Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hello I am seeking advice about a move to Myrtle Beach. Are there any young families who made the move and can offer anything? Are you happy there? Recommended neighborhoods that have good schools? I know carolina Forest is one. What about Conway, is it a good area and if so why is it less expensive. Any advice for a young family who wants to make the move would be appreciated. Visiting in the next two weeks and don’t even know where to start. Thanks!
All of our children are grown so my observations are from others I've talked to who do have younger families and my experience in the area in general.
RE Conway--it is less expensive because it's further away from the ocean. The further away, the cheaper the prices. If you want even cheaper housing, go further inland to Aynor...LOL. Conway has its good areas and bad areas like any town. The easiest way to see if a house you are looking at is in one or the other is to click on the crime button on the site you're using. It will reveal the crime level. You can also research schools using some of the online tools (by the way...Aynor has some of the highest rated schools in the area but you live a looooong way from the beach). Conway is a delightful town has long been a farming community and still maintains those roots even though it's becoming more suburban-like. I've also heard that Conway is very "clicky" with the natives not warming up to new arrivals well. Finally, Conway has some low lying areas that are subject to flooding so you need to be especially careful to avoid those areas. We also considered Conway when we were looking at moving here but determined it was just too far away from the beach for the lifestyle we wanted.
You are right that the Carolina Forest area is well known as a place for young families and the schools are rated pretty well. CF High School has a fantastic music program and their shows are excellent. We considered moving to CF when we moved here but the traffic in/out especially on 501 is unreal especially during the summer. But even off season, it's not something that we wanted to deal with so we ended up in Forestbrook.
For your visit, I suggest you find an agent that doesn't mind working with someone who is not ready to move right away who will take some time to show you around different neighborhoods (I'm assuming you're not moving really soon). Agents with lots of experience usually don't want to do this so you'd probably be better finding a newer agent trying to build their business. PM me if you want a recommendation. I'd also suggest you exploring on your own...just driving through neighborhoods and communities looking at houses, grocery stores, churches, medical facilities and anything else that's important to you. Have a sense of adventure and if you get lost, just ask someone or use your GPS to get you back.
Finally, I recommend to anyone moving here to rent for at least a year and take some time to make sure that this is where you want to live and to allow yourself plenty of time to acclimate to the area and find the right neighborhood and the right house for your needs. Yes, it means that you'll move 2 times in a short amount of time, but that's better than buying the wrong house in the wrong neighborhood and losing thousands of dollars to commissions and closing costs when you move to the place you really want to be.
What type of information are you looking for? It's a very small rural town in the middle of farming country. I think the high school has 800 or so students. Here's a link to the school report card: https://www.screportcards.com/overvi...aWQ9MjYwMTAwMQ
They have a great little festival each fall called the Aynor Harvest Hoe-Down Festival that we love to go to (although it's been canceled this year due to COVID).
The downtown area is a grand total of about 2 blocks square. Here's a video about Aynor and the buildings you see in the background make up much of what would be considered "downtown." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=888rWp_s0DQ
Aynor is literally a tiny little town. Rt 501 (main drag from I95 to Myrtle Beach) cuts through the outskirts of the town and there are more businesses on 501 than there are in all of the downtown area.
There are several other videos of Aynor on Youtube if you just put Aynor SC in the search bar.
My son used to work outside the main area of Aynor in a gun manufacturing facility in a business park. So, my experiences with Aynor are limited to visiting his employer, driving through on 501 and going to the Harvest Festival. My impression is that most of the housing is built on individual lots of land adjacent to a road by independent builders and there is little in the way of housing developments like you'd find in Conway or closer to Myrtle Beach. There are lots of farms and farm country around the town. You can look on Realtor.com or Zillow at housing and look at the satellite view to see that most houses are not in a development.
As far as I know, the town has one park (about 1 block square) where they hold their Festival each year. I would think that you'd have to go to Conway for kayaking. As far as hiking, my son (who hiked the Appalachian Trail) said that there were no hiking trails of any challenge in Horry County...too flat. He said it was like going for a stroll. I don't believe that there are any County parks/hiking trails, etc in/near Aynor. You'd probably have to go to Conway for that as well. Depending on where in Aynor you live, Conway is probably 15-20 minute drive. If you want to go to the beach, count on at least an hour during the week...2 hours in prime time summer weekends.
My impression is that you need to really enjoy country life to find Aynor to your liking. Hopefully there are others on this forum that can provide more info.
Thanks! I appreciate the time and detail you put into the response.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
