@Rockvillemom, sounds like a win/win, with less stress for you & H & your mom! Congrats! I hope HH is everything you hope for!
We are likely going to remain on our island for the rest of our lives, but have not seen any 55+ options that are particilarly attractive to me. I have seen a few and just “aren’t me,” and my H feels the same way. Fortunately, we are starting our own 55+ community in our corner of the neighborhood. We have 4 houses in a cluster that have all of us with me as the youngest at 58! As long as we can drive, it’s a great neighborhood. Sadly, the grocery store that was a 20 minute walk from our home was bought out by and converted to a church, so our nearest grocery is about a 5-10 minute drive from the house.
Property taxes are 4% of FMV for full-time residents; 6% for second homes. You will also pay property tax on your cars, which was a first for us. We have one car that we leave there so we pay tax on it.
Explore the communities you’re interested in thoroughly. Be aware that if you’re in a community that allows short-term rentals, this will bring with it issues that you won’t find in those that don’t allow them.
HH and the surrounding area are very nice. There is good shopping, great restaurants, galleries, theatre, golf, tennis, kayaking, fishing, boating, hundreds of miles of biking trails, very good healthcare facilities, historical tours, a wonderful Concours D’Elegance, in addition to the beach.
I think you’ll find everything you could possibly want, rockvillemom. Best of luck!
According to my S, who lives in VA, the property tax on vehicles are for the value of the vehicles, IF they are worth more than $5k. Fortunately for him, his car is valued at $5k, so he is able to avoid that tax and has stopped him from considering a new or newer car.
Port Royal Plantation is completely residential, and, as I said, doesn’t allow short term rentals. I don’t think there are any condos, per se, but they did allow a few “patio houses,” which are attached 2-story houses with their own small private yards. It is on the beach, the access is direct, and the beach is enormous. It tends to be quieter than the places where a lot of renters are coming and going. My parents made good friends there. (My dog loved the beach. )
I believe you would definitely have to drive to any shopping you needed to do, though.
I think that renting and exploring the island–and some of the communities on the mainland that are also on the intracoastal–more fully is a good plan. I think that you will find that the realtors tend to hype the places that either have a lot of traffic or are in the process of being built up, for obvious reasons. Hence the “featured communities” in one of your links.
The two major reasons my parents decided to move off the island were the hurricane evacuations, which are a multi-day process involving huge traffic jams and travelling hundreds of miles, and their feeling that the island was getting overcrowded and there was too much hub-bub and traffic once they left their plantation sanctuary.
BTW, in CT one pays property tax on cars. In ME, the cost of registration depends on the value of the car, which is essentially the same thing. And your current property taxes are low!
Thank you so much - adding this community to my list.
I know nothing about huricane evacuations - I just saw the signs. How often does this occur on average? Where do you go? Hotel?
I do understand the sense that the community is becoming overcrowded - that’s how I feel about my present location. It’s hard to live someplace for 25 years and see the crowding, congestion, traffic, etc. increasing every year and the quality of life decreasing. HH may be more crowded than it was - but a joy compared to our current locale.
When people evacuate HH for a hurricane they typically are encouraged to drive several hundred miles inland to get away from it. Motels fill up rapidly. Once they drove something like 300 miles inland, and the high winds still toppled a tree that demolished the car of another HH couple at the motel. What fun. And since there is only one bridge on/off hte island, the traffic jams to evacuate are usually several hours. Like 3 or more. Of course, it depends when you leave. The earlier the better, but you never know where it will actually make landfall, so if you leave a couple of days in advance it could be for naught.
Hmmmm…interesting. One thing I will say about suburban MD - we have never been impacted by hurricanes, tornados, flooding, etc. Ice and snow and resulting power outages yes. Crazy hail storms once in a while.
We are semi-considering moving my 80+ mother with us. I won’t mention hurricane evacuations.
Yes, some years there are none, some–few–years, there are several. I think they just went through a bad patch, including the storm that could have obliterated HH with a high tide storm surge but instead veered slightly north and devastated Charleston instead. (Hugo, I think.)
Evacuations are pretty rare and when they do occur for HIlton Head, they are often voluntary evacuations. In any case, not even a voluntary one has happened for over ten years. This is not an issue that I would let influence your decision, rockvillemom. Most hurricanes that form in the Caribbean and head north, miss SC and hit the Outer Banks in NC. The geography of the coastline is helpful in this regard.
I am in coastal Virginia and even here the tidal flooding, hurricanes, nor’easters and hurricane threats have increased since we moved here years ago. Flood insurance has risen every year. I am anxious for my husband to retire so we can move , We are thinking of doing the opposite of what you are considering-moving back to our hometown of Pittsburgh we left 30 + years ago or moving near our kids in DC if they remain there. I’ll take some snow (which I grew up with) and traffic congestion over hurricane threats and flooding any day. I just don’t want to be 70 or 80 years old and having to worry about evacuating! Or the massive preparation , anxiety , and cleanup involved with flooding. Asheville or Charlottesville at this point in my life would be more appealing to me than coastal towns.
Reading all this makes me want to go back!! Haven’t been in quite a while. I know you said Bluffton isnt on your radar currently, but we have Jewish friends who chose there over HH.
We need to look further in Bluffton. We were so turned off by Sun City Hilton Head - but there are other communities to explore. I just loved the beach and casual vibe of Hilton Head, but Bluffton might be more practical.
@rockvillemom, I can tell you that people there don’t even consider Sun City to be in Bluffton, although technically it is. Bluffton is Old Town Bluffton (probably about ten miles from Sun City toward the Island) and the surrounding area. That Bluffton has a beautiful, charming, and historic downtown area with excellent restaurants, galleries, and shopping. It has lovely communities, one of which is the prime gated community in the entire area, including on the Island. The choice of terrific restaurants in that smallish town/area (far from Sun City, by the way), is as good, if not better (better in my opinion) than anything on the Island itself and it is only a mile or less from the bridge. You won’t be right on the beach but there are other amenities that may mitigate that, depending on your preferences.
@rockvillemom@alwaysamom is right. I wouldn’t let the fear of evacuation weigh heavily in your decision regarding moving to HH. I lived in Mt. Pleasant, SC ( suburb of Charleston ) from 1991 to 1999 and never evacuated once. Hugo the storm that @consulation mentioned was 25 years ago. After Hugo SC became much more proactive in terms of evacuation routes, etc.
They may be more proactive, but I believe there is still one and only one bridge off the island.
After my parents sold their HH place they rented in Sun CIty while making plans to build on the intracoastal on the mainland, up more towards Beaufort. They were NOT fans of Sun City! Found it sterile and boring.
Eventually they decided that maintaining full-size houses in two different regions was going to be too much, and bought a beachfront condo on a preserve area in FL for their southern place.
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