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.
Relocating to Greenville area this summer with 4 kids, ages 2-11. We are flexible with location. Looking to spend no more than 350k on new or existing home. What are some family friendly neighborhoods with great schools? We are used to a very social neighborhood in Chicagoland with LOTS of kids around.//pics3.city-data.com/forum/ima...lies/smile.gif
350K in Greenville will buy you almost anything you want short of a mansion. You will have lots and lots of options. You could spend a 100K less and still buy a very nice home and have money left over.
Great schools will be your limiting factor in this area. School quality varies a lot between school districts and even within the same school district in the Upstate. The "Greenville area" covers a lot of geography.
Greenville has one large school district. Spartanburg County is divided into several school districts. Pickens County is a single school district. Anderson County is divided into several (5?) school districts as well.
If you look at individual high schools you can get an idea which ones have preformed well over time. Those report cards are only one thing you should use to get an idea of which schools will meet your needs. They are based largely on standardized tests and don't give you a complete picture. They do help, however, to rule out schools that are consistently poor performing.
If I was to give you a list I'd say in Greenville County, look at the following high schools: Riverside, Eastside, Wade Hampton, Blue Ridge, and Mauldin. Those schools all consistently perform well. On the west side of Spartanburg County (decent commute to Greenville), Byrnes High School tends to be good. In Pickens County, Easley is an easy commute to Greenville and tends to be pretty good. In Anderson County, Anderson District One is in the NE corner of the county and close to Greenville. Anderson District One schools tend to be very good (Powdersville, Wren, and Palmetto).
Picking among the better schools will come down to whether you want a rural or suburban setting, proximity to work, proximity to shopping, etc. If you give us a bit more info people can probably narrow down your search a bit more.
Where in Chicago? My wife and I live in Des Plaines and hope to move this summer as well. Matter of fact, we're flying to Greenville April 3rd for 4 days to check it out.
Thanks VolstuckinNC for your reply. It is reassuring to know we are on the right path in terms of schools we would like to target. We are heading to the Greenville area next week to get a better idea of where we want to be and hope to move there after the end of this school year. I had been checking greatschools.org for school info but I will take a look at the state report card as well. Proximity to job is not important as my husband works from a home office.
dja4260, We are currently in the Aurora area. Do you have children? What areas are you looking at?
So if proximity to a job isn't important, what other than quality of schools is important to you?
Do you want to be close to shopping, near the mountains, close to downtown, near more transplants from the NE and midwest, want a rural setting, want a large yard, prefer a small yard, etc.?
Well, we want at least a third of an acre. We also need a sizable home because we have 4 kids. We want a neighborhood setting, preferably with a community pool,etc. We don't need to be super close to a ton of stores, but grocery/pharmacy need to be within a few minutes. Schools are probably most important. Also looking for a builder who will do some customization as we are pretty particular about what we want. Finding this may be difficult with some of the bigger builders in the area. We love the outdoors so being closer to the mountains, trails, parks would be a bonus, but we don't want to get too far from Greenville.
A lot of the neighborhoods with the community pool and similar amenities are built by the mega-builders. Your best bet there might be to find a neighborhood that has a few lots left that didn't finish building out where you could buy the lot and have your own builder build the home.
If you are looking for a third to half acre or more, either the Blue Ridge area (some of that is close to shopping in Greer) or the Anderson District One area (NE corner of Anderson County, called "Powdersville" but not incorporated) both have good schools and tend to have more land with the homes than most of the neighborhoods near Simpsonville or Taylors. Both the Blue Ridge area and Powdersville will be a bit closer to the mountains than Simpsonville or Mauldin by 15 minutes give or take depending on exact location. Some of the area around Paris Mountain State park is in the Wade Hampton attendance zone and might be another consideration.
We ended up in a house with half an acre in the Powdersville High School attendance zone in Anderson District One. Powdersville High school is too new to be rated by the SC report cards or Greatschools (this is the third year the school has been open). It is a split off of Wren and will probably perform similarly to Wren. We have been happy with the school for the most part and I'm really picky when it comes to schools. Most of the shopping we need is nearby in Easley or Powdersville. Downtown Greenville is 15-20 minutes away, as is the mall over on Haywood Road.
I would look into Travelers Rest, the city has the swamp rabbit trail, and Paris mountain state park. It would definitely be great for an outdoors kind of family. Second would be Simpsonville, they have beautiful subdivision commutinies. They also have a wonderful park, Heritage Park which also has an outdoor theater that has major acts sometimes. The schools also have great reputations in that area.
Thank you all SO MUCH for these very detailed replies. How about builders? Any recommended builders, maybe local ones, who would not be a high end builder, do something in mid 300's? Maybe not totally custom, but known for flexibility? Again, thank you all.
Do you really want to spend that much money on a house?
200k - 250k can get you a 3.000 sq ft home in a nice neighborhood with amenities. You could save yourself a lot of money and still find a really nice house.
Last edited by Toto7SC; 03-26-2014 at 06:00 AM..
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.
