Possible Charleston Move (Mount Pleasant Area) from DC (anyone similar?!) (North Charleston: where to stay, fit in)

[PJPep]

My husband and I have the possibility of moving to Charleston for work- as one of our government facilities opened a new satellite office in North Charleston on Dyess Avenue. I currently work 3 days in the office and my husband works 4. If we move, I would get the luxury of working from home full time and only going into the office on a need be basis, and my husband possibly only having to go in part of the week. That right there would be a huge increase in work life balance, as currently our commute into work after dropping the kids off at school/daycare (which is 20-30 min away along our route) is between 1-1.5 hrs each way. I have lived in the DC metro area all my life but I can't say that I have loved it. We have two small children, a 2 and 5 year old and pay more than our mortgage for private kindergarten and daycare. We are currently in MD, right on the VA line, but the school district is poor but our home is massive at 5000 sq ft. You just get more value for your money in MD- we also own a smaller rental town home in Alexandria, VA. Although we live in a community, there isn't a sense of one. Since we live so close to VA, we do everything there, but that also means we are always in the car and traffic even on weekends can become a problem. I really crave a community and the pleasant~ville type of life- hence why we are in love with the prospect of moving to Mount Pleasant in the Carolina Park neighborhood. I went to private schools all my life because I grew up in the same area and went to school across the river in VA. Basically a replication of my kids life now. I didn't enjoy growing up in the same atmosphere of not having a community, friends to play with nearby, and constantly being in the car to drive to where all the action is. Regardless, if we don't move to Charleston, we need to move out of this zip code- but traffic and cost of living is hindrance. If you want to be in a good school district, you need to spend at least $750 to $850k for a house and you still encounter hour long commutes and I would have to deal with after school care and such. On paper, it looks like the decision to move should be easy. But I worry about what anyone else would worry about when making this drastic life change and they are:

Cost of living: being a Federal Work, DC gets one of the highest locality pay rates- Charleston, SC gets one of the lowest. My husband and I would lose $25k from our gross salary alone in the locality pay difference. Mind you we make $275 combined and spend $25k on private education and childcare. But still, losing money feels unsettling when the homes in the best neighborhoods in Mount Pleasant are not cheap. We would be spending at least $650 to $700k on a new home down there if we get what we want in Carolina Park. Our home is cheap in comparison here so our mortgage will definitely go up in Charleston, but our property taxes would go way down which would make a home in Charleston feel alot less expensive than it actually is- as long as home insurance doesn't counteract that.

Schools- our backup plan would be to move in the Fairfax County zip code- one of the best school districts in the nation- the fact that SC as a whole is rated dead last for education alone is deeply concerning. VA has the top graduation success rates and some of the top universities. My kids have been in private accelerated learning schools from the start and my 5 year is light years ahead of most of peers. I sure as heck wouldn't want to him to regress if education is severely lacking there (assumption, no mean to offend).

Crime: I am not as worried- as there is a lot of it around the DC area, you just know where to stay away from. I also want a more diverse area of living, as we are more of the minority as a Caucasian family in our neighborhood.

Space: How will we survive with so little square footage in a home- no basement?! Our basement alone is 1,000 square ft and is a huge welcome area for my hubby's man cave/media room, exercise room, storage area, kids play area, and bar (haha that just happened to be included in the house).

I am hoping to hear from anyone that may have had a similar flight coming from the DC area and making the move to Charleston. Particularly interested in the cost of living disparity and those that have kids that moved from this area to Charleston and how they fared in their new school system.

On another note, I know Charleston is currently fighting the locality pay board for the government to change its rate, but they lost last year, I hope its a matter of time where the locality rate will meet the actuality of the cost of living there.

Thank you for allowing me to get my concerns out, I have been debating writing a post for some time, as this is my first venture. Yes, I was one of those stalker readers before!

[Jandrew5]

I lived in DC last year and took an entire week off to come back to Charleston. Charleston is just a different world. There's more people in Fairfax County alone than the entire Charleston metro. Love both places though. I find both areas to be high in COL relative to where they are. Charleston groceries, taxes, and utility are higher than normal, but DC area rents are absurd. Yeah wages are lower than they should be.

SC doesn't pay enough attention to education as a whole, but there are still great districts and highly ranked schools in the Charleston area. I think Fairfax tops them all though. Charleston in general is safe. You won't find much diversity in Mt P though as it is 90% white. Nowhere in Charleston matches the diversity of DC. That doesn't mean there isn't any, DC just sets the bar extremely high.

What is little square footage to you? You may not need as much space as you think.

