Why Do Daniel Island Pages Show Such Different Medians? Reading the Ferry Streets, the Park Side and the Census Move-In Years

Why do the Daniel Island medians differ so much?

The pages differ in what they count. The newspaper's $1.56 million is one month, August 2026, and the same page lists 30 August closings that range from $275,000 to $5.4 million. This brief computed a median of $1,555,850 from that list, which matches the quoted figure, and an average of $1,821,714. Eight of the 30 sold under $1 million and 11 at $2 million or more, so the middle sale is close to the median but few homes sit near it. The page does not say that its list is complete, and the top sale is 19.6 times the lowest, computed here. Two homes in the same month can differ by a factor of twenty, and a median does not say which kind is yours.

The other pages use other windows. A brokerage blog says a trailing three-month median through April 2026 was $1.5 million, down slightly from a year earlier, while a monthly snapshot from the same data provider showed an average sale price of $1.87 million, up 28.8%. It adds that a sold-price tracker had $1.7 million for February with 73 days to sell and a sale-to-list ratio near 97.5%, and $1.8 million for May with 57 homes sold, up from 31, and 48 days on market, up from 35 (Local brokerage blog, why the median depends on who is counting). The blog's own point is that an average and a median answer different questions, and that a handful of closings above $4 million can lift an island-wide average without moving the middle. It also says a snapshot of 45 active listings on the Park side averaged just over $4 million, with prices from under $400,000 to $14.9 million.

Zillow's page shows an average home value of $1,458,659, up 3.6% over a year, updated August 31, 2026 (Zillow, Daniel Island home values). That is 6.5% below the newspaper's August median and 19.0% below the $1.8 million May tracker figure, computed here. A value index estimates what homes would sell for and covers every home, sold or not, so it need not match a month of closings. The two figures also grow at different rates on the pages that quote them, with Zillow up 3.6% and the newspaper's median up nearly 10%, though they cover different windows and neither page explains the gap.

The Redfin page needs care (Redfin, Daniel Island housing market). Its headline text says the median sale price was $1.5 million last month, down 21.2% over a year, and its body says June 2025 in one place and describes sales and days on market as of June in another, with 82 homes sold against 93 and 64 days on market against 45. The page does not make clear which June it means. The second brokerage blog quotes the same $1.5 million and 64 days for the three months through April 2026, but against 51 days a year earlier, not 45. This brief therefore treats the Redfin figures as undated and does not use its 21.2% decline as a 2026 trend. The page may be stale, and a seller should not rely on it.

Is Daniel Island several markets under one name?

The brokerage blogs say so. The second blog describes roughly eight named sections, each with its own park. It places Codner's Ferry Park, built from 1997 to 2002 as the original neighborhood, with homes that ranged from $550,000 to $1.2 million earlier this year. It places Smythe Park, from the mid-2000s on, around a 24-acre park and an 11-acre lake, and says a 2025 snapshot of ten active listings there averaged just over $2.1 million, from about $1.6 million to $2.6 million. It lists Etiwan, Barfield, Pierce, Center and Cochran Parks as the walkable central neighborhoods with the broadest spread of prices. These are the blog's descriptions from one date and were not checked.

The Park side is the premium segment. Both blogs say waterfront and golf-frontage homes in Daniel Island Park command a premium of 50% to 100% over comparable interior lots, and the first blog says Captain's Island, a roughly 90-acre section bordered by the Wando River and Ralston Creek, is being developed with about 130 lots. The June update counts 51 waterfront listings among its 104, which is 49.0% of the active listings, computed here, and splits them into 14 marshfront and 19 river or riverfront. It also says the main subdivision holds 54 listings, Daniel Island Park 21 and Daniels Landing 13. A page that says half of what is for sale touches water is describing a very different market from the Town Center condos that sold for $275,000 to $600,000 in August.

The mix explains why medians move. The first blog says some longtime Park owners have traded larger estates for high-end condos nearer the Town Center, which changes what is for sale without changing the number of listings. The second blog says a quarter with several Park closings pulls the median up, and one weighted toward the central sections pulls it down. That is an inference from two brokerage blogs, labeled as such. A neighbor's sale in a different section is a weak guide to the value of a home that has a different lot, a different club requirement and a different buyer.

