Simpsonville (Greenville, Riverview: for sale, new house, neighborhoods)

[MartinB]

Hello
We are emigrating to Sth Carolina from the UK and have fallen in love with Greenville and the surrounding areas. Actually, we've been looking at Simpsonville mainly. There seems to be a phenomenal amount of homes for sale there. Is everyone trying to move out??? Hopefully it's just a developing area and there happen to be lots of homes available. Anyway, my question is can anyone recommend a sub division around there? We have two girls aged 13 and (just) 10 so any advice on good schools would also be appreciated. They both love dancing and play piano too but we're just starting the whole process and we are trying to get our heads around what choices of subjects your schools offer.
Any advice for the new boy would be much appreciated.
Regards from a cloudy England

[RCfromGreenville]

Simpsonville is the fastest growing part of greater Greenville. It is close to a major highway (I-385), and most of the area used to be farmland. The cost for a developer to acquire acreage and develop it are reduced because large amounts of farmland has been available for acquisition and because there aren't a lot of trees on farmland. So there are a lot of new houses in the Simpsonville area. There are some good schools in that area - especially elementary schools. You can get information on how these schools were rated at this site. 2006 School Report Cards

Good luck, and welcome to Greenville! Greenville has the highest international investment per capita in the US, so we are proud to have a lot of international folks amongst us. You should be able to find a good deal of support for new residents in the Simpsonville area.

[Biscuits&Gravy]

We too are moving to Simpsonville and we know first hand that the reason there is so much housing available is because it is in a rapid state of development. So much so that it is really impossible to simply tell you what neighborhoods are best because there is such a diversity of neighborhoods and houses to choose from (IMHO) and it all depends on what you fancy most. We were only able to choose after making a 3 day trip to the area that was totally dedicated to visiting as many neighborhoods and builders as we possibly could. We chose Whitehall, being constructed by Ryan homes but there is so much more to choose from that it would not be fair to tell you that it would be YOUR best choice. Hope that helps.

[g-man430]

Seeing how you are moving here from the UK, you might be interested in this: Griffin Park

[MartinB]

Thanks for the info, appreciate it. We had looked at Riverview (? Riverwalk?) and Weatherstone both of which we liked and we were keen to get somewhere within walking distance of a Town Centre. We're not going to get a chance to get back until Christmas but we'll have a good look around then. By the way I have been looking at college prices which are pretty scary. Some of them seem to be around $30-40k per year. Is that normal for say a history or music degree?

[RCfromGreenville]

Most top private colleges are $30k or over. On the other hand, they tend to give a lot of financial aid which often brings the price down by 50% or more. State-supported colleges are less expensive.

[MartinB]

Sorry to be a pain but do you know, generally speaking, what the criteria is to qualify for financial aid. For instance does it depend on your own financial circumstances or the ability of your kid?

[MartinB]

That looks great. It looks like an English town actually. Although I am not sure if that's a good thing!

[RCfromGreenville]

Originally Posted by MartinB

Sorry to be a pain but do you know, generally speaking, what the criteria is to qualify for financial aid. For instance does it depend on your own financial circumstances or the ability of your kid?

Most private schools have some aid based on need and some based on how hard the school wants to compete for your kid. That competition is most often based on ability, but other factors can come into play. Most colleges want diversity and like to get students from other countries, so the fact that your kid has spent most of his life in England would likely be a positive factor. Also, most colleges will compete for someone who has particular talents that they believe will add the student life besides purely academic talent.

By the way, you're not being a pain. I'm very happy to answer any questions that I can answer.

[g-man430]

Originally Posted by MartinB

That looks great. It looks like an English town actually. Although I am not sure if that's a good thing!

Trust me. Griffin Park is one of those things you really should check out. It will use features not found in any other TND/mixed-use development in the world and will be a role model for other TND/mixed-use developments in the future.