time for another thread about this place
where is a good place to live around here that doesn't cost $texas?

8/22/2011 2:49:10 PM

North Charleston and way out in West Ashley past the 526 exit.

If you want to go a little further...Summerville.

You moving here? Where will you be working? Are you single? Would you like to be closer to downtown and/or the beaches?

I paid a premium for the location of my house...and I don't regret it one bit. There are only three areas in Charleston that I would live/buy a house: Downtown, Mount Pleasant on the Coleman Blvd side (off Rifle Range is best place to look), and the Riverland Terrace neighborhood in James Island off of Maybank. Actually, I would live in the Old Village in Mount Pleasant and Avondale in West Ashley...but those two places aren't worth the price tag IMO.

8/22/2011 3:10:04 PM

I've heard NC is ghetto as fuck, though...

8/22/2011 3:12:03 PM

^Not certain areas. Park Circle in North Charleston is really nice.

8/22/2011 3:15:16 PM

i was there the other weekend... we were at one bar and no less than 7 bachelorette parties were there at the same time.

8/22/2011 3:18:03 PM

Depends what size house you want, whether you want to buy, and what you mean by $texas.

I lived in a 1000 sq ft, 2 bedroom apartment in Avondale for $975/month. That price is pretty standard for that part of town. For the same price I own a house in Hanahan. I moved to be close to work but I LOVED living in Avondale. It's an up and coming area with a lot of really cool shops and restaurants. It's also a quick drive/bike to downtown. I would still live there if my commute wasn't 45 minutes.

Downtown is expensive and parking is tough (be careful ... some places downtown don't include a parking spot and you have to pay as much as $100/month per car!!!) But for fun density and variety it's the best!

Mount Pleasant is more soulless and suburban. And whatever you do, don't live in Summerville unless you like being stuck in traffic for an hour every day.

8/22/2011 4:43:25 PM

Guess I should have mentioned that I was going for buying a house...not renting.

It's generally most expensive to rent downtown and at the beach (Sullivan's Island, Folly, and IOP), then Maybe Mt. P, then West Ashley (where Avondale is) and James Island.

But you can also find good deals anywhere. I lived in the heart of downtown for $475 a month and on Sullivans Island (one street from the beach and 1/2 block from all the bars) for $500/month. You just have to be looking at all times (Craigslist app is GREAT for that) and have a quick trigger.

Although cheap to rent, Avondale homes are selling at the top of the market in Charleston. It's quite ridiculous for homes that are being close to run down.

8/22/2011 4:56:01 PM

I, too, want to live in Charleston so damn bad but want a good area. Downtown, while fun as shit, may be out of range right now, but we definitely want to be close to it and not in the ghetto. I've heard almost everyone say to stay away from NC. We like Mt. Pleasant area a lot but when we are town we don't really venture too far out to check things out, either the beach or downtown.

Both of us are just waiting for a reason to move there (like a job) but I can't waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiit for the day!

8/22/2011 5:03:55 PM

There are certain areas of downtown that are withing range. Obviously you're not going to live on the Battery, but if you're really looking, check out the Hampton Park neighborhood and the areas just north of the Crosstown.

I love the Riverland Terrace neighborhood in James Island. It's close to Folly and John's Island, not too far away from Downtown either.

If you're looking in Mount Pleasant, just make sure you're not west of Highway 17. The traffic is a bitch. Just east towards Coleman Blvd makes a HUGE difference. Old Village is expensive, but the rest isn't too bad. I guess it can be "suburban", but it's a still a great area. Very close to downtown and the nice beaches with new restaurants and bars popping up everywhere.

West Ashley is nice if you can find something Avondale...but it's almost as expensive to live there as it is to live downtown or Old Village. But the rest of it on Hwy 61 and 17 puts you in really shitty traffic and sometimes shitty neighborhoods as well.

Park Circle in North Charleston really is nice...but it's about the only neighborhood worth living in that area.

