Looking for advice...Columbia (Charleston, Greenville: houses, transfer, private schools)

[defenselaw]

Hello everyone! I was sooo excited 2 find this website... I have lived in Miami,FL all my life, I'm an atty and hubby is works for Publix (20yrs). We drove through Columbia on road trip, fell in love with SC and are packing... (we have focused on NE and are looking in 300K-400K price range) -Richland fit our needs and I like the school. Wow! besides the beautiful homes and people, NO HURRICANES! Please give me ANY and all your input, opinions, "no-no's" and most of all encouragement??? We are a family of 4, (my boys are 3 & 7) and we want to offer them ... less "overcrowding" "traffic jams" and eliminate the HURRICANE WOES for mountains, cooler winters and friendly people.... We never looked elsewhere, and Publix will give him the transfer.. Sorry so long, I'm just hoping to make some friends here, and get some honest (hopefully reassurement) that we are doing the right thing.... THANKS.... Even on this website everyone seems so helpful...
-Sara

[anonymous]

defenselaw, Columbia is a good place to live and raise a family. I currently live there, right outside of downtown. $300-400K will go a long way in this area. As far as public schools go, some are good (Dreher, A.C. Flora) but most are not. Two of the private schools (Heathwood Hall and Hammond) are excellent. Tuition is about $10-15K a year, but if you can afford it, it's worth it.

I can't tell you much about Northeast Columbia, the only place I know in that area is Wildewood. It would be a commute into Columbia with pretty heavy traffic, particularly going to Cola in the mornings and leaving Cola in the afternoons. But you could get a large house on a large lot. 10 years ago it was kind of "out there", but now it's very developed in the NE area. RNE is a pretty good school, but I don't know much about it.

I really like the Shandon area in downtown, I'd check that out. The houses are older (think 1900 - 1940's) and the lots are smaller, but it's very close to downtown. It's zoned Dreher High, which is a good school.

Good luck !
-Matt

[Marks]

Hey Matt.,

Saw your advice to defencelaw. I'm looking at the cities around Columbia like Easley, Travelers Rest, Pickins, Grer, Anderson, etc. Any info on these?

Thanks

Mark

[anonymous]

Marks, those are all cities around Greenville.

I'm not as familiar with that area. I know that Travelers Rest isn't supposed to be a very nice area. But overall the Greenville area is very nice. I like Anderson, and Pickens County is where Clemson University is located.

All those towns mentioned are old textile mill towns. That area is at the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, with rolling red clay hills.

The lowcountry is about 50/50 black/white, and the money is much more polarized between rich and poor. Much more "Old South"-ish. The upstate overall has more industry and more money - and it's overall more middle class and more like other areas of the country (in terms of race and demographics). It's a beautiful area, and very close to the mountains.

[Marks]

Ok, thanks, Yes your right I ment Greenville but wrote Columbia. Thanks for the info.

Mark

[Kacy]

Sorry Marks I have to disagree with you about the lowcountry being very "southish" it has attracted a lot of well off Northerners and the only place that still has some southern charm is Charleston, which by the way has been voted the friendliest city in the country for many years. Maybe Beaufort still has some of the charm as well, but it is also fast becoming a place where people from the north retire.
Unless you live in the lowcountry don't state things as fact.

[anonymous]

Kacy, it was me that said that, not marks. And I do live in the lowcountry, I was born and raised there.

The lowcountry is the area of the state where corn, cotton, soybeans, tobacco, etc. are grown. It's difficult to grow these things in the upstate. So 250 years ago, planters in the lowcountry built big plantation homes and were slaveowners. In the upstate, this wasn't the case. That is a fact, and that's why even today the lowcountry is very different than the upstate.

Well-off northerners you mention are moving here in large amounts, but specifically to places on the water, like Myrtle Beach, Beaufort and Charleston. Not everywhere in the lowcountry is on the water.

You don't see northerners moving to places like Orangeburg, Sumter, Florence, Kingstree, Bishopville, Manning, etc., which is just as much the lowcountry as Charleston is. Most northerners hate these areas, and claim there are "too many rednecks.."

[Kacy]

Sorry I attributed the statement about the Lowcountry to the wrong person, but when people talk about the lowcountry they usually mean from Charleston south to Savannah. This also includes places like Summerville, etc but no one I know of thinks of Florence and anyplace that far inland as "lowcountry".
Kacy

[anonymous]

I suppose it depends on your point of view. People around the Pee Dee and the Santee-Cooper area refer to their area as the "lowcountry".

I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it says..
"South Carolina Low Country is a term used to describe the state's coastal counties, generally south of Charleston."

then it says,

"Applied more broadly, the term can also refer to all areas in the state below the fall line."

Which is what I was taught in 7th grade SC History
It doesn't really matter, to be more clear I should have said "The Coastal Plain".

[goodsandlapper]

Originally Posted by anonymous

I suppose it depends on your point of view. People around the Pee Dee and the Santee-Cooper area refer to their area as the "lowcountry".

I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it says..
"South Carolina Low Country is a term used to describe the state's coastal counties, generally south of Charleston."

then it says,

"Applied more broadly, the term can also refer to all areas in the state below the fall line."

Which is what I was taught in 7th grade SC History
It doesn't really matter, to be more clear I should have said "The Coastal Plain".

Hey, I'm happy to find this forum! Much like UP, where I also read and post a lot.

Anonymous, I see your location as Greensboro, but then in one post you say you live in Columbia, and another you say you live in the Lowcountry! ???? Which is it?

Anyhow, I look forward to more posts as time goes on!