FHA Loans in Conway, SC: Zone X Flooding on the Waccamaw, Homes Built Before 1980 and the New Subdivisions

The Waccamaw River crested in Conway at about 22 feet on September 26, 2018, about eleven feet over its flood stage. WMBF's report on the damage that October found that most of the damaged homes the city had inspected were in FEMA's Zone X. Zone X is the zone where an FHA loan does not require a flood policy.

You can buy a home in Conway with an FHA loan, from a 1950s home a few blocks off Main Street to a new one at Rivertown Landing. On a Conway address in Zone X the loan will not require flood insurance, because FHA ties that requirement to FEMA's high-risk zone, which is a separate question from where the water went in 2018. I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in South Carolina through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work out of Bluffton, down the coast, and I work with Conway clients by phone.

My page on Conway itself covers the river town's story, the oaks, the city limits and the water rates, and the Myrtle Beach area page covers Horry County. This page stays with what changes when the loan is an FHA loan and the home is in Conway. The FHA rules below come from HUD's Handbook 4000.1, and I checked the local facts on November 4, 2026. The FHA explainer covers the program basics and the mortgage insurance.

Flood insurance on an FHA loan in Conway

On every FHA loan, the lender orders a flood zone determination for the address, separate from anything the appraiser says, and that certification stays with the loan for its whole life. The Handbook requires flood insurance only when part of the dwelling is in a Special Flood Hazard Area, which is FEMA's high-risk zone, the one whose zone letters begin with A or V. In that zone the policy has to be kept for the life of the loan, and the premium is part of the payment I qualify you on. Zone X is one of FEMA's zones outside the high-risk zone, and the Handbook asks for no policy there.

That rule looks different next to what happened in 2018. The Associated Press counted nearly 1,000 flooded properties in and around Conway as the river finally began to drop, in a story Insurance Journal carried on October 1, 2018. City inspectors found about 360 damaged homes in their first pass, the worst of them off Sherwood Drive near Crabtree Swamp. The city then laid its damage map over FEMA's zones, and most of those addresses were in Zone X. Conway later received $11.3 million from FEMA to buy flooded homes at 75 percent of their value before Hurricane Matthew, and a lot the city buys and clears cannot be built on again.

So on a Conway address in Zone X an FHA loan will not make you carry flood insurance, and the choice is yours. The zone is address by address, so I do not tell a client the whole town is clear. Flood insurance goes into the payment I show you if the zone requires it, or if it is coverage you decide to carry. In Conway I would get a quote on the address either way, so you can see what a policy costs before you decide. Horry County's flood hazard page gives the county's stormwater office number, (843) 915-5160, for flood and drainage questions, and the lender's determination is the one that settles the zone for the loan. My article on buying in a flood zone covers who makes that determination and how to get the premium quoted first.

Homes built before 1980 near downtown: lead paint and termites

About a third of the homes inside the City of Conway were built before 1980. The Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey counts 9,573 housing units in the city, and 3,089 of them went up before 1980, with 1,018 from the 1970s alone. The same survey puts the city's median year built at 2001, because the other side of town is new: about 31 percent of the city's homes were built in 2010 or later. An FHA appraiser treats those two halves of Conway differently.

HUD's lead-based paint rule is aimed at homes built before 1978, and on any existing home the Handbook requires the lender to confirm the home is free of lead paint hazards. The appraiser lists every repair the home needs to meet HUD's standards, with an estimated cost, and the lender decides which repairs must be made for the home to be eligible for the loan. If a repair on an existing home cannot be finished before closing, the Handbook allows an escrow, which is money set aside at closing to pay for the work afterward. The build year for the home you are considering is on the Horry County parcel record, and that record is what I go by.

Termites stay on the list at any age. On an existing home the lender confirms the home is free of wood-destroying insects. If the appraiser makes the appraisal subject to a pest inspection, the lender has to get that inspection and proof of any treatment it called for. A home inspection before the appraisal is ordered lets you see what the appraiser is likely to see. When you have the home inspection report, please provide the complete report, all pages, and send the pest inspection report with it.

The 2026 FHA limit in Horry County against Conway prices

For 2026, HUD's one-unit FHA limit for Horry County is $541,287, the same figure inside and outside the City of Conway, and the box below this article shows it. The limit applies to the base loan, which is the loan before the upfront mortgage insurance premium is added on top. At the 3.5% minimum down payment, a base loan of $541,287 reaches a price of about $560,900, and a larger down payment reaches higher.

The Coastal Carolinas Association of REALTORS report for Conway, which covers ZIP codes 29526 and 29527, puts the single-family median sale price at $311,788 for 2026 through August, on 1,575 closed sales, and the August 2026 median alone at $314,020. Townhomes and condos ran a median of $224,770 on 163 sales. Those are ZIP-code figures, and a Conway ZIP reaches well past the city limits, so the table uses the median only to show the arithmetic. The appraisal sets the value of the home in front of you.

