Housing/School Help (Fort Mill, York, Tega Cay: real estate, foreclosures, insurance)

[kimieoliver]

We have only been in Charlotte for 2 days and have just started our house hunt. We want to consider SC as well in our home search. We would want the best school districts, over 3000 sq ft and a reasonable commute time. Can you recommend neighborhoods to search as well as locations we may want to avoid? We are looking to spend under 450k and have two boys under the age of 4.

We will have to pay income tax in NC anyway, so are there other clear benefits to living in SC?

Thank you for your help.

[Belmarin]

There are a number of communities in SC that meet your criteria. You may want to look at Lake Wylie, Fort Mill and Tega Cay. The areas are in an easy commute to the Charlotte uptown area (central Charlotte) and the airport.

The two school systems that are highly rated are the Fort Mill and Clover school systems.

In some of the areas, the taxes (real estate and personal property) are highly competitive to the Charlotte area. For example, I live in the town of Lake Wylie which is an unincorporated area of York county. My taxes on a 470K assessment are less than 2K per annum.

Some of the communities to consider are:

The Landing - Lake Wylie
River Hills - Lake Wylie
Baxter Village - Fort Mill
Lake Shore - Tega Cay
and there are more....

If you need further information......fire away.

[kimieoliver]

Someone said Fort Mill is more "high end" - is that true? Also, are there any communtities that are half-built, high foreclosures, things to stay away from?
Some of the homes in Ft. Mill are 15 years old, are they selling w/ so many new builds?
I guess one really never knows until they visit but I think the idea of SC is growing on us.

[DipDog3]

Originally Posted by kimieoliver

Someone said Fort Mill is more "high end" - is that true?

Not "high end" just expensive.

[bibit612]

Considering all the new legislation they are trying to pass in NC (increased homeowners and auto insurance for example), CMS schools losing a massive amount of teachers, increasing food stamp qualifications up to $44K, etc. etc., you may just want to work in Charlotte and live on the SC side.