Is the whole Charleston area turning into Yankee-ville? (North: real estate, buying a house)

[Maryjane55us]

We're Southerners, finally retired, and have been planning all our lives (but mostly in the last 5 yrs) to crunch the numbers so that we can retire down there. It just never seems to compute. A day late and a dollar short..

Don't get me wrong.. Many of my best friends (my sister included) are from the North. But..

It really offends me that this Charleston board is mainly comprised of Northerners who either have moved there already, or are moving there with no qualms about the cost of land/real estate. Young people, with young children, can afford to live there and here we've saved all our lives, have no debt and can't afford to move there.

In retrospect, I think we made our biggest mistake in life in not moving up North when WE were young. Then maybe we could afford to move there in our retirement years.

[MidnightSmoker]

And what may your point be??????

[NCN]

It may be the best thing that ever happened to you.

Navy joke:

"What is fear?"

"Fear is hearing a ballistic missle bounce down an elevator shaft."

To this I asked, "Would it blow up the ship?"

Answer: "It would blow up Charleston."

Do you really want to live that close to danger?

[StarryEyedSurprise]

Originally Posted by Maryjane55us

We're Southerners, finally retired, and have been planning all our lives (but mostly in the last 5 yrs) to crunch the numbers so that we can retire down there. It just never seems to compute. A day late and a dollar short..

Don't get me wrong.. Many of my best friends (my sister included) are from the North. But..

It really offends me that this Charleston board is mainly comprised of Northerners who either have moved there already, or are moving there with no qualms about the cost of land/real estate. Young people, with young children, can afford to live there and here we've saved all our lives, have no debt and can't afford to move there.

In retrospect, I think we made our biggest mistake in life in not moving up North when WE were young. Then maybe we could afford to move there in our retirement years.

Dear Person Who Probably Has A Native Sticker On Their Car,

If you've saved all your life and can't afford a house for $120k-$150k, then your problem isn't "us Northerners" - it's with your horrible retirement planning.

Sincerely,
An Offended Young "Northerner"

P.S.: We didn't make our fortune up north. We came down here with plenty of college debt, one less job, and a few grand in savings. My husband makes double down here compared to what he made just outside of NYC (yes, six figure jobs can be had in SC). Now we are buying a house for under $200k, and are more than satisfied with it. So, maybe you should have found a more lucrative job and stayed put.

[RJ17015]

I'm not sure why you're blaming your life on us Yankees. Life is full of choices, and it's the choices that YOU make that get you where you are at today.

We chose to both work as professionals. My husband worked full-time, had small children, and attended college at night. I worked full time and attended college, but never finished. He did this through his Master's Degree. I missed years with my children when they were young in order to make ends meet. We made many personal sacrifices to get where we were only to lose everything last year. We moved down here with a mountain of debt (had to borrow money to sell our house) and lost all our $ in investments.

Cost of living is much less down here, and we were fortunate enough that he landed a great job - no guarantees - but he works long hours, and it struggling to get us back on path to retirement.

My point is it's easy to sit back and say poor me...... but your life is the result of the choices YOU made, don't blame it on us Yankees that you can't afford to live here. I can't imagine ANYONE not affording to live here - the cost of living is so much lower than where we came.

I don't know what your point is - but if the only person you have to blame is YOURSELF. Can you honestly say you made the same sacrifices as others? We've moved all over in order for my husband to advance at work, moving far from family and friends - not having Grandma and Grandpa around the corner for our kids.

I'm so sick of this stupid Yankee thing - I personally can't wait to get out of this hell hole.

[RJ17015]

One more thing - I've always believed prejudice is out of ignorance - whether it's prejudice against African Americans, Asian, Hispanics, Indians, Gays.... well I guess I need to add Yankee to that list - and by making comments about Yankees and other groups - it just confirms the ignorance of southerners, or should I say "NATIVES."

This past weekend, I actually had a native SC tell us that we were DAMN YANKEES for moving down here - what good does that do? Southern hospitality and charm - bullsh*t. Here we are volunteering our time to help improve the school - and this is what we're greeted with. Gave me the warm fuzzies. What good comes of saying that to someone - I know I'll never volunteer again.

I'm sure the men and women who are fighting for this country consist of Yankees, Southerners, African Americans, Asians, Indians... and YES Gays - God forbid - and guess what we're all AMERICANS we ALL enjoy the freedom that THEY fight for, and I DON'T hear any complaints that us DAMN Yankees can fight for your sorry behind, nor would I EVER complain about any other individual risking their life in order for me to have a better life. Bottom line is we are ALL Americans, whether we're black, white, brown, tan, gay, yankee, and at one point all of us were immigrants from somewhere else - that's what makes us who we are. So unless you're an AMERICAN INDIAN - guess what you're NO NATIVE!

I maybe a Yankee, and I may not say the fake "yes sir" "yes maam" but I have cooth, and I have empathy, and NEVER would I say such hurtful things - what good comes of that. I never imagined this type of divide existed in the US - maybe if I moved to a different country - but no I think a foreign country would embrace us more than you DAMN southern natives. Get over yourselves!

[PawleysDude]

Is the whole Charleston area turning into Yankee-ville?

Hey Maryjane - Now that you've been assaulted by the yankees, the answer to your question is "yes". It's true of essentially all of the SC coastal area, not just Charleston. It's also becoming more and more the norm in the urban areas of upstate piedmont SC.

