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Neither island is remote, though Johns Island definitely has much more of a rural feel and still has many working farms. James Island is much more populated, has great schools, has wonderful neighborhoods in many price ranges, is 10 minutes from Folly Beach and 5 minutes to downtown using the Connector (bridge). It has parks, movie theaters, skating rinks, library, lots of good restaurants, grocery stores, Walmart, shopping centers, you name it......
Johns Island is the next island over from James Island - they are connected by a long bridge. Johns Islands schools are not that great (poor, actually - except for the new Magnet Middle School), but there is a nice, small private school where many send their children. (Charleston Collegiate). We have 2 grocery stores, 2 CVS pharmacies, fast food joints, and 8 or 9 restaurants - most of which are excellent and quite popular, and some small strip malls/shopping centers. Johns Island is 20 minutes to downtown Charleston, 15 minutes to West Ashley (major shopping), yet still has a rural feel. We have brand new subdivsions, older more mature neighborhoods, farms, and houses in the country - and lots of history - Angel Oak, Civil War reenactment battles at Legare Farms, etc.
I hope this all helps. I lived on James Island for 10 years before I moved to Johns Island 18 years ago, but also still commute to James Island for work (where I teach school). James Island has a lot to offer and is very conveniently located, but has gotten "crowded" and traffic has increased like other areas in Charleston County, so I chose to buy a home in the country on Johns Island, which I love!
This is a great review for you to help you by scbeaches. I agree with everything she wrote. I live on James Island and I prefer it over Mt. Pleasant. Mt. Pleasant is highly priced and has many affluent people (well some act more affluent). I do not really know why it is more highly priced, so somebody with more knowledge of real estate has to answer that. James Island is really closer to downtown than Mt. Pleasant. Especially north Mt. Pleasant, which takes you farther and farther away from Charleston. They are trying to make the northern end of Mt. Pleasant the central part, and this is farther away from Charleston (20 mins)
Neither island is remote, though Johns Island definitely has much more of a rural feel and still has many working farms. James Island is much more populated, has great schools, has wonderful neighborhoods in many price ranges, is 10 minutes from Folly Beach and 5 minutes to downtown using the Connector (bridge). It has parks, movie theaters, skating rinks, library, lots of good restaurants, grocery stores, Walmart, shopping centers, you name it......
Johns Island is the next island over from James Island - they are connected by a long bridge. Johns Islands schools are not that great (poor, actually - except for the new Magnet Middle School), but there is a nice, small private school where many send their children. (Charleston Collegiate). We have 2 grocery stores, 2 CVS pharmacies, fast food joints, and 8 or 9 restaurants - most of which are excellent and quite popular, and some small strip malls/shopping centers. Johns Island is 20 minutes to downtown Charleston, 15 minutes to West Ashley (major shopping), yet still has a rural feel. We have brand new subdivsions, older more mature neighborhoods, farms, and houses in the country - and lots of history - Angel Oak, Civil War reenactment battles at Legare Farms, etc.
I hope this all helps. I lived on James Island for 10 years before I moved to Johns Island 18 years ago, but also still commute to James Island for work (where I teach school). James Island has a lot to offer and is very conveniently located, but has gotten "crowded" and traffic has increased like other areas in Charleston County, so I chose to buy a home in the country on Johns Island, which I love!
I so wanted to live on James Island but we couldn't find the house product we were looking for. The timing wasn't right. Johns Island is charming but for me, it's just too far away from 'stuff'. I'm a city girl! We ended up in MP. Another contributing factor was Wando High School. In addition to beiing ranked 10th HS in the state -- its music department is one of the finest (if not the finest -- 7 times marching band state champs, Grand Nationals finalists, etc...). That did it for us -- slam dunk Wando was it. We lucked out -- got a short sale and location location location.
Prices are higher because of supply and demand -- that's it.
But James Island & Johns Island are great locations and will only become better and more convenient.
You really have to visit the area, look at houses and the neighbourhoods. Some that look charming online....well let's just say you have to see it in person!! We had four years of looking, living in a couple of areas and going over and over and over what was important. We changed our minds so many times.......and are happy we took that long to settle because we realize now some of our original choices would have been 'okay' for us -- but not great.
Neither island is remote, though Johns Island definitely has much more of a rural feel and still has many working farms. James Island is much more populated, has great schools, has wonderful neighborhoods in many price ranges, is 10 minutes from Folly Beach and 5 minutes to downtown using the Connector (bridge). It has parks, movie theaters, skating rinks, library, lots of good restaurants, grocery stores, Walmart, shopping centers, you name it......
Johns Island is the next island over from James Island - they are connected by a long bridge. Johns Islands schools are not that great (poor, actually - except for the new Magnet Middle School), but there is a nice, small private school where many send their children. (Charleston Collegiate). We have 2 grocery stores, 2 CVS pharmacies, fast food joints, and 8 or 9 restaurants - most of which are excellent and quite popular, and some small strip malls/shopping centers. Johns Island is 20 minutes to downtown Charleston, 15 minutes to West Ashley (major shopping), yet still has a rural feel. We have brand new subdivsions, older more mature neighborhoods, farms, and houses in the country - and lots of history - Angel Oak, Civil War reenactment battles at Legare Farms, etc.
I hope this all helps. I lived on James Island for 10 years before I moved to Johns Island 18 years ago, but also still commute to James Island for work (where I teach school). James Island has a lot to offer and is very conveniently located, but has gotten "crowded" and traffic has increased like other areas in Charleston County, so I chose to buy a home in the country on Johns Island, which I love!
I can't even remember some of the areas that were seemingly more charming on line. We'd see a house online and think -- yes that's it -- and then we would drive to look at it -- and it just wouldn't be in an area that we liked. it happened in Mt. Pleasant, James Island, Summerville, West Ashley, etc......you'll figure it out.
I can't even remember some of the areas that were seemingly more charming on line. We'd see a house online and think -- yes that's it -- and then we would drive to look at it -- and it just wouldn't be in an area that we liked. it happened in Mt. Pleasant, James Island, Summerville, West Ashley, etc......you'll figure it out.
It's a great area.....
Yes, those photos and descriptions can be VERY deceiving! I was helping my out-of-state uncle look at homes here a few months ago. He fell in love with one in particular and wanted me to look at it for him. Well I looked at it on Realtor.com and all the photos looked awesome - a beautiful home on 2 acres, 3 car garage, nice LOW price, etc....exactly what he was looking for. Well, I drove to West Ashley to look at it and was appalled by the condition of the houses around it and what all was behind the house of interest. JUNK everywhere!! Very rough looking neighborhood, junky yard, and that house was an oasis in the middle of it all. A bunch of thugs even blocked the street and I almost didn't get turned around to get out of there!
My uncle was lucky that he had me here to look at homes for him. He ended up buying a beautiful home up in Holly Hill near my brother.
Moral to the story: if it looks too good to be true, it usually is! Every town has it's nicer areas and it's not-so-nice areas, so you have to be careful.
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Very well stated 
