Charleston AFB info

[Guest MATTUSAF]

Uncle Sam was pretty good to me Friday night, I got my drop...C-17s to Charleston! My wife and I are both very excited.

We're thinking about buying a house there after we get done with Altus. Does anyone know what the housing market is like? I've done some research online and it seems surprisingly reasonable. Do most of the people from base live in North Charleston or more towards the coast?

Any info I could get would be great. Thanks for your help!

[Guest Kawen]

I live on James Island in Charleston, about a 15-20 minute drive from the Air Force base depending on traffic. I'm not sure if you are looking for a house or an apartment, but things are generally cheaper in North Charleston than the rest of the areas. Mt. Pleasant is probably the most expensive while James Island and West Ashley are more moderately priced. I live about 10 minutes from Folly Beach as well, but my 1 bedroom apartment is over $700 a month. The same type of apartment in North Charleston would probably run $550-600 a month. If you are more looking for a house, Summerville is not too far of a drive and they have some nice communities. If you want to pay more, but live in a really nice area, then look to Mt. Pleasant. The AFB is easily accessible from anywhere in Chas since it is right off of both I-26 and I-526.

[CrateOfThunder]

I am from Charleston...grew up there. Don't buy in north Charleston... it is the 20th "most dangerous city in America" by CNN. Daniel Island is close to base and is booming market wise. Summerville will probably be the next big real estate boom in Charleston, but Mt. Pleasant, West Ashley, and james Island are all good places to live with decent markets and 20 minute drives to work.

[Chucktown17]

Check out www.charleston.net in the real estate section. That should get you started in the right direction.

[Guest whitadel]

i live in charleston, and although im stuck on campus m-f, by buddies and i have an apartment in west ashley. its about 20 min. from the base, but then again its only 5 from downtown (only 1 bridge away). for a three bed room its about $1100. the place is called concord west of the ashley. the best part is, they are converting certain parts of the complex into condos so they remodeled the main office building. it has a new gym, tanning bed, massage table, and movie theater available at no charge. there are two pools and alot of young people 22-28 live there. other than that...definately stay away from north charleston...unless you're packing the heat

[ClearedHot]

Originally posted by whitadel:

definately stay away from north Charleston...unless you're packing the heat

Absolute non-sense.

North Charleston has bad areas just like any other part of town. North Charleston has great places (I know I own one of them), right off Dorchester Road. Take for example the area at the corner of Ashley Phosphate Road and Dorchester Road. If you go behind the Publix there are seven or eight large neighborhoods with great homes. Some of the homes along the river are over a million dollars. If you are talking the small section of North Charleston by the ice cream shop...of course that is a bad area, but that is seven miles away.

I took a different approach to living in Charleston. I knew I had to go to work everyday and usually by 0600, so I picked a house five minutes away. A lot of people wanted to be near the beach in areas like Mt Pleasant, Isle of Palms, or Sullivan’s Island, but it takes over 30 minutes to get to the base from there…with no traffic. My approach was, I go to work everyday, I go to the beach sometimes…

Either way, there are great places to live all over Charleston.

[Guest Kawen]

I currently live on James Island, which is about a 20 minute drive to the AFB with no traffic, 15 minutes to Folly Beach, and 2 minutes from downtown. I have a very nice 1 bedroom apt that I rent for $702/month, not including utilities, cable, etc.

I am moving out in West Ashley to a very nice complex that is 10 miles from base and 10 miles from downtown. To get the AFB, you basically hop on I-526 and you could be there in 10-15 minutes depending on traffic. They have 1 bedrooms at that complex in the $700 ballpark...the 2 bedroom I will be renting runs around $850 including water/sewer.

Before choosing this place, I had looked at tons of other places all over town and it was the only one that had a good deal for military (for example, Heron Reserve is a nice complex near where I am moving but they offer no military discount). I did look at several places in North Chas and we found one we liked (Farrington Place), but decided to go with the place in West Ashley because it was closer to downtown (important to me since I go the medical university) and the same distance (or maybe even slighlty shorter) to the AFB.

