After an evening of running the numbers on the Charleston house, we came to the conclusion that, although we loved the house, it wouldn’t support our lifestyle. We decided that we really need a home with at least one dependency to cover our fixed costs and give us the freedom to travel. With the Charleston house, we would have required about 9 months of executive rental to cover our fixed costs- so we’d have a beautiful home, but wouldn’t be able to live in it ourselves.
So, we were off to Savannah- The weather turned on us and it was pouring rain all morning. In the afternoon, we drove out to Savannah’s beach community, Tybee Island. It was a 40’s style beach community filled with a range of housing styles (mostly small and tacky) and a few restaurants. We stopped at the local crab shack for an overprice “thimble” of clam chowder. With high prices and an unheated dining room, we opted to dine at the Korean restaurant. It was wonderful to have spicy Korean food again.
The area around the KOA where we were staying was rural Georgia- lots of auto parts stores and churches (with signs like, “God answers kneemail”). All the men own brand new SUV trucks and like to start them up early in the morning and just let them idle a while.
We spent the day touring Savannah. We took a trolley tour (all three of us- although we had to keep Mija hidden under a map to try to stop the smells from wafting through the entire trolley). She was definitely ready for a bath.
Savannah is a simply beautiful city- maybe the most beautiful Historic District ever. The city was planned with a series of public squares filled with huge live oak trees and fountains. The feeling of neighborhood is spectacular. It reminded us of Boston’s South End. There is a lot of gentrification and also a lot of gorgeous unrestored homes.
We had lunch at Clary’s (featured in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”). It was another hearty lunch. We took their famous bread pudding home for my birthday dessert. We rented “the” movie and had bread pudding for dinner. It was a wonderful birthday.
We spent the next day driving through the historic district and getting a better sense of the housing. We used the real estate guide to get a sense of the housing costs and found some beautiful properties. It was time to call a realtor to see if this city would make the list.
Armed with a book on Historic Savannah, we did another drive around seeing the areas outside the HD- the Victorian District (both the “Afro-Victorian” and “Gentro-Victorian” areas) and Ardsley Park (a kind of Cleveland Heights with beautiful squares). We stopped at two open houses on Jones Street. 
Jones Street is one of the most beautiful streets we’d ever seen. Rows of beautiful townhomes lined with live oak trees and brick streets. The first house was beautiful from the outside, but the inside was the work of a local Home Depot job –and it was horribly over-priced. The second house on East Jones was an interesting property. It had the feeling of our house in Boston when you walked in – with heart pine floors, very high ceilings, floor to ceiling windows in the living room and master bedroom, a beautiful backyard and a 2 car carport. It had been vacant for over a year and was definitely a property that we could tackle. We had a quick lunch on the riverfront at one of the many tourist restaurants. It’s the Quincy Market of Savannah- lots of tourist shops, bars and restaurants.
The next day, we dropped Mija off at “Spa Dog” for her day at the spa. We headed off to Celia Dunn Real Estate to meet with Celia herself. We had a 2 hour meeting with Celia. She was a local Savannah resident-and a huge supporter of renovation in the Historic District.
A few notes on real estate in Savannah:
Any modifications to the exterior have to be approved by the Historic Review Board (some can be made by the staff, some require a committee review.)
The rental market is primarily SCAD students (grad and under-grad) and young professionals.
Local industry is doing OK- there’s some talk of Daimler Chrysler building a plant. Otherwise, locally things are fairly stable- with the main industry of manufacturing (steel, tractor equipment, sugar, paper), banks and the port.
The Historic District is a real neighborhood where people know each other and look out for each other. Crime is a problem- primarily auto theft, but also assaults and home burglaries. Much of the violent crime is black on black, but there is a large ‘indigent’ population that increases the theft problem.
Property taxes are high- a rough estimate is 2% of the selling price of the house. There are both city and country taxes.
Something is nagging at us about this beautiful city. The local paper (which doesn’t seem to cover any national news, but is filled with local info) has been reporting on the high crime rate, the flight from the city (a 4% decline in 10 years), and the high taxes. The crime rate has placed Savannah in the top 10 of all metropolitan areas in the US. Security systems abound (along with ‘beware of dog’ signs). The local mayoral election is starting with one candidate declaring a war on crime as his first priority. There appears to be a general lack of leadership/vision in the city.
We spent the afternoon with our realtor looking at properties in the Historic District. The range of properties and prices were stunning. We saw new construction (with elevator and carriage house) for $490K and town homes for $925K with no parking. We kept coming back to the house on East Jones and spent some time re-looking at the property. It could be beautiful and the block is spectacular. But, again, it’s too much, too soon.
