Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We'll keep the light on for ya. We have one little beach house I purchased in 78, if it doesn't sell now I guess we'll still have a little house in RI but it is time to move on. We will be in the house in WRP in say the Feb. time frame, if in the area please stop in and say Howdy. Also, if you are the last to leave RI, please turn the lights out.
Not real familiar with the area but I understand your need to get back to beach living. I love the Rockport Glouster area, fished many years out of Glouster on the Yankee Captains, when the head boats out of Pt. Judith in RI started struggling to catch fish in the late 60's early 70's.
I understand your point on the prices in the Charleston area we decided out budget would be at about $300k and that Charleston would be a nice area to visit and explore in the future.
Suggestion, when you have a short list of prospective communities, you may want to visit in Sept, with your list of criteria call the management organization managing the community. Ask the management team contact for contacts in the community who would be willing to speak to you on the topics you are keenly interested in. I did this for the community we ultimately bought into and current residents were more than happy to spend time with me. My topics; Kayaking, fishing, boating and gardening. During the conversations with four different residents many other topics were discussed, I think these sessions helped us make our final decision.
We looked for two years and visited a number of very lovely communities, in that time frame. We finally found the community where we both said, WOW!!.
Prior to finding our WOW!! community we were certain we would buy into a very nice plantation in Leland, NC, which we had looked at several times and even spent an extended week-end. We were certain.
Your selection all depends on what is right for you and your family. After selecting a community and while looking for a lot, with our realtor, our realtor told us of the young lady who asked her mama how she would know when she was in love? Her Mama's response was " You'll just, know" . Our experience has been it is very similar looking for a community or a lot. You'll just know.
The Wilmington area may be right for you, there are a number of very nice communities.
We will soon be bailing from RI for the southeast corner of NC, in Brunswick County. There is an elementary school right in front of our plantation. There is a quick Mart, sorry no Dunkin Donuts, about 1.5 miles from the plantation, a hospital about 2.5 miles away on Rt. 17, another in Southport, next town over about 15 miles or so. A new community, The Charles, will soon start construction about 10 miles away and will call for medical talents. We will be about half way between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach about 35 to 40 minutes drive respectively. We are building in Winding River Plantation but there are other very nice communities in that area of coastal NC, St. James Plantation for one.
Based on your list of must haves, nice to have and not really necessary I suggest you plan a road trip and maybe a couple of recon missions where you actually tour communities that meet your criteria. When you find the right community for your family, you'll just know.
Congrats! We closed on resale in WRP about two weeks ago and plan to permanently relocate to WRP in January. In the mean time we are commuting back and forth while we do some work on the place. Expect heavy traffic on Saturday mornings on Supply road while the tourists exit Oak Island. Traffic was backed up on 211 past the traffic light to US 17 most of Saturday morning, but cleared out by mid afternoon for our trip back to RVA.
One more pitch for New Been. If you can afford the downtown historic district you will be walking distance to the town center, which is highly praised. We went to the beach yesterday, 43 minutes. Two large rivers come together at New Been. Los of boating and water sports.
Our house on Whimbreel Ct. may be ready about the same time you plan to move to WRP.
Sounds like Saturday morning may be a good time to work in the community garden, take the kayak out on the Lockwood Folly River or do some biking around the community. We'll talk again and look forward to seeing you in the Jan/Feb time frame. Enjoy the journey.
Hi efipoliRN !! I have read a couple of your posts and we have similar stories. I am an RN with a family (5 and 7 year old boys) looking to relocate from Michigan to North or South Carolina early next spring. Of course we are trying to balance out all the variables. I have researched for ages and narrowed it down to Summerville SC and Wilmington NC. Summerville was perfect until I saw the elementary school system sizes. (1000 kids in each school) They readily admit to being overcrowded. The safety of the community is MOSTLY good. Dorchester 2 schools are voted the top in SC. Charleston is a beautiful place. Voted by many places to be the "best" place to live in the US. Wilmington looks amazing as well. We are taking a road trip in August of this year to get a feel for both areas. I love this City-Data forum, it is so helpful. We should keep in touch!!
Holly
Hi there, missholly24
We just returned from Charleston a week ago. We do love it there. We also looked at Summerville but I felt it was a little far from the beach that I so desperately want to be near again. BUT there is a much better bang for your buck there as well as Wilmington from what we can see online. We are going to Wilmington in Sept to check it out. Mount Pleasant Sc and the West Ashely part of Charleston are beautiful but as I am sure you know from your research, quite a few people are relocating there and this is really driving the prices up. We have been planning this move for quite a few years now and have seen the prices increase very quickly especially the last year. I love this site as well, so many helpful people and tons of info!!
Dorchester 2 schools to do great reviews. Not always the case with the Charleston schools, and of course Mt Pleasant has great schools as well. It appears as Wilmington has some good schools as well. I will tell you though, the school my boys attend here in MA only gets a 3 on the greatschools rating and is actually one of the best in the community. Many parents who are out of the neighborhood "choice" them here and drive them each morning. SO I am not always convinced with some of these ratings. I have found better info from sites like this. We also like Catholic schools and have found good reviews on St Marks in Wilmington. We should definitely keep in touch. I will message you. Efi
Yes I definitely agree with the rating inaccuracy. Our school is rated low right now too and we love it. I am most concerned about the size. 1000 elementary kids is terrible. I know class size should be taken in to account, but still 1000 is concerning.
My timing is a little off. I thought we would be moving to WRP about the same time you and Mrs. Purple do. However, we have a contract on our house, a closing scheduled for early next month and we have a six month lease on a condo in WRP. We hope to be in the new house in Feb/March.
Seed you in Winding River.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Suggestions on a Community
