Locals? Tips on moving to Beaufort area

Greetings all,

My husband and I are considering buying a home in the Beaufort area and will be visiting in January/February.

Do any of you locals have information on areas to look at, or avoid. What do you enjoy most about living in the Beaufort area?

We want to be on the ICW or a deep water creek, but not the ocean.

The other question, and this will seem like an odd one to those who don%26#39;t live in rural Georgia. Can I get a glass of wine with my restaurant meals on Sunday, or can I purchase wine on Sundays.

Thanks in advance

Locals? Tips on moving to Beaufort area

I%26#39;m not a local (live in California), but have recently purchased a house on Lady%26#39;s Island. This was just two weeks ago, so I am still in the contract phase. At this point the house will be an income property for me, but I could easily see myself living in Beaufort someday. I had a very good realtor who seemed genuinely very happy about her own move there from Atlanta a couple of years ago. Her attitude about the area was infectious.

I%26#39;ve looked in a lot of areas on the southeast coast and liked Beaufort best for these reasons:

1. hassle-free small town feel.

2. beautiful historic town.

3. proximity to Savannah, Charleston, and Hilton Head without having to live in any of these too-busy places.

4. enough good local restaurants, with more on the way.

5. enough local shopping.

6. some room left for property appreciation due to relatively low inventory and prices.

7. last but not least: nicer people than I have found anywhere else on the southeast coast.

I hope this helps you a little. I%26#39;m sure you will also be getting input from some locals.

Tom

Locals? Tips on moving to Beaufort area

Tom, This is very helpful. We are looking very seriously at Lady%26#39;s Island also since it is so close to Beaufort and we can get a waterfronting place at a reasonable price.

There don%26#39;t seem to be that many vacation rentals on Lady%26#39;s Island but I think it%26#39;s a good location for that. It seems to cater to the non ocean-fronting crowd.

Thanks for for the info.

I live in rural northern beaufort county on the water and development is approaching from southern beaufort and northern Jasper. In the pocotaligo area they announced up to 5000 homes and a million sf of commercial. The Settings at Mckay Point is one. They will both have waterfront. If you are going to live on the water ICW prices are generally higher, look for a high bluff lot to avoid flood insurance, try not to move where there is a homeowners assoc, if you like rural areas try Bennetts Point in colleton county(closer to Charleston), or Bull Point in Sheldon(houses are about 800k-1M), if you live on an out island like ladys or st. helena you are going to have to evacuate at some point and I can assure you there will be heavy traffic with all the developed islands, In 1994 I could have bought the house next to me for 189k, 2200sf, 2acres, deep water and a barn. It sold recently for 850K(still a good deal). instead, I bought a two acre lot next to it for 30k, now its 300k-500k. So, if you like people then move to one of the smaller islands, but if you like country then look north. Oh, all of the coastal counties can serve alcohol in restaurants. good luck.

Tullifinney, This is EXCELLENT information. We actually prefer having some space in between us and the neighbors, we%26#39;re not ';high density'; people.

It%26#39;s good to know about the evacuation problems, and you%26#39;re right, it will only get worse.

I really appreciate your taking the time to post.

excel