Might be moving there soon. The typical 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom decent appt. costs ~$700 here. Cost of living calculators show a wide variety of cost. Some say 20% higher, while others say 6% lower. Can anyone help?

 

it all depends on the location. there are areas in Charleston that are dirt cheap, and some that you can get a dump for a lot of money...for a really nice place that is affordable, i would look a little outside of charleston. there are a few areas that are nice nearby...goose creek and summerville are right there and are not too bad for cost compared to inside charleston.

 

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

 

no prob

 

Who cares??? If you have an opportunity to move there, JUST DO IT!!! Charleston is the friendliest, nicest, coziest city we found when we lived on the East Coast......We're still wishing we had moved THERE, instead of Charlotte....if we had, we'd probably still be there instead of moved back to the Midwest.....when I retire, I'm going to buy us a house on Sullivan's Island and kick back with margaritas till I croak.....

 

no need to be an **** to the guy. not everybody has the money to just move away from their home, especially if they have children. it sounds like maybe he has a job offer in Charleston and wanted to check the Cost of living to see if the move would be beneficial to him or hurt his finances.

on another note, if you think Charleston was the 'friendliest, nicest, coziest city', then you must have been staying in a private community or small area OUTSIDE OF CHARLESTON when you were there. Charleston itself it far from wehat you described!

 

Exactly. I want to be able to afford to live there if I should move. I'll need to take into account for the cost of living when I'm offered a salary. As for it being a really nice place, no offense, but anywhere is nice compared to St. Louis. It's like 90% *******s over there, and the traffic is one big cluster****. I got an offer there too, but there's not a chance I'm moving over there.

If anyone has any more opinons, feel free to speak up.

 

DITTO!

My opinion as well. Not to mention it is one of the muggiest climates in the Southeast. As far as the "ethnicity" breakdown, I doubt Charleston proper is much better than St. Louis - per capita. Any large metro area will be that way.

Don't know if you've checked out this site or not, but it has a lot of info other than cost of living.

http://www.bestplaces.net/

I moved here (Columbia) 24 years ago from the western part of New York State because of the weather and the desire for a slower pace and more opportunity. If I had it to do over again I would have settled somewhere else (you know what they say about hindsight?)

South Carolina has the second to last educational system in the country, beating Mississippi for the last spot by only 5 points in the recent S.A.T. national scores. So if you have, or intend to have children, SC should be one of your last choices unless you can afford private schools.

I could go on, but I think you're getting the idea of how I feel about the arm pit of the south

Just my $0.05

 

I agree, and I am not a beach type person but Charleston was nice (and the surrounding areas like Mt Pleasant ) I really liked Sullivans Island too!!

BTW, dont know if you are looking for a house or apartment, but my wife's cousin runs a real estate business there.

Dean Kelby realty

Might check that site out and send them an e-mail or call them up. Not sure if they will be able to help you or not. Tell them Jason and Kelly Armes refered you!

Good luck with your decision.

Jason

 

I wasn't being an **** in the least, and if it was interpreted as so, my apologies to whoever it offended. I was merely stating my enthusiasm for the area. If you're not from there, or don't agree, great. It's a funny thing-opinions are like people from St. Louis and arseholes, everyone has one. Thanx....

 

Hey Diggs,
I currently live in South OP (127th and Metcalf) area but I was raised in Summerville, SC. Summerville is a bedroom community to Charleston, like Olathe is to Kansas City. As for cost of living, I think it comparible to Olathe/KC. The one thing I don't miss about Charleston is the mosquitos! I can sit outside here all day and night not get one bite...if you tried that in Charleston, you'd need a blood transfusion! The one guy was right about public schools there. However, there are some good private schools--I went to Pinewood Prep-school (K thru 12) in Summerville, it's ranked as one of the best in the nation.
CT

 

So, if you had to choose between living here or there, where would you choose? Pros and cons would be great. Thanks.

 

I was born and raised here in west ashley area of Charleston SC...for 37 years I have watched this place pretty much stay the same..a nice slowpaced, friendly, scenic place to live...I love charleston

but over the last two to three years the population has skyrocketed and it is going to get worse..the traffic is turning to crap...the mexicans (I dont care what they are , Im just saying... so people know Im not racist..I was not raised that way at all)

anyway it is like they dropped a seedpod in charleston in some areas and the mexicans have taken over..it is just crazy..they dont speak english..your not allowed around there anymore cuz its there turf now...the crime is going through the roof...and the overcrowdedness is going through the roof...

I give charleston another decade and all the pople that are moving to it because its nice are just going to have ruined it completley...

...sorry to be so truthful!

 

Whats your salary going to look like if you don't mind me asking? When I took the job that I have now I was looking at either Columbia or Charleston SC. At the last second I was offered Birmingham (home town) so I took it. The two are pretty similar in cost of living. But like it's been said, it depends on where you live. I picked an apartment 1 mile from my parents house that is a great location in relation to downtown and all of the major interstates that run through the city. It's also a 1 bedroom which means that I write a check for $650 every month for an 809sq ft apartment. It's a quiet place to live and all of my neighbors are friendly.

Between rent, bills, 401K, benefits, etc my 40K gets torn down pretty fast which leads me to another big point that you may or may not have thought of, check out the benefits package and the rates. Thank god for health insurance. I'm lucky that I work for an insurance fraud investigation company and our health insurance provider is a client meaning that we get good stuff for cheap. A salary increase can be useless if benefits, etc is a bad deal.

 

This thread has been resurrected after ONE YEAR?

Kind of pointless by now, isn't it?

With that said, I have to agree with BadCo. about what's happening to our South Carolina cities. Us crackers are now the minorities in the state and violent crime and burglary in Columbia is almost the highest in the country per capita Time to consider relocating before it's too late

Peace y'all