Bonita Springs, FL or Greenville, SC: Where Does a Rental Make Sense in 2026?

The short answer

At today's mortgage rates, a typical 3-bedroom rental does not pay for itself with 25% down in either place. Greenville comes closer, costs about $56,000 less in cash to buy, and its rent figures can be trusted. Bonita Springs is a buyer's market with falling prices, but its rent figures are mixed with seasonal rentals, so no one should quote you a yield from them.

If you want a predictable annual-lease rental with numbers you can check, look at Greenville. Bonita Springs suits a buyer with a large down payment, a long horizon, and annual-lease rents from a local property manager in hand.

At a glance (July 2026)

What your money buys

A typical 3-bedroom in Bonita Springs asks $549,000. In Greenville it asks $350,000. Per square foot, Bonita asks about $280 and Greenville about $193.

The two markets also feel different to a buyer. Bonita Springs had 933 homes for sale in July and only 94 new ones that month, and the typical listing had been on the market 89 days. Greenville had 458 for sale, 167 new, and 33 days on the market. In Bonita the buyer has time and room to negotiate. In Greenville good homes move faster.

What it rents for, and why Bonita's figures can't be trusted

In Greenville the rents line up the way you would expect: about $1,350 for a 2-bed, $1,950 for a 3-bed and $2,495 for a 4-bed. Rents move about 9% between the strongest and weakest month of the year, which is normal for an annual-lease market. A 3-bed at $1,950 a month on a $350,000 price is a gross yield of 6.7% ($1,950 × 12 ÷ $350,000), before any costs.

Bonita Springs shows three signs that its rental listings are not mostly annual leases:

• 2-beds ask more than 3-beds: $3,900 against $3,500. Furnished seasonal condos do that; annual-lease homes don't.
• Rentals sit a long time: 82 days on average. Annual leases usually fill in weeks.
• Rents swing with the season: asking rents peak in December and bottom out in July, 21% apart.

Snowbird and vacation rentals priced by the month sit in the same listings as year-round leases, and nothing in the data separates them. So we don't quote a yield for Bonita Springs. Ask a local property manager what annual leases on your street actually rent for.

Greenville's data has a quirk of its own: it shows rentals leasing in one day, which isn't believable. We don't use that figure anywhere.

Where prices and people are heading

Asking prices have softened in both markets. Over the past 12 months, Bonita's typical asking price averaged 5.5% below the 12 months before. Greenville's averaged 1.2% below. Greenville's typical asking rent averaged 3.8% lower too, though part of that may be a change in what was listed rather than in what tenants pay.

Both counties keep growing. Lee County, home to Bonita Springs, has grown 15% since 2020. Greenville County has grown 11%. Both added about 1.6% last year.

Property tax: what landlords actually pay

We didn't look up tax rules. We looked at the tax bills of real homes: houses bought in 2022 and 2023, comparing those whose owners rent them out with those whose owners live in them.

• Greenville: landlords pay about 2.0% of their purchase price a year. Owners who live in their homes, bought at the same time, pay about 0.74%. That's 2.7 times as much for a rental.
• Bonita Springs: landlords pay about 1.2%, owners who live there about 1.1%.

The tax shown on a listing is usually the current owner's bill. In Greenville, if the seller lives in the home, your bill as a landlord could be close to three times higher.

A worked example: a typical 3-bed with 25% down

How the assumptions work:

• Mortgage rate: the national average for a 30-year fixed loan was 7.32% in the week of October 22, 2026. Loans on investment property usually cost more, so we added 0.75 points.
• Running costs: we assumed one empty month a year, 8% of rent for property management and 10% of rent set aside for repairs and replacements. Together that's 26.3% of rent.

What this shows:

• Greenville: what's left of the rent after running costs covers 57% of the mortgage and tax. The home loses about $1,082 a month. To break even before insurance, you would need to put down about 67%.
• Bonita Springs: you would need $4,876 a month in rent just to break even. That's $1,376 more than the listed figure, and the listed figure probably overstates what annual tenants pay.

At these rates, a rental in either market is a bet on long-term value and on paying down the loan, not on monthly income.

Insurance and HOA fees come on top of everything in this table. Get a landlord insurance quote that includes wind and flood cover for the exact address. Public records list HOA fees for only about one in eight Bonita homes, so we have left them out rather than guess.

Questions to ask before you buy

• How is a rental taxed here compared with a home you live in, and how fast can that bill rise each year?
• What does landlord insurance with wind and flood cover cost for this exact address?
• Is the home in an HOA or a condo association, and are any special assessments planned?
• What do annual leases, not seasonal rentals, actually rent for on this street?
• Will this state tax the rental income, and does that apply if you live somewhere else?
• What notice does a landlord have to give before ending a lease or starting an eviction?

Who each market suits

Greenville suits a buyer who wants a year-round rental with rent figures they can check, and who has around $100,000 to put in. They'll either accept a monthly shortfall for the long-term gain or put down more to close it.

Bonita Springs suits a buyer with substantially more cash and a long horizon. They should be comfortable buying while prices are soft and listings are plentiful, which is also when buyers have the most leverage, and they should have real annual-lease rents from a local manager before making an offer.

Your next step

Pick a real address in either market and ask one of our agents to run a rental report on it. It pulls that home's public record, comparable rents and the local market figures, and lets you change every assumption above. They work these markets and can tell you what the numbers leave out.

How we built this: market figures are asking prices and rents for ZIP codes 34135 and 29607 in July 2026, from our property-data provider. They are not closed sales. Property tax rates come from the public tax records of houses bought in 2022 and 2023 (150 landlord-owned homes in Bonita Springs, 53 in Greenville). Population figures are U.S. Census Bureau county estimates (Vintage 2025). The mortgage benchmark is Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Every figure on this page is an estimate for general information, not an appraisal or investment advice.