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Hopefully if anyone can help my husband and I some insight on the Matthew,Fort Mill or another area? We are looking to move within the next 3 months to the area, on a job transfer that my husband possibly will be excepting. We have 2 school age children (7 & 9) and currently live in the upper Midwest area. Here is what we are looking
1. Family Oriented Neighborhoods - our price range is roughy 250-350,000, we would love to be in a neighborhood where there would be kids and lots of them, what should we expect within the community? Is there baseball, basketball, soccer associations, and dance in the area? How competitive? Are their better neighborhoods than others? I We want a little space without houses on top of each other.
2. Schools - we currently attend a progressive school, which in this day and age seems to be the norm. How are the schools laid out? In our area, we have open enrollment, since our neighborhood school is not performing well, we have the choice of selecting another school within our district or if you can go out of district (but without bus service).
3. Taxes - we are getting killed with our in-state taxes (sales, income), with our property taxes around $2000-2500/year. Not too bad considering some of the other threads.
4. Shopping - I understand that Target and Costco are not in Fort Mil but close to Matthews We have been spoiled to have Target and Costco literally in our backyard. How is the local shopping.
5. Friendliness - we struggle with people in our area not always being the most friendly. My husband and I have lived in our current area for the last 15-20yrs respectively (didn't grow up in the area) and feel that if you haven't lived here all your life, then you're not invited into the locals circles. Its very difficult meeting people, but its gotten better since we're involved with our children's activities, but if it wasn't for that it would be difficult. How is the culture, friendliness, etc. in the area?
I would appreciate any insight on the area that anymore can give us, we feel that it would be a great place to raise a family and be a little more relaxed
Hopefully if anyone can help my husband and I some insight on the Matthew,Fort Mill or another area? We are looking to move within the next 3 months to the area, on a job transfer that my husband possibly will be excepting. We have 2 school age children (7 & 9) and currently live in the upper Midwest area. Here is what we are looking
1. Family Oriented Neighborhoods - our price range is roughy 250-350,000, we would love to be in a neighborhood where there would be kids and lots of them, what should we expect within the community? Is there baseball, basketball, soccer associations, and dance in the area? How competitive? Are their better neighborhoods than others? I We want a little space without houses on top of each other.
There are many kid friendly communities you mentioned plus numerous sports both private and public. It's a very friendly city for kids, sports etc. As for space between houses, you will get that in older areas (but still well kept) As for which is better than others, it's hard to say as your "better" is different from our "better". I would rent first to feel out the city and what you want.
2. Schools - we currently attend a progressive school, which in this day and age seems to be the norm. How are the schools laid out? In our area, we have open enrollment, since our neighborhood school is not performing well, we have the choice of selecting another school within our district or if you can go out of district (but without bus service). You are generally assigned to a local school for your neighborhood. I don't know if they allow you to attend other schools if they are underperforming. There are magnet programs as well. The schools are very Common Core/EOG oriented.
3. Taxes - we are getting killed with our in-state taxes (sales, income), with our property taxes around $2000-2500/year. Not too bad considering some of the other threads. For a house assessed at $195,000 in SE Charlotte, it's about $2500 annually for all taxes/extras etc. Fort Mill might be less in certain areas and I don't know about Matthews.
4. Shopping - I understand that Target and Costco are not in Fort Mil but close to Matthews We have been spoiled to have Target and Costco literally in our backyard. How is the local shopping. Tons in Matthews. Fort Mill is close to Ballantyne where there are tons. Again depending on where you end up.
5. Friendliness - we struggle with people in our area not always being the most friendly. My husband and I have lived in our current area for the last 15-20yrs respectively (didn't grow up in the area) and feel that if you haven't lived here all your life, then you're not invited into the locals circles. Its very difficult meeting people, but its gotten better since we're involved with our children's activities, but if it wasn't for that it would be difficult. How is the culture, friendliness, etc. in the area? This all depends on you. People say my area is extremely friendly, I think it can be snooty. I loved Weddington when I lived there but people said it's snooty over there. Again, renting and living here will give you a much better idea.
I would appreciate any insight on the area that anymore can give us, we feel that it would be a great place to raise a family and be a little more relaxed
Good luck and move only when your husband has that job. Come back with is general location (street intersection) and we can give better suggestions. But you really can't go wrong with either Fort Mill or Matthews for your criteria you listed.
thank you for your insight, we have been checking out both Fort Mill and Matthews, but given that they are in different states and so close we wanted to see what was available. I like the fact the kids have to go to a neighborhood school and lieu of being able to go to any school that we want them to go to. We will be visiting the area shortly but again that you for the advice.
thank you for your insight, we have been checking out both Fort Mill and Matthews, but given that they are in different states and so close we wanted to see what was available. I like the fact the kids have to go to a neighborhood school and lieu of being able to go to any school that we want them to go to. We will be visiting the area shortly but again that you for the advice.
If your husband is working in SC, it's cheaper for state income to live and work in SC. But both are neighborhood schools.
You should be able to find something that meets your criteria in your budget.
But I'm confused...$2000-$2500 for property taxes is "killing you"? Property taxes on a $300K house in Mecklenburg County (which includes all of the official town of Matthews) will be around $3,000. Fort Mill is less, but not sure how much.
Matthews has a Target and a Costco if those are the 2 main stores you're looking for. For Fort Mill, the closest Costco would be in South Charlotte, about a 15 minute drive, and the closest Target would probably be in Rock Hill about 10 minutes away. There's also a Super Target off of York Road about 15 minutes away.
