Overall, Charleston, SC is 73.7% cheaper than San Francisco, CA
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Your Money Goes Farther in Charleston
Charleston, SC
VS
San Francisco, CA
$386,600 Charleston, SC
73.7% less
Median Home Cost
$1,471,200 San Francisco, CA
$1,817Charleston, SC
80% less
Property Taxes(annual based on avg price home)
$9,415 San Francisco, CA
Charleston, SC Webinar
Everything you need to know about Charleston, SC real estate.
FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPTION:
- Hi everybody, Scott Fuller here with another edition of the Market Insider series. With LeavingTheBayArea.com and thanks for joining us today. We, every week, we travel to different location. We look at some of the different places where we see the Bay Area residents and also California residents relocate to for a better cost of living, better quality of life and a lot of other different reasons and today, we are going to the other side of the country. We're gonna go beach side, Charleston, South Carolina with Kim Boerman, Kim, how are you today?
- I'm doing great, how about yourself?
- I'm doing fantastic, thank you for asking, I appreciate you taking the time to join us today and give us some information on what's going on in Charleston. And you're with Agent Owned Realty, tell me a little bit just to kind of start off, give me your background on you know, your time in Charleston, what took you there, and all that kind of good stuff.
- Sure, well thanks for having me, first of all.
- Absolutely.
- What brought me to Charleston, I lived in Salt Lake City, Utah. Went to school in Logan, where I met my husband and his family had landed in Charleston and purchased a bed and breakfast downtown in the historic area. And they had invited him to come run the business. So that brought us to Charleston, about 25 years ago. And probably about two years into my stay here, I decided that I would go into real estate and have been in real estate ever since.
- Okay, so you've been in Charleston for a long time and clearly you like it, cause you're still there.
- That's right.
- And then, you've been in real estate for a long time and clearly you're doing well with that because you're still doing it, right?
- That's right, I love it. It's a busy, busy market here.
- Now do you guys have a lot of people moving into the area more recently or is it kind of just, you know, the standard, you know, people coming in, moving out kind of a thing? Are you seeing a change in that?
- There's been a huge change. So, over the past several years, continually we're rated number one city in the country. We have a lot going on here in the area and so it's bringing a lot people from up North and out West. We also have a lot of growth in industry, so we're seeing a big boom here, in the Charleston area.
- That's awesome. And we'll talk a little bit more about the industry growth and some of the companies that are moving in. Do you see a lot of people coming in from New York, New Jersey area, is that a big spot for people coming from?
- Yes we see New York, New Jersey, Ohio is a huge area that people are coming from, and then Seattle, because we have Boeing here, and California. We're really all over where we have people coming from all over but those are the main cities.
- Yeah, awesome. And what percentage would you say if you break it down, what percentage of people are coming there for retirement versus working families getting transferred or taking a new job opportunity in the area?
- I would say that we're probably seeing a 50/50. We're seeing a lot of people that are either buying their second home, getting ready for retirement, or transferring, but I think it's evenly split. We have a lot of people coming here to retire. The weather is beautiful, and there's so much to do, so.
- Beach life right, I mean where else is there better to retire? You've got the beach there, you got great weather.
- That's right, that's right, very, very mild climate, and outdoor living most of the year.
- Yeah, wow that's fantastic. So, and we'll get into the weather cause I know a lot of people are gonna ask questions, you know, would have questions about the weather, so we'll talk about that as well. But the first thing I want to get into is, you know, when people come to ask and say, Scott, you know we're considering, you know, a couple of different cities to go to and maybe Charleston is one of those. We want to get an idea of what can you buy? And we have you know, quite a few people who have built up a fairly substantial amount of equity, right? So they're looking to come out and you know, say, what can I get for maybe $500 thousand if I built up that kind of equity. So maybe if you wouldn't mind, if you'd want to share your screen cause I know you pulled up a couple of different examples that we can look at. But what can you get for your money in Charleston?
