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I have looked in to the north main area, I do still see single family homes in my price range of under 300G. I have spent a lot of time visiting Greenville and getting to know the area. Viewing homes and meeting with agents. learning the roads, finding the best shops, restaurants, parks, and all other manners of entertainment. Basically if I moved to Greenville tomorrow it would be completely seamless as I know it so well. I have done this because I am a big long term planer I dont like to leave anything up to chance. I plan on the SC move to be my final move and I wont be ready to do that for 5 more years. Because of the way the housing market is going in Greenville I believe I will be priced out before im ready to move.
One thing you have to understand is its not housing prices that necessarily matter the most, but rather the cost of living. You can adjusted your income to your cost of living. And when looking at COL, Greenville is still below the national average.
While wages are lower here, the COL is still low enough where you can still have a good bit of purchasing power. For instance, Charleston and Greenville wages aren't that different, yet when 100 is considered the median, Greenville's COL is at 93, while Charleston is at 109, so even though both are large cities in the same state, your $50,000 salary will take you further here than there. And housing is even better, with Greenville's housing at 72, which is a bargin for an area with Greenville's size and class.
Housing is fine, and affordability is still plentiful. You just have to accept your trade offs. You want walkibility? You're gonna have to pay more and take less space, but if you're willing to drive 5-10 minutes and park for downtown amenities, there's plenty of great cheaper and larger options.
Greenville is a very affordable place to live. I lived extremely comfortably there and still consider myself middle/upper-middle class. Buying or renting right in the heart of downtown is not particularly cheap but it's not astronomical. And, as others have said, you can move out just a few miles and housing and rent prices drop dramatically.
As someone who has recently moved to the area from the Tampa Bay area, I view it as extremely affordable here. House prices and rent tend to be at least 30% lower for similar properties than where I came from, and property taxes and insurance are only 30-50% of what they were in FL. Gas is cheaper, utilities are cheaper, food prices seem to be about the same. Wages seem to be about the same for similar work. I guess in the end your view on it will depend on where you are coming from. Move here from NYC, it seems extremely affordable. Move here from rural Oklahoma, and it may seem a bit pricey, but no matter what, I still feel it is affordable for the middle class
Greenville is a funny place...beautiful and wonderful, but funny.
I have wondered this myself as a young professional in my mid to late twenties doing well in my career. As far as housing goes, my theory is that in five years you'll probably have a better shot at affording something downtown than now because prices are going to have to even out before too much longer. Growth is not outpacing what we are building here and once many of these projects are completed downtown, we will have much more inventory thus evening out the pricing, especially when talking about rentals.
Now, this being said, once you get out of the heart of downtown, its all fairly priced and no different than you would see in any other SC city unless youre going into the Cliffs or something. Those home prices are increasing but they are not overpriced like downtown. The suburbs are no different than anywhere else really when it comes to pricing and they are really close in unlike most cities where your nicer suburbs are at least 10 miles out.
I will also say this about Greenville, as wonderful a city as it is, it comes across as much more uppity or snooty than it actually is. Not to say there is not plenty of high end in Greenville, there most certainly is, but its all much more laid back and casual than it appears.
Greenville also is a city that jumps on trends as soon as they come out, craft beer is trendy so Greenville has become a craft beer city, foodies are in now so its become a foodie city, whatever the "in" thing is, Greenville is always on it and will become obsessed with it before most cities.
All good tips people thanks! I am coming from Saint Albans Vermont. Where the average cost to own a home is about 190 grand and the average income is 45 grand for a family. Im at 70 grand so am living well in Saint Albans on the out skirts of down town.(about a mile from the heart of downtown) I will not need a job in greenville and will take my current income with me.
Greenville also is a city that jumps on trends as soon as they come out, craft beer is trendy so Greenville has become a craft beer city, foodies are in now so its become a foodie city, whatever the "in" thing is, Greenville is always on it and will become obsessed with it before most cities.
I think the opposite, funny enough.
To me, craft beer was a hip trend 15 years ago, now it's just mainstream. Even huge brewers have been marketing "craft beers" for awhile now. Same thing with foodie cities. While Greenville likes to market itself as some type of foodie town, it's many many years behind other places I've lived, not to mention Asheville just up the road. They are a good decade (at least) ahead of Greenville's food scene, affecting the market from high end to the tiny taco stand. Fresher, tastier, more interesting, more local, more options, etc...
I actually think this is a good thing for the more entrepreneurial types that live here. Just look at what was hot and trendy 10 years ago in more progressive cities, and you have a template for what will happen here.
I Love Asheville, both the food and beer. However to me Greenville seemed like more of a family city and a more established downtown.
I would agree that Greenville is a bit more of a family city.
And Art, I tend to agree as well. Craft beer, third wave coffee shops, food trucks. Greenville was a little 'late' to the party. However, to be fair, that is really just true of most cities the size of Greenville. I was just glad that some of that stuff started to come eventually, even if a lot of it was finally on the uptick by the time I decided to move away. And you're right that it really is an entrepreneurial opportunity here at times for that very reason.
As stated before though, I think Greenville is still a very affordable city for the middle class and offers a good bit relative to its affordability.
I Love Asheville, both the food and beer. However to me Greenville seemed like more of a family city and a more established downtown.
Yes, totally agree that Greenville is more family-oriented, and a safer bet as far as jobs and local economy, and a little bit better cost of living.
Having said that, if the local economy was not an issue, I would personally prefer to raise a family in Asheville. It's not like it's unfriendly towards families (tons of wonderful families there ), and I think the people are, overall on average, more open and friendly, and hold themselves to a moral standard more in keeping with my own.
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), and I think the people are, overall on average, more open and friendly, and hold themselves to a moral standard more in keeping with my own.
