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My wife and I are moving from middle Europe to the Greenville / Simpsonville area. I just got a nice job offer in Grey Court. We are both 29 and used to live in a small city (50 000 ppl).
We are both clueless as to best areas to live. We don't have any kids yet, so schools are not a factor. We are looking for a safe place with nice town square (restaurants, shops, etc.) I searched through the site for info but decided to ask anyway (thanks for any advice!!), my choice for now is Simpsonville however I'm not sure if it won't be too small? Are there any after work activities possible (cinemas, shopping malls, gyms etc.)? I've considered Greenville however I'm a bit worried about the crime rate. Is Greenville a better choice for having some fun possibilities to spend time in the evening?
How is the community there, active? We will be alone so hope to meet new, friendly people!
From other topics I saw that rent is about $800/month? For how many meters/rooms and quality? Are the cost for electricity/gas/waste included?
Could you guys tell me just roughly what are the living expenses there? like how much for utilities (gas, electricity etc.), food for 2 person for month? I searched on some living expenses sites and wanted to compare.
Welcome to the United States and to South Carolina. I'm sure you will end up enjoying your new life here. Simpsonville and Fountain Inn both have small, but nice "town square" type of areas. Fountain Inn in particular has been doing much renovation to it's "town square" area that is really becoming quite nice with new restaurants and things to do.
Everything you asked for in your post is available in Simpsonville or the surrounding communities, such as cinemas, gyms, lots of shopping. The nearest indoor mall is about 15 miles away towards Greenville, but plenty of other shopping clusters between there.
Greenville is great city for spending the evening shopping, dining and sight seeing. It's a quick drive from the Simpsonville area.
$800 a month will be on the lower end, possibly a one bedroom in a nicer community. Water and trash is usually included but not gas or electric.
Best of luck on your move and hope you really enjoy our part of the world.
In terms of town squares, Simpsonville's town center near the clock tower is quite small - a few restaurants. There's plenty of big box shopping, gyms, groceries, etc within a short drive though, and it's convenient to Gray Court.
Fountain Inn's town center is slowly improving, but the small town feel is even smaller - and probably not as much choice in rental.
Greenville would be the best location for evening entertainment, but the living and commute cost will be higher. You could also consider Mauldin as an alternate split-the-difference location.
"One bedroom" often means 1 bedroom, 1 living room, 1 kitchen and/or dining room, and 1 or 2 baths. There can be variations in the numbers of rooms and layouts depending on where you look.
A 1 bedroom place in the US will often have a bathroom near the main living room for general use and guests, and a 2nd private "master bathroom" connected to the main bedroom for private use of the owner.
I think you will find apartments in this area to be nice sized, compared to many areas of Europe.
Welcome! I agree with bikeoid that Greeenville would be best if you could do it; not necessarily downtown Greenville as it can be expensive, but in the surrounding area or Mauldin.
One bedroom apartments generally have a separate kitchen, sometimes with a small eating area, and a living room. They can be spacious.
My family lives in Simpsonville. We go to a Catholic Church in the Five Forks area of Simpsonville that has a sizable Polish population, as they have Mass in Polish one time/month. The church name is St. Mary Magdalene. If you call the church, they may be able to help you form a local Polish connection and maybe gather additional insight. Downtown Greenville is an amazing, fun place. DT Simpsonville is very low key comparatively, but does have a few nice local restaurants, with a very nice movie theater and gym closeby. So many friendly, kind people here- I know you will enjoy! Best wishes, and welcome!
Just adding some extra info to what's already been given. Welcome to the US soon! This area of SC, also called the Upstate to describe this corner of SC, has been growing over the past few years economically and in population. Overall this area is considered manufacturing but more and more diverse jobs continue to enter the area. Being mainly a manufacturing area that's sort of spread out it keeps the cost of living down compared to other areas of the States. I, along with many others here in this area, have moved here from other regions of the US over the past several years as its attraction in growth potential, scenic beauty, economy, location distance to other attractions/destinations this side of the US, etc. Many people have been moving here from the northern / northeastern US it seems. I think half the people at my church in Greer, SC have moved down here from the northern US now. Cost of living here is much cheaper then in larger cities up north and northeast of the US.
