The portals will show you one number for Lexington. In April 2026, Movoto had the median sale price at $325,330; Redfin's city page had it closer to $368,000 last month; Homes.com split the difference at $326,115. Pick whichever you like. None of them describes the house you are actually going to buy.
Lexington is two housing markets sharing a name, and a $36 million road project scheduled to break ground in early 2027 is about to reprice which side you want to be on. If you are comparing Midlands neighborhoods from a spreadsheet, this is the post that should sit next to the spreadsheet.
Lead With The Friction: What's About To Happen On US 378
Start with the thing a buyer tour will not surface. The Town of Lexington has spent since 2015 planning the "Sunset Split," a reconfiguration of US 378 (Sunset Boulevard) at Corley Mill Road. The intersection currently moves around 50,000 vehicles a day and, according to SCDOT crash data reported by the Post and Courier, saw 88 crashes between January 2022 and December 2024. The town's transportation director has called it one of the top three or five crash intersections in Lexington.
The fix is a $36 million project funded by a $16 million state proviso plus $19.6 million from the town's Hospitality Tax and the Corley Mill TIF district. Eastbound and westbound lanes of 378 will be split. Corley Mill Road gets relocated west, near the Honda dealership at 4333 Sunset Boulevard. Riverchase Way will connect farther up at Corley Mill Plaza instead of near Ginny Lane.
Here is the timing that matters for anyone shopping this year. As of the Post and Courier's late-July 2026 update, SCDOT is still reviewing the plans. Once it approves, final design and plan development runs 12 to 18 months. Construction itself is another 18 to 24. Realistic ribbon-cutting: 2028 into 2029.
If you are buying anywhere on the Corley Mill, Ginny Lane, Riverchase, or west-Sunset corridor, you are buying into two-plus years of active construction on your primary route to I-20. That is a resale conversation, not a hypothetical.
That is the transaction-specific friction the median price cannot show you. It is also the reason the west side of town is a live question rather than a settled one.
The 29072 / 29073 Line, Read Honestly
Now the market itself. Lexington's mailing area splits into two ZIP codes and they behave differently enough that lumping them into a single "median" is what causes buyers to under-shop or over-pay.
29072 runs north and west of downtown toward Lake Murray. Attendance zones inside this ZIP include Lake Murray Elementary, Pleasant Hill, Meadow Glen, Beechwood, and Lexington High, plus Lakeside Middle and River Bluff High along the western edge. RealtyTrac counted roughly 1,592 active listings here recently, and recent sold comps stretch from the mid-$200s into the multi-millions on the water.
29073 sits south of I-20 along Platt Springs Road and the White Knoll corridor, with attendance zones covering Saxe Gotha, Oak Grove, Red Bank, Carolina Springs, and Deerfield elementaries and White Knoll High. This is where the entry-level and new-townhome inventory concentrates.
The gap is not subtle. Below is what actually closed. Same MLS, same city name.
- Living Waters Blvd, 29073, 2 BR / 2.5 BA, 1,483 sf: $210,000 on May 6, 2026
- Oak Ridge Ln, 29073, 3 BR / 2.5 BA, 1,644 sf: $230,000 on May 6, 2026
- South Lake Commons on South Lake Ct, 29073, new-build 3 BR / 2.5 BA townhome (Balsa-25 plan), 1,720 sf: listed at $224,879
- Huntsdale Ct, 29072, 3 BR / 2 BA, 1,293 sf: $244,999 on May 6, 2026
- Saluda Springs Ct, 29072, 3 BR / 2 BA, 1,665 sf: $299,900 on May 6, 2026
- Sandy Path Ln, 29073, fully renovated 4 BR / 2.5 BA, 2,106 sf: $344,500
- Fox Trail Ln, 29073, 4 BR / 3.5 BA, 3,000 sf: $600,000 on Dec 1, 2025
- Wise Ferry Rd, 29072, new-construction waterfront estate, 4 BR / 3 BA, 2,322 sf: listed at $490,000
- Mont Haven Pl, 29072, Pulte new build, 5 BR / 5 BA, 3,780 sf: $531,888
Two things fall out of that list. First, at the entry level, 29073 is genuinely $50,000 to $75,000 cheaper for a comparable floor plan, and it is the ZIP where new townhome product is being priced for first-time buyers off the I-20 exits. Second, at the top end, both ZIPs run to the mid-six-figures and beyond once you add square footage or water access. The median smears those two curves together.
