Charleston South Carolina Real Estate Information

The South Carolina Lottery funds a number of different kinds of scholarships available to in state students. The requirments and amounts of these scholarships are set forth below. In state tuition is as follows:

College of Charleston - $7234

USC Columbia - 7808

Clemson - $9400

Winthrop - $9500

Palmetto Fellows Amount $6,700

Who gets it: Students must meet these three criteria: 3.5 grade-point average; a minimum of 1200 on the SAT or 27 on the ACT; and rank in the top 6 percent of their graduating class. Or they can meet these two: 4.0 grade-point average and a minimum 1400 on the SAT or 32 on the ACT.

Is it working: Yes. The goal of the scholarship is to encourage the best and brightest students to attend South Carolina colleges and universities. More than 8 out of 10 students who qualify for the scholarship accept it and enroll in one of the state's public or private schools.

LIFE scholarship

Amount $5,000

Who gets it: Students must meet two of the following three criteria: 3.0 grade-point average; a minimum 1100 on the SAT or 24 on the ACT; and rank in the top 30 percent of their graduating class.

Is it working: Yes and no. More students are attending college. But only about half of students who earn a scholarship for their freshman year retain it for their sophomore year.

HOPE scholarship

Amount $2,650

Who gets it: Students must earn a 3.0 grade-point average. The scholarship is good for just one year. If a student earns a 3.0 grade-point average his first year in college, the student is then eligible for a LIFE scholarship.

Is it working: Yes and no. Just one student in five who earned a HOPE scholarship for the 2004-05 school year was eligible for a LIFE scholarship in the fall of 2005. But three out of five returned to the same institution and one in five attended a different South Carolina school.

    Although the Charleston area has attracted retirees from throughout the country for years, Charleston has never had the number of retirment communities found in many other areas of the country. The town of Mt. Pleasant SC has attracted many active and relatively affluent retirees because of it's convenient location to the Charleston Historic Distrci, the nearby beaches, golfing, restaurants and shopping. Cooper Hall Retirement community and the Sandpiper Retirment community have been home to many older Mt. Pleasant residents for a number of years. On March 13, 2007, ground will be broken for another retirement community called Somerby.

     Somerby will be located on 20 acres in the popular Park West Community. The 28 unit senior residential continuing care complex will offer independent living options in either villas or apartments. Assisitng living, memorary care and respite care will be available. 131 of the units are dedicated to indpendent living residences, 51 to assisted living and 38 units for Alzheimers care. There will also be 28 villas on the grounds.

    Somerby will offer full service dining, weekly housekeeping, exercise programs, recreation, companion servces and transportation. Amenities will include a computer center and library, game room, movie threater, indoor heated pool, beauty salon, barbershop,exercise facility, convenience store and walking paths. This new Charleston area senior residential community is scheduled to open in 2008. 

   Another Charleston area retirment community is being developed by Del Webb at Cane Bay Plantation in Berkeley County.

     During the past week I have observed quite an increase in traffic to my web sites, increased showing of my listings and inquiries from potential out of town clients requesting Charleston relocation information or advising of plans to visit the Charleston area to look at housing and community options. This increase in real estate activity of buyer activity is about a month delayed in comparison to prior year activity. Interest rates continue to be historically low and the larger price reductions that we have seen during the past year seems to have diminished to a large degree. I believe that most potential out of town buyers are beginning to feel that the real estate market is close to bottoming out in the Charleston area and some of the bargains seen towards the end of last year may be disappearing.

     It is possible that this apparent uptick in buyer interest may dissapate in the coming weeks but I will have a better feel for the market this time next month as to whether buyer interest will continue and possibly increase as we get into the Spring season.

Anson House Luxury Condos

   The Charleston real estate market has been soft the past year or two. However, the the demand for luxury homes and condos has been relatively strong. The Post and Courier Charleston newspaper just featured a new luxury condo complex to be built near the Charleston Maritime Center called Anson House. It is located at Concord and Laurens Streets.It will be a 32 unit condo complex on a one acre plot of land. Work should start in about a week with 21 units already under contract including one of two penthouses. The remaining condos start at $1.29 million for a one bedroom unit and the unsold penthouse is priced at 4.95 million. Anson House is located across from Concord Park, a planned mixed use nine acre developement with 233 apartments and condos proposed on the south side and 45,000 square feet of office and retail space.

   It would appear that the real estate market in Charleston may be down, but not out. There has been continued demand for luxury homes and condos in the Charleston area and this demand is expected to continue as more out of town buyers discover Charleston and all it has to offer.

     The Longpoint subdivision is located in the town of Mt. Pleasant adjacent to Palmetto Island County Park and Boone Hall Plantation. It is one of the more mature subdivisions in Mount Pleasant having first been developed in 1988, about the time the growth in Mt. Pleasant started to take off. There are about 450 homes in Longpoint ranging in size of between 1350 sqft. and to over 4000 sqft.Resale homes are priced in the $350,000 + range with tidal creek homes starting about $900,000 when they come on the market.There is a mixture of custom built homes and tract built by Don Galloway and Squires homes. The homes are located on average sized lots with some having tidal creek access. The community has a swimming pool, tennis courts, volley ball, basketball, a play park and soccer field. The children of residents have the choice of good public schools. The annual home owners fee is one of the lowest in the area in subdivisions with amenities.

    The upside to Longpoint is that it is located relatively close in to Charleston with an average morning commute time of about 20 minutes. There is a good bit of mature landscaping and the community is small enough to give it a good neighborhood feel. There is a wide diversity of residents in age and marital status and for the most part the home owners enjoy the community. Palmetto Island County Park is within walking distance of the homes in Longpoint and I-526 is a short distance away.The community is located off of Longpoint Road one of the more pictuesque roads in Mt. Pleasant.

  The downside to Longpoint is that many of the homes were built in the 1988-1993 time frame and thus may not have the open floor plan and "bells and whistles" found in newer homes. There is not a lot of turnover in the larger homes found in the "Rice Hope" section of Longpoint where most of the homes were custom built and with higher end finishings than found in the smaller tract homes found in the neighborhood.

   However, if you are looking for a more mature neighborhood than found in similar priced newer neighborhoods in Mt. Pleasant and want to have the convenience of being closer to downtown Charleston, Longpoint might be a good option for you.

Welcome To My New Charleston Real Estate Web Blog

      I was one of the first Realtors in the Charleston area to use the internet to provide informative information and photographs of the various Charleston subdivisions and communities as well as highlighting the many attractions one finds throughout the Tri-County area of Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester Counties. Each community has a unique feel and something different to offer prespective buyers. I have tried to provide information beneficial to individuals and families considering relocating to the Charleston area on this real estate web site and will continue to do so. At the same time, I feel that there are many residents inthe Charleston area who have a wealth of information to share about their subdivisions and communities in which they live, that would be helpful to anyone considering relocating to the Charleston area. It is hoped that this real estate blog will provide a forum for local Charleston area residents to comment on their own communities and to answer any questions that out of town may have about the various housing and community options found throughout the tri-county area.

My first real estate blog will relate to the Longpoint subdivision in which I have lived since moving to Mt. Pleasant in 1988.