Just curious where are you in MD? Prince Georges? I never heard anything bad about Montgomery schools and I'd imagine a 5,000 sq ft house there would be easily over a million. Have you taken a look at Rockville and Fairfax city? What about Alexandria? One of my favorite cities in the country and there's a good sense of community there. When it comes to Charleston, take a look at Summerville as well. I think you have a few good options in both metros.

[PJPep]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. In terms of diversity, I just meant it would be nice not to feel like a minority, we would obviously fit in from an exterior perspective in Mount Pleasant and that's fine. We live in PG County and I am embarrassed to say it because I hate the extreme negative connotation, but we live right behind National Harbor in a newer subdivision actually owned by the developer of the Harbor- we just get no benefit from that. Fort Washington, I believe, is on its way in a positive direction, but it's going to take a lot to get there, part of the reason why we may not sell because I see the area continuing to shift in its demographics and home values are increasing. Regardless, its not ideal for us currently.

As for square footage- anything under 3000 since we need at least 4 bedrooms, plus separate study/office, play space, and man cave (believe me- its needed just as much for the wife as the man!)

We lived in Alexandria, before kids, but on the far end near Springfield. Not ideal either. I love Old Town Alexandria and basically spend the majority of my time there and have looked at homes on that side and the Mount Vernon/Belle Haven side but again schools are no better and people constantly leave once their kids are of school age. We have a handful of friends that moved from that area for that very reason. Its unfortunate. Its hard to find decent communities in the area and homes that arent 30 years old- all the newer homes in the right districts are $1M and up. And then there is the proximity between home, work and commute and life balance. I am looking into Vienna, VA too as it hits some of the marks and not that far from Rosslyn, VA where we work. Its an aggravating and depressing prospect! To stay or go. To be honest, I have no desire to move to the other side of MD- Rockville/Bethesda- I have never spent any time there and that area seems just as foreign to me as Charleston does.

[Jandrew5]

Most people who give PG a negative connotation are the ones who don't go there anyway. Some people love to look down on other areas because it doesnt fit their worldview. PG is a unique county to the rest of the metro in a few ways, but I don't fault you for wanting to leave.

Finding a good price in a good district is tough wherever you go, but don't get discouraged. You'll eventually make it work and figure out what's best.

Since you bring up commute times, keep in mind that Charleston has less options to get around than DC. Charleston traffic can get pretty bad for it's size, especially during rain. DC has much more road options, plus Metro. Charleston and DC both have a lot of bridges. You'll deal with less traffic in Charleston, but your commute time may not be drastically less. Could be more depending on where you end up.

Have you been to Charleston before? If you haven't my advice would be to come visit, really get a feel for the area. Don't just stick to the downtown tourist area, or Carolina Park, go everywhere. If you have visited, I'd come again. Drive around Charleston during busy hours and see how it measures up to DC.

[KEB1786]

$250kish income would be fine for the Mt. Pleasant area. Are you sold on Private School? Mt. Pleasant has some of the best schools in the state, so you would save money there. You also would be largely in the majority in Mt. Pleasant, with little to no random crime. It really just depends on your personality. I would never fit in with the DC crowd, the amount of people, traffic, etc.

Not having basements does suck. Luckily our attic has good storage, even if it is a pain to get up there. You'll see a lot of people parking in their driveway with their garage full of crap too.

[Jandrew5]

I just plugged into Google and the current drive from Carolina Park to Dyess Ave is 32 minutes, and it's not currently rush hour. Vienna to Rosslyn is 20 minutes, though it's not rush hour there either. Plus you have the orange and silver Metro line.

So just keep all of that in mind. I'm sure it'll all work out for you.

[IsNull]

You can live in Carolina Park (which is about as far out as you can get in MtP) and never see 1 - 1.5 hour normal commute times to downtown or North Charleston. The only times that happens is when there's a bad wreck on a bridge.

There's no need for private schools (which for the most part cost as much if not more than the College of Charleston tuition). Schools in MtP are great and if you get into one of the magnets, they're some of the best schools in the country.

[PJPep]

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.

[KEB1786]

Originally Posted by JenPep

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.

For the life of me, though, I cant find any good air fares!

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.

Schools are fine regardless of what you are comparing them to.

Check Spirit: BWI to Myrtle. You will have another 2ish hour drive but super cheap flights, especially if you ware with your kids.

You would also be commuting against traffic, and as long as you don't take Clements Ferry (has been a disaster lately) it wouldn't be that bad. Also, if you go in earlier and leave earlier, your husband would be fine.

[Jandrew5]

Sorry I misread your first post. I thought you said if you come to Chas youd be working on Dyess Ave, so I figured I'd check. As for flights, check with Jetblue. Ive flown from Charleston to Reagan on them. It was a great price and had great service.