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I will be in Columbia on Monday and Tuesday for a job interview, and hope to take a good look around at some neighborhoods while I’m there. The problem is, I don’t know where to start!
This is what I hope to find:
- Someplace within a 30 minute commute of both downtown (for my job) and Midlands Technical College, wherever that is (for my husband).
- An established neighborhood/subdivision that has TREES in the yards!
- A 3 BR home for around 150K (I’ve seen many nice places at this price point online, but I can’t put them in context to area or neighborhood)
- An area that is not in decline. My current home is in a lovely urban neighborhood, but I’m afraid that the decay is creeping my direction & it’s a battle to keep things nice. I’d really prefer not to have to deal with that again.
- A decent school district. At least average, please!
- We are in our early 30’s with no kids yet, but we hope to find a safe and pleasant neighborhood for families.
- “Trendy” isn’t important.
Is this reasonable? Can anyone give me some direction? The more specific, the better.
Hi - one thing to ask is which Midlands Tech campus is your husband going to be attending. There are two major campus, one southwest of downtown by the airport, and one southeast of downtown along Beltline Boulevard. That would help in determining what might be a good area for you, because there are lots of good neighborhoods otherwise that are 30 minutes from downtown.
I will say that you should probably be able to find a 3br home for $150k without too much difficulty, especially in newer subdivisions, but there could be a premium for being in a nicer, established neighborhood with trees.
It's a little harder to find trees in NE Columbia because so many of the builders clear cut now before they build but our median price is 133k so you'll have plenty of choices. Forest Acres, if you can find a house for that range, would be great.
Good question! I just called the campus to find out. Most of his classes would be on the Beltline Campus (316 S. Beltline Blvd).
Thanks - that helps. The good news is that campus is closer to nice, tree-lined established suburbs. While, as I mentioned earlier, you might have some challenges finding a 3-bedroom home in your price range in those neighborhoods, it may be worth a try. It may have to be a little bit of a fixer-upper, but I have heard of folks buying homes like you described in the mid-upper $100k range. I would suggest looking for homes zoned for Satchelford Road Elementary, Brennan Elementary, and Rosewood Elementary schools, as they are the best in the Richland County School District #1, which covers most of the City of Columbia and southern and north-central Richland County. These schools generally cover the good neighborhoods in the suburb of Forest Acres and city neighborhoods like Rosewood and Heathwood.
Brandon is right - you can definitely find nice, new, affordable 3-bedroom homes in your price range further out in Northeast Richland County with lots of young families and good schools, but you will likely not find a whole lot of trees (the ones left after clear cutting many of them are often just a few spindly pine trees). If you are willing and able to sacrifice the old tree-lined streets and super-close location, then Northeast Richland County can definitely be a good option for your budget.
Thanks for the input; I really appreciate you all for responding! I will map out the areas that you have listed and check them out on Monday to get a feel for the area.
I know it may sound a little crazy about the trees, but we have no trees now and have missed them terribly! Not only that, but we're kind of turned off by the new subdivisions with bare lots and cookie-cutter homes.
I have actually found older subdivisions to be more to my taste since they generally have bigger yards with trees. I'd much rather have a 20 or 30 year old home with a real yard even if the house does need a bit of work.
I'd recommend Rosewood - the schools are in the Dreher High School feeder group, which is good and the area is established with lots of trees. You can find a number of homes there for $150K and it is very close to Midlands Tec's Beltline Campus and Downtown/Five Points/Vista. Win/win/win.
Rosewood is also the first thing that comes to my mind when reading your desires. It's a nice little established area with plenty going for it, including trees. Beltline campus is at one end of it, and downtown is pretty much at the other end, so it's also got that benefit.
The visit and interview went very well, and I should know within two weeks if I'll be joining you in Columbia!
I didn't have as much time to explore as I would've liked. However, I did drive around Rosewood and also happened upon the Midlands Tech Beltline campus. Rosewood was very pretty and I'll be keeping it in mind. Thanks so much for all of the details about school districts, and such... so helpful!
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