- Sure, so, There are the main area that people like to be close to is downtown Charleston. They usually move here, let me go ahead and put a map up so that you can--
- Sure.
- See this. They like to be close to the, restaurants and all of the activities that are going on. So, when people call us, we ask, you know, what is it that you like to do, is it golfing, is it dining, is it beaches? And if it's being close to the beach and being close to downtown Charleston, one of the areas that's very popular is Mount Pleasant, which is right here. Here's the peninsula, downtown Charleston, this is where the historic area is. And this is Mount Pleasant. Which is close to Sullivan's Island and Isle Palms Beach. It also has a lot of, restaurants and shopping and things like that.
- And so is that kind of the touristy place also, when people come to visit?
- Yeah, well they, there is golf there, so they would come to golf. And also there are a lot of waterfront restaurants. So, we do see people coming to visit the Mount Pleasant area to come see some of the sites, yes.
- Okay.
- Two of the properties that I have, featured, the first one is this property, which is located in Dunes West. Dunes West is a gated community. It has a golf course, it's got a water park in it, it's got properties that have a little bit more acreage. This particularly property has one acre. You can see it has a pool. Some of the properties in Dunes West are on the water.
- And you said that is actually has a water park as part of the community?
- Yes, a small water park.
- That's great.
- It's got a very, very large pool with different slides for the kids.
- Okay.
- It's got tennis, walking trails, it's really beautiful. Would you like to see some of the pictures?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, show us some photos. So I think that from the other screen, that was a four bedroom, three bath, I'm not sure if I caught that.
- Right, so this particular property is 5600 square feet. It's a four bedroom, four bath home. It's located on one acre. And let's see if it has anything like a dock. Some of the properties in Dunes West are on the water. This particular one isn't. If we're looking at water front in Dunes West, which is tidal creek, which leads to deep water, you're looking at about a million dollars.
- Okay so, on the water, deep water, million dollars, and then, it looked quite a bit less, right? Right here we're looking at $800 thousand for this property, which is huge, I mean, 5,000 square feet, right?
- Right, and you can get in Dunes West for, $500 thousand for a much smaller home. And there are also, in Dunes West, you also have single family attached, so there are town homes. If you are looking for something that's a lock and leave.
- Okay. And a house like this, again, at this price range, so for just under $800 thousand dollars. How long would you expect a house like this to stay on the market?
- So this particular home has been on the market for, since July. When you're getting up the $800 thousand, they're not moving as quickly. But it will probably be under contract, you're probably looking at four months?
- Okay so about $800 thousand dollar price range, four months at what lower price range would you expect that it's gonna go quicker, where there's gonna be, you know, a lot more activity and interest on the home.
- A home in Dunes West that's listed at about $450 thousand will not stay on the market. It would go immediately.
- Okay.
- If you have something in the fives, you're looking at probably a 30 day time frame.
- Got it, okay, so that's gonna go a lot more quickly?
- That's right, yes. Another area in Mount Pleasant which is located a little bit closer to downtown is this property in Hidden Lake. This property is located, let me just pull up the map, because this is very close to the Isle Palms, which is a beach. It sits right on the other side of the Isle Palms connector. So. Let's see. I lost it. Here we are. So here's the isle of palms, right here. This is a beautiful ocean area. Wild Dunes is a gated community with golf and a wonderful place to go stay-cation. This property, you just drive down the connector and you're there within ten minutes. It's also got a lot of shopping, there's a town center in Mount Pleasant that's got a lot of restaurants and then your regular shops that you know, Pier 1 and things like that. And then some specialty boutique shops.
- Got it.
- This particular property, is on a set up lagoon, and there's a 50 acre lake in this community.
- Wow.
- Electric boats, nothing gas powered, but canoes, kayaks, paddle boards, things like that.
- Well that's great and it looks like that's about 4,000 square feet, five bedrooms, three and a half baths, so, another really good sized home.
