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Hello, I have been watching this forum for a few years and it is now my turn to ask the housing question. We will be moving to the Greenville area this summer and working at the GMH hospitals: Downtown, Patewood, Greer, and Simpsonville. We have a 2nd and 5th grader, so schools are very important, particularly middle and high school (prefer public school, but will go private if warranted). Would also like to have short commutes and be close to amenities: Grocery, kids sport fields, YMCA swimming team pool, Karate studio, restaurants, hardware. Convenient road bike racing/training from house with low traffic and bike lanes would be nice also, but not sure if that fits with the other requirements.
We live in an awesome neighborhood now with lots of grade school kids and we all help each other out when needed and have occasional yard/neighborhood parties. I know this is kind of hard to find, people from other neighborhoods around here comment on how they could not find a neighborhood like this when they bought. Before our current house, we lived in a very nice neighborhood, but there were hardly any kids. I guess I am trying to say I would like to find another neighborhood with lots of grade school to middle school age kids.
We would like about 3,000 to 4,000 square foot with a three car garage (or two with 3rd car spot away from main driveway), about .3 to .4 acre lot, basement or crawl space workshop a plus (We are bringing a lot of stuff, alright, you could call it junk). My wife really wants a new or fairly new house with the fancy kitchen cabinets & stone countertops and nice internal/external architecture. I would update an older house if the neighborhood and schools are great. This probably puts us in the $450K to $650K range by looking at Realtor.com.
The Question is……..Simpsonville (Five forks area) vs. Greer (Riverside) vs. East Greenville vs. South Greenville (Greenville Country Club Area)….Anyone have comparison information and/or preference suggestions? Are there other areas I should be looking at? Powdersville sounds nice, but not central to the GMHospitals… is the commute to the hospitals good?
I would not rule out Powdersville. One of the most popular communities is River Reserve. There are children in the neighborhood and the majority of the home owners (if I am not mistaken) work at the hospitals. You can easily be to Greenville Memorial in 10 minutes.
My mom lives in Powdersville and works for GHS. Only takes 10 minutes or so to get to the hospital. I recommend checking out Acadia and the River Reserve in the Powdersville area. You might also want to check out Verdae and Chanticleer in Greenville too. A great website to look at area homes is http://www.journalhomes.com/
Based on the your housing criteria, I would suggest the Augusta Rd area (south end/Greenville CC area with mostly older but some newer infill and HUGE trees) or the Powdersville area as suggested for proximity to the main Greenville Memorial campus-there's also Acadia in addition to River Reserve; or the Eastside for proximity to Patewood; or anywhere in the Golden Strip (Mauldin along I-385 down to Simpsonville and on to Fountain Inn) for proximity to the GHS Hillcrest campus.
In the GS, Mauldin tends to have established 10-15 yr old homes/neighborhoods in your size range and Simpsonville the most new construction while Fountain Inn is just coming into its own. Schools anywhere in Greenville County (and I hear the Anderson County schools serving the Powdersville area) are a pretty safe bet all around. Most facilities are newly built in the last few yrs or have been recently renovated.
All the mentioned areas either have their own shopping or easy access to same. There's a YMCA on the Eastside in Taylors, the recently renovated/enlarged "main" YMCA in the Cleveland Park/Augusta Rd area and one in Simpsonville serving the GS.
Really as far as neighborhoods, it's a matter of personal preference after seeing them and their surroundings. I can only speak to the neighborhood we've lived in for nearly 9 yrs. We have great neighbors from various states (and countries), and some really good friends among them. People here tend to be friendly, helpful and generous. Hope this helps some!
Thank you for the great information. I had ruled out powdersville, but you put that back in the hat for us. The decision is getting more difficult because there are quite a few good choices, but that just highlights what a great area Greenville is.
We will be rotating to the different hospitals every few weeks, so I was initially looking at a central location between Downtown GMH, Patewood, Greer, and Simpsonville. Riverside school district in Greer looked like a fit for that, but I am looking at the highways to see driving time to each place.
River Reserve looks very nice. The website shows that most lots are sold, but I wonder if realtors just have signs on most of those. 1 Acre lot is pretty big, I have a hard enough time taking care of 0.5 Acre. Price is on the upper edge of my comfort zone (you know, responsible american debt...). I hear a lot of good comments about it and I might be able to make the purchase price, so it will stay on the list.
Acadia looks nice too, some of the pictures show houses that look too big for the lots even though the lots seem to be .3 acre, but I would need to see it in person or in a video. Prices are very attractive here also. The video was a kind of cheesy waste of time...it mostly showed closeups of water running over rocks and familys doing cheery stuff on a nice looking mowed grass field. I think they were going for the warm fuzzy thing, but it gave no real information (just like the Jabberwokky presentation on Better Off Ted). Despite the useless video, I am still interested in Acadia..It looks like a good location near the intersection of 85 and 185. It also has lots of homes (many kids playmates) and a nice pool that looks like it could have a summer kids swim team.
We should be down there in early to mid February, hoping for good weather, but you never know when the next cold front is coming through...
Thanks Again, and I can never get enough information from Greenville (At least, I do not think so).
A lot of great houses are for sale in the Thornblade Country Club area which has access to great public schools. You can be on !-85 in minutes from this area. There are a lot of children in the Sugar Creek, Thornblade, Barrington Park, and Sugar Mill areas.
I actually just finished showing a family homes with this exact criteria this past weekend. 32 homes in three days, and made an offer this morning. Overall, the homes were located in the Eastside (Greer/Pelham Rd) and the Five Forks/Woodruff Road/Simpsonville area. They liked the fact that the Greer area was a little more established with mature trees, but ultimately chose new construction in the Woodruff Road area due to the fit and finish (molding, coffered ceilings, morning room, granite counters, amenities, etc) of a home in a new subdivision (which still had plenty of mature trees by the way).
Of all the homes I showed them, only one featured a basement, but that also wasn't high on their priority list.
I hope that helps to give you an idea of what's out there, and what other purchaser's with similar criteria have found.
We just relocated last summer and moved to the Five Forks/Woodruff Road area and we really love it. We bought a new home in a small subdivision and we really like being close to shops and restaurants but not so close that we are always in traffic. Our schools are Rudolph Gordon for elementary which is brand new this is only the second year and Riverside Middle and Mauldin High School. My daughter is at the elementary and my son is at the high school and they both really love their schools and said the adjusment was very easy as there are lots of transplants in both schools.
Hi, I have lived in Greenville for 16 years and have a child in the Greenville County School System. Greenville has very affordable housing and one of the best school systems in South Carolina along with a beautiful Metro area surrounded by mountains, lakes and waterways. The best schools in Greenville County are Oakview and Bells Crossing Elementary which are in the highly desireable Five Forks area of Simpsonville. My sister works at GMH and lives off Scuffletown Road. Look on greatschools.com for school reviews. Greenville may be a little expensive for the size you want but Simpsonville is more affordable, has better schools and is still only a 20 to 25 minute drive to the hospital. Hope this helps. PS- I own a Residential Home Cleaning Service if you might be interested. Please visit my website www.cleaningladygville.com when you get into town if you need help with routine cleaning of your home.
From the Eastside (Riverside) the main hospital is not that far. About 20 mins backroads. I never use the highway. Riverside High is one of the best in the area.
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