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If you have been reading the posts in this forum recently you will see that there is a difference of opinion as to whether someone should purchase or rent a home given the current real estate market. If you are considering relocating to the Charleston area and want to "live close to the ocean", your decision as where to live will depend upon how close to the ocean you want to be in terms of travel time. Some of the popular options in the area are Mt. Pleasant and Summerville. Due to the higher costs of housing in the town of Mt. Pleasant (adjacent to the beach), you would have few single family housing options around $200,000. However, you would have a fairly good selection in nice condos in the area in this price range. Your would have a number of nice single family home options in the Summerville area, as well as less costly rentals should you decide to go that route as a number of posters to this forum have recommended. Mt. Pleasant is certainly more convenient to the beach than Summerville, but at a higher cost. If you are visiting the area in June I would suggest that you familiarize yourself with Mt. Pleasant and Summerville and possibly James Island. Each area has a different feel and different things to offer. There are a number of hospitals and medical facilities in the area.
There are also some rather nice very affordable neighborhoods in North Charleston inspite of what people who do not live there are saying.
Coosaw Creek, Wescott,Cedar Grove and Whitehall to name a few are worth checking out ,all within 30 minutes drive from downtown Charleston .
Since you have a school age daughter, I would check out Summerville or Mount Pleasant. I moved here when my daughters were 7 and 12 and they fit in easily. I have never visited Utah, but have been around the country a little ( x was military) and this is my favorite place to live so far.
I think if you want to be near the ocean and on a bit of a budget you should look at James Island. It's near Folly Beach and very convenient to downtown. Stiles Point and Harbor View Elementaries in particular are well regarded. The high school on James Island is now a charter school and a couple of my friends in education think that will really help it (along with the fact that it is not as overcrowded as the Mt Pleasant and Summerville area high schools.)
As always- find a job before moving and it might not be a bad idea to do a 6 month to 1 year rental to get a feel for the area before buying. It will also let you figure out how much traffic you are willing to put up with because some areas of Mt Pleasant, Summerville and West Ashley in particular have brutal traffic problems.
DD2 just opened a new High School to reduce the crowding at SSHS and Fort Dorchester.
I don't know what you call Brutal Traffic, but I get from Summerville to Huger in 45min, unless there is a accident or some other fowl up on the interstate.
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