Possible Charleston Move (Mount Pleasant Area) from DC (anyone similar?!) (Goose Creek: house, contractors)
Charleston areaCharleston - North Charleston - Mt. Pleasant - Summerville - Goose Creek
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Carolina Park is definitely up your alley. There’s a nice daycare on site and you’re walking distance to elementary and high schools. The neighborhood is mostly made up of transplants from the northeast. Most people here are looking for the same things you’re looking for.
I love the schools here so far and everybody else seems pretty excited about them regardless of where they’re from.
The schools seem to be a self fulfilling prophecy. People interested in education are attracted to good schools, so good schools attract motivated parents, which makes for good schools, which attracts motivated parents, etc.
Oh no, the whole reason is NOT to go private if we move to Charleston or any other area for that matter. And I see that Mt. Pleasant has top rated public schools, but hope that is rated on a national average and not just considered good in comparison to S.C as a whole, which is not considered so good.
My husband has been to Charleston for work a few times and loved the surrounding areas, mind you, I haven't been and we are looking to get a flight down there soon to stay a few days to scope out the area and just get a general feel/vibe. For the life of me, though, I cant find any good air fares!
The good thing, our job will move us and relocate us and will even pay for house hunting but that's if and when we commit, so in the meantime, we want to peruse and look around before making any final decisions.
As for the commute, I am not as worried, as we wouldn't be commuting daily for work- I wouldn't be commuting, at all. So I love the idea of being available for my kids and not having to pay and worry about after care. And I can't even imagine the bliss of being in a community where everything is right there- the school, the town center, the library, your club house, etc. I commute 20-25 minutes just to a decent grocery store because they stink on my side of the woods.
Yes, the Mt P schools are good nationally as well. Wando has more than their fair share of Ivy attendees who graduate from there. They place you into tracks at Wando so a kid can be all honors/AP classes and have no issues getting into excellent colleges. Of note, the sports and band are extremely competitive - if those things are important to you. Some parents are a bit dismayed that junior isn't able to play varsity or whatever. Likely due to both the size of the school and the relatively high income demographics of the area. The feeder schools, elementary and middle, are all excellent as well.
Also, there's the choice of Academic Magnet which has blind admission based on test scores, grades only. This is a top ten schoool in the nation.
I attended private schools and boarding school growing up and sent my daughter to the Mt P schools. I was quite pleased with her education and her SAT scores, college performance, etc have all been excellent. Thus, proof in the pudding and all that.
Appreciate everyone's responses, its been great so far.
Still hoping to hear about the locality disparity of people that moved from the DC Area to Charleston- I know Charleston is expensive in general but I am hoping other things may offset those costs- although I understand you just went to a 9% sales tax- wowzer! Is that on everything? The only time I notice the insane taxes here are where I work and in DC and Old Town Alexandria where the food tax is 10% but not on your everyday items. Do you pay the 9% on everything and what about the Personal Property Tax? That's one thing I don't miss from moving from Fairfax County VA to MD- where that doesn't apply, nor do we have yearly state inspections or registrations like VA.
Appreciate everyone's responses, its been great so far.
Still hoping to hear about the locality disparity of people that moved from the DC Area to Charleston- I know Charleston is expensive in general but I am hoping other things may offset those costs- although I understand you just went to a 9% sales tax- wowzer! Is that on everything? The only time I notice the insane taxes here are where I work and in DC and Old Town Alexandria where the food tax is 10% but not on your everyday items. Do you pay the 9% on everything and what about the Personal Property Tax? That's one thing I don't miss from moving from Fairfax County VA to MD- where that doesn't apply, nor do we have yearly state inspections or registrations like VA.
Personal property tax is paid on things like boats and cars based on assessed value. A $40k car would be about $630 or so in taxes but depreciates every year. Sales tax on a car however is capped at $500 however.
For Charleston County residents, the 9% sales tax gives you a discount on your property taxes to help offset the difference.
Gas is typically cheaper than any other state.
Income tax is posted at 7%, but due to the way it’s calculated, most people end up paying closer to 3%.
I suggest the OP look at already developed areas around Carolina park such as Park West also walking/biking distance to the the same fine schools. My issue with Carolina Woods is resale value considering there is plenty of new building going on. My experience is it is tough to sell a "used" house against a new house in the same neighborhood. Additionally, not all promised amenities are built out yet and there could still be some zoning changes like multi unit buildings/apartments added. There is some complaining now about a stadium being built for the high school. My experience says buy in an established neighborhood.
Also to the OP. Bone up on Home Owner Associations as most any home in MTP will be in one.
Otherwise, I expect you will love the Charleston area.
When we tell you the schools are good in MtP, they're good. When I say the magnet schools are some of the best in the country. That means they're some of the best in the country. That's USNews school reporting. While written communication isn't always the best to convey feeling, your comments on schools are a touch belittling. You don't understand our school systems here and how you can have some of the worst schools in the state within the same school district that has some of the best schools in the country.
Just about nothing pisses a Southern off more than to have someone relocate to our home and try to educate us on how much better it was back from where they came from.
JenPep, you've heard lots of advice and I'd agree with most of it. The traffic can be bad but mainly during rush hrs. It's rarely bad outside of that. A lot depends on where you are coming from and going to of course, but it's not as bad in Mt Pleasant as it can be in Summerville for instance.
Property taxes here should be a huge savings for you. A $650k house in Mt P that is owner occupied would run about $2,500 per year. You can find a property tax calculator for Charleston county here:
Choose Tax District 21 and 4% for the Assessment Ratio and it will give you a close estimate of what the tax would be for whatever appraisal value you choose. The low property tax helps balance out the high sales tax (yes, 9% on most goods) and that sales tax helps put some of the tax burden on the tourists who come here.
Frontier Airlines is getting a foothold here and might be offering lower cost flights to DC by next year.
Personally, I understand your comments/concerns on schools. After all, I don't think SC has ranked better than 48th in the 34 years I've been here. In truth, that's due to comparisons not being apples to apples (how testing is done, etc) and due to the fact that rural SC schools are truly atrocious. It's a different scene for the larger SC cities though, and Charleston is arguably the most advanced in that area. As a Realtor, I'm not allowed to offer opinions on individual schools but I think you'll be fine with any of the schools in Mt P.
The "no basement" factor is funny... I assure you that if you try to dig a basement here, you'll only end up with what we call a "redneck swimming pool".
Personally, I understand your comments/concerns on schools. After all, I don't think SC has ranked better than 48th in the 34 years I've been here. In truth, that's due to comparisons not being apples to apples (how testing is done, etc) and due to the fact that rural SC schools are truly atrocious. It's a different scene for the larger SC cities though, and Charleston is arguably the most advanced in that area. As a Realtor, I'm not allowed to offer opinions on individual schools but I think you'll be fine with any of the schools in Mt pleasant".
I agree, the reason sc schools are ranked poorly is because of rural sc schools. Those schools bring the state the tremendously. As far for mt.p schools they are some of the best. I know a couple people that had their kids in private schools in ct and ma and have them in public here and very happy because they quality of the education is pretty much the same if not better.
Schools are just fine here in Mt Pleasant, and you'd do just fine in Carolina Park. Don't worry about resale. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about Carolina Park, as I am a NE transplant who lives there.
I'm not sure about Washington to Charleston, but Jetblue has one way flights from Charleston to Washington for as low as $59, $68, and $77 throughout October. I'd give it some serious thought before the holiday flying season starts.
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