- Right, right, and in this particular neighborhood, you could probably get in this neighborhood for about $525. So, of course smaller house, maybe 2,300 square feet? I'll show some photos, possibly it has some of the lake. So this one sits right on one of these lagoons. With a little dock. it's really nice, because it gives you--
- Yeah that's beautiful.
- A little bit of privacy. You're not right on top of your neighbor.
- Now here's an odd question, are there fences between homes there, generally?
- When it's on a lake like this, no, they don't allow fences.
- Oh okay, got it.
- They might allow a four foot, picket, wrought iron fence? In Dunes West you can have fences no problem.
- Okay.
- Both of the properties that I picked happen to be, well this one's on water, the other one, we didn't really get some outdoor photos, but, Mount Pleasant, this area that's very popular, and when people call, that's what we hear. We want to be in Mount Pleasant because they hear people talking about it. You are gonna get an entry level at five. If you're in the fours, you're a very, very small home that needs update, and then so you're looking at, without having to do a lot of updates, five hundred to start, all the way up to a couple million dollars.
- Got it.
- But there's lots to choose from. And you can be in Mount Pleasant anywhere from five minutes to twenty minutes from downtown Charleston, and very close to the beach too.
- Perfect, okay.
- So another area that I wanted to talk about, is Summerville. Summerville has gained in popularity tremendously over the last little bit. We have some 55 and over communities in Summerville. And let's see, let me back this out a little bit, so I can show you, Summerville is farther away from downtown Charleston. You're looking at probably 35 to 40 minutes.
- And is there traffic for that, or is that just kind of a standard, that's how long it takes to get there regardless of traffic?
- That's depending upon traffic, so, to get from this particular property, which is at the very edge of Summerville, down to the peninsula, you're looking at 30 minutes.
- Okay.
- But the affordability is much better in Summerville. You're gonna get a lot more bang for your buck. And there are several very, very popular restaurants that are down in the historic district, that people come from all over the country to visit, that have now, they're making second locations in Summerville and this area called Nexton.
- Got it.
- To provide, that type of living, or accommodations or amenities or experiences so that you don't have to drive all the way downtown.
- That's the nice thing about it. That looks like that might be a picture of what we're looking at here, is the amenities for that community, is that right?
- Right, so this is a property located in Nexton. Nexton has, it's in the process of building up. This is a Del Webb community, it's 55 and over.
- Okay.
- It's beautiful. This particular listing is, three bedrooms, three baths, it's 2400 square feet, $405 thousand.
- Got it.
- So, this is proposed construction, so you would get to tailor it however you wanted. You could add as many upgrades as you like. And there's not many pictures but I have another property in Nexton, to kind of give you an idea of what the houses look like. They're all of these--
- Oh the tenants house, yeah.
- They're all these kind of cottage look? Craftman style, closer together, and hearty plank siding. More modern.
- And this would be maybe one of the model homes right here? One of the finished models?
- Yes.
- Okay. So you had mentioned earlier Kim, that the people that are moving in, about 50 percent are coming in for work, maybe 50 percent are coming in for retirement. What percentage of the people coming in for retirement are opting for an active adult community like this versus something that you know, is just kind of a stand alone?
- It's funny that ask because a lot of people will call in and say that they want an active adult community and then the more time that we spend with them, they realize they can achieve the results of what they're looking for in these active communities in other areas.
- Okay.
- Because Charleston has so much to offer. So you've got planned communities that have a lot of amenities like Dunes West. It's not an active adult community but they've got a clubhouse, they've got the pool, they've got golf and tennis and they have homeowners meetings and events. So,
- Okay.
- there aren't a lot of active 55 and over communities. They're becoming more popular but the majority of our people that call for those, usually end up in a different neighborhood.
- Yeah, that'd make sense, yeah, okay.
- Yeah.
- Well it's nice to have all those amenities and so, are the active adult communities, are they like Summerville? Are they usually a little bit farther out?
- Yes.
- Since that's where the land is, I would imagine?
- Right, exactly. So Summerville has three or four communities right now. Mount Pleasant has one, and that's it. But they are popping up but that's it right now. But you really can achieve like I said, that same result, closer in. And I think that's what people are surprised about and happy about. Because they can be closer to the beach and things like that.
