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My husband is retiring soon and we will be moving from the very small town of Smithville MO. It is located just north of Kansas City.
I love the mountains, waterfalls and hiking while my husband on the other hand loves the beach.
We will be coming to SC in February to check out some smaller towns out side of Greenville, Columbia, and the Charleston areas as well as these cities themselves.
Because of it's central location and larger city amenities we were focusing on the Columbia area.
Because of a similar post I submitted on the Columbia forum others have brought Rock Hill and Aiken to my attention and since they are in close proximity to North Augusta and Charlotte they seem to work as well.
It would be much easier if we were relocating because of a job but since the whole state is up for grabs it makes the decisions much more difficult.
I would love to hear about your home town and why you chose to live there. What are the things you love about it and what would you change if things were up to you.
The nice thing about our community it that it is a community and not a suburb of Kansas City, but downtown KC and all of it's amenities are only 20-30 minutes away. Big Box retailers are only 10 minutes away.
The things I a looking for in a new hometown that our current hometown does not have are more restaurants, a Wal-mart, a movie theater and an indoor/outdoor community center with pool and gym . A larger park with lots of walking trails (close to downtown area). I would also like a neighborhood close to down town that has older homes with lots of character and charm and sidewalks. Right now our home is only 3 blocks from downtown and we love walking to our community events and festivals that are held there.
Since we will be only living on a small pension at first I would like home prices to be in the low to mid 100's. We are in our mid forties so we may not stay retired for long so we would like to be 10-15 minutes away from a larger city. We will also be bringing our youngest son with us who will be out of HS by then.
I look forward to hearing all about your town and why you love it!
As the late famed poet and author of Deliverance Dr. James Dickey once said, the Columbia area offers a beautiful blend of the state's upcountry, Lowcountry and everything in between. For equally convenient, relatively quick access to beaches, mountains, Atlanta and Charlotte, while living in an attractive city that offers high-quality culture in the form of the performing arts, visual arts, stage theater, water- and land-based recreation, university-based amenities, tasty restaurant cuisine, unique stores and friendly people, you can't beat Columbia, South Carolina's first Tree City, USA.
Why not just off of Main St. in Columbia? You might want to check out the historic Earlewood neighborhood (website here). It's a nice older area with lots of unique homes from the 1920's, 30's, and 40's, sidewalks, and large trees where you can definitely find something in the low-mid 100's, probably in the 1000 - 1500 sqft range. Earlewood is extremely diverse and accepting, pretty much the exact opposite of the description you got for Lexington / Lake Murray in your other thread. There's a very active community organization, but it doesn't and never will function as a HOA. Just in the last year they've created a new dog park (already voted best in the city) and a community garden (largest in the city at 40 beds, and fully occupied). They also organize regular holiday gatherings, block/porch parties, and last year a hugely successful historic tour of homes.
The park itself is huge for an in-town park, with a new trail added a little over a year ago. The trail is probably less than a mile long, but it's very hilly. There are several ball fields and a highly regarded disk golf course. The city is currently building a community center in the park which will also be the new main office for their Parks and Recreation department. This is where community meetings and pot-lucks, etc. will be held (they're currently at one of the neighborhood churches). It's also super convenient to get on 126 (leading to the Harbison area, or to interstates 26 and 20 west) and 277 (leading to the northeast developments, or interstates 77 and 20 east).
The biggest downside preventing people from coming to the area are the current schools, which may not be an issue for you. Parts of the surrounding area are also still transitional, however not unsafe. Main Street north of Elmwood Ave. is basically vacant right now. The city redid the entire street a couple years ago, with new sidewalks, lighting, and buried utilities, but with the street basically inaccessible for a year and the economy most businesses closed up. There are rumors that Walmart is looking at locating a new 'Express' store there where a Cadillac dealership used to be, which could begin to catalyze the street. There is definitely a lot of potential in the area. The Bull St. development, with talks of a minor league baseball stadium or large retail anchors will also have a huge impact, although several years out.
Mike this looks like a great neighborhood. I love that there are houses built from different era's. (Sounds just like the street I live on) and one I will definitely put it on my list to check out while we are in town. I checked out their website and love that they have their own little community events within the neighborhood.
I am not a skittish person by any means so the thought of living in a larger cities downtown area doesn't scare me away, in fact I like the idea quite a bit. As long as it is not in a run down part of town. The only thing that would bother me in a neighborhood that close to downtown would be those coming into downtown and finding no place to park except on the street where I live on. Well that doesn't bother me as much as them coming back to the car being drunk and loud looking and possibly looking for trouble. I did a search and it appears that most of these establishments aren't that close to the Earlewood neighborhood to be a problem so that is a plus.
Move north of Travelers Rest and spend your retirement catching 10" rainbows out of streams you can jump across. Wait...are we talking about your retirement or mine?
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