I live between Greenville and Spartanburg as I felt it gave the best access to both areas. But there are several places that offer nice downtown shops / after work resturants and the like. Downtown greenville is probably the biggest in that. Nice little park / waterfall in downtown at Falls Park too. I'm not too familiar with a lot of the downtown offerings around here though yet. Downtown Spartanburg, downtown Greer, downtown Simsonville. There are also many pretty small ones (a few small shops) dotted around the area as well. Seems we keep stumbling upon them. But we do like and visit downtown Grenville often. A lot of things going on in the summer especially. A lot of other towns in the area also offer weekend festivals here and there throughout the summer as well.
Utilities: always depends on how well insulated the house is, but in this area you'll have a mix of gas and electric utilites. I have only electric, no gas. My bill runs anywhere between $90 and $275 month...the higher when its real warm or real cold out that month. Otherwise more towatds the lower end.
TV service from cable or satellite providers you'll get a new customer rate for the first year or two with some nice discounts...higher rate after but usually people bounce between companies to keep getting new lower rate. Check out Charter, ATT Uverse, Direct TV and Dish Network are probably main ones in this region.
Internet: Again nice deals for new customers for a year or two then higher rates. Main providers seem to be ATT (speed 6mb/s last I checked) and Charter (offering 60mb/s now).
Phone: is usually bundled together with tv and internet service. The trend is that more and more people are dropping regular home phones though and just use cell phones.
CellPhones: biggest carriers in the US would be Verizon, Sprint, ATT, Tmobile. Several other names out ther like Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and others but they usually use the big four cell companies lines.
Trash will either be dumpster onsite at say an apartment, or you can pay for trash pickup service depending what your area offers, or you'll have to take it to a dump in the area provided by the county.
Food: all depends what you eat. For eating out: fast food $6-$8 a person. Regular resturant likely $7-$15. Nicer resturant or steakhouse $15-$25+ a person. Regular full size grocery stores include Walmart, Bi-Lo, Publix, Ingles, and others.
You'll find SC offers pretty much the cheapest fuel/petrol for cars at the gas pump in the US: less then $2/gallon now.
I would say its an active area. People always riding bikes, walking/running on trails, lots of parks, etc.
Im from the city originally so crime is pretty low here in my opinion but I think can sometimes rate higher in some areas here just because of lower population to crimes statistics. Dont leave your cars unlocked and always keep your home doors and windows locked is pretty standard to keep most trouble at bay it seems. No where is perfect though. All crimes exist here in some form or fashion. When searching for a home when first moving here I stumbled on a few "questionable" areas in Spartanburg and in Greer but overall a lot to choose from. I rented for a year before buying a home to better decide where to finally settle.
For housing cost, sizes, photos you may want to check out some realty sites such as:
Zillow.Com
Trulia.com
Homes.Com
Realtor.Com
Remax.com
Tons of other sites too.
Well, my short few things kept on going, so I'll leave it to others to fill in some more blanks for you.
Electrical plugs:
Typical US power for plugging items in is 120volts. Checking the below website the US pretty much only uses Type A and Type B outlet/plugs (type A is same as type B but B also provides extra ground prong ). Older homes may have type A only plugs and within a few decades old have type B. If Type A and you need type B you can buy an adapter for a few dollars or less. Plug & socket types - World Standards
We dont call them type A and B...just wall outlets.
If you have a desktop pc and wish to bring it over there should be a little red switch in the back where the power cord goes in that says 220/240 or similar. If you switch that (when comuter is off and unplugged) it should now read 120 or close to that. If so then its ready for here...as long as you have right cord end type to plug into the wall!
Weather:
This area is a nice mix of warm/hot summers and cool/cold winters with near perfect weather temps spring and fall. Not much snow but a few inches every couple years is normal. Ice can sometimes be an issue but thats not often either. Bigger websites for weather include:
Weather.com
Intellicast.com
Local news for this part of SC:
FoxCarolina.com
Wyff.com
Wspa.com
If you look up county names (Greenville county, Spartanburg county, etc) then you can find their government websites for extra info on each area.
If you wanted to drive thats handled by South Carolina DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) who can issue drivers license but as far as paper work and identity you'd have to ask them since your coming from outside US.
You may already know some of this stuff but figured might as well post anyways, even if for future readers.
If you have more specific questions, you may get additional specifics anwers from others as well. General questions will get general responses.
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