What your dollar buys
I recently met 2 potential clients who were thinking about relocating to Charleston. One was from Center City in Philadelphia, had an historic home there and wanted purchase a similar home downtown in the Historic District of Charleston. The other was from suburban Atlanta and lived in a golf course community. Both had nice homes and both wanted to find similarly nice homes here. The Charleston real estate market is blessed with an abundance of fine homes in either category.
What happened next is the reason for writing. The couple from Philadelphia knew what it would cost to find what they were looking for, the Atlanta family was shocked at our prices. They thought that they could trade in their current golf course home in the suburbs of Atlanta and buy an equivalent property in Charleston for just about half the price. They were very disappointed in the homes they were seeing in their stated price range. We saw some very nice homes, just not as nice as their current home. Square footage was less and the houses were lacking all the usual top of the line finishes and appointments (at least the views of the golf course were stunning).
On my website, I have a page called "What Your Dollar Buys". It is a reality check page. Loosely based on the HGTV show, it highlights homes in the Charleston area varying in price from $150,000 to $2 million.
Charleston is not an inexpensive place to buy a home. If it costs several million dollars to be downtown or near the water in your hometown, don't assume that you can buy it here for much less, it will cost at least that much and possibly more. Having said that, we are very fortunate to have many very nice homes at all price points all within 30 minutes of the beach and a very vibrant and growing city which happens to be one of the most beautiful and historic places in the country if not the world.
With all of the information available to real estate consumers today, a little research is probably better than just assuming you can find the home you want for the price you want to spend. Depending on circumstances, you may have to spend a little more or settle for a little less.