Good or bad, right or wrong, coastal SC has changed forever. Maybe 15-20% of our neighborhood residents are natives from below the M-D line. We're about 40% retirees/60% working families, so it's not just a retiree thing. In communities with a higher percentage of retirees, it's difficult to find a native Southerner. There's a couple factors working here. Regardless of the arguments, property and taxes in this area are higher than most Southern areas and much lower than most northern locations. SC's coast is a great deal for most yankees, but not so much for most Southerners. Also, I know many Southerners who are much happier living where they currently live, choosing to come to the beach on vacation then return to their little piece of heaven. You can read daily on here from yankees who "hate where they currently live up north". You rarely see that comment posted on here by a Southerner.

I've lived here FT about 10 years, vacationed/lived PT here for another 40 years. The changes break my heart. At one time, it was an absolute paradise but those days are long, long gone. That's not a criticism of yankees. It's simply that this area has absorbed far more people than possible without significant deterioration of an ecologically sensitive region. We are overbuilt, overpopulated, overpaved, and the damage is more apparent every day. Culturally, the lowcountry is no longer a Southern place, now reflecting a merger of too many cultures. Many may see that as a good thing; I don't. IMO, we have lost far too much of what at one time made this a very special place.

[In the Pines]

I think some people don't like to see a place change too dramatically from what gave it it's defining character. If everyone all over the US ( or world) moved around in large enough numbers, then it would be difficult to maintain any sort of cultural differences that make regions unique. NOTE: I wrote "differences" not "prejudices".

I'm looking at this through the eyes of someone who's been to grad school in anthropology and has studied various cultures and the loss of culture through various means.

Lamenting the feared loss of a region's culture is natural but it's sad to see the hostility around it. While it's certainly not nice to attack people moving here (no matter where they are from) it also is helpful if people moving here respect the local norms and customs. I have a friend that loves SC but corrects other people's children when they say "Yes, Miss Susie" (for example). She also won't use sir and ma'am and makes snide remarks about those terms after someone else has used them. She can't get it through her head that she lives in the south now and if she wants people to talk like they do in Michigan, she should go back to Michigan.

It goes both ways - we have to be welcoming of all new residents and new residents have to be respectful of our culture.

Don't attack me - I'm trying to be fair and balanced here. I love everybody!

[pokrplr]

Originally Posted by RJ17015

One more thing - I've always believed prejudice is out of ignorance - whether it's prejudice against African Americans, Asian, Hispanics, Indians, Gays.... well I guess I need to add Yankee to that list - and by making comments about Yankees and other groups - it just confirms the ignorance of southerners, or should I say "NATIVES."

This past weekend, I actually had a native SC tell us that we were DAMN YANKEES for moving down here - what good does that do? Southern hospitality and charm - bullsh*t. Here we are volunteering our time to help improve the school - and this is what we're greeted with. Gave me the warm fuzzies. What good comes of saying that to someone - I know I'll never volunteer again.

I'm sure the men and women who are fighting for this country consist of Yankees, Southerners, African Americans, Asians, Indians... and YES Gays - God forbid - and guess what we're all AMERICANS we ALL enjoy the freedom that THEY fight for, and I DON'T hear any complaints that us DAMN Yankees can fight for your sorry behind, nor would I EVER complain about any other individual risking their life in order for me to have a better life. Bottom line is we are ALL Americans, whether we're black, white, brown, tan, gay, yankee, and at one point all of us were immigrants from somewhere else - that's what makes us who we are. So unless you're an AMERICAN INDIAN - guess what you're NO NATIVE!

I maybe a Yankee, and I may not say the fake "yes sir" "yes maam" but I have cooth, and I have empathy, and NEVER would I say such hurtful things - what good comes of that. I never imagined this type of divide existed in the US - maybe if I moved to a different country - but no I think a foreign country would embrace us more than you DAMN southern natives. Get over yourselves!

Fabulous post!!

[RJ17015]

Do you truly think you're different that the rest of us. I can remember when the city I used to live in MI was nothing but farm land, and was very rural - in the suburbs of Detroit - YES! But now it's houses, malls, restaurants, stores... nothing like it was even 20 years ago. Why would you think it's so different here than the rest of the US?

The small town I was born in had a stop sign downtown with a Benjamin Franklin, and a Drug Store with an old fashion soda fountain - back still in the late 60's early 70's - that's all gone - my uncle's drive in was one of the few restaurants in the small city. After years of being a family owned they had to finally sell because of industry moving to town and taking over - closing down the local businesses - being replaced by chain restaurants, 5 and dime was replaced with Walmart and Sam's Club. Guess what immigrants from Mexico flocked there to work on farms, and what was once a small town - where I could walk downtown from my Grandmother's house - and every knew whose child I was - though I didn't know them - now is forever changed.

Why would you feel SC should be any different than the rest of the US - all of the US has changed it's landscape, it's natural resources, flocked with people coming from other countries. What was once a historical area in Detroit is now all Arabic one of the largest Arabic communities in the US. It wasn't that way 20 years ago. Our schools had a large Asian, Indian/Arabic population - but not when I was a kid.

You can't fight change, so you might as well embrace it and move on - why would this area of the US be so different than any other area. Don't you think us "native" Michiganders are sad to see our state change, all the lakes being overpopulated and built on - what used to be small town is now filled with weekend vacationers. You can't stop it, you have people living a lot longer than years past, with a lot more resources than our parents. The world has become a smaller place now with planes - and technology. I remember my aunt who moved south used to write my Grandmother once a week to keep her informed of her life in the south. Now we just jump on the computer or pick up a phone - and can stay in touch that much easier - so there isn't the need to stay put anymore.

Sorry but don't you think the rest of the world is experiencing the same changes?