Why did a penthouse that sold for $87 million have a tax value of only $3.8 million?

A striking gap between a sale price and a tax value like that describes a different city's assessment system, not how South Carolina taxes property. South Carolina assesses a legal residence at a lower ratio than a rental or second home, and reassessment happens on a set county cycle rather than tracking every sale in real time, which is why an assessed value and a sale price can still diverge here too. Brian Beatty treats the two figures as separate questions for any Lowcountry property: market value from comparable sales, and assessed value from the county.