Kiawah or Seabrook?
Lots of fun possibilities. HH has everything we want - but this so reminds me of the college search process - just want to keep looking so that we don’t overlook an option. DH is a fanatical golfer - he is playing tomorrow even in this ridiculously hot/humid weather - so golf is at the top of his wish list. I want to be able to walk to the beach - but also have proximity to restaurants and shopping. I watch every HGTV beach or waterfront show, and some of the locales are beautiful, but too limited. I have the idea that I want a community that has a pool, fitness facility and some planned activities. I keep telling DH that I want the adult equivalent of summer camp!
I didn’t see anyone listing criteria such as no humidity and no flying bugs as important.
First time I ever saw black flies was at a family wedding in Vermont during Memorial Day weekend several years ago. I had no idea what they were, hundreds of flies swarming about in black clouds… and I had over 30 bites in my legs having dinner in a tent.
So glad we don’t have flying bugs here.
No, not every area. This information can be obtained by an established, experienced HH real estate agent. Golf was near the top of our list, too. And, there, too, there are so many different options, depending on what you want. Many of the golf courses, even those inside these plantations, are not private. So if you want access to the best golf courses, and you don’t want to play a 5+hour round, you need to explore the different communities and how they handle golf. A community like HH Plantation with 4200 homes and courses that aren’t private are going to provide a very different experience than Wexford Plantation with 500 homes and golf that is only available to resident members and their guests.
Distance from the beach is obviously going to vary but the number of homes that are an easy walk from the beach will be a minority on HH, even though it’s an island. All of the beaches are public so beach time, even in the busiest summer months is never difficult. Shopping and restaurants are going to be accessible anywhere on the island, although the area’s top restaurants are almost all in Old Bluffton.
I would imagine that every plantation has a pool, certainly the ones I’m familiar with do. Ours also has an excellent fitness facility, including trainers, massage therapist, and classes offered. Also a large tennis facility, children’s playground, two top golf courses and a par three, two practice facilities, extensive pro staff, two clubhouses and a halfway house that also serves meals. Book clubs, cards, art classes, all kinds of organized gatherings, if that strikes your fancy.
Renting for a while is probably a good idea for you. We were not totally familiar with the area but had narrowed it down so that we knew that we wanted to buy there. We then did tons of research and were sure to get an excellent agent. We chose the homes we wanted to see and my H knew all about what each community offered in golf. We do know several friends who have rented for years (winter months) before buying a place but none of them live there full-time. I think the challenge, as I mentioned earlier, may be finding an extended rental that isn’t a furnished one. That is, if you are planning on taking your current furniture, etc. with you for the rental.
There are many beautiful coastal communities in the south but HH does have more amenities than most, if not all, of them. If that’s what you want, it’s a great place.
Thanks for so much detail. It’s a fun search.
“So glad we don’t have flying bugs here.” Where do you live, the arctic circle? There are flying bugs everywhere.
I was reading that it is so hot in NY right now that the cockroaches might start flying.
What do people do with their furniture and belongings if they sell their house first before renting at possible retirement locations? If they plan to move a houseful of stuff into their new home later, they would need a very large storage facility, and paying the movers twice. And if they liquidate everything through garage sales, donations etc, they would only recover a small fraction of the cost of refurnishing their new house. I would imagine that the logistics are simpler if the retirees stay in the same area, but most of them relocate.
Humidity is a concern for me. I get physically ill in really hot, humid weather like we have now. Unfortunately, we want to stay in the east to be near our kids, so finding someplace with reasonable humidity is a challenge.
Movers offer one month free storage, in my experience. It is worth paying a few months rather than jumping into buying. The smartest people I know have rented for a year, even if they store some belongings.
These days, there aren’t that many places with low humidity- the mountain states, maybe west Texas… I’m not a fan of humidity, either, and this summer has been rough in middle Tennessee. Trade-offs…
One of the benefits of where we live now is that it is very expensive and has hot/humid summers! So, I feel well conditioned to move south. I won’t have sticker shock and am familiar with humidity.
We will sell/donate the majority of our furniture. Take a few things - but not much. I have visited family in Florida where they have moved their heavy dark dining room furniture to their retirement condo - and it looks ridiculous. We furnished our present house 20 years ago and have not changed much since - so I love the idea of starting fresh.
I will be retiring next year. My main concern is the quality of health care we have in our current location (Central Indiana) and the care we will have to find where we will retire (St. Simons Island, Georgia). We have a second home there (no mortgage) and my hubby grew up there. I’m sure that Jacksonville and Savannah have great care but health care in our area is top notch. We considered maintaining our doctors here and coming back once a year for appointments (we love all of our doctors and the area but can not deal with the absolute cold weather!). I’ll be 49 1/2 (government pension and health care) and my hubby 66 (my health care and Medicare). Any advice?
@HappyFace2018 I can assure you that there are wonderful healthcare facilities near your future retirement home , no need for travel back to Indiana. You will really need local physicians . As you get older the likelihood that you will require more visits to a doctor.
Maine has low humidity 99% of the time. Northern Michigan where I live does also. Our summers are absolutely wonderful. Fall is amazing and I don’t mind the snow here. It’s cold but they know how to clear the roads so I find it easier to drive than I did downstate. However spring leaves a lot to be desired. The snow doesn’t really melt until the middle of April and May is cold and rainy most the the time. I figure Maine is close to our weather.
I love where I live but will find somewhere to go in the spring. March is still winter here and I am really tired of winter by March.
The more that people retire in certain areas, the more doctors will go there. At least for elder specialties. I think you’ll be fine @HappyFace2018
I’m somewhat used to humidity. Taking D3 back and forth to school in AZ feels really good for the first day or so. Then, I start to feel like I’m shriveling up! At least I rarely have to use moisturizer where I live, lol.
Colorado has little humidity, at least compared to the Northeast. I felt the shriveling there as well.
I was constantly drinking water in Denver. Great city, great climate, but so true about shriveling.
@rockvillemom I would look at Tybee Island or St. Simon’s Island in Georgia for you, also. Tybee is super laid back (think flip flops and seafood on paper plates), St. Simon’s is a golfer’s paradise and fancier.
My aunt and my H’s best friend both have homes on Kiawah. It is gorgeous, but you need a lot of money to enjoy it there.
@mycupoftea a lot of people use PODS or something similar-they drop a POD in your driveway, you fill it up with your furniture (or you pay someone to do it), the POD goes in storage, then at your new place they drop the POD in the new driveway and you have people unload it. We’ve never used it, but I know neighbors here have (because sometimes they drop the POD in the street because their driveways aren’t big enough and the rest of us spend days trying to edge around a POD taking up 50% of the road X( ).
@shellfell I’d look at the higher altitude places-even here in the south there’s a significant difference in temp and humidity up in the mountains. My commute to college involves going up about 800 feet in altitude in a 1 hour commute (from 1,000 feet above sea level to 1,800), and the difference in temp and humidity is flat out remarkable sometimes.
@HappyFace2018 I think you can find good docs in just about any major metro area in the US now. Sometimes super-specialty docs might be harder to find, but with the internet and access to medical information much more freely available now, I feel pretty good about going to most hospitals as long as they rank high on the low hospital-caused infection scale. (there are some dirty, dirty hospitals out there. Looking at you, Emory.)
Actually the PNW east of the Cascade Range has very few flying bugs.
I have seen one fly and zero mosquitos this year.
We have no poisonous snakes.
It is 82 with 51% humidity and I find hot.
But you really have to get along with rain here…
Enjoying reading everyone’s thoughts.
We will be looking for a change 3 years.