The costs differ by section too, and the pages disagree on details. The first blog says Park homes carry a mandatory minimum club membership of about $230 a month, and that closing on many properties triggers a Community Enhancement Fee of typically 0.5%, or 0.25% in Codner's Ferry Park and Etiwan Park. The second blog says the fee is capped at $6,333 in Codner's Ferry Park and puts the island-wide property owners association dues at roughly $800 to $900 a year. A cap of $6,333 at 0.5% implies a price of about $1,266,600, computed here, which is close to the $1.2 million top of the Codner's Ferry range the blog reports. The two blogs differ on the rate in Codner's Ferry Park, and a seller should ask the closing attorney which applies.

How fast do Daniel Island homes sell, and what does supply look like?

The clocks run from 44 days to 73. Realtor.com's October 2025 page shows an average of 44 days, down 18.18%. The June update shows an average of 71 days on market for active listings. A sold-price tracker cited by the first blog showed 73 days in February and 48 in May, and the second blog cites 64 days for the three months through April. Redfin shows 64 days in an undated June. These are different clocks measured in different months, and some are for homes still on the market and some for homes that sold. The pages do not say which, and a seller reading a number should ask.

Supply moved as well. Realtor.com counted 98 active listings in October 2025, the June update counted 104, and the newspaper counted 83 active and 48 under contract on September 27, 2026. The newspaper's 83 is 20.2% below the June count of 104, computed here, though the pages come from different sources and the new-listing flow changes by the week. The June update says 13 homes were added in the week. The newspaper's quote says buyers now have more inventory to choose from and in some cases more room to negotiate. The June update says no recent price reductions. These two reads of the market are three months apart, and they conflict.

The sale-to-list ratio is more uniform, with a spread worth reading. The newspaper's quote says sellers receive about 97% of final list price on average, and about 95% against the original asking price, which suggests some homes needed price adjustments. Realtor.com's October 2025 page also shows 97%, or 3.2% below asking. The brokerage blog's February tracker shows 97.5%. On a $1,560,000 sale, 3% is $46,800, an illustration of the size of the gap and not a measure of any one sale. The newspaper's quote adds that homes priced well below perceived value drew multiple offers within hours, while homes priced near market value saw less activity than in recent years.

Price per square foot is another place the pages split. The June update gives $743, Realtor.com gives $576 and Redfin gives $498. The first is 49.2% above the last, computed here. The June figure is an average for active listings, the Realtor.com figure is for for-sale properties in October 2025 and the Redfin figure is for sold homes on an undated page. Rents differ too. Realtor.com shows a median rent of $2,621 a month, up 0.95%, with 234 rental properties, 91.07% more than a year earlier, while the Census median rent for the postal area is $2,043. The first is 28.3% above the second, computed here, which is the usual gap between asking rents and the rents of long-term tenants.

Sources as cited. The windows, areas and measures differ and the figures are not directly comparable. Commercial content; not independently verified.

What does the Census say about Daniel Island homes, owners and vacancies?

The Census postal area that includes Daniel Island has 10,531 housing units and 20,436 residents. Detached houses number 4,632, 44.0%, and attached houses 1,174, 11.1%. Buildings of three to four units hold 112, 1.1%, and buildings of five or more units hold 4,494, 42.7%, of which 3,043, 28.9%, are in buildings of 20 or more units. There are 119 mobile homes, 1.1%. It is not a town of houses. Roughly as many homes sit in larger apartment and condominium buildings as in detached houses, which is the Census picture behind the newspaper's list of $275,000 condos beside $5 million houses.

This is a new place. The median year built is 2011, and 8,414 of the 10,531 homes, 79.9%, were built in the 2000s or the 2010s, computed here from 3,857 and 4,523. Another 1,034, 9.8%, were built in 2020 or later, so homes built since 2000 number 9,414, 89.4%. Only 148 homes, 1.4%, predate 1980, and none were built in the 1940s. Where Fairfield or Chevy Chase has old houses with decades of deferred repairs, here the oldest homes are rare, and the age of the stock is not the issue. The Census says nothing about the condition of any one house.

Owners moved in recently. Of 9,468 occupied homes, 5,648 are owned, 59.7%, and 3,820 are rented, 40.3%. Among owners, 1,701 moved in since 2020, 30.1%, 3,069 moved in during the 2010s, 54.3%, and 4,770 since 2010, 84.5%. Only 127 owners, 2.2%, moved in before 2000. Among renters, 2,790 moved in since 2020, 73.0%, and 3,750 since 2010, 98.2%. Hardly anyone has held a home here for a generation, which is a sign of a community built in the last twenty-five years and of an owner base that has bought and sold recently.

