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I would like to buy a house around four or five years before we retire and wondered if this timeframe in wanting to buy a house was too soon? Should we wait maybe a year or two before we purchase a home? We would continue to work up here in NY and visit Greenville on our vacation. The reason for my concern is that I see Greenville as being the next Charlotte. I would like the opportunity to purchase something we both can afford before prices skyrocket.
I don't know about buying a house or retirement, as I am 29 year old renter, but I know that the Brown Street Club is precisely the type of place you're looking for.
Also we have Main Street Jazz, which is a series of outdoor jazz concerts on Friday evenings from April 4th to September 26th.
Hopefully others will have the answers to your more pressing questions. Good luck with your search!
You missed the link to the opening animation for The Brown Street Club. You also missed the official website for Main Street Jazz.
It is hard to predict how much Greenville will have grown in the music world ten years from now, but if the current trend is any indication, it will be great. The pace of life is more pleasant in Greenville, in my opinion. You actually have time to relax and enjoy every moment.
Thanks for the correction, Skyliner. I am but a young padawan on the promoting Greenville scene and bow to the master.
I think another music club similar in scope to the Handlebar but with perhaps a different focus would be nice in the West End a block or two out from Fluor Stadium.
Its hard to say what will happen with the housing market right now. Nationwide, prices are defintely down, and there are more and more reports of buyer scarcity. Interest rates have been creaping up, and mortgage companies are tightening the requirements for folks to be approved. What all that means for you is that the prices are fairly low now, probably correcting for the boom in home prices from 2002 to 2007. Many times after a down turn in the market for a certain time, it corrects the other way giving us a little boom to make up for the down times. 5 years from now, we might be in the middle of the next boom or we could be still in the stagnant market that we have today. Its really hard to predict.
I think Greenville is a GREAT location to retire. There are plenty of events in the area to keep you busy. In addition the the recurring events like Main St. Jazz, there are several major annual festivals that block off the downtown area and fill the place with bands, food, and other vendors. There are several top notch Golf options in the Greenville area (Furman and Clemson both have excelent courses on top of the other public and private courses around). There are several good sized lakes around and several nice mountain state parks.
If you decide Greenville is the right place for you, you might consider buying sooner while the market is still down. You could rent the place out while you're still in NJ. There would be several management companies around that would handle the land lord duties for you. I guess it really depends on what you want to do.
Bottom line. You can't really go wrong with Greenville.
I grew up "in the hood" in Brooklyn, but I have been living in the Atlanta Area for 15 years. With each passing year Atlanta becomes more like the hood I left behind, so tell your fiance that if she wants to feel like she needs to keep her sidearm then Atlanta is the place for her. I, myself, have only been to Greenville once, a few months ago, but it was enough to charm me into wanting to retire and move there.
I would suggest that you and your fiance (youse guys) take a vacation down here and visit both areas and decide for yourself. I originally bought a house in GA while I still lived in NY, and I kept it rented for years until I moved here. Like you, I might just do that again, but buy in Greenville this time.
Good luck.
I actually just worked with some folks planning to retire in Greenville within the next 3-5 years, and they bought a new home back in November. This is becoming more common, and they were from Pennsylvania, but originally the Bronx.
As for the future, who knows what that holds? Greenville has grown a lot since I moved here in 2002, so by 2016, literally, who knows?
Fortunately the real estate market is still extremely healthy here, as we never saw the insane bubbles that much of the country has seen over the past 5-10 years. Greenville has seen stable appreciation over the past 5 years, and the average sale price of a single-family home continued to rise in the 4th quarter of 2007 and 1st quarter of 2008 (compared to the same quarter the year before). The PMI Group Inc. just released their risk index which showed Greenville as having a less than 1% risk in price decline over the next two years.
I always say this, and I'll say it again. I feel that there are two indications of a healthy real estate market: the trends in average sale price, and the average days on market. In Greenville's case, the average sale continues to rise, and the time it takes to sell a home (single-family resale) has decreased by an average of 2% every year since 2003.
PS - I personally try to avoid Atlanta at all costs.
Hi, My husband and I love it here. We have lots of business from people retiring here. It's really a great place. I moved from Atlanta and lived in Atlanta most of my life. I love the midtown in Atlanta, but I swear Greenville has more culture and artsy stuff then Atlanta does/did, not to meantion the outdoor activities available here. Water sports to biking to camping/hiking...We used to drive up here from Atlanta all the time to do outdoor activities. This is a great place for kids. Right now the market is soft so it's a good time to buy if you have the financing. It will go up. Greenville is just too cool and my husband and I have traveled all over the country/world. PS. the traffic is much more awesome here then Atlanta!!!
Good luck.
Since you like jazz, you might enjoy being in town during the Southern Exposure festival ( video). Most events at SE require the advance purchase of a ticket, but this is a very nice festival. Also during the same weekend is the annual Art in the Park (http://www.upstatevisualarts.org/events/artinthepark.php - broken link) festival. My favorite time in the Greenville area is in October, so if you have a chance to visit from late September during Southern Exposure and stay in town through the first two weeks in October during Fall For Greenville, you'll receive a nice taste of the outdoor activities available in this city.
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Retirement to Greenville
