Is Charleston a good match for this California girl ? (cheap apartments, insurance)
Charleston areaCharleston - North Charleston - Mt. Pleasant - Summerville - Goose Creek
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The west ashley area sounds like a good fit for you. Alot of singles. A decent amount of bars/resturants to go out or you can just go across the bridge to charleston which has everything. Also you about 15 20mins depending on what part of west ashley you are in from the beach
I would poke around Indeed.com first before even thinking further about a move, to see what jobs are out there and pay rate. To be honest, jobs aren't plentiful here, and are from what I've seen are mostly retail jobs or jobs in the hospitality industry - restaurant servers, hotel clerks, etc. $10 an hour seems to be a pretty common hourly rate here. But depends. Although there are no big office parks here like the Research Triangle Park in the Chapel Hill, NC area, it seems there are some bigger companies that might offer opportunities - Blackbaud, Boeing, Benefit Focus, Volvo, etc. Just not a lot of that type of thing. Health care is a possibility but most of the jobs I see are for clinical people, not admins.
If you get beyond the job issue, check historical rates for utilities for where you are interested in living. Water/sewer and electricity are expensive here. As are groceries. As someone else mentioned, look at one of the online cost of living calculators for specifics.
Since you mentioned you like hiking, you may want to check out Greenville, SC since it's closer to the mountains. I don't know too much about it but it's got a great downtown, and the cost of living seems to be cheaper than the Charleston area.
I'm not too plugged into the job market there, but I do know Greenville has a fair amount of Corporations that have their headquarters there - Samsung has their customer service center there, and other big companies like Fluor, Sealed Air, Michelin, GE, Lockhead, Honeywell, AT&T, Bosch, Bausch & Lomb and others are there.
I'm not sure why there seem to be so many more big corporations in Greenville than in the Charleston area, (perhaps Charleston chooses to focus mostly on the Tourism industry) or if it translates to a better job market, but it's worth checking out. You can easily run a filter on Indeed.com using salary as one of the criteria, and look at the total job count in each place you are considering, then look at the specific jobs that pop up in each area. It will give you a rough idea of where the most jobs in your field area and what pay range they are in. You can set Indeed to email you jobs are well so you can get an idea how many new jobs appear and at what frequency and pay rate.
Good luck! It's a great area with a lot to do, just go in with open eyes. And yes, the heat/humidity combo can be oppressive, but mainly in July/Aug.
How was my post hard to read? It's hard to be brief and also be exact about what a person is looking for... 1) decent priced 2 bedroom home (willing to start out renting an apartment until I find the right place. Rent on a 1 bedroom not more than 800 to $1100. And a 2 bedroom house not more than $300 to $350 K 2) a decent job or job opportunities. I have a good resume but in a ****ty area you can still be unemployed 6+ months 3) nature... hiking, mountains, ocean, river, parks, lakes, camping. I live to be outside. So I would like an area that offers at least some of those things. I cant think of many places other than CA where you can have it all- the beach and the mountains and wine country. 4) Lastly since I want to be outside most of the year and in all my free time I would like moderate weather. No alaska winter or texas summer. I cant enjoy being outside if Im in a place that 6 months out of the year your freezing or boiling. Does such a place exist? It might sound like Im asking for everything, but really Im not. Im NOT looking for some 5 bedroom house with a huge amount of land smack dab in the middle of the best school district.
I moved here from Boulder and remember thinking I couldn't imagine living here without living on the beach. Now, 33 years later, I'm on James Island and the heat and humidity only bother me in July and August. It didn't take that long to acclimate. Also, the humidity isn't a factor when you're on the beach or on the water.
The biggest negative here that might affect your outdoor activities are the biting insects. Gnats and mosquitoes can be an issue but once again, you learn to avoid them. Again, they're rarely an issue on the beach or on the water. Your plan to rent for a while is a good idea as coming from CA to SC will be a big shift and it'll take a while to digest it.
The mountains, as Fluffpoopoo said, are at least a few hours away and "hiking" around here is more like "walking" as everything is pretty flat. I spend some time outdoors and for me, kayaking is the thing to do around here.
I too think James Island would be one of the better choices to look at. You should be able to find a rental within your price range. I even have a one bdrm studio that might be available depending on your time frame. I'll send you a message.
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I'm not sure how you can make any type of determination without visiting the place at least once. Right now the OP has multiple threads of this nature for many places in the country. Visit, visit, visit.
Boeing, MB, Volvo, and many others aren't in the customer service business in their Charleston locations.
The biting insects are HORRENDOUS. No see-um season is March-May, then again from Oct-Nov. Mosquitos are bad from now until December. You can't get away from it, no matter what you do. You just have to deal with getting bit. Anyone telling you different isn't leveling with you.
You would think people would stop moving here based solely on all the hyperbole on this thread.
Between the "opressive" heat, "horrendous" insects, and terrible traffic, job prospects, pay, high cost of living, and expensive water/sewer, food, flood insurance, earthquakes, and terrible schools, it's amazing this place doesn't have a population of 0.
You would think people would stop moving here based solely on all the hyperbole on this thread.
Between the "opressive" heat, "horrendous" insects, and terrible traffic, job prospects, pay, high cost of living, and expensive water/sewer, food, flood insurance, earthquakes, and terrible schools, it's amazing this place doesn't have a population of 0.
You forgot to mention the Alligators, Hurricanes, Clueless drivers, Confederate flags and for God's sake, NO MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTS TEAM.
Let me know when you're selling... I have a buyer.
You forgot to mention the Alligators, Hurricanes, Clueless drivers, Confederate flags and for God's sake, NO MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTS TEAM.
Let me know when you're selling... I have a buyer.
And NO Dave & Busters and NO Red Robin!
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