Vacancy is higher than in most of these briefs. The Census counts 1,063 vacant homes, 10.1% of all units. Of them, 537 are for rent, 50.5%, 164 rented but not yet occupied, 15.4%, 172 seasonal or occasional, 16.2%, and 190 other vacant, 17.9%. None are counted as vacant and for sale. The figures are five-year averages and do not measure how many homes are on the market on any one day, but they show that the vacancy is mostly rental and seasonal. The Census median owner value is $791,400, with a margin of error of $77,356, 9.8% of the value. It is owners' own estimate over five years and not a sale price. It is 54.3% of the Zillow value of $1,458,659 and 50.9% of the newspaper's $1.56 million, and the median household income is $110,509, so the Zillow value is 13.2 times the median income, a rough ratio of two medians. Readers comparing markets can also read the Hilton Head Island brief and the Okatie brief.

Source: Census Reporter, American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates, tables B25024, B25003, B25038, B25004, B25034, B25077, B25064 and B19013. Percentages and ratios are this brief's arithmetic.

What should an owner ask, and what does a private sale change?

The first question is which Daniel Island the home is in. Codner's Ferry Park, Smythe Park, the central parks, the Town Center and the Park side do not share a median, a buyer or a fee schedule, according to the pages. A seller should ask for closed sales on the same kind of street from the last six months, with the days to contract and the gap between the first ask and the final price. The newspaper's quote puts the average sale about 3 points below the final list price and about 5 points below the original asking price.

The second question is what a number measures. Ask whether it is a sold price, a list price or a value index, whether it is a median or an average, and what window it covers. The pages above differ on every one of those points, and a seller who reads the June list median of $1,749,500 as a sale price will overshoot the newspaper's August median of $1.56 million by 12.1%, and the Zillow value by 19.9%, computed here.

The third question is the cost of selling, and the arithmetic is simple. Each 1% of $1,500,000 is $15,000. At 3% the figure is $45,000 and at 5% it is $75,000. At $1,560,000, each 1% is $15,600, 3% is $46,800 and 5% is $78,000. At $1,800,000, each 1% is $18,000, 3% is $54,000 and 5% is $90,000. These illustrate the size of each percentage point and are not quotes of any rate a seller would be charged. No page in this brief names a Daniel Island commission rate, and the medians are not the price of any one home. The enhancement fee is a separate item, and at 0.5% of $1,560,000 it would be $7,800, an illustration only, since the pages disagree on the cap.

The fourth question is exposure and process. On an island where 84.5% of owners moved in since 2010, a listing is news, and a public sale means showings, a price history and neighbors watching the days on market. The first blog also notes that exterior changes need review by an architectural board and that a club membership does not automatically transfer with a home, so a public listing carries questions a buyer will ask. A private sale has no showings and no neighbors talking about a sale.

The benefits are plain. Maison Off-Market buys luxury homes and estates directly from their owners and speaks only to sellers. A private sale has no showings. It allows closing dates that give a seller time to find a new home. It has no commission costs and no closing costs, and it avoids inspection repairs, though the Census says nothing about the condition of any one house on an island where 89.4% of homes were built since 2000. The company does not say that a private sale always beats a public listing, and on an island where one page shows $1.5 million and another $1.8 million, an owner is right to ask what each route yields. If you would like a private, no-obligation offer for a Daniel Island home, call 401-219-4207 or use the contact form on this site.

Methodology and limitations

The newspaper report is a local news item that quotes one brokerage, and its list of August sales was used only to compute a median and average, with no addresses repeated. The blogs are commercial pages that quote data providers without dates in every case. The June market update gives list prices for active homes and not sold prices. The Realtor.com page is labeled October 2025 and is almost a year old. The Redfin page does not make clear whether its June is 2025 or 2026 and was not used for a trend. The Zillow page is a value index. Fee figures are the blogs' claims and the two disagree on the Codner's Ferry Park rate. The Census figures are five-year estimates for a postal area. Percent changes were taken as printed, and ratios and sums are this brief's arithmetic.

Conclusion

The Daniel Island record shows medians from $1.5 million to $1.8 million, a list median of $1,749,500, supply counts from 83 to 104 homes, clocks from 44 to 73 days and a postal area where 89.4% of homes were built since 2000 and 59.7% of occupied homes are owned. The pages differ because they cover different windows and sections, and the useful figure for an owner is the one for the same kind of street.