Daniel Island South Carolina which area? (Charleston: ski resort, real estate, rentals)

[skitosea]

I am curently living in a Ski resort town out west...I love to ski and be out doors, but also love to golf, and that is winning out (3 months a year is not cutting it)....so I am thinking of relocating to South Carolina. My parents currently live part time on Kiawah. I love it there, but I have small kids so the schools are also very important. I also figure if I could find a nice community, yes with a Golf Club, I can visit Kiawah and have the best of both worlds. My club and theirs. I am looking for a club that can also be a social experience for the family ie I dont want to be the only one with small kids or under 50. at my current club everyone is lovely, but they are talking about grand kids while we are still thinking about College for our oldest and elementary school for the young ones. (14,3 & 2, dont ask)
I also want to know if there is any area of DI that is preferable to live in. We are thinking that we can't exactly afford DI Park, but would be interested in another area. Thanks for any help you can offer.

[scdreamer]

Hi! My husband & I just moved to DI about 3 weeks ago. We're renting right now, because we wanted to be sure that this is the place for us. It's turning out to be everything we'd hoped for, so we've picked out a lot and will be building a home here soon.

The island, as you probably know, is broken up into many different neighborhoods. However, it's designed really well, so you can't tell exactly where one ends and the next begins. With that in mind, your preference would depend on which features you'd like to be closest to (parks, shopping, schools, etc). The school and library are in Center Park, but with all the trails it's an easy bike ride or walk from Smythe, Barfield, and the other subsections. The DI Park area is on the other side of 526, so it's the only neighborhood that's truly separated from the rest.

Right now there are building incentives in place, which is why we chose to build over buying an existing house. There are a lot of houses in various price ranges available, though, and if you see one online that you like I'd be happy to check it out for you since I spend a lot of time walking around and exploring anyway. My overall impression is that the quality of homes has improved over the years. Some of the "older" (that sounds strange to me, since the house I sold in RI was 80+ years old) homes might need updating already. So keep that in mind when you're comparing prices.

We're not club members, so maybe someone else can help you out with that. I'm not positive about this, but I think that the "social" club membership is included if you purchase or build in DI Park, so the overall club membership would be less if you lived there. It's something to check into if you're serious about playing golf here.

Even without the club, there are tons of social activities for adults & kids here.

Anyway, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have, since my husband and I feel like we've found our version of paradise here. For what it's worth, we're early/mid thirties with no kids (yet).

[DJShymansky]

Daniel Island is certainly nice. There are also some fantastic neighborhoods with/close to golf courses in Mt.Pleasant, i.e. Rivertowne, Charleston National, Dunes West, etc., and all of the above neighborhoods have plenty of younger families w/ kids for socializing.

[CHSmomof3]

Have you considered renting in DI park? We are in a bit of a housing debacle right now and you could work out a nice price on a rental in the park and have social access to the club. That way, you could "try before you buy". We purchased our golf membership seperate from our house so we would have the flex. to move if we wanted and not loose our memebership. Problem is, every time we talk about moving (to the beach, deepwater, downtown) we realize that it doesn't get any better than we have it right here on DI. Life is just easy here. Don't know about the stepford wife thing everyone on the post is talking about. I have found the people here to be so kind and warm and really interesting. There is lots of variety for such a small island. I also love that we can go days without a car. It takes a little more planning in the mornings, but the kids and I can bike to school if we allow an extra 15 minutes. Daniel Island is a truly self contained community and while the big shopping still requires going over the bridge, most of the little things can be found right here at home. And we are quite happy about that
Good luck with your relocation.

[ckelly14]

We're in the same boat, skitosea. After dreaming about moving to the Charleston area for 5 years, we're finally taking the plunge and moving this summer. I made the "mistake" of touring Daniel Island with my wife- now she can't live anywhere else! The Park is out of our price range right now since I had to take an initial cut in pay to make the move, but it may be an option in the future. Last that I looked there were over 80 houses available in the Park, almost all over 1 million.

I recently looked into golf memberships at the DI club. There are 3 types. If you live in DI park, you can purchase a non-revocable membership for about 70K. If you don't live in DI park, you have two options. For 60K, you can purchase a membership that is revocable after 5 years (that's right, they can take it away). This was originally done to have cash coming in until DI park could be fully developed. There is another membership for 100K that is non-revocable. However, only about 100 are available and I believe there is currently a waiting list. Therefore, if you want to join the club, I suggests that you live in DI park. I am also hoping the prices drop (no offense CHSmomof3) so I can afford to live in the Park. In the future, only those in DI park and one of the lucky 100 will have access to the club.

CHSmomof3, I would be interested if you know of anyone renting in DI Park that's not listed in the MLS. We may have to rent for some time since we're not likely to sell our house anytime soon with how slow it is.

[skitosea]

Thanks for the feedback ckelly14, on club membership. I am in the dreaming phase and probably wont move for at least 2-3 years. I will also have to sell my current home, so we'll see what the market does.
I talked to the membership person at DI Club and she said that they have not started to recall memberships, and they do not have an exact date in mind as it depends when/if someone who owns in DI Park wants a membership. The memberships are supposed to be recalled on a last in first out basis. She said it could happen in 5 years, 10 years or never. And there are currently 8 non-recallable memberships available to anyone (who qualifies).
A lot of Clubs/developments start out with one vision in mind and then as circumstances/economics warrant change over time.
Are there any club members out there who know what the general feeling is as to whether memberships will be recalled? Are there enough people who own in DI Park (or enough hoses planned)that want club memberships so as to cause memberships to be recalled?
(Looking just on line at this stage) being able to buy a less expensive house and also join the club would be ideal for me.
Of course this could all change in 2-3 years especially in this economic climate.

[CHSmomof3]

Ckelley14,

In response to your question about rentals, there are LOTS of homes available for rent in DI park. Think of it like this: For the first time in the history of DI, there were lots remaining after a lot release. DI real estate was baffled by this and needed to move inventory, so they offered a special incentive to current home owners to get them sold. Some sold, many are still available. Of those lots that sold, current home owners took out equity from their current homes to build a new, bigger house and now they are stuck with 2 mortgages as the market took a hit during their construction phase and they have been unable to sell the first house. It is far more common on the island than you might think from the surface. Many people are stretched thin. I think those in the most need of help are the builders who got greedy building spec homes and now have a multi million dollar inventory of unsold homes. I would try calling them directly and making them an offer to rent. And whatever you do, don't give anyone full asking price! Offer resonable and fair, but the CHS market has been inflated for some time and needed to come down a bit. I wouldn't worry about further dropping or a crach though. The financial situation of most people in the CHS market is solid (especially those in DI park). Hope this helps. You can PM me if you have any more questions. I am happy to help.

[buyhomesincharleston]

ckelly14 is right, there is a lot to choose from on Daniel Island, which seems to behave like the "California" of Charleston area. That is, it enjoyed tremendous appreciation during the boom years, but has come down faster than other areas as well. There are currently 136 active SFD listings on Daniel Island, priced from $304,000 to $7.5M!