A Corridor Timeline Buyers Should Have In Front Of Them
The Sunset Split is one project. It is not the only one your commute will feel. Here is the picture, sourced from the Town of Lexington's transportation pages and SCDOT's Carolina Crossroads updates.
| Corridor | Project | Window | What It Means For Buyers |
|---|---|---|---|
| US 378 at Mineral Springs Rd | Right-turn lane and median island, complete | Opened 2024–2025 | Already delivering, per the town, a 38% improvement in AM right-turn throughput |
| US 378 at Corley Mill Rd (Sunset Split) | Split lanes, relocated Corley Mill and Riverchase intersections | Construction ~Jan 2027, completion 2028–2029 | Two-plus years of active work on the primary Lake Murray-side route to I-20 |
| US 378 at Old Cherokee Rd | Added right-turn lane, signal mods, extended median | Future, unscheduled | Reduces one of the last un-improved 378 pinch points in 29072 |
| North Lake Corridor / Harmon St. Extension Phase II | Safety and operations improvements on a road carrying 40,000+ vehicles/day | Multi-phase | Affects north-of-378 neighborhoods routing toward downtown |
| I-20 / I-26 / I-126 (Carolina Crossroads Phase 3A) | Utility and frontage road relocations | Early 2026 through 2029 | Every commute from Lexington into downtown Columbia runs through this footprint |
| I-20 Phase 3C | Replacement of I-20 bridges over the Saluda River and CSX, widening between US 378 and Bush River Rd | Begins 2026 | Direct impact on 29073 commuters heading toward Columbia |
Read that table with a buyer's eye. If your target is a house whose value story depends on quick access to I-20, you are buying inside a construction envelope through the end of the decade. If your target is downtown Lexington itself, or the pockets in 29073 that route directly onto I-20 without touching 378, the disruption profile is smaller.
Where The Demand Is Actually Coming From
The construction is a response, not a cause. Two demand drivers deserve to be named.
Downtown Lexington is finally getting a hotel. A four-story, 111-room Courtyard by Marriott is under construction at 116 E. Main Street on a long-vacant parcel, according to reporting from The State via Construction Owners. The 61,000-square-foot building is targeted for completion by the end of 2026 with an opening in early 2027. Alongside it, Scoop of Heaven is opening a second location at 312 Columbia Avenue, and a wine bar called Ikie Lu Record Club is preparing to open in a former church in West Columbia. Downtown is becoming a place people arrive at, not just drive through.
The employment base is expanding on the airport side of the county. Magnus Development Partners has broken ground on Gateway 4, a 120,000-square-foot speculative industrial building at 803 Park next to Columbia Metropolitan Airport, joining two 252,720-square-foot Gateway buildings that are already fully leased. A fourth Gateway building is planned for groundbreaking in 2026. Those jobs sit closer to 29073 than to 29072, and they are one reason the townhome pipeline there is aimed where it is aimed.
Town Council is approving density to meet it. At the May 4, 2026 meeting, council gave final reading to a 51-unit townhome PUD, along with rezoning at 100 Snelgrove Road and 201 Old Chapin Road and annexation on the 1100 block of West Main. That is the supply side responding, in real time, to the demand shape above.
How To Read A Lexington Listing With This In Mind
Three practical checks before you write an offer.
- Confirm the ZIP, then confirm the elementary attendance zone inside it. Two houses on the same street can route to different schools, and inside 29072 you have Lexington One core zones plus American Leadership Academy South Carolina at 109 Innovation Drive as a charter option.
- Ask which corridor the house drives to work on. If the answer is 378 west of downtown, you are buying into the Sunset Split window. If the answer is South Lake Drive to I-20, you are buying into the SC 6 adaptive-signal project. Neither is a reason not to buy. Both are reasons to negotiate.
- Read the price against the ZIP, not the city median. Ask whether comparable closed sales in the same ZIP support the list price. A number that looks aggressive against the citywide median may look reasonable inside 29072, and a number that looks average citywide may be overpriced inside 29073.
The statewide picture supports patience. Houzeo's South Carolina snapshot shows 5.44 months of supply and roughly 79 days on market as of mid-2026, which is the profile of a market where buyers have leverage they did not have in 2021 or 2022. Redfin's city page shows Lexington homes closing about 1% under list at a 34-day median. That is negotiating room, not panic.
FAQ
Is now a good time to buy in Lexington? The market is rebalancing, not correcting. Supply is up, days on market are up, and closings are running slightly under list. Whether it is a good time for you depends on how long you plan to hold and which corridor you buy on. A home you plan to keep past 2029 will likely benefit from every road project on the table above. A home you plan to sell in 2028 while the Sunset Split is mid-build will not.
Should I avoid the Corley Mill / Sunset Boulevard area during construction? Not necessarily. Construction-window discounts are real, and the completed project meaningfully improves the corridor. The right question is whether the seller has priced in the disruption. Many have not.
Is 29073 a "worse" area than 29072? No. It is a different product mix at different price points serving different buyer profiles. New townhomes near I-20, larger lots along Platt Springs, and access to Lexington One schools all exist in 29073. The gap you see in the median is a gap in inventory type, not in desirability.
What about property taxes? South Carolina's owner-occupied assessment ratio and school tax credit mean a primary residence in Lexington County carries a substantially different tax load than a second home or rental at the same value. Confirm the current owner's occupancy status and your own intended use with the Lexington County Assessor before you underwrite the payment.
If you are comparing Lexington against Chapin, Irmo, or Columbia and want a walk-through of what your budget actually reaches in each ZIP and each corridor, that is the conversation I have every week. Heather Shuler has been showing homes on both sides of I-20 since well before the Sunset Split was funded. Schedule a consultation and let's put your search on the right side of the map for the way you actually live.