- Yeah. So it sounds like out in Summerville, when you are maybe 20 to 30 miles out you can get you know, about $400 or $450 thousand or so for a nice home. Get a little bit closer to the beach, you might be $500 to $700 hundred, maybe $800. And then as you're getting along the beach, you're gonna be a million plus, is that fair to say?
- Correct, that's right. There are some homes on the beach, not on the water but on the beach where you can walk to the water in just a couple of minutes. And I have a couple of those, right here to show you. Folly Beach, we have several different beaches in the Charleston area. Folly Beach is a little bit more bohemian, so it's think, just kind of rustic beach town, little beach bars, things like that. Isle of Palms is a little bit more manicured. That's where a lot of tourists go, that and Folly Beach. Sullivan's Islands, the homes are, that's where the stars live, that's where it's mostly residential, very, very high prices. And then Kiawah Island, lots of golf, things like that. But Folly, which is close to downtown, you can be downtown in 20 minutes. You can be to the airport in 20 minutes. It's an awesome little community. There are two homes that I have chosen. One, it has some beautiful views of the marsh and the inner coastal. This is is listed for $775.
- So you've really got some privacy there.
- Yeah. It's beautiful. And you can just have a quick golf cart ride to the beach or jog to the beach. But you can see they're a little bit older.
- Yeah.
- This is--
- It's definitely got, the tropical decor, right?
- Right, and see this is 1500 square feet. So this is a smaller home. Two bedroom, two bath. And then you have this, other one. 1900 square feet approximately. Three bedrooms, two baths. They're raised for flood purposes, that's how they're required to be built. And just a little bit more rustic. So you can get on the ocean, or right close to the ocean in the seven hundreds and you can get there in a townhouse or condo for five or six hundred thousand, if you like.
- And what would it, for like a townhouses or condo, what would an average monthly HOA deal look like?
- On the beach it's gonna be higher, because you've got flood insurance to contend with.
- Oh, yup, okay.
- You might be looking at four hundred dollars maybe more, per month? Depending, it depends on the size. For a regular condo or townhouse in the Charleston area an average amount is anywhere from about $190 to $280.
- Depending upon--
- Keeping in mind, I mean, a lot of people might think, well jeez, you know $200 to $400 dollars, that's a lot, but when your you know, insurance is included, a lot of times the exterior maintenance of the roof and siding and so you're including a lot, right? Sometimes even some of the utilities. So it's probably--
- Right.
- Not that much.
- That's right, that's right. Yeah, well and it does, it includes the flood insurance also. So when you add those things up, and if you're just kind of buying a second home, it's great because you can lock and leave, and you don't have to worry about it. When we have a lot of second homeowners here. Or people that are planting their roots and they're gonna come over a little bit later. They're starting the process, but they're not ready to quite make the move.
- So as far as traffic is concerned, would you mind popping up the map there?
- Sure.
- Is the traffic really seasonal? From a weather perspective, or is it kind of weekend traffic I mean, what does that look like? Because there are so many second homes and so many people coming in maybe just for you know, visiting purposes.
- Right, well our traffic has increased a bit. Because we have a lot of people moving here. We do have seasonal traffic getting to the beach, so if you want to go to the beach, on the weekend, you wanna leave early so that you're not sitting in traffic. Because our islands are barrier islands, a lot of times there is only one way in and one way out. So, everyone's heading in the same direction. But it's not unbearable, like, when I have people that are moving here from LA or Atlanta or whatever and we're stuck in traffic, they say, oh this is nothing compared to where we're coming from.
- Yeah, it's not gonna scare most people away that are coming from California or the North East, right?
- No, not at all, not at all. So, it's regular hours, rush hour traffic. You just need to plan in advance, but it's nothing like sitting in the car for two hours. Unless something's happened, you know?
- Yeah, got it, okay. Nothing that we're not used to out here.
