial Stadium, Clemson: Caseyh at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Lake Keowee: Inundated_38Oc1.jpg: Matthew T. Bradley from Berkshire County, Mass., USA deriva, CC BY 2.0 · Blue Ridge Parkway: Ken Thomas, Public domain · Lake Jocassee: Clemson3564, Public domain · Currahee Mountain: Wikilackey (talk), Public domain · Lake Hartwell: blahedo, CC BY-SA 2.5
Everything we know about Keowee Key
Colleges nearby
3 within 15 miles of the center of Keowee Key
About 1 of every 100 Keowee Key residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across South Carolina.
Questions about Keowee Key
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Keowee Key, SC a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Keowee Key grades B+ overall, better than 71% of U.S. towns and #27 of 167 in South Carolina. It grades A− for health and B+ for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a C−.
Is Keowee Key, SC expensive?
The typical home is worth about $556,000, 83% above the South Carolina typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C+.