Beaufort----
We took a day trip to Beaufort, SC to see if it was as beautiful as we remembered it from our last visit. It was truly charming. So charming in fact, that we called a realtor and spent the afternoon looking at housing in the historic district (Old Point) and the surrounding communities.
According to Judy, the realtor, about 70% of the buyers are coming from outside the area. About 1/3 are looking for anything on the water or with a water view. About 1/3 are looking for golf communities and the last 1/3 are looking for historic properties. The lower home market is going strong- largely due to low interest rates and the 2 military bases close to Beaufort. Over $300K, it’s a bit slower moving. There’s a large market for ST rentals, but very little availability. The real estate company rents a small cottage for $1200/month furnished. Most of the demand comes from people who are in town building and want to be close to the site, but don’t want to move their stuff. There’s also a market for military personnel coming in on temporary living allowances. They just opened Oaks Apartments- furnished two bedroom apartments rent for $1500/month. Judy expects appreciation at 10-15% on housing.
The housing in Old Point was lovely- we looked at a beautiful Victorian (needed some work, but it had a lovely feel- high ceilings, open rooms). It didn’t have parking and needed some structural work – and had been on the market for over a year. We also looked at several other properties downtown and one with a water view. While the views were lovely, the house was unimpressive - open floor plan with a in-ground pool and a guest apartment. It was priced at only $415K, but there were lots galore in the same area.
Sea Islands...
Content that we’d seen Savannah and surround well enough to count it in as a possibility, we headed south to the Sea Islands of Georgia. First, we stopped for lunch at the TA Truck Stop restaurant. For $4.99, we had a ½ pound hamburger with fries- enough food to feed a truck driver (or in our case, enough for the two of us and several meals for Mija) When we got to the the Sea Island area, we stopped in a state park with beautiful live oaks and no possibility of satellite reception. So, we tried the park down the road. While lacking in any atmosphere (most of the sites were water logged or filled with muck, we were able to find a relatively dry spot, got satellite reception and called it home for a few days.
We took a drive to Brunswick to track down a book store (limited, but it was a book store- which is hard to find in the south). Then we took a quick stop at the TA and FlyingJ Truck stops. The parking lots were filled with RV’s- most of them from Quebec- spending the night for free on their way to Florida. All the campgrounds and truck stops are filled with snowbirds making their way south before Christmas.
We did a tour of the Sea Islands – starting with Sea Island. We drove around the Cloisters, where John’s family vacationed when they were kids. It was definitely white man’s land. We asked one of the “help” for directions to the swimming pool. He rolled his eyes and said, “No sir, I don’t rightly know”
From there, we drove all around St Simon’s- a bastion of white money. The south is filled with white people with money living in enclaves (gated communities or named communities) while the poor whites live in run down homes or mobile homes- completely separated from the poor blacks.
Fleeing the white bread atmosphere of St Simons, we found the historic district of Brunswick. Completely surrounded by run-down black neighborhoods with a small buffer of white red-neck housing, it was several blocks of large, beautiful Victorian homes in various stages of renovation. The streets were lined with live oaks and it was truly lovely. (They had a unique real estate pitch- a drive by house description- just turn to 1610 on your AM dial and listen to a description of the house. ). On the way out of town, we drove through the historic downtown area- with too many ‘for rent” signs in the windows.
We drove north to Darien, hoping to find a small town with a historic district, but didn’t find much but an outlet mall and a few old houses. John says that the south is filled with “live oaks and dead brains”.
Jekyll Island...
Our last stop was at Jekyll Island. The island is owned by the State of Georgia and the scenery is spectacular. The island was originally the playground of the Rockefellers, Goodyears, etc. They built a huge private club and gorgeous “cottages” for their summer retreats. Now, the club is a hotel and the cottages are art galleries and inns. Surrounding the beautiful homes was a development of 60’s style brick ranch houses with the most amazing views of the Intracoastal Waterway.
On Christmas Day, we were off to Viejes. John fortunately called the airlines in advance. They had cancelled our flight, so we had to head back to the main airport to catch another flight. It was a 10 person plane flying visual to the small island of Viejes. Bob and Steph met us at the airport and we drove to Casa Cielo. The island was reminiscent of Costa Rico – bad roads, a lazy feeling and stray dogs (and horses) everywhere. We had a quick lunch with the entire family, took a quick nap and then headed for a pre-wedding dinner. 