- Right, but we aren't just snow bird communities. So if you're thinking about a lot of people that come in for the summer and then leave, it's typically not that. We don't have that variance.
- Oh, okay, okay.
- Right.
- It's pretty steady.
- So the weekend traveler, or you know, come out for a week or two, right, type thing?
- What's that?
- So more of just like, you know, the weekend traveler wanting to go to the beach or maybe somebody's taking a trip for a week or two and then they're gone, but it's not seasonal.
- Right, exactly, exactly.
- Okay. Awesome, okay. So, let's talk a little bit about you know, health care and availability for hospitals and clinics, cause a lot of people you know that we talk to when they're thinking about making a move somewhere else, you know, they're 50 or over. I mean one of their biggest concerns is what's the availability of health care. So tell us a little bit about, and I would imagine with, you know, 50 percent of the people that are coming in are you know, aging. What would you say you know, what does that look like as far as you know, the health care offerings there?
- Sure so, we have a lot of health care, it's one of our biggest employers here. Downtown Charleston we have M.U.S.C. the medical university. We've got the Veterans Hospital, we've got Roper St. Francis and then right over into West Ashley, which we haven't really talked about, but that's another community that is right on-- So let me just show you really quickly something about Charleston. So Charleston is a peninsula, let's see can we move this? This is Charleston right here, this peninsula right here. And it's surrounded by the Cooper River and on the other side of Cooper, East of the Cooper is Mount Pleasant. West of the Ashley River is West Ashley. This is a very popular area also. These areas that border the peninsula are super popular, that's where people want to live. We have two hospitals over here in West Ashley. A Roper St. Francis being one of them. We have East of the East Cooper Hospital which is a brand new hospital over here in Mount Pleasant. And then you've got several Downtown Charleston. You've got in North Charleston, you've got a hospital called Trident Hospital. And then in Summerville they just launched a huge new hospital the other night, they actually gave a free country music concert from some big name,
- Really?
- I'm not sure who it was, I just kept seeing on Facebook that everyone was like, we're at the concert at Berkeley Hospital. So they just opened a beautiful new facility up in Summerville and the Nexton area where I was talking about. So there is a lot of health care here, in the area.
- So pretty much, I mean, it sounds like no matter where you're at you're gonna be within minutes of a health care provider, a clinic or something, right?
- Correct yes.
- That's great. Okay, and you've mentioned that health care is one of the larger employers there, tell us a little bit more you know, about the industry and business there, so what are some of the more dominant businesses in Charleston and where do people work and where are you seeing the growth in some of those, that industry?
- So, recently we've had Boeing and Volvo and Mercedes come to the area and they are bringing a lot of people with them. So we have a lot of transplants from those areas where their home bases were. We have the Mercedes plant which is painting all of the Amazon Sprinter Vans, I think they're called Sprinter Vans?
- Yeah, yeah, right.
- Yeah, so we have that contract. We have a huge new supplement company just moved in. But the bigger employers is we have Joint Base Charleston, so military, we have a lot of military here. We have an air force base, we have a naval weapons station. We also have the hospital, it's a big, the medical field is a huge employer in the area. Then we have Boeing, like I said. We have hospitality, because we have so much tourism and so many festivals and so many things that are going on all the time here. We just have a huge hospitality industry.
- Yeah, we've gotta support it, right? Like you said, there's so much going on, and so many people visiting.
- Right, so the jobs are spread really across so many industries that it's a great place to come and work and live honestly, it's beautiful.
- Yeah. Let's get into, we talked a little bit about you know, home price trends and you know, you mentioned average space on market, on the lower end, it's gonna be within 30 days usually or maybe less. And on the higher end, maybe you're looking at four months plus. Let's talk a little bit about taxes out there. You know, that's something that you know, California don't really like talking about that, cause it seems like they keep going up.
- Right.
- But, you guys have a state income tax, is that right?
- That's right.
- Okay. And what is that, do you know off the top of your head what that is? I know sometimes--
- I have it right here, so it's seven percent.
