Moving to Charleston??? (Mount Pleasant, Goose Creek, Isle of Palms: real estate, home owners insurance, hotels)

[Home Hunters]

Hello!
My husband and I are looking to leave New Orleans, and are considering your lovely area. I have three major concerns.
The first the best place to live affordably close to the city that is not poverty stricken. (We have one car)
The second is home owners insurance on a home, what areas are better, and has the overall insurance situation improved?
The third, what are your favorite restaurants, hotels, and such. We are both in the F&B industry and would love your feedback!
Thanks!

[walts]

Obviously, it will come down to personal preference for you, but I highly recommend Mount Pleasant. Great atmosphere. Very nice area with a Towne Center (mall) along with close proximity to the beach (Isle of Palms) and downton Charleston.

Real Estate is very reasonable there now and the schools are excellent.

[DJShymansky]

Mount Pleasant and West Ashley are the closest to downtown Charleston. Both have some fantastic neighborhoods in them and easy access to downtown and the beaches. Some parts of both though, do have flood insurance issues, specifically the areas east of Hwy 17 in Mt. Pleasant.

As far as restaurants, wow, did you pick a great place for F&B. Some of my favorites, Mustard Seed, Fulton Five, Chai's, Fleet Landing, Hanks, etc. You can almost throw a rock in any direction downtown and hit a fantastic restaurant. I wouldn't recommend it though, CPD tends to frown on that kind of thing.

[canamexpat]

Home Hunters, we are in the same position. Been planning to move to Charleston for two years and finally ready to dig in and make it happen. I have similar concerns. - We took 4 days to cover as much ground as possible exactly two years ago. We quite liked Goose Creek. Pretty, affordable (then a nice 3 bed home for under $200), seemed safe, just enough inland to avoid major flooding or get a jumpstart out of the area if you ever needed to (re: hurricane). We looked at a nice area just NE of Charleston proper (on route to Drayton Hall, etc) - nice but we quickly realized that the two lane road connecting you to the city was real challenge during rush hour. Forget getting out in a hurry if you ever needed to.

[Jim3310]

Need some more specifics.
What do you do in F&B? We've pretty much got it all.
Non-Proverty is easy; how far is the max in time that you are willing to commute?
Insurance is directly related to how close you are to the water.

Let us know!

[joyeaux]

I too can easily recommend Mt. Pleasant as a lovely place to live, but
I thank my lucky stars to have bought my home 4 years ago. I can't say anything is reasonable here in real estate today (many threads on this). Of course, the market stinks for selllers so there are "bargains" to be found. "Close to the city" is definitely Mt. P., but, Home Hunters, what's your definition of "affordable"? What dollars for what homestake?