Autism, good school districts, and homes for around 130,000 (Spartanburg, Gaffney: low crime, house)

[tajelliot]

Our child is 8 and has aspergers and other autistic behaviors. We are considering relocating to the Cherokee County (or any other counties that have good resources for our guy. He is able to be in regular classes, with an aide for him).

We live in a small town now (I have almost all of my life) and are used to the friendliness of this. 8000 population here. Central coastal California.
We need to make a big change that sets us up for retirement. I teach at Community Colleges. My husband owns a business here now (small), but may also be ready for a move where we feel more financially secure.

We have high legal costs still since being awarded guardianship of our 8 yr old, (we are biologically his grandparents) and need to find a friendly area (not overtly racist) that has the qualities of a small town.

We also wonder about differing property taxes.

We are fine with storms or humidity, but I feel scared of the hurricanes. I went through one on the North East and they are something I'd like to avoid, so I imagine we want to live away from the Coast, so any are tempered down.

We live in an area that has very little crime. I'd like that in SC too if we can find the right area. We don't need large cities. There are outlet malls 30 min. from where we are, but I don't use them much. Target or Walmart are fine and don't need to be close.

Our interests: being around some form of water, trees, maybe have a horse again, nice small town downtown area, hiking, and friendly neighborhoods. The sub-divsion homes I see on the internet, no landscaping, look too bare to me. We have a bungalow/craftsman house here, 1700 sq feet, with a nice long front porch. It was built in 1923. Perhaps a home not quite so old.

We have friends in Gaffney and in Wilmington, NC. I'd like to hear others' opinions too.

Thank you for any help you have time to give!

TJ

[Emma_Laya]

Consider Cowpens. Small town. Low crime rate. About 15 minutes from Gaffney, about 15 minutes from Spartanburg. Good school district.

If I were you, I'd also consider Landrum/Inman/Campobello. What you described reminded me of that more. Landrum has a really *great* downtown. There's lots of horses. Lake Bowen is also in the area. It's about an hour to the mountains, but there's good hiking around. It's got a fairly decent school district. Lot's of trees and horses. Very pretty.

As far as a mall goes... Westgate is twenty minutes away, but not extremely safe. Boiling Springs has a lot of shopping and a Wal-Mart. It's only about ten minutes away.

[tajelliot]

Thank you so much! This is such a large plan to work out, but we need to make this change.