- Did you say seven, okay.
- That's right.
- And that's probably you know, the top rate I would imagine right, the top tier?
- Right, it's three to seven percent.
- Okay, three to seven. So we're about seven and a quarter percent up to 13.3 percent so obviously we're quite a bit higher. And I always like to mention this on our webinars because people are not like, you know, what's it gonna look like from a financial perspective and a tax perspective if I'm moving to a different state? And you know, full disclosure, we always recommend to people talk to your financial planner, your wealth advisor, your CPA on health, you know, if it impacts you, moving to, you know, South Carolina or where you're going to but it sounds like you know, ours is quite a bit higher than that. How does it property tax rates work there? Cause I know a lot of states have different ways that they structure the tax rate.
- Right, so it's funny because when we have people in the car they'll say, so what are the taxes? And I might say, oh they're $2300 and let's say we're looking at a $300 or a $400 thousand dollar home. right?
- Yeah.
- You're looking at about two thousand, $21 hundred. So I'll say oh about $21 hundred dollars. They're like, a month? And I say no, a year. Because they're usually coming from up North when they ask that question.
- Yeah.
- Because the taxes are so high. So for, for a $300 thousand dollar house they're about $18 hundred. So you figure for six hundred it's double, so $36 hundred dollars for the year for a $600 thousand dollar home. And then you get some discounts when you're over a certain age. If it's a second home, the rate is a little bit higher. Instead of six percent ratio versus the four percent ratio. For primary owners, primary residents, it's very, very low.
- So it sounds like, and without trying to do a bunch of calculations in my head, we're looking at, a half a percent to maybe, little over .8 percent? Something like that? I mean it's well under one percent. Annually it seems like?
- Oh yeah, oh yeah. Oh by far.
- Yeah. We're at one and a quarter percent, is our base tax rate and then of course, you know, if you're in an area where they've recently built schools or new communities that have amenities and features for that you might be up to one and a half maybe 1.75% percent, effective rate annually, right? So, I would say that's at least double of what you guys are seeing over there. What about your sales tax? What's, do you know what your sales tax is, roughly?
- The sales tax in Charleston is nine percent, in Summerville it's six percent.
- Okay.
- So, Dorchester County, it's lower--
- That's a big difference.
- Charleston County is higher.
- Yeah, that's quite a bit. Is that because there's so much more goods sold there, in that area, people are gonna buy 'em?
- Over in Charleston?
- Yeah.
- You know I'm not sure why the taxes are higher over there? I really don't know. I don't know if it's a hospitality thing or what's going on. But, it's higher, I don't know why.
- We're closer to that, we're about eight and a quarter percent, I mean, it varies depending on county, but we're about eight and a quarter percent. You know, and it goes up depending on the county that you're in. But, you know, certainly taxes seem to be a lot more advantageous there than here, which doesn't surprise me.
- Right.
- Let's go into weather a little bit, because you know, tell us about, I'm sure a lot of people have the question though, you know? Are you effected a lot by hurricanes and flooding and things like that, and so, let's talk about that first, but then we'll get into all the great things that the weather brings you guys, regular.
- Yeah, yeah, so it's important to address that because I think that people are concerned about that. It's a little bit unnerving when they see on the news that there are these storms. So we did, back in 2015, we had what was called a thousand year flood. And it rained and rained and rained for days on end. And we got so much water, it just sat over the Charleston area. And so we saw flooding. We saw flooding not over the entire area, just in some little pockets. So, we know where those areas are, they're a little bit lower lying areas. And it's not like that happens all the time, it was kind of a freak of nature. The downtown area does flood a little bit, even at high tide, we're at sea level. We're called the low country. But they're used to it. It's not this, it'll rain, it might in the marketplace, you know, get a few inches of water and then it'll go back out when the tide goes out.
- Okay.
