Thinking about Charleston... Any High paying jobs here? (Summerville: transplants, insurance)

[citadelcadet]

My wife and I are thinking about coming back to Charleston. I graduated from the Citadel in the mid 90's. We now live in Austin TX with our 2 sons where I am a product manager for a high tech computer manufacturer. I hold an MBA from USC as well.
Are there any high paying jobs in the area in the corporate business field?
Income currently is $110K.
I have noticed that there are tons of expensive homes in the area ($600k and up). Where are the people working that can afford these homes?

[USCJoe]

Salaries in the Charleston tri-county area are probably less than in other higher cost of living areas in the country. As a Realtor, most of my clients are from out of state, many of whom can afford homes in the $600,000+ range. Many have a substantial payment to put down on a home from the equity they have taken out of their prior homes in more expensive areas such as the north-east and thus can afford a higher priced home relative to their family income. At the same time, even though the cost of insurance may be higher than what they are used to, the property taxes are generally substantially lower than from where they came. This results in their ability to purchase a $600,000+ home and still keep their monthly mortgage payments relatively reasonable.
Because of computers, e-mail and cell phones, many new buyers in the area do not necessarily get up early in the morning and drive to a local job. Many are doing consulting work or involved in businesses such as regional reps, financial advisers, commodity brokers, independent contractors,sales reps etc. where they are not necessarily getting a paycheck from a local employer. Others are retirees who are enjoying a reasonable income stream from investments and retirement benefits that they are able to afford such a home. At the same time there are a number of attorneys, physicians and others employed in the local health care industry who have sufficient salaries to afford higher priced homes. The relatively low interest rates have also enabled families to get into a higher priced home than they may have been able to in years past.

[citadelcadet]

I appreciate the feedback.

We are most interested in an older community (homes built from 1970-1990) with at least 1/3 of an acre in a great school disctrict with trees. Marsh or lakefront would be great
Price range would be 300k-600k.

[USCJoe]

There are a number of older subdivisions in the Charleston area in good school districts. As has been pointed out on this forum, you can get more square footage for your dollar the further you go out from the Charleston Historic District, such as in Summerville. Summerville has some nice older communities with homes on the larger lots that you prefer. Summerville also has some excellent schools. In the $300,000 to $600,000 range you certainly would have a number of options in Summerville and also closer in to the city in the town of Mt. Pleasant. Having lived in the Charleston area before, you probably have some knowledge of the area and the differences between Summerville, Mt. Pleasant, West Ashley, James Island etc. Each area has a little different feel. In Summerville, Ashborough and Ashborough East come to mind and in Mt. Pleasant, Snee Farms, Hobcaw Creek Plantation and Molasses Creek might be a consideration. There are other nice older mature communities, but the homes will generally be on smaller than a 1/3 acre lot. You will have quite a few more marsh front options in Mt. Pleasant and other closer in locations than Summerville, but would have lakefront/pond front options in most all Charleston areas. The Dunes West subdivision in Mt. Pleasant might be a good option, if a slightly newer community might work. It has a mature feel, larger lots and great schools. Charles Pinckney Elementary, Laurael Hill Primary and Wando HS were rated "Excellent" and Cairo Middle School "Good" on the most recent state "report cards"

[citadelcadet]

thanks USCJoe.

We are kind of leaning to close in Mt Pleasant, James ISland or Johns ISland but I have been away for a while so dont know a lot about those areas now.
I do know past Snee Farms in Mt Pleasant seems way out there especially with the traffic...

[SCBeaches]

On James Island, you might look into Harbor Woods, Stiles Point Plantation, Clearview Subdivision, or Fort Johnson Estates, to name a few of the more settled, mature, but welll-maintained neighborhoods with very nice homes and large yards. On Johns Island, there aren't really many older, nice "neighborhoods", but many nice large homes on acreage in the country. We have many (understatement!) upscale, new subdivisions going in now but they have postage-stamp sized yards. I just thought of Chisolm Green, down Chisolm Rd. (not too far from Limehouse Bridge) which is a beautiful, neighborhood on large pieces of property (I believe 1-3 acre lots), and there are several more neighborhoods in that area too, that you should look into if looking for a larger yard. On James Island you are only 5 minutes from downtown and on Johns Island you are about 20 minutes away.