Illustration: FHA at 3.5% down on the Conway-area median
Home price (CCAR, ZIPs 29526 and 29527, 2026 through August)	$311,788
Down payment, 3.5%	$10,913
Base loan	$300,875
Upfront premium, 1.75% of the base loan, financed	$5,265
Total loan with the premium financed	$306,140
Annual premium, 0.55% of the base loan, first year	about $1,655, or $138 a month

Appendix 1.0 of the Handbook sets the upfront premium at 1.75% of the base loan, which you can finance, and the annual premium at 0.55% of the base loan for the life of a 30-year loan with 3.5% down. That 0.55% holds on any base loan of $726,200 or under, and every loan under the Horry County limit is under that line, so the figure is the same at any Conway price. A credit score of 580 or higher allows 3.5% down, and a score from 500 to 579 limits the loan to 90% of the value, which means 10% down. That table shows the loan amount and the mortgage insurance only. Principal and interest, property tax, homeowners insurance and dues come on top, and I quote no rate on this page.

Rivertown Landing, Brookhaven and Warden Station: new homes and the builder's lender

Dream Finders Homes is the builder selling in Conway with its own current offer. On November 4, 2026, its Conway page listed Rivertown Landing, which the builder's community page puts at 558 Wilbur Road, Conway 29527, next to US 501, with the model open and homes from $254,990. Shaftesbury Meadows was at a final opportunity from $281,990, and Spring Oaks was sold out. A builder's page changes without notice, so that is a snapshot of one day.

Dream Finders' sales event page spells out the offer. It is for government loans on a primary residence, on select homesites, on loans closed by December 31, 2026, and it requires financing through Jet HomeLoans, LP. The FHA example in its fine print is a two-year buydown. That means the builder pays money at closing so your rate is lower in the first year, a step higher in the second, and at your regular rate from the third year on. The same page says Dream Finders will contribute up to $10,000 toward your closing costs when you finance with Jet, and that you do not have to use Jet to buy the home from the builder. The advertised rate is for the first year only, so please read the offer as a three-step payment.

FHA caps what a builder can pay on your behalf. The Handbook counts sellers, builders, developers, lenders and agents as interested parties, and together they may contribute up to 6 percent of the sales price toward your origination fees, other closing costs, prepaid items and discount points. The cost of a temporary buydown and the upfront mortgage insurance premium count inside that 6 percent, which is $15,299 on a $254,990 home. Anything above the cap is an inducement to purchase, which comes off the price dollar for dollar before the loan amount is figured, and none of it may fund your 3.5% down payment. My article on seller and builder extras under FHA walks through the arithmetic. Please send me the builder's complete written offer, every page, and I will price the same FHA loan with the credit and without it.

On a home that is still being built, the builder does most of the paperwork, and your part is to make sure it exists. The builder certifies the plans and the site in writing and signs HUD's warranty of completion of construction. The file also needs the city's or county's sign-off that the home can be lived in, called the certificate of occupancy, or a set of inspections made during the build. A termite guarantee from the builder rounds it out. Once the home is finished, FHA still treats it as new construction for a year, as long as nobody has lived in it.

If any part of a new home is in the high-risk zone, FHA needs one of two documents before it will insure the loan. One is a final FEMA letter removing the home from the zone. The other is FEMA's elevation certificate, completed on the finished construction. It has to show the lowest floor above the 100-year flood elevation, which is the water height that has a 1 percent chance of being reached in any given year. If the certificate shows the home is still in the zone, flood insurance is required for the life of the loan. That matters most for the two large subdivisions coming into the city.

City Council voted unanimously in January 2024 to clear the way for the Warden Station tract near US 701 South and Pitch Landing Road, where the developers proposed 3,318 units. Brookhaven, on about 446 acres near US 378 and Juniper Bay Road, passed council unanimously in August 2024 with 1,261 residential units planned. I found no 2026 report on construction at either one, so please ask the builder which lots are selling and for the elevation certificate on any lot near the water.

Inside or outside the City of Conway: the tax bill in your payment, and the 4% filing

FHA is for the home you live in. The Handbook requires at least one client on the loan to move in within 60 days of signing the mortgage and to intend to stay at least a year. That move-in is what South Carolina's 4% legal residence assessment is for. The county assesses a home its owner lives in at 4% of its value instead of 6%, and the filing is yours to make with the Horry County Assessor. The county's property information sheet gives the application period as January 1 of the tax year through January 15 of the following year. The county's notice for the 2025 bill asked for applications by May 31 so the fall bill would come out at 4%. The Assessor answers at (843) 915-5040. A home at 4% is exempt from the school district's operating tax and still pays the school debt tax.

The tax bill that goes into your payment depends on which side of the city limits the home is on, and a Conway mailing address does not say: ZIP code 29526 holds far more people than the city itself. A mill is one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value. Inside the limits, the bill carries the City of Conway's own mills on top of Horry County's 52.1 mills and the 10 mills for school debt. The city's rate was 98.1 mills in 2025 by the South Carolina Association of Counties' table, and it was raised to a little over 100 mills for the year that started July 1, 2026, as MyHorryNews reported the budget. Outside the limits there is no city line; the bill carries the county's fire, fire apparatus and solid waste charges, 29.8 mills together, plus an $89 stormwater fee, and some parcels also carry a watershed district levy.