- As far as hurricanes go, we have plenty of warning when they're coming. So just recently we had, Dorian was supposed to be a hit on Charleston. And, they did a mandatory evacuation. So they give you plenty of time to leave. I didn't leave, a lot of my friends didn't leave. We kind of have a rule, personally, if it's a three or less, then we'll stay. If it's gonna be more then we'll leave. And you can tell as you're watching it come toward the area. You have insurance, you just get used to it. It's not, it probably the first time, you're a little bit nervous. But after a while, it's just, it is a way of life.
- Yeah.
- But it's not all the time. And you can just leave and go to a hotel if you need to leave and your property's insured. But, you have plenty of notice.
- Yeah, got it. How much, and that brings up a good point that I didn't ask about in relation to housing cost. How much is insurance? I mean how much more than what you would normally pay because of the flood risk?
- No, so all of Charleston is in a flood zone, however there are different categories of flood zones. So an S flood zone does not require a mandatory flood insurance policy from your lender. If you pay cash you don't have to buy one. If you're in an A-E zone then you are required to have flood insurance. And it can range, anywhere from you know, $200 dollars a year to a lot higher if you're on the ocean. So, and you know honestly if you're buying a $2 million dollar house then you can expect that you're gonna have some higher expenditure.
- Yeah, I agree with you 100 percent, yeah. So I mean, you're obviously you're talking, you are your team are talking to your buyers and saying, you know, you have some options and here's the pros and cons, cost wise and other wise with being in these specific areas, so, they know what they're getting into.
- Right and we can do searches based on whether or not a property is required to have flood insurance.
- Okay.
- So, if that's a concern of theirs, then we just make sure we just don't pull any of those in the search.
- So let's talk about what the weather is like, generally speaking, I mean, I know that, you know, it's a big surf culture, right? Beach culture there, so talk to us about kind of what the weather is and what people do recreationally there.
- Sure so, right now it's 91 degrees outside. And it's October, it's unseasonably warm right now. But, you know, we don't see in the winter, we might see a few days maybe a weeks worth of weather under the 30 degrees when we're in the dead of the winter and that's at night. During the winter time, you are looking at, you know, 50 to 70 degrees, you know what, they say, if you don't like the weather in Charleston, wait twenty minutes because it changes so much. It can be 50 degrees and then two hours later, it's 90 degrees. But it's a very mild climate. I came from Utah. I don't wear a coat anymore, occasionally I will wear a coat, at night time, in the winter.
- Really, okay.
- Yeah, you know when people are buying homes, we at least want to make sure that they have the opportunity if they can afford it to have a screened porch. Because you can do so much outdoor living, almost year round. It does, we're in a humid climate, so, you can ditch your moisturizer once you move here. Because it's just like, you're hydrated constantly.
- Yeah.
- In the summertime, it gets hot. It gets hot, there are a couple months where it's hot. But during those months you are either at the beach or you have a cool breeze or you're inside where it's air conditioned, you know? Or in the shade. So, it's a beautiful, beautiful climate and it is wonderful to be warm. You don't have to worry about shoveling any snow here or anything like that.
- So if somebody's--
- You do have to worry about shoveling snow where you are though, either, so.
- No, I'm not shoveling snow, I mean, it's normally in the winter time you're about a three hour drive from snow anyway, so you got a little ways but, how far is it from you like if there was somebody who into skiing or snowboarding how far do you have to go to do that?
- So you could go to North Carolina, it's about three and a half hours.
- Okay, not bad.
- Right. Yeah, Asheville and some different areas up there. And it's beautiful up there, to go visit. And if you're needing a little break from the heat you can just go up there and go to the mountains.
- Yeah, that's nice. Probably you loose the humidity and get a little bit of difference in the temperature overall, right?
- Right, that's right.
- So, golf is big there, is that right?
- Golf is huge, yeah.
- Do you golf? Are you out there golfing?
- I can drive a cart really well.
- But not a ball?
- And I can hit a ball at Top Golf and I'm learning how to golf right now.
- There you go.
- But there's so many different courses. In every area, public and private. But you don't have to join a club, there are so many different options. There's ocean courses, there's river courses and harbor courses, I mean it's a golfer's dream.
