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Looking to retire in coastal South Carolina from Connecticut. Any comments on real estate, pros and cons of the area. We are looking for home about 30-60 minutes from the coast. Which cities/towns are the best. We are looking for homes up to $290.00. We prefer a home with some land - with no HOAs. Not too rural but far enough away from the hustle & bustle & traffic jams. Thank you everyone in advance. Any and all comments are appreciated.
I retired to Little River from Mass. about 3 years ago. We love it here. We are close to Myrtle Beach, but don't have all the traffic. It's pretty central to most locations. I was able to sell my house in Mass, and bought a house here with no mortgage and no HOA. The houses range from the inexpensive to expensive, depending on what you're looking for. We didn't want another mortgage,or be house poor, because we're living on social security and a small pension. So we ended up in a manufactured home with 3 decks, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. Plenty of room for relatives and friends to visit us. We have a large fenced in yard for our dogs, and only paid $120,000. The registry, police dept, library and the dump are just down the road from our house. A few minutes away is a supermarket, bank, doctor's office and hospital. It takes us 15 minutes to get to the Cherry Grove Beaches. The taxes are much lower than in Mass, and so are the gas prices. We spend a little more on groceries and car taxes are higher. Your drivers license is good for 10 years here, so at age 66, I doubt I will be renewing it in 10 years, lol. All in all, it was a good move for us. Good luck in your search.
Loris might also be attractive although it seems to be less safe than other areas.
There are not a lot of "towns" with a defined downtown area near Myrtle Beach. They are more like small communities more like Coventry CT. Conway, Aynor and Loris are probably the only real towns with a downtown that are away from the tourist area. lizamy lives in a very nice area (Little River) but it doesn't really have a downtown area either and may be a little closer to the beach than you want.
However, the only way you're going to know is to come down for a week or two and explore the area. DON'T stay near the beach...stay inland in an area that you think might interest you. Then, go to the grocery store, the shopping areas in the town (not the tourist areas near the beach), go to a church, try the restaurants in the town where you're staying, visit the schools or at least the area where the schools are, buy gas and go into the convenience store, look in the paper to see if there are activities in the town while you are there, go to the park, etc. When we were planning our move to SC, we made 3 trips...one to explore from Little River down to Murrells Inlet. The second, we explored the area that we found on the first trip that we thought we might like and the third trip, we got serious about finding a place to rent and spent almost the whole week looking at rentals. We ended up in an area that we love for the lifestyle we wanted. We actually started with Conway at the top of our list (before the first trip) but found it too far from the beach for our taste. It is truly a lovely town and we attend many festivals there and we have several good friends who live there.
Do your homework before moving. SC is VERY different from CT. As I said, we love it here, but some folks we know from the NE do not like the culture, the political environment (very red state) and the reduced services that come with significantly reduced taxes (10% of what we were paying in CT for a similar size house). Things that we took for granted in CT because they were included in our taxes we have to pay extra for here if we want the service. And that's ok with us but some people expect it to be provided by the county/city. Oh, that reminds me...the towns do not all abut each other like in CT. Most areas are unincorporated and are governed by the County government (no such thing in CT) and police protection is provided by the County or State so response times can be greater than if you live in the town.
ConnecticutYankee, excellent post. I always learn a lot from your comments and recommendations. I appreciate your contributions to this forum. I am curious about one thing. I wasn't sure what you meant about reduced services. Here in Fairfield County (CT) we get city water (which we pay for to the water company) and then we get police protection and fire dept. services. That's it. We're on septic which we pay for. We also pay for anything we need to dispose of, lawn debris (including leaves), household trash, etc. Basically, we're paying $1,000. per month for police and fire protection. So, unless I'm missing something, I don't think we will be affected too much by having less services.
We moved here from Newington, CT so I have to use it as a reference point. It sounds like Fairfield County does not have as many services as Newington. Our trash pickup and recycling pickup were included in our taxes. Additionally, we could rake our leaves to the curb and the town picked them up. Old appliances, etc. were also picked up by the town. Additionally, the town also had many sport teams for kids organized through Parks & Rec which were basically low or no cost. The town had a multiple pools and you could swim for free at the high school pool in the winter. The town had multiple parks with playgrounds for kids, basketball courts, soccer fields, baseball fields, etc. There was a children's theater group sponsored by Parks & Rec which was free to join. Parks & Rec sponsored lots of activities for kids and adults. Parking just about anywhere in town was free. The library was open late in the evening and even on Sunday (library here closes at 7 during the week, 2 on Sat and not open on Sunday). The town had a lovely senior center with free activities for seniors. The town had a meals-on-wheels program and offered rides for seniors.
Regarding police and fire (and teachers)...all are unionized and have negotiated nice pensions/health care benefits in most of the NE. Unionization of public employees is outlawed in SC. Take a look at Fairfield's city budget and you'll see the impact of those contracts...those three groups probably make up the majority of the budget. That's where a lot of the tax dollars go (not saying that they don't deserve it) but these costs are a lot lower in SC. Additionally, in Horry County, the fire dept depends on volunteer firemen to supplement their paid firemen. Schools in CT typically have a lot of "support" personnel for teachers that simply don't exist in SC.
All of these activities and services are available here but because of the low tax structure, you have to pay extra for most of them or there aren't as many available (parks, for example). I'm not criticizing the government for not providing them at the same level as CT...I sure enjoy the lower taxes and don't mind the reduced level of services. I just want to make people aware that life here is very different than where they are coming from especially if they are coming from the NE. I run across lots of people who have moved here who complain about how "backward" the County is because it doesn't provide the same level of services as NE. That's why I try to make people aware of the differences...one is not necessarily better than the other...it's just different.
I retired to Little River from Mass. about 3 years ago. We love it here. We are close to Myrtle Beach, but don't have all the traffic. It's pretty central to most locations. I was able to sell my house in Mass, and bought a house here with no mortgage and no HOA. The houses range from the inexpensive to expensive, depending on what you're looking for. We didn't want another mortgage,or be house poor, because we're living on social security and a small pension. So we ended up in a manufactured home with 3 decks, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. Plenty of room for relatives and friends to visit us. We have a large fenced in yard for our dogs, and only paid $120,000. The registry, police dept, library and the dump are just down the road from our house. A few minutes away is a supermarket, bank, doctor's office and hospital. It takes us 15 minutes to get to the Cherry Grove Beaches. The taxes are much lower than in Mass, and so are the gas prices. We spend a little more on groceries and car taxes are higher. Your drivers license is good for 10 years here, so at age 66, I doubt I will be renewing it in 10 years, lol. All in all, it was a good move for us. Good luck in your search.
Your house sounds wonderful! That is exactly what we want If we move there.
CTYankee, thanks for the thorough and detailed explanation. Your post should be read by all who are planning to move from the NE area to SC so they will know what to expect in their new location. I'm glad we did our research and are aware of the differences that we'll face when living in SC.
Thirty to sixty minutes from the beach is pretty far inland. If it were me, I wouldn't venture any further inland than say Conway. Look into Pawleys Island. I find it resembles the North the most and while it has tourists, its not crazy busy.
I live in Myrtle but about 3 miles to ocean . In peak tourist season its taken 30 minutes to get home, ugh. .
You learn when to go out in the summer and alls good.
I will say, its very different here and not always in a good way. Not trying to be negative but its very different than Massachusetts.
Best of luck
Thank you all..very helpful. We want out of Connecticut because it costs too much to live here if you are working middle class. We do not expect freebies ...this blue state is not for us!
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