Notes from Greenville...just spent a week.

[jayjee]

i can totally understand that. is your current house on the market? hope the selling process goes well for you. my folks are still trying to sell their house in chicago. i think you'll find something nice here in the resale market. is cost of living high in nj?

[LeavingNJ]

No, my house is not on the market yet. I am currently going through it from top to bottom to do whatever is necessary to make it look great from a buyer's perspective. Lots of painting, freshening, new fixtures, etc. I'm going to list it as soon as I possibly can.

I also have a condo to sell to complicate things a little more. I am confident, however, that I will be able to sell both by spring '09. I hope that's not just wishful thinking...but the markets aren't helping at the moment.

Cost of living is quite high in NJ (although gas is relatively cheap). I pay almost $15,000/year in property taxes on my house to give you some idea. Heck, the taxes on the one-bedroom condo are over $4,000/yr.

But I live in a very nice town with extremely low crime, and it's commutable to NYC by train, bus or car.

[Pat Grissinger]

You may want to look in River Reserve or Acadia. They are convenient to downtown as well. You will have to drive 10-15 min.

[LeavingNJ]

Thanks, Pat. I didn't get to either one, but I noticed that the lots in Acadia were all on the small side. I'm looking for about .5 acres, minimum, and preferably level. Some subdivisions I liked a lot were Kingsbridge, Kilgore Plantation, Spaulding Farms, Asheton Springs, Hammett Creek, and Thornblade. Hard to find the right property, though. But I'm confident it's there somewhere. Greenville does seem to be a great place to live.

[pgriss]

You may ask your agent about River Reserve or Acadia. Both are no more than a 15 min. drive to downtown.

[Sonrise]

LNJ,
Although my wife and I moved here from Los Angeles, I'm originally from NJ; spent the 1st 25 years of my life there. My dad sold his parking lot in Atlantic City that he had for almost 30 years last year. He was visiting us here every 3 weeks when he had an epiphany; "why am I still living in NJ, paying 12k/year in property tax for a house that I bought in 1975?" so he did the prudent thing and moved here. He loves it, has already made a ton of friends, he was worried at first because he's Greek and didn't know if there was a Greek community here. Needless to say every Greek from NY, NJ and Conn. has moved here in the last 10 years and my dad volunteered at the Greek festival here.

Point is, it's awesome here and the joke about NJ is is that within the next 10 years the only ones that will be living there are Welfare recipients, prisoners and government workers.

Here's a development that we love; gorgeous homes, good sized lots and in your price range:

Weatherstone

Click on information (pdf).

Best wishes, Sonrise

[LeavingNJ]

Thanks for the encouragement, Sonrise. Every sign says we need to be in Greenville.

Actually, we did see Weatherstone. To be honest, our impression was that it wasn't as attractive or well-kept as some of the other developments. The houses were nice, though. I guess it's all relative, and I'm going by first impressions of course, which is all I have.

I hope we can make friends as easily as your dad, kudos to him for getting right into the swing of things. I look at a move to Greenville in some ways as starting a new chapter in my life. I wonder if there are any local blues jams around...I've been working harder on my slide guitar lately.

[Greenville]

Originally Posted by LeavingNJ

Thanks, Pat. I didn't get to either one, but I noticed that the lots in Acadia were all on the small side. I'm looking for about .5 acres, minimum, and preferably level. Some subdivisions I liked a lot were Kingsbridge, Kilgore Plantation, Spaulding Farms, Asheton Springs, Hammett Creek, and Thornblade. Hard to find the right property, though. But I'm confident it's there somewhere. Greenville does seem to be a great place to live.

Those are all good neighborhoods, although a few of them will not have many options in the $500K-$600K range. Spaulding Farm, Asheton Springs, and Hammett Creek definitely have plenty in that range. But it will be more difficult to find homes in that range in Thornblade, Kingsbridge, and Kilgore Plantation. These neighborhoods have many homes well above that range and even into the $1 million+ category. You probably know that from your thorough searches, though.

Best of luck to you in your home search (and move)! Let us know how we can help.

[LeavingNJ]

You're right, Greenville, although Kingsbridge has more than you might think in that range. I think my favorite was actually Kilgore Plantation, because of the somewhat more diverse house styles and the larger lots. Homes in the range I stated are definitely fewer there, but not impossible to find. That said, I might be willing to stretch a bit if I found a near perfect house on a great lot. Plus, I'd rather have a $650k house in a neighborhood with a greater number of million-dollar homes, than the same priced home in a neighborhood of predominantly $450k homes. I don't mind being the poor relation.

Then again, I found that there can be a fairly substantial difference between the asking price and the selling price these days. I think it's a good time to buy right now...but I have to sell my properties first.

[pegd]

My hubby and I just got back from Greenville last week on a relocation mission. We found many, many homes in our price range and a wide variety of lot sizes, amenities, neighborhoods and styles. We have narrowed our search to Travelers Rest, close enough to the city yet still country like. We also like homes built by Ryan, they seem to have bigger lots and the communities we visited had a nice variety of homes. We are still going over all the info we got. We'd like to move in the next 6-12 months into a new home and leave the winters behind us. Many thanks to everyone who have given us ideas and information that was very helpful to us on our visit.