NORTH CHARLESTON — The real estate ad for a house listed at $250,000 begins with this: "Looking for affordable housing?"

The modestly-sized but extensively renovated house on Brandt Street is one of 18 properties Charleston County bought in 2021 for $2.47 million from the struggling Charleston County Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

The county demolished two of the houses and later distributed 16 to local nonprofit and for-profit groups that promised to renovate or replace them so that people with moderate incomes could buy or rent them. That’s why the county bought them, to put the housing authority properties back in use as affordable housing. This year that’s started happening.

The county initiative, dubbed Charleston Homes , is among a growing number of public and private ef

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