I've been answering a lot of questions about Matthews lately and sorry to say, but I'm tired out from lots of typing. But - if you clock on my name and go to statistics and then to view my posts - you'll find them. I've talked about schools and neighborhoods and some other stuff here and there.
Matthews is a wonderful place go live. I don't know offhand how much my taxes are, but GoPhils is probably right. Taxes in the town limits of Matthews are less than Charlotte, but we are Mecklenburg county.
In regards to shopping, I don't have to drive more than 3 miles to get to any shopping I want to go to and that includes the 2 stores you mention. But on the rare occasion I want to go to a mall, I can get to 2 of them in about 15 to 20 minutes depending on traffic.
It's too bad you weren't around last weekend - Matthews had Beachfest. There are all kinds of festivals and community events here and in the summer. there are free movies and concerts on Saturday nights in Stumptown Park - which is downtown Matthews across from Matthews Elementary school. Saturday morning is the farmers market downtown - downtown is always hopping Saturday morning.
Come by and visit. As you're looking at house online - make note that you might find some homes and neighborhoods that have a Matthews postal address, but they are really in Union County. They'll be relatively close to Matthews, but you won't actually be in Matthews. That can be confusing. I say this because there is a lot of new construction going on in those areas now so you're going to find a lot in those areas.
I'm a new comer to Fort Mill, SC (from NJ) and I can tell you that taxes in Fort Mill will be about 1/2 from Meck Cty for the same house. Not sure what the difference is to Union Cty.
Depending on where you look in Fort Mill will depend on where you can do most of your shopping and how far you'll be from major stores.
We chose to move to the eastern side of Fort Mill. There's a lot less congestion and traffic but you'll have to drive about 5 minutes more to get to the grocery store, Costco, Target or Walmart, which we don't mind to avoid the traffic on the west side of 77. Walmart is about 10 minutes from us, Costco 20 minutes -- we go to the one on Tyvola right off of 77, and Publix around 8 minutes (yes I timed it )
What I really liked about Fort Mill, and one of the reasons people are moving here even from Charlotte, are the schools. They truly are neighborhood schools and clustered to specific neighborhoods and sub-divisions so all of the kids in the neighborhood go to the same schools through High School.
Also, even though we're in SC, we pretty much socialize and spend a lot of time in NC. It doesn't feel like being in a different state, other than how much easier it seems to get certain things done in SC like getting your driver's license and the non-existent car inspections.
One warning, similar to what the PP posted about Matthews being in two counties, we have a similar issue with parts of Indian Land being listed as "Fort Mill". They have a Fort Mill mailing address, but are actually part of Indian Land which is an unincorporated area of Lancaster County -- different County, different school system. In many real estate sites they're listed as Fort Mill and are actually Indian Land. They do stand out because they're a lot less expensive and the taxes are even lower than Fort Mill. Just make sure to look at a map to make sure. Indian Land starts on the east side of Twelve Mile Creek / Sugar Creek which empties into the Catawba River (which is the southern boundary of Fort Mill to Rock Hill).
Matthews and Ft. Mill are both great places to live and raise a family. The thing I like about Matthews is that it is walkable in the way that suburbs (Ft. Mill included), are typically not. You can walk to stores, parks, restaurants, church, etc. from many neighborhoods in Matthews. In Ft. Mill, you will mostly be driving everywhere. I don't know if that is important to you, but I enjoy walking. I think a major consideration is where your husband will be working because traffic can be terrible. You really need to think about this - unless your husband doesn't mind an hour+ commute to/from work. Once your husband has a job, get back to this forum and you will get tons of suggestions.
As far as friendly - yes, the people are so nice and so friendly. Prior to moving to Charlotte, I lived in a place that sounds like your Midwestern city - unless you were born and raised there, they just don't let you in. I hated that. It's so different here. I think you will be happy. Good luck.
I agree about the walk-ability of Fort Mill...pretty much non-existent unless you are right in downtown Fort Mill.
The thing about Fort Mill is that you have the town of Fort Mill which has sidewalks and a Main Street (and by Main street I mean one street), and then you have the township of Fort Mill which encompasses the surrounding sub-divisions. The town itself isn't really the best area in town to live in, but it is a cute little area to park and go to the one restaurant on Main Street or walk to the local park. The plus about Fort Mill is that it has more park area -- the Ann Close Springs Greenway is HUGE -- the size of NY's Central Park, and there's another park right in town. Many of the neighborhoods also have walking trails. So I guess you can say Fort Mill is more rural.
Matthews has more of a town feel from what I've seen of it.
Best thing to do is to visit both and see which you prefer.
Definitely agree with the walkablity of Matthews - and it's actually pretty walkable from further away from downtown proper than what you'd think because there are sidewalks that connect neighborhoods on the main roads and many neighborhoods connect to the greenway. And yes, Matthews is definitely a town feel. It's very easy to become friends with our mayor as well as people on town council. Even if you don't know them personally, you'll see them all the time at various events. And we have lots of smaller parks, but there is a large one in Matthews - in the outskirts - Colonel Francis Beaty Park. Colonel Francis Beatty Park. But there is also Squirrel Lake Park closer in which is quite lovely and attached to the greenway so that's just one more way that it's walkable.
But as others have said - visit both places. Fort Mill is very nice and family oriented. I know someone who lives there and they are very happy.
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I loved Weddington when I lived there but people said it's snooty over there. Again, renting and living here will give you a much better idea.
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