8/22/2011 5:11:03 PM

I used to live in North Charleston off of Dorchester by the Air Force Base. It's not as nice as Park Circle, but its affordable and decent enough. A little apartment called Brackenbrook was under 600/mo and in not that terrible of a neighborhood. I was over there for about 2 and a half years, and never had any problems with neighbors other than about the 5 times someone parked in my space. With the economy the way it is, a lot of people had moved out by the time I had.

A government housing program downtown built about 20 condos for first time homeowners with income between 40 and 52k a year, so I bought one of them in January. I'm in the Longborough area which is sub million dollar homes on the Ashley River. I got in for under 150k, plus 10k in government grants. I'm just north of Hampton Park, which is a nicer version of the Park Circle in NC. Very convenient and an easy commute going against traffic at both points of the day. I just hope I don't get blown away on Saturday

8/22/2011 5:16:19 PM

yeah, I should mention that I'll be working in North Charleston, off of Remount Rd. Is summerville still bad for that location? What about Ladson? I see a decent looking place there...

I've lived in my own house for the past 2 and a half years, and it has spoiled me. So much better than an apartment in so many ways. What sux is that I'm not gonna be able to sell this place, so I'm gonna have to rent it, making it practically impossible to buy another place, or so I figure

I really want a place that I can head out the door at 9pm for a 5 mile run and not be worried about getting jumped.

[Edited on August 22, 2011 at 5:31 PM. Reason : ]

8/22/2011 5:30:37 PM

The problem with Summerville (and probably Ladson too) is the traffic. Everyone lives outside of Charleston and commutes into it, so you'd be going with traffic in the mornings and afternoons. I-26 East is a nightmare in the AM and West in the PM, along with auxiliary routes like Highway 52, Highway 78, and Dorchester Road. That's why I did my damnedest to move into Charleston, so I wouldn't be spending 30m+ each way in traffic.

Of course, you can do what I used to do when I lived in North Charleston, and go into work at 0700 and leave at 1530, but you might not have that option. Remount leads me to believe you'll be doing something SPAWAR related though?

8/22/2011 5:36:36 PM

^ mayhaps SPAWAR is it

8/22/2011 6:16:53 PM

Quote :

"I'm just north of Hampton Park, which is a nicer version of the Park Circle in NC."

What street are you on?

8/22/2011 6:49:23 PM

Charlesfort Alley, off of 10th Avenue

8/22/2011 7:03:22 PM

You said you want a house but didn't say if you want to buy ... There are a couple neighborhoods like Park Circle and Avondale where you can rent houses pretty cheaply (my apartment I mentioned was a house divided into a duplex) But I would be hesitant to buy a house in either of those places. Like jbrick said, Avondale houses are $texas to buy. And Park Circle is sort of moving up, but IMO it could still go either way toward gentrified or back to ghetto.

For where you're working I recommend renting a house in Park Circle. It's a short drive to work, and the small amount of traffic will be going the opposite way. There are tons of new restaurants and bars on the east side of the circle. There are a lot of events in the park like free exercise classes, frisbee golf, a farmer's market, shows & festivals. Plus you're close to downtown.

The good news about your work is that if you lived on say, James Island, you would have the "counter commute" direction on I-26

8/22/2011 7:22:10 PM

Buy a house on the water this week so you can get dat insurance money next week.

8/22/2011 7:30:46 PM

I'd love it if I could buy a house, but I don't think I can get a mortgage on another house while I still have this house in Aiken.

8/22/2011 7:33:51 PM

Tell me about the crowds and the tourists? Is it bad bad or a part of life you get used to and learn to avoid?

8/22/2011 9:11:20 PM

You really just get used to them and learn what to avoid. I was walking around the Battery a few weekends ago and notices it was eerily quiet...the tourists weren't awake yet apparently. Some of it is "quaint", like the horse carriages that pull them around, or the cycle taxis. You mostly shrug it off though once you've been here long enough to not be like those people anymore. They don't seem to contribute to traffic, at least if you know what streets to take to bypass the difficult ones (King, Meeting)

8/22/2011 9:33:03 PM

I live in summerville/North Charleston. Pretty nice area. Only 20 minutes from downtown charleston. Buying a house soon. Looking for a roommate if anyone is interested. Houses are cheap in summerville. No traffic problems how i travel. Then again i go to jedburg for work and don't ever touch I-2.