Estimate: Conway-area median, owner-occupied at 4%	Inside the City of Conway	Unincorporated Horry County
Home value used (CCAR, 2026 through August)	$311,788	$311,788
Assessed at 4%	$12,472	$12,472
Mills on the bill	about 163, with the city's reported 101.3	91.9, plus the $89 stormwater fee
Before credits and fees	about $2,038 a year	about $1,146 a year, plus $89

The figures leave out any city stormwater or solid waste fee, and the actual bill on the specific parcel is the one I put in your payment. Your lender's escrow account, which collects the tax bill inside the monthly payment, collects that whole bill, so the side of the line changes the payment by about $67 a month on this illustration. The Horry County parcel record shows the tax district, and the City of Conway decides whether a parcel is inside its limits. The city's water and sewer bill is not part of the mortgage payment. Outside the limits it has run about double the inside rate, which my Conway page covers along with the annexation covenants that can come with city water.

Things worth looking up on a Conway address

• The Horry County parcel record, which shows the tax district, whether the home is inside the city limits, and the build year.
• The FEMA flood zone for the specific lot, any elevation certificate that exists, and whether the home took water in 2016 or 2018.
• For a home built before 1978, please provide the complete home inspection report, all pages, and the complete pest inspection report, all pages.
• For a new home, please send the builder's complete written offer, all pages, with its closing date and the lender it names. Please also send the certificate of occupancy date and, when the lot is in a high-risk flood zone, a complete copy of the elevation certificate.
• If the community has an association, please provide its current dues statement, all pages.
• For the pre-approval, please provide each document complete with all pages. Getting pre-approved in South Carolina lists what I will ask you for and what the letter should say.

Once you have an address or a community in mind, I can run the FHA payment with that parcel's tax bill and the association's dues in it. The flood premium goes in too, if the zone requires one or you choose to carry it. You'll see pricing for your scenario, choose a rate option, which you can change later, and the application opens from there. You are also welcome to call me and talk it through first, and we can work through it together. The South Carolina page covers the rest of the state.

Nothing on this page is a loan approval, a denial or a commitment to lend, and it is not tax advice. The Horry County Assessor decides whether a home gets the 4% assessment, FEMA's map and the lender's determination decide the flood zone, and a builder's current written offer governs any incentive. Please confirm each before you rely on a figure here.

Common questions

What is the FHA loan limit in Conway, SC for 2026?

It is HUD's one-unit limit for Horry County, the same figure inside and outside the City of Conway, and the limit section above gives it. The Conway-area median sale price for 2026 through August was well under it, so a home at that median fits under the limit with the minimum down payment of 3.5 percent.

Does an FHA loan in Conway require flood insurance?

Only when part of the home is in a Special Flood Hazard Area, FEMA's high-risk zone, and then the policy stays for the life of the loan with the premium collected in your payment. Most of the damaged Conway homes the city inspected after Hurricane Florence in 2018 were in Zone X, outside that zone. So on a Conway address in Zone X the loan does not require a policy and the choice to carry one is yours.

Can I buy an older home near downtown Conway with an FHA loan?

Yes. About a third of the homes in the City of Conway were built before 1980, and on any existing home the lender confirms it is free of lead paint hazards and free of termites and other wood-destroying insects. The appraiser lists the repairs the home needs, those repairs are made before closing or paid from an escrow set up at closing, and a pest inspection is ordered if the appraisal calls for one.

Can I use an FHA loan on a new home at Rivertown Landing or in Conway's other new subdivisions?

Yes. FHA counts a home as new construction from the plans stage through the first year after it is finished, as long as nobody has lived in it. The builder gives the lender a certification of the plans and site and a warranty of completion of construction, and the file carries either the building permit and certificate of occupancy or inspections made during the build. If part of the lot is in FEMA's high-risk zone, an elevation certificate on the finished home has to show the lowest floor above the 100-year flood elevation.

Do I have to use Dream Finders' lender to get its incentive in Conway?

Dream Finders' own fine print, as I read it on November 4, 2026, says its offers require financing with Jet HomeLoans and that you do not have to use Jet to buy the home. Whatever the builder pays toward your costs, including a temporary buydown, counts inside FHA's cap of 6 percent of the sales price. I price the same FHA loan with the credit and without it so you can compare the whole closing statement and the whole payment.

Is the property tax on an FHA-financed home different inside the City of Conway?

Yes. Inside the city limits the bill carries the City of Conway's own mills on top of the county and school debt lines. Outside the limits it carries the county's fire, solid waste and stormwater charges instead, which come to less. Either way FHA requires you to move in within 60 days, and living in the home is what qualifies it for Horry County's 4 percent legal residence assessment once you file with the Assessor.