If you're looking at getting into buying something, there are some really nice neighborhoods going up along Dorchester Rd. not too far from the base (10-15 minute drive).

PM me if you want to know the complexes where I currently rent or am moving, I can give you URLs to their websites and my personal photos if you want them.

[Guest Sebastian]

What kind of military discount? Have you had any trouble find apts with military clauses or is everything workable?

PS: Kawen and America check PMs

[ 20. April 2006, 09:40: Message edited by: Sebastian ]

[Guest Kawen]

Many of the places we looked at said they would waive the application fee and additionally there was no security deposit and some places cut their other "fees" in half (Farrington Place had a pretty long list of fees and I remember them saying they would do this). Some places offer 5% off your rent for military (I know we are getting 5% off ours, but I'm not sure if that's a military discount or an MUSC discount). We only asked about the military clause at the 2 places we really considered moving to and both had it, the just require a copy of your orders as soon as you find out you are going to have to end your lease early. Another good thing about the place we are moving is that they have flexible lease terms. We wanted a 8 or 9 month term in case we decided we wanted to get a house and most places either said we had to do 6 months or a year.

[Guest MATTUSAF]

CH Shacked it about North Charleston. I heard all kinds of bad things about it before I got here. It turns out there are some really nice places there. My wife and I actually looked at a couple houses there before deciding on a place in Goose Creek.

Goose Creek is awesome. I don't get the impression that I live with a bunch of rednecks at all, in fact I have no idea where that came from. We bought a place in a big subdivision called Crowfield Plantation. They have some awesome places. Prices range from about $140,000 to over $500,000. There's several people from base that live here.

PM me if you have any more specific questions.

Matt

[Guest Sebastian]

I'm sure you'll be able to find something in summerville that's responsible. There is a lot of new housing going up all over the area. However, traffic will be a real pain. You could also probably find a house for under 200k in North Chas but of course then you'll be living in North Chas (you'll really have to take a long hard look in person if you'll planning on living there - some nieghborhoods are pretty nice - others, well, not so much).

The good news is that a lot people seem to be worried that the housing bubble is about to burst here and as a result loads of real estate are being put up for sale.

Mt. Pleasant is nice but expensive, Daniel Island is gorgeous but really expensive (you would have trouble getting a 1 bd condo for under 200k), and West Ashley is being built up very nicely with new developments going up and is very central to everything including downtown.

[wacky]

If you aren't interested in a house and want to live downtown that is also a possibility. When are you getting down here?

I know of a couple of my friends who originally thought it was a good idea to live up in Mount P or S'ville and now live down on Broad like me. I lucked into my place here, since I am living with a 19 yr old girl and a 22 yr old, both C of C kids. I pay 950 a month, utils included for a room and bathroom in a 2100 sq foot house on Broad St a block from King and a short walk to everything... Drop me a PM since I have a 4 month sublet you can check out while I am gone...

Wacky

[rbigred300]

I'm going C-17s to Charleston within the month...does anyone have any recent info on how often you'll be gone / how many trips you get a month (I'm going to the 15th, so I am missing my squadron's deployment right now)

One of the reasons i ask is I am trying to rationalize the type of place I get to live in...aka, if I'm never going to be there I'm going to get a shittier place. I just don't want to be spending my entire BAH on a place if I'm never going to see it.

[flyguy2181]

Expect the first three months to be spin up time. After that, at most, I would expect one 10 day trip a month. You will see your place often so get something you will be happy coming home to.

[Guest ColumbusLT]

I lived in CHAS (Mt. P) before coming to Columbus for UPT. Its a great area, but just as others have said, it has expensive areas, and areas that you may prefer not to be at night.

Paces Watch is a good apt community in Mt. P. But on the whole, Mt. P. is steep with housing prices relative to the rest of the CHAS area, and price does not always equal quality...

If I get a C-17 to CHAS in the future, I definitely would look into buying a house in the West Ashley, Folly, Daniels Island, or Moncks Corner (toward the lake), areas. All of those areas have a good market for housing, your property value should do nothing but increase (relative to other areas), they are conveniently located, and plenty to do in a safe area.

