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I’m looking at potentially relocating my family from Milwaukee Wi. I’m in mid 30s, wife is 30, have a 1 yo and one on the way.
I had an opportunity a few years back at an opportunity in Charleston at MUSC in IT. I declined due to the the offer being so low. I’m starting an interview process now at MUSC in a leadership role.
Just curious what folks feedback/experience has been with MUSC, areas for families (great school), wife would want a house with front porch, etc.
Any and all feedback or info is welcome. I’m still going through posts here along with researching daycare costs (315 a week for one here).
What is your housing budget?
Will you rent or buy?
Would you want to commute, or live close by?
Do you prefer a city location, or a more planned community with amenities?
I don't know anything about the elementary schools in Charleston Co., but knew people who loved this public charter school that is PreK-8th: https://www.ccsdschools.com/Page/143
I’m looking at potentially relocating my family from Milwaukee Wi. I’m in mid 30s, wife is 30, have a 1 yo and one on the way.
I had an opportunity a few years back at an opportunity in Charleston at MUSC in IT. I declined due to the the offer being so low. I’m starting an interview process now at MUSC in a leadership role.
Just curious what folks feedback/experience has been with MUSC, areas for families (great school), wife would want a house with front porch, etc.
Any and all feedback or info is welcome. I’m still going through posts here along with researching daycare costs (315 a week for one here).
Charleston has highly rated schools nearby to MUSC in West Ashley, James Island and Mt Pleasant. As a Realtor I'm not allowed to give specific opinions on schools but you can get an idea from GreatSchools.org or similar ratings sites as to the areas you'd want to target.
MUSC has a good reputation in general but Charleston also has a reputation for lower than average wages. Cost of living is a little lower than average which might help. Charleston's IT/tech community is growing and healthy and there might be opportunity in that field as that growth continues.
It should be easy enough to determine daycare costs with a few phone calls (my own daughter is your age so I'm out of touch with daycare costs ) and I'd be happy to help you with a housing search if you'd like.
Currently in Wisconsin, our house is valued on Zillow (take that for what it's worth) around 480k, so I'd be looking somewhere similar but ideally a mortgage of around 2000-2100 a month including taxes (which ours last year was 8k; Charleston/SC looks like a nice savings in Taxes for Real Estate). Ideally would be looking at a 4bd 2 ba house, w/ porch and fenced yard for the lab. We would sell here and buy there. If given the opportunity, I'm hoping I could wait to start until July so I don't have to pay back a bonus along with baby due around Memorial Day.
From a commute perspective, I'd be looking at no more than 45 minutes.
When I've looked on zillow at some houses, the ones in James Island seem to indicate lower quality schools, but perhaps that just the rating tool they use.
I'm hoping to at least get 10k more than my current salary (this would be a promo to me, but willing to take lateral salary for relocation). When I had an offer before it was about 15k less than my current salary so I had to pass. Two years ago I had offers from Greenville and Spartanburg, but again salary was an issue at one location and team vibe was the other.
I'm hoping this time is the charm! I will certainly take you up on your offer about housing, if I get a bit further down the line. Just trying to shore up some research at this point.
I'd be very interested in where MUSC comes back on salary. Charleston is notorious for below average salaries for IT. Part of this comes from a vast number of IT help desk jobs, but in my persona experience, I was offered half of my previous salary from a very similar job. With the COL actually higher than my previous location.
For sure, that will be one of the first things I'd like to get discussed. Need to be Apples to Apples on something like that otherwise a pure waste of time for all involved.
The job search in Charleston can be tough due to traditionally lower wage scale and the fact that many people want to live here which increases the competition. I'll send a direct message regarding your house search.
Edit: You'll have to send me a message or contact me through my profile information. I would set up a search and help with questions with no commitment or expectations.
Last edited by LocalHero; 02-15-2021 at 06:32 AM..
Any and all feedback or info is welcome. I’m still going through posts here along with researching daycare costs (315 a week for one here).
Daycare will run $1,100-$1,200 a month depending on the quality that you want. Your property taxes will only be around $2,200 or so, with insurance also probably around $2k. For a commute under 45 minutes you could live anywhere in Mount Pleasant/ West Ashley/ James Island/ Cainhoy area/ Hanahan.
MUSC doesn't compete on salary. They believe the mission carries enough value to compensate for the differences.
What IT group will you be joining at MUSC? A majority currently work from home. They expect that to continue moving forward to a degree with most working from home almost 90% of the time with infrequent trips to the office for meetings and such.
From a schools perspective, if you want a school system that's good from elementary through high school, I would suggest Mount Pleasant or Summerville Dorchester II school zones.
We are also moving from Milwaukee area and been down on a few trips!!
We decided to go with a new construction so we can move down there and focus on the kids and spend weekends at the beach not updating a house. The lots are smaller but there is way more community space and almost every neighborhood we looked at (and liked) had a neighborhood pool, playgrounds for the little ones and had tons of people out walking and stopping to talk to neighbors.
I think we are going to end up in Summerville - loved Mount Pleasant also but overall we were shocked at what we could get in Summerville for the money. We are in Mequon now, no schools down there really compare but they are still good and private schools are relatively cheap.
You would be able to spend 500k on a house down there that would cost us about 750k here for and the property taxes on it run about 3000/year. The taxes here are what kills us. We are going from a 750k to 500k house with same sq feet, smaller lot, every upgrade we could think of plus neighborhood activities and our payment is dropping 500/month.
We are looking at nexton midtown and Carnes crossroads. We liked Carolina park but didn’t like the minutes upgrade options.
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) and I'd be happy to help you with a housing search if you'd like.
