Looking for information about S. Carolina Lake Living (Columbia, Charleston: real estate, house)
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Yep, I have another "I'm retiring and moving South" question. Thanks to all the patient people living SC for being so helpful to us outsiders !! A few years ago I fell in love with the Myrtle Beach area. I originally thought FL would be our destination but we don't want to live where there is only one season....summer !!
We live in central Michigan and am spending my last winter here right now...done with this cold and lack of sun. If we could afford to be snowbirds we would have a place in FL for winter and a nice cozy cottage home on a northern Michigan Lake but we are not that fortunate to be able to afford the luxury of two homes. Can anyone give me information on Lake Front living on SC Lakes. Are there small afordable homes on the lakes where you can have a dock for owning a smal leisure boat. Are there things to look out for when looking for lake property? I really need a place to start looking, maybe SC is not the state to find lake living...I'm open for all suggestions !
Sc has many beautiful lakes and many that offer a diffferent feel so depending on what your looking for will depend on which lake would be the best bet for you. Lake Murray outside of Columbia and Lake Wylie outside of Charlotte in Ft Mill are going to tend to be much more developed with very affluent suburban sprawl lining the shore and I would not recommend either in terms of affordability. Lakes Marion, Moultrie, are much more isolated and have much more of a coastal feel to them as they are near the coast, but are much more affordable. You also have Lake Wateree which is also isolated and more affordable but also not too far a drive from Columbia or Charlotte. Lake Greenwood isn't near one of our big cities of Greenville Columbia or charleston, but is near a small city of about 15-25k (Greenwood) and is between Greenville and Columbia. You also have our lakes up near Clemson that have a mountainous feel to them, Lake Hartwell, Lake Keowee and Jocassee, all gorgeous and near the mountains. Sort of isolated, but close to small towns like Seneca Clemson and Wallhalla and about 30mins from Greenville, but tend to be fairly price like Lake Wylie and Murray but depending on your price range and what you consider Tao be affordable will determine where you want to look.
So basically to sum it up, if your looking to be close in to a city in affluent suburbs: Lake Murray or Lake Wylie, if your looking for a coastal feel: Lake Marion or Lake Moultrie, if your looking for a mountian lake type feel: Lakes Hartwell, Keowee, or Jocassee.
Hope this helps!
Thank you ColaClemsonFan11, that is some great information for narrowing down where to look. Do want to stay away from the affluent areas. We want to spend our retirement enjoying the outdoors without being tied down with a lot of house cost & maintenance.....we have already experienced that. Time to down size (way down!), declutter, and cut expenses. We do not need a mall or Walmart within a mile. Looking for peace and quite and very laid back.
Thanks again !
OP, it may help if you can give a general idea on what you'd like to use for a housing budget and what other ammenities you want or need nearby (shopping, healthcare needs, etc).
I'm from WI (been here 5 yrs), and would say before you rule out any areas, if you have an idea on what you'd like to spend then you can see what you can or can not get for your $$. We live in a lake neighborhood on Murray, one of many actual neighborhoods scattered around the lake (with their own private launches/docks, etc) and found we could not have come close to what we have here while up in Madison on it's lakes.
That said, i've seen small homes maybe in the 150-200k area on the water, and homes obviously much more then that. Murray is a larger lake, plenty of bays to sneak into, and (compared to many of the WI lakes i've been on) much cleaner. But as Cola said it is developed and may be more then what you are leaning to.
We chose it mainly due to location, near the city, within 2 hours of Charleston and the ocean and 2 hrs of the mountains to the west. You may want to check more general sites (a couple linked below) to get some comparison info on lakes, and check out chamber of commerce sites for different towns/cities to get a better feel for the communities nearby.
Lake Hartwell near Anderson would be a lot more affordable than Lake Keowee, not as scenic but better priced and closer to amenities. It's also a 2-hour drive to Atlanta if you want a quick big-city getaway. I'd recommend looking into that. Also, you might look into Lake Bowen near Spartanburg/Landrum, might be worth a quick search to see what real estate is going for in that area. You're close to a medium-size city (Spartanburg) and close to the mountains without actually being in them, so I would think prices would be accordingly lower.
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