Nightlife is awesome.




[Edited on August 22, 2011 at 9:44 PM. Reason : `]

8/22/2011 9:37:52 PM

IMO tourists only cause problems if you live on the beach. My friend who lives on Folly says people park in his driveway and use his hose to shower with

8/22/2011 10:02:38 PM

Folly is crowded as fuck. (or it was the other weekend)... the water also had a very high salinity compared to other beaches i've been to.

8/22/2011 10:06:24 PM

Is IOP bad w/ tourists? I know when we visit we go to IOP and not folly but it never seems busy but you know it's different when you actually live there.

[Edited on August 22, 2011 at 10:13 PM. Reason : oh and that's crazy nerdchick, my bf would go apeshit. ]

8/22/2011 10:11:28 PM

i love when people decide to live in a touristy area and then complain about tourists.

8/22/2011 10:15:43 PM

Not complaining just wondering how bad it really is from people who experience, I live near a sports arena and it gets shitastic during an event but maybe it's because I hate the sport and the people who attend these sports suck assbutt.

8/22/2011 10:17:57 PM

Keep an eye out for the Ranger Batt guys. For the most part they're alright, but if 1st Batt is anything like 3rd Batt down here, it's a shitstorm when they get back from deployments.

8/22/2011 11:54:19 PM

Tourists don't bother me at all...but aside from the beach and when I have to shop/run errands on lower King Street, I usually avoid the places they frequent (Market Street and most of the places on East Bay). Sullivans Island probably has the least amount of tourists, but it's starting to get a little overrun by everyone else in Charleston. IOP can be bad, but it' usually really bad around the pier. I like to go to 3rd - 5th blocks.

Plus, tourists are what make this city run (I know, I've been serving them drinks for years as a bartender)...so you can't be mad at them!

8/23/2011 6:01:42 AM

what's up with all the motorcycle clubs down in Charleston?

8/23/2011 6:48:03 AM

Haven't noticed any.

8/23/2011 9:16:42 AM

well, made a trip over there today. Park Circle was definitely on the sketch side, though towards the middle it wasn't so bad. James Island looks like a nice suburbia. got a good couple of leads on places to live. forgot to get the damned apartment finder... again.

8/23/2011 11:47:07 PM

If you want me to grab one next time i am out and mail it to you, i dont mind.

8/24/2011 10:57:05 AM

What have you been doing in Aiken? Savannah River stuff?

8/24/2011 11:15:53 AM

Quote :

"Haven't noticed any."

i went out on a friday and saturday night down there. both nights i saw several bikers wearing their cuts and all.

8/24/2011 11:44:57 AM

^I guess it's pretty sporadic. We get lots of stopovers from big groups heading up to Myrtle.

8/24/2011 12:22:39 PM

these were all local guys.

8/24/2011 1:11:23 PM

Still beats me. Haven't noticed any increase in the 6+ years I've been down here. Guess your encounters were random or outliers.

8/24/2011 1:15:00 PM

one was at an adult establishment and the other was at wet willies. odd.

8/24/2011 1:18:41 PM

Quote :

"one was at an adult establishment and the other was at wet willies. odd."

Both places seem like likely destinations for bikers. One is a strip club, the other is a tourist shit hole.

8/24/2011 1:31:42 PM

well, everything I like is on the other side of the AFB, with basically no way to get through. I suppose 78 sux at 730 in the morning, doesn't it? Happen to have a few interests north and east of 26, though, so we'll have to see how that goes.

CalledToArms, yeah, I was at SRS for a little while. Got caught up in their layoffs when they needed more young white males to "fix" the demographics. sonofa
Hate to leave Aiken, but I can't find any work here, so I gotta go. Love the area, but not enough to ever come back, lol

[Edited on August 24, 2011 at 6:25 PM. Reason : ]

8/24/2011 6:23:58 PM

cool. I've worked for Fluor out of Greenville for about 4.5 years now so that was my first guess when I heard Aiken. It's really all I know about the area

8/24/2011 6:45:04 PM

What's the job market like out there? Being far away it seems kind of hard to search for quality postings but maybe it's better in the area?