Good luck there, buy yourself a boat...you won't regret it.

[C-21.Pilot]

As far as the city, we lived there several years ago. Take a look at Mt. Pleasant or Summerville - lots of military in both those areas. Remember though, there is a large Naval Weapons Station there as well. Summerville is less expensive than Mt. Pleasant. If you have no kids, consider living downtown near Market and King St. Stay away from the backgate/Rivers Ave area...

Take a peek here for houses for sale and rent:

www.militarybyowner.com

www.ahrn.com

Both of these sites are military driven, and if you find the right house/investment....you'd be helping out someone in uniform.

As far as the city, let me suggest that you take a peek at the pictures of Rainbow Row, the Battery, etc (simple Google search). If you're not into playing golf, it would be a great place to learn.

As far as the heavy lifestyle, there are several posts which give good detail. Search for C-17, or Heavy vs. Fighter, etc.

[Guest JSpoon]

I'd say Summerville which has grown alot since I was a kid so houses are a dime a dozen out there. Mount P or West Ashley if you wanna be closer to the city and water. Also Daniel's Island is nice but expensive.

[JeepGuyC17]

Expect the first three months to be spin up time. After that, at most, I would expect one 10 day trip a month. You will see your place often so get something you will be happy coming home to.

I wouldn't count on the "at most one 10-day trip a month" thing. Might have been that way a couple years ago, but we've been flying our asses off out here this past year or so, new copilots especially since they don't have real jobs or upgrades to worry about.

[itsokimapilot]

I wouldn't count on the "at most one 10-day trip a month" thing. Might have been that way a couple years ago, but we've been flying our asses off out here this past year or so, new copilots especially since they don't have real jobs or upgrades to worry about.

This has always seemed to be the case here. Really really busy and then it slows down again. Seems like really really busy is the current standard.

[Banquet Beer]

Just got to Chucktown and after looking at about a hundred places to rent I'm pretty exhausted. Unfortunately nothing worthwhile is open downtown because of school and not much opens up until August.

I found a place called Harbor Pointe Apartments in Mount Pleasant, pretty much at the foot of the Ravenel Bridge. It seems like the perfect location and looks nice (I toured it today), but after reading the reviews I got concerned. Anyone have any experience with them? I was planning on having a roommate and it is a 2bed/2bath for $1000/month.

Sorry for the long windedness... Thanks for the help. Cheers!

[drumkitwes]

Just got C-17's to Charleston and was curious if there was any updated info on good places to live/places to avoid? Also, what's the current ops tempo for a new copilot who wants to fly? Still the standard 200/250 days gone a year? Any info appreciated.

[C-21.Pilot]

If you are single, you have to live downtown. Period.

Married....many choices. Mt. Pleasant, Summerville, Daniel Island, etc...depends on your budget.

Places to avoid....anything remotely close to Rivers Ave.

[Whitman]

If you are single, you have to live downtown. Period.

Married....many choices. Mt. Pleasant, Summerville, Daniel Island, etc...depends on your budget.

Places to avoid....anything remotely close to Rivers Ave.

Agreed on avoiding Rivers and North Charleston in general. Don't rule out Goose Creek either for family oriented living. Crowfield plantation has some really nice homes and is close to I-26 for the commute to base, but the traffic can get pretty bad in the mornings on I-26 W towards CHS.

[mcbush]

Any changes WRT living arrangements and the housing market or is the gouge above still good? Anything you would have done differently during your time at KCHS?

[itsokimapilot]

No significant changes. I'm a N.Chas resident for ten years now, it's going downhill. There are still some reasonable places in N. Chas, but be careful. If you're married, Daniel Island, Mt. Pleasant, and West Ashley is where I'd move if I could, in order. DI is expensive, but the market is good. If you buy in DI and live there for three years, you'll likely make the most on the investment. I still kick myself for not buying in DI. Houses for sale for 200K in 2003 topped out in the mid 600K in 2007. They now sell for mid 300K. Barring any additional economic factors I predict a gradual increase in value. My bet is a 300K house in DI will sell for mid 400K in the next three to four years. Don't take my word for it though, I'm only a pilot...