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It’s a been a few weeks since my first article on our house hunting in Greenville.  Our house in Charleston is now on the market and after a few weeks we have had plenty of interest but no solid offers.  Selling in the Low Country is still a booming market.  However, being located on Johns Island is a tad more challenging because there is a gluttony of new homes unlike Mt. Pleasant, Downtown Charleston, and James Island. Also, though our home is only 5 years old, that is still not a”brand new” home in many buyer’s eyes.

This has put our Greenville house hunt on a bit of a pause.  We still spend time driving around neighborhoods and scouting out nearby business when in town.  So that when we decide to make the move, we will have done our due diligence. In the meantime I thought I would share some recent housing and cost of living data the greenvilleontherise.com readers.

Using the cost of living comparison site Numbeo, I did some quick comparisons between Greenville and other popular surrounding cities.  For instance living is Greenville is only slightly less expensive on average than living in Charleston.  Greenville Consumer Prices are roughly 12.75% lower than Charleston’s.  When compared to Charlotte that drops down to a much closer difference of about 1.5%.   Interestingly, looking at basic utilities like heating, electric, and water, the cost is nearly 22% lower in Greenville than Asheville NC.  This is not completely surprising considering it’s different states and difference terrain. So utilities and their infrastructure may influence that difference.    I am also not sure how accurate Numbeo is for certain data as it relies on user input.  However, I highly suggest taking a look to see the difference in everything from a Coke to common house supplies.

I was also interested in how many new business and building permits were being issued.  This is often a sign of how fast growth is occurring and where some popular areas are around town.  According to the Greenvillesc.gov Transparency Portal there were 664 building permits issued so far in 2017  for a total estimated value of $326,283,316.00.  What was most interesting to me is several of the permits were issued to out-of-state developers.  A quick glance revealed that most of the developers tended to be larger homebuilding groups such as Ryan Homes.  This was not a complete surprise to me as my own home in Charleston was built by Eastwood Homes out of Maryland and several of the homes near us are being built by non-sc developers.  Considering the national press that Greenville is getting, I think this is a trend we will continue to see.

Lastly, according to the City of Greenville key financial indicators showed that property tax collections went up from $32,758,164 in in 2015 to $35,898,580 in 2017.  That jump actually seemed small to me, yet is still another great indicator of the building and growth in Greenville.  Further examination of these documents showed that hospitality is also on the rise in Greenville.  The Hospitality Tax Collections Comparison saw a jump  from  $7,724,329 in 2015 to $8,918,794 in 2017.  Obviously people love visiting the area as much as people desire to live in Greenville.

In my next article I hope to back to the house search and discuss some of the great communities. For now I hope you found the data on our beloved city interesting.

About the Author

Mike Swanigan is a Process Engineer for Cigna. A native of West Virginia, Mike’s family moved first Myrtle Beach in the 1980s and shortly after relocated to Charleston. He holds a B.S. in Journalism from WVU and a M.A. in IT and Digital Communication from Johns Hopkins He is an avid dog lover, amateur foodie, and long time music fan.

Check out the Rest of the “Moving up to Greenville” series by Mike Swanigan Here.

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