Charleston Real Estate Market

It’s a hot and steamy Saturday with rain showers popping in and out raising the humidity…yes, it’s August in the Lowcountry.

School is back in session and the crowds at the College of Charleston this morning were something, so was the line of cars heading to Folly. I did see a great bumper sticker, I’d love to have one…it said “Only idiots litter”. Now I dare someone to put the matter more succinctly.

I was at the Framers Market with my friend, Bev, from the Half Moon Cafe days. We loaded up on heirloom tomatoes from Fields Farm, grass fed hot dogs from the Meathouse and beautiful brown eggs from Chucktown Chicken. Then, it was off to the Glass Onion for grilled pimento cheese and tomato sandwiches with iced tea and mint syrup. Then…that was it for me…siesta time. 

Filed under: Lowcountry Lifestyle, Lowcountry Today, Uncategorized on August 21st, 2010 | No Comments »

      The small portion of James Islanders who actually put their money where there mouth is has voted in a new administration in the Town of James Island.  Congratulations and good luck to them!  Hats off to those that put themselves, their money and their time on the line and ran for the openings on council and the mayors office. Remember if you didn’t vote you can’t whine.

      On the whole, we live in a pretty special place.  According to CNN.com, Mount Pleasant is in the Top 100 Best Places to live in the US, coming in at number 100.

     Charleston has made it to the Top Three Best Tennis Towns, the winner will be announced at the US Open.  At stake is a cash prize to add to tennis programs in the area.

     Charleston has moved up from number 18 to number 4 in the Most Vibrant Metro Areas for businesses with 99 employees or less, according to online magazine Portfolio.com. Columbia at #12 is up from 59, Greenville #16 up from 28. To compare, Atlanta dropped from 31 to 60. Kind of puts what’s happening in perspective, huh?

    When looking at the density and growth of the 65+ population, Hilton Head /Beaufort is in the Top Ten of the Retirement sector. I guess Sun City helped that figure along. This was a Portfolio.com statistic also.

     I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Mt Pleasant has scored the Top Ten All American Cities honor. The other nine named are: Chandler, AZ; Lynwood,CA; Rancho Cordova, CA; North Miami, FL; Acworth, GA; Des Moines,IA; Salisbury, MD; Gastonia, NC; and El Paso, Tx.

     Congratulations to all of our fine towns!

Filed under: Lowcountry Lifestyle, Lowcountry Today, Uncategorized on August 4th, 2010 | No Comments »

Happy Birthday Elaine Holst Wilson…grammar school friend’s birthdays are hard to forget…

Filed under: Lowcountry Lifestyle, Lowcountry Today, Uncategorized on August 3rd, 2010 | No Comments »

There’s something special about living in a place that is so full of history. I went to show a house the other day on James Island and passed a small park with a monument in it. I stopped yesterday to read it. It was the area in which Fort Lamar was built and the gentle hills surrounding it were the remains of the earthen fort.

 The monument read  “The Batle of Secessionville, fought here on 16 June 1862, broke the Union advance through James Island against Charleston and was the most significant battle of the Civil War in South Carolina. Confederate troops under Thomas G. Lamar defended simple unfinished earthwork. Later enlarged and named Fort Lamar, which sat in the narrow end of a funnel-shaped strip of high ground flanked by tidal creeks and marsh. Union troops under General Henry W. Benham launched several assaults against the earthwork which anchored the eastern end of the Confederate line, but were repulsed with heavy casualties and soon evacuated James Island altogether a few days later.

A total of 683 Federals and 204 Confederates were killed, wounded or captured. Of these totals 107 Federals and 52 Confederates lost their lives on this Battlefield.

Walk Softly on this Hallowed ground.” 

Filed under: Lowcountry Today, Uncategorized on June 22nd, 2010 | No Comments »

     I can’t think of anything more irresponsible than the Senate going home for a vacation without renewing the Federal Flood Insurance Program. The biggest irony (and the saddest) is that the program was allowed to expire on the first day of hurricane season. You would think that as self-serving as most politicos are, they would jump at the opportunity to lead the charge to protect their constituents. To do so without controversy seems to be a PR dream come true. 

While everyone seems to think that it doesn’t affect them, consider if you are one of the thousands of people whose insurance carrier decided to move out of the market or just drop certain policies in those markets. It is not just the folks trying to buy a home needing flood insurance who are in trouble. If your policy is up for renewal…guess what. It can’t and you are without coverage. Your lender requires you to have flood insurance….where does that leave you? In alot of trouble. And it’s not just folks on the coast that are in a tight spot. We forget there are locations inland that are devasted by flooding. The news from Arkansas has brought that home to us this week.

     I know I’m on my soapbox, but I think that Seantors who would go home without taking care of this important piece of business need to be returned to the world that the rest of us have to live in. Maybe then they’ll learn what we know only too well. We don’t go home til our work is done.  That’s how it is in the real world.

Filed under: Around Town, Lowcountry Lifestyle, Lowcountry Today, Uncategorized on June 13th, 2010 | No Comments »

Good Morning. It’s a grey and stormy one today and the weather folks are calling for it to get worse this afternoon. The beach was deserted at sun up and both the pier and the washout had a little wave action. But, as Chad so aptly put it, “every day is epic at Folly Beach…relatively speaking…”

Filed under: Around Town, Lowcountry Lifestyle, Lowcountry Today, Uncategorized on April 25th, 2010 | No Comments »

Rain on the way tomorrow, but the roses are starting to show their stuff.

 Big news, I’ve left Carolina One and moved to a boutique agency downtown. I’m excited, it reminds me of starting in the business so long ago.

Here’s a sneak peak at my new signs.

Let me know what you think!!!

Filed under: Lowcountry Lifestyle, Lowcountry Today, Real Estate News, Uncategorized on April 20th, 2010 | No Comments »

After days of pruning, trying to get the yard in shape for the spring, it’s Tuesday. That’s the day that the wonderful men from James Island PSD come to pick up all the trimmings. They are so sweet, they get out there with a rake and get every last piece. So the mountains are gone from in front of the house and we can finally get an idea of what we’ve got.

Our grapefruit tree is about ready to pop out with flowers so we know that the orange, lemon, lime and tangerines will be right behind them. Together with the banana shrub, it’ll be like heaven here on the block.

Today was kind of a bust for surf, but folks were out early getting their spaces staked out, like this Carolina Gamecock couple. There was even a crabber off the end of the pier.

Filed under: Around Town, Lowcountry Lifestyle, Lowcountry Today, Uncategorized on April 6th, 2010 | No Comments »

Happy Easter Sunday! Hope the morning is good at your house. We have lots of sunrise pictures this morning. The first, Foster took at the Pier while the sunrise service was taking place and the rest are from yesterday at the Washout. The moon was up at the Pier, couldn’t resist.

Filed under: Around Town, Lowcountry Lifestyle, Lowcountry Today, Uncategorized on April 4th, 2010 | No Comments »

April Fool’s Day…better be wary!  Realtors in our office are waking up to For Sale signs in their yards. It’s all practical jokes and they’ll be coming from where you least expect them.

It was a beautiful sunrise, which was good for the photography class under the pier at Folly. Not much surf to speak of.

Filed under: Lowcountry Today, Uncategorized on April 1st, 2010 | No Comments »