- Yeah.
- Really. We also have tennis here, we have a big tennis venue. We have the Women's US Open here, that we host.
- Oh, that's right, yup.
- Lots of concerts, we have an arts festival every year, it's called Spoleto, it runs for two weeks. And it's just filled with all different areas of art that come in from out of town. We've got our Cooper River bridge run, which is one of the largest bridge runs. We have a wildlife festival. There's literally something going on every single weekend in Charleston.
- Wow, that's perfect. Kim would you mind closing out your screen share here just as we kind of wrap it up? So we've covered a lot of information. And the goal of this really is to say, okay, we're gonna take about 45 minutes and just do a very high level overview of what it's like to live there. But, is there anything that I didn't bring up that maybe you wanted to talk about? What do people need to know about?
- No, I mean honestly, I think that what people need to know are there's so many different options. We've highlighted several price ranges that were in the higher end. There are different areas in the community that are in the 225 to 400 range. So if that's your price range, we have that. If you're under two, it's a little bit more difficult but we can find it. And there's just so many different areas, depending upon what you want to do. Whether it be in a golf community, an equestrian community, a beach community, we cover three different counties and they vary so much in options.
- Yeah.
- So we've really, when our clients come, we take them on an exploration of the area. They really need a few days to kind of learn everything and they'll know, like this is my fit. You know, this is my area. But we, it's our pleasure to show them the different areas so that they have a better understanding. Because the three counties are very large. But they are all relatively close to the amenities that they might want or the downtown area.
- You read my mind, because that was gonna be my next question. If somebody had an interest in coming out to visit the area and they wanted to learn a little bit more about it and maybe you know, take a look at a couple of different properties. Something you guys are open to doing.
- Of course, yes, we would love to do that.
- Perfect.
- Would love to do that.
- That's great, okay. Well I think we've covered everything here, so any last thoughts, Kim?
- No.
- We got them all for now, and totally hop off and remember that we forgot about a bunch of stuff, right?
- I would to help anyone that's coming to the area. They would be, I would be happy to show them around and I have a team and you wouldn't be sorry if you moved to Charleston.
- Now that's great. It looks like it would be a beautiful place. I haven't made it out there but that's on the bucket list at some point, so.
- Yeah! You'll have to let us know when you're coming. We'll a--
- Absolutely.
- We'll hook you up with some great food downtown.
- There you go, I love it. All right Kim, well again, appreciate your time and if anybody is watching this and they want to get in contact with us, or talk to Kim and her team out there, info@LeavingTheBayArea.com and we can get you all taken care of and go out and spend some time with Kim's team out there, get some great food, have some fun and take a look at the quality of life out there. Probably amazing.
- Thank you Scott.
- All right Kim.
- Have a nice day.
- We'll be in touch Kim, take care, thanks everybody. Appreciate your time, thanks for watching, talk to you soon. Bye-bye.
- Bye.
Cost of Living Comparisons
Charleston, SC VS San Francisco, CA
57.9% less
Cost to Rent
4.2% more
Utilities
9.4% less
Food & Groceries
2.2% less
Health Costs
40.5% less
Transportation
24.9% less
Auto Insurance (Annually)
33.6% less
Auto Sale Tax
42.9% less
Auto Registration (Annually)
5.0% more
Sales Tax
7.6% more
State Income Tax
54.2% less
Child Care
Commute Comparison
| Charleston, SC | San Francisco, CA | |
Average Commute Time |
22 mins | 45 mins |
Comparison of gas prices |
$2.32 | $4.49 |
Live Traffic Comparison
Charleston, SC
San Francisco, CA
Climate
Charleston
San Francisco
88
Average Summer High68
73
Average Summer Low55
62
Average Winter High58
43
Average Winter Low47
209
Sunny Days Per Year259
48
Rain (inches per year)25
0
Snow (inches per year)0
Current Temperature in Charleston, SC
Charleston Area Tour
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