8/24/2011 9:11:33 PM

^It's good if you're in food and beverage...but pretty shitty for everything else. There are new restaurants/bars opening up every other week (it's quite baffling actually).

But the job market in Charleston is generally pretty saturated because everyone wants to live here but a lot move here before they have jobs. Everyone has a real estate license, but most of them never use it.

What is your field?

8/25/2011 7:44:51 AM

I am the jack of all trades, piddly cust serv type bullshit but the bf wants a district manager/director or similar type job. He said he's happiest leading a team to good numbers. so just wondering

8/25/2011 10:49:12 PM

I lived there almost 2 years. Summerville is pretty good if you want cheap and non-ghetto.

MT. Pleasant is pretty nice. Loved Isle of Palms. But its on the otherside of the bridge.

I lived in North Charleston. Its cheap...not that ghetto, but its where all the Navy lives. I stayed in Cooper's Pointe I think it is called, I dont recommend it.

(the Naval Nuclear A-school and P-School and "Prototypes" are there)

8/25/2011 10:54:17 PM

Well, if you guys know of any openings holler at me please, he has a shit ton experience and a degree in business admin. Or know of anyone we can get in touch with about an opening !!

8/25/2011 11:00:26 PM

In before aea

8/28/2011 12:08:21 PM

Saw this in the local paper the other day. It was added on to an article about Husk being named the best new restaurant in the US:

Quote :

"Food Network magazine Evo Pizzeria, One of the top 50 pizzas in the U.S. National Geographic 50 Best Places to Live: The Next Great Adventure Towns (2008) Businessweek No. 23 — City of North Charleston in America's Most Fun, Affordable Cities (2011) GQ Coolest Small Cities in America (2010) Travel + Leisure America's Favorite Cities Survey (2010, out of 35 cities): No. 1 Friendly city No. 1 Bed and Breakfasts/Inns No. 1 Noteworthy neighborhoods No. 1 Antique stores No. 1 Stylish boutique hotels No. 1 Attractive people World's Best Awards (2011): No. 2 Best Cities in U.S. and Canada U.S. News and World Report No. 20 Best U.S. Vacations (2010) AmericanStyle No. 4 Top Arts Destinations, midsize cities (2011) Lonely Planet No. 10 Top 10 Cities (2010) Conde Nast Traveler No. 2 Travel Destination in the U.S. (2010) TripAdvisor Readers' Choice Awards No. 17 Best Romantic Vacations, anywhere (2011) No. 7 Best Romantic Vacations, U.S. and Canada (2011) No. 14 Best History and Culture Vacations, U.S. and Canada (2011) No. 20 Top Destinations, U.S. and Canada (2010) No. 2 Great Food & Wine, U.S. and Canada (2010) No. 4 Culture and Sightseeing, U.S. and Canada (2010) No. 3 Top Girlfriend Getaways in the U.S. (2010) United States Tennis Association Best Tennis Town in the U.S. (2010) Outside Best Towns (2010) Southern Living No. 1 Best Southern City (2009) No. 2 Best Neighborhood for Shopping — King Street (2009) No. 10 Best Family Destination (2009) Parade Five Great American Cities Augusta Chronicle Best Romantic Getaway (2011) Best Romantic Getaway (2010) Best One-tank Getaway (2010) Forbes No. 40 Best Places for Business and Careers (2011) Milken Institute No. 19 Best Performing Cities (2010) Portfolio.com No. 4 Small Business Vitality (2010)"

I consider myself pretty lucky to live here.

8/29/2011 10:05:35 AM

Great list. You are really lucky to be living there.

I would love to see a list like that for Raleigh. We have been named #1 in a lot of categories this year.

8/29/2011 10:20:36 AM

That's awesome! I want to live there! But I want a job before I move there and that's like a catch 22 lol

8/29/2011 12:15:15 PM