sarahatall

Looking for a bit of a perspective on South Carolina....I consider myself more of a country (as in live in the country not country music) girl than a city girl and love horses. Love the beach also. Am looking for a state that has the best of both worlds and great sun all year round....is this south Carolina?????

made in sheffield

Hi, i lived in Myrtle Beach for 5 years and really enjoyed it, you only have to drive 5 miles inland and there is so much country so you do have the best of both! my only problem i did get abit bored and restless as theres not much else going on, but having said that i do miss it alot !

Englishtart

Sorry to Hijack this thread, not really off topic, but hubby just got offered a job at Charleston AFB in SC, would love a bit of info on the surrounding areas if anyone has any?

Still waiting on confirmation, but it sounds like this one may actually come through! Now I am frantically trying to find out anything I can about the schools, cost of living, climate etc.....help!!??

sarahatall

Hijack away...we'll both benefit from the reply

Englishtart

Hopefuly...maybe they are still sleeping on that coast?

tamms_1965

I absolutely love SC. I've never lived there but I've visited there many, many times. We are camping over Spring Break at Edisto Island (close to Charleston) and then down at Hunting Island (close to Beaufort). If I win the lottery soon, I'm packing up and moving there

Muswell Hill

I live in Charleston and will give you my 2 cents....schools: can vary greatly: from good in mount pleasant to worse than crap in north Charleston. There are lots of magnet and charter schools in the county which run on a lottery basis. If you are lucky to get in, then great, if not keep on trying. For the best schools i would say move to mount pleasant or west ashley. Cost of living is pretty cheap compared to other places in the US, but is priciest in SC. Having said that I think overall cost of living is not too expensive. Climate is great all year round: summer is 11 months long, winter 1.
Be very selective on where you live, even if your husband has a job offer on the AFB under no circumstances move to north Charleston. It is the US's 11th most violent city, with all the usual problems...drugs, LOTS of violence etc etc.
Traffic is not too bad, and the peninsular has some nice history to it. A real plus is the Charleston airport....really nice to fly from home to anywhere else.

Best of luck and PM me if you want!

Muswell Hill

See my other post on SC, but depends what you want by "country"? SC has its pluses, but is also VERY conservative, VERY VERY religious, has generally poor schools and seems to be top on most bad lists and bottom on the good ones. Having said that; life is what you make it and you can find some nice spots here to call home and has good employment prospects in certain areas.

Before moving, i suggest a visit

Best of luck and PM me if you want!

Englishtart

Thank you for the info sweety, much appreciated We have usually found that the areas close to the bases are not particularly the best places to live, we prefer to live further out.

I have done some research on the schools and rentals, I found a school called "Summerville high school" which sounds pretty good? I will check out the mount pleasant area next, thank you again. It really is pretty cool to be able to reach out to people in virtually every State on this forum

fsm

I am in South Carolina quite a lot, I live 300 yards from the border.

I would recommend a visit first, it can be quite a culture shock in comparison to other states.

Having said that I love where I am and we had debated to live in NC or SC and ended up in NC with the Father-in-law living in SC.

Mallory

I live in Columbia, SC, and my daughter lives in Charleston. That's not quite accurate about N. Charleston. A part of N Charleston is in Dorchester County, which is a very good school district. Stay away from Berkeley County. There are some nice subdivisions not far from the AFB in Dorchester County (toward W Ashley).

Summerville is a lovely area, especially in the spring when the azaleas and dogwoods are in bloom. It has a small town feel to it. Lots of transplants moving there, it is very popular. I think you would like it a lot. The beaches are lovely at the Isle of Palms and Sullivans Island. Of course Charleston is beautiful in the historic district.

The major cities (which are moderate size) in SC are all really nice, i.e. Greenville, Columbia, Charleston, M Beach, Beaufort, Hilton Head, Aiken. When you get outside the cities you mostly hit very poor areas, which drags down the school ratings, a sad fact. Boeing is building a new plant in N Charleston, so I'm sure there will be a lot of housing activity going on.

It's extremely hot and humid in the summer, so be prepared for that. Mild winters. Property taxes are low, gas is cheaper, ciggies are cheaper. Air cond bills are high though!! LOL. I love it here.

For instance these homes are in N Charleston, but are in Dorchester County, not too far from AFB.

http://www.portcityfinehomes.com/wat...-whitehall.cfm

Englishtart

Thank you fsm and Mallory

I have been hearing quite a lot about the heat/humidity there in the Summers Here in IL we get a few hot days, some in the high 90's or above and it's ALWAYS humid in Summer, I really hate the humidity, but it's just something you have to accept in some areas I guess.

I am really looking forward to living on the East Coast, have always wanted to move 'over that side' I have a friend in Georgia that says Charleston is her favorite place in the world, she has been sending me pics of the areas and of some of the old plantation homes, I can't wait to see them. Hubby being a Historian by career and hobby is really going to be happy there! LOL

Mallory, I had checked into the Dorchester school district, after checking on greatschools website, they recommend that district pretty highly. I like the sound of the Summerville HS though and the small town feel suits us too. Now if I could convince my Son that he will settle into (another) school just fine, I would be all set!

Englishtart

Wow! those houses are gorgeous...love #5 However, I have promised myself (and hubby) that we will rent for at least the first 12 months whenever we move again, we own this house here in IL, so we will have to rent it out until () the housing market picks up anyway.

Hopefuly, we can get a rent payment that will cancel out the mortgage payment

tamms_1965

Got this today in one of my teacher newsletters..


school report cards by state

http://www.edweek.org/ew/qc/2010/17src.h29.html

Englishtart

Thanx for posting that Tamms, pretty interesting, looks like IL and SC are pretty similar, but that is the whole State right? I'm guessing that certain districts within that State can add or subtract to the overall grade the State gets. The district that we are in here is supposedly one of the best in IL, and is expected to do better than some other schools to keep the state grades higher.