[USCJoe]

The public schools on Johns Island are all rated quite low and you indicated that you wanted to be in a good school district. The James Island Schools are fairly good but you will have a difficult time getting a home on marsh or some type of water built between 1970-1990 and on a 1/3 + acre lot in the under $600,000 range on James Island. Snee Farm in Mt. Pleasant is relatively close in to downtown Charleston, with a morning commute of probably 25 minutes. By eliminating some of your stated preferences you would open up a lot more options in a home in the Charleston area in a good school district.

[echobeach]

I noticed most of these replies go into great detail about areas to live (my two cents in a sec) but no great detail about job ops except for the first reply. I have only been to Charleston twice but fell deeply in love with it and we hope to move there early next year - the two big factors being selling our co-op here in Brooklyn, NY AND figuring out where we can work. We have done a lot of research and since I am in the helping profession - psychotherapist/social worker - and my spouse teaches English as a second language - the work issue becomes the truly main factor. While it seems there are plenty of openings in my field at MUSC, teaching ESOL is very specific to places with larger populations of foreign transplants or businesses that need their foreign counterparts to learn English. Like you and your family we need to know what is available and, more importantly, what can we expect to make? While I have no fantasies of earning three figures I will need to cover a relatively low mortgage and higher-than-here insurance costs.

Maybe people are talking "where to live" vs. how much money you make because this is the key factor in determining how much you need to make. I looked at James Island because of its closeness to downtown & the beach and because there is inexpensive housing in older neighborhoods with nice plots of land. I looked at about 8 properties - several in these horrific new prefab neighborhoods centered around little lakes, postage-stamp yards and 2 stories high (you can feel the heat as you go up the stairs and all I could think of was the cost of cooling the place during the long hot humid Charleston summers). These areas have home owners associations that determine just about everything you can do to your house and property. Yuk.

So let's get to the point - Finally. With the ability to put down a minimum of $100K we can purchase a nice ranch-style house (minimum of 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and usually with an extra room which can easily be a 4th BR & lower cooling costs than taller newer homes) on a 1/2 acre or so on James Island, with the cost being between $235K and $280K, and adding on insurance costs (which vary greatly based on things as diverse as location and your credit score), utilities, I figure our carrying cost monthly would be in the $1000 to $1500 range - Which then determines how much we have to earn to make the move feasible.

My suggestions would be to look on-line in your field: find the companies' web sites that do what you do and check out their job-postings, use local resources like the on-line newspaper (Charleston, SC Breaking News, Weather, Business, Sports, Cars, Homes, Jobs and Shopping. | Charleston.Net), peruse national job search sites like Monster, etc. BUT figure out your costs for living in an area you like. For us, a pay-cut is more than feasible due to the low cost of housing relative to Brooklyn, the low cost of what Brooklynites would not even consider a commute (James Island being so close to downtown - Charlestonians think traffic is horrible but to us it is nothing compared to spending an hour or more on the subway or taking 45 minutes to drive less than 4 miles), and lower property taxes.

Moving from one city to another can be a complex equation but although middle-aged, I see it as a big adventure. I wish you and your family the best of luck in your move. Here are a few links which may be helpful:

City of Charleston, SC (http://www.charlestoncity.info/home/default.aspx - broken link)
SC.GOV - Moving to South Carolina (http://www.myscgov.com/Portal/Category/MOVINGTOSC - broken link)
Charleston County, South Carolina

[DJShymansky]

Nicely put.

I'd also suggest that if you're seriously inquiring about possible corporate opportunities in Charleston, you start by keeping up on what the local corporate giants are doing in and around Charleston. Check here,( Charleston, SC Business & Economic Development Information ) it should help you at least locate some of the movers and shakers in the local corporate world and I know there are links to the Charleston and surrounding counties Chambers of Commerce.

You should be able to track down some opportunities pretty easily after that. Good luck!

[jwtennischick]

I would like to let you know that I attended Wando High School and it was a terrible school. I would NEVER recommend sending your child there. As it might have good ratings, the high school experience as a whole is terrible. (Cops in classrooms, extremely disrespectful kids, bomb threats constantly,overpowered faculty. (its a real mess) With that being said, I also attended First Baptist Church School downtown and it was an amazing school. I switched High schools frequently because I attended a variety of tennis academy's in the South and I would have to say First Baptist Church School was the overall best school that I have ever been to. It prepared me for college, unlike the others, and gave me a feeling of welcomeness which you will definitely never receive at Wando. Just thought you would want to know the true facts about mega public schools.