Greenwood, SC: Couple moves to town, falls in love with golf community, buys golf club
Recall some years ago the TV ad in which the owner of the Remington Shaving Company addressed the camera (and audience) and said something like: “I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company.” The golf community equivalent of that story is the Links at Stoney Point, a modern golf club in a nicely landscaped community along one edge of Lake Greenwood in South Carolina. Denise and Jim Medford liked their community and its golf club so much, they bought the club after the recession sent the prior owners packing.
The couple’s own geographic diversity –- he was born an hour away in Greer, SC, she in southern California -– is reflected in the Stoney Point neighborhood where, Denise says, “most people are from elsewhere,” meaning not Greenwood and not substantially from South Carolina. That lends the quiet community something of a cosmopolitan air, but without any pretentiousness.
The lake comes into play only on a couple of holes at Stoney Point, but the views from the golf course -- and some of the homes -- are impressive.
You could say the same for Greenwood at large, one of those towns that would benefit from a lot more marketing propulsion from its Chamber of Commerce. I’ve now played or toured five golf community courses within a half hour of Greenwood’s active downtown –- Savannah Lakes (two golf courses), Patriot Links at Grand Harbor, Greenwood Country Club and Stoney Point –- and they provide plenty of options for a retiring couple looking for the most reasonable real estate prices in an area not beset with traffic, pollution or other suburban and big-city woes. Plenty of fine golf community homes, some on the golf course and a few even with lake views, can be found in the $200s. According to bestplaces.net, homes in Greenwood are 23% less expensive than those in Greenville. Overall cost of living in Greenwood reflects the cost of its housing; for example, living in Greenwood will save you 16% over a comparable lifestyle in Asheville, NC, and a 17% savings compared with living in Richmond, VA.
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The hidden charms and bargain real estate of mid-sized southern cities
It is not difficult to find information about golf communities in or near some of the more publicized cities of the south, such as Asheville, Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and Savannah. But some of the best bargains in golf community real estate are hiding in plain site, ringing the smaller cities in the southeast. I made stops at three of them recently.
Oh what a beautiful morning…at The Currahee Club in northern Georgia
I awoke this morning at Currahee Club in Toccoa, GA, to two beautiful sights: A gorgeous sunrise and a lone golf club employee cutting the green just below the cottage where I had stayed the night. That was a couple of hours before my tee time at Currahee, voted by Golfweek raters as a top 50 residential golf course. I’m going to reserve my comments about the golf course for a week or two from now. (Spoiler alert: The Jim Fazio layout deserves the praise it received from Golfweek, and then some.)
Member’s early read on Gary Player Cliffs at Mountain Park course
It seems as if it has been a long time coming, but Gary Player has finally, officially joined the rolls of the name designers commissioned by The Cliffs Communities to build its portfolio of golf courses, now numbering seven with the opening of Player’s Mountain Park in Travelers Rest. Located about 20 miles from city center in Greenville, SC, the links-like Player layout stretches along the North Saluda River and around a 12-acre lake that abuts the 11th and 12th holes. The Blue Ridge Mountains look down on the wooded valley that comprises the golf course. Jim Reichert, a Cliffs Communities golf club member and longtime reader of our Home On The Course newsletter (monthly and free, click here to subscribe), played the course shortly after its September 26 grand opening. Jim, who plays to a 4 handicap, puts a lot of stock in the fun quotient of a golf course, and he ranks the new Mountain Park highly in that regard. His favorite Cliffs course is Tom Fazio’s Vineyard layout along Lake Keowee, my own favorite by a wide measure over the other two Cliffs courses I’ve played.
Ugly homes show their appreciation
I was offered a great job in Connecticut in 1984, and my wife and I decided to relocate there from Manhattan. Over the course of three days, along with an undaunted and patient Realtor, we wandered in and out of 43 houses. All were re-sales; some showed very well and others not so well. One in particular was just nasty looking on the inside but had wonderful curb appeal, with two large maple trees in the front, and a wooded backyard with the community’s paved walking trail at its far edge.
Golfweek rater’s comments lead to defense of Nicklaus
I played golf in Hartford (CT) a couple of weeks ago and during the walk, one of my playing partners, a well-traveled rater for Golfweek magazine, offered that the difficulty of Jack Nicklaus golf courses was starting to have an effect on the value of homes in golf communities with the Golden Bear’s layouts. I play regularly the Nicklaus’ Signature golf course at Pawleys Plantation, south of Myrtle Beach, and while the layout is certainly difficult and play there can be slow when vacationers foolishly play the wrong tees -- signs that try to advise them are largely ignored -- I wasn’t going to challenge the Golfweek rater during the round. But I have started my research with an eye to writing about the relationship of real estate and the difficulty of golf courses. Stay tuned.
Naples and south Florida real estate market getting back to where it once belonged
The rule of thumb for the real estate market after 2007 was that those areas whose prices had risen the fastest and farthest to that point wound up falling quicker and deeper post 2007. Think Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami and Naples. But after paying the piper for those wild swings upward, those markets are seeing some of the most robust price increases in the last couple of years as baby boomers who put their retirement relocation plans on hold in order to rebuild their portfolios are back in motion again. Naples, for example, is hot again, according to the latest data from the local Board of Realtors.
Editor’s oversight leads to great day with Porters Neck Men’s Golf Association
In the August edition of our free monthly newsletter, Home On The Course, I included a bunch of descriptions in 140 characters or less, Twitter-style, of some of the more than 150 golf communities I have visited over the last decade. I left out one deserving community, and I heard about it from Jim Daly, an obviously proud resident and member of Porters Neck Country Club in Wilmington, NC.
Mountain and Golf View Home for Sale in Burlingame Country Club community
A friend and reader of this site, a Realtor in the Brevard, NC, area, has put her beautiful home on the market at Burlingame Country Club, one of the premier private clubs in the mountains of western North Carolina. The list price for the home is $399,000 which, based on the photos (see below) and views from the backyard, seems quite reasonable to us. In the past few years, many of our customers have described their ideal home in the mountains in ways that echo the features of this particular home; therefore, we have decided to display its charms here for a few days. If you are interested, please contact us.
Litchfield Beach, SC's River Club surprises with fine golf and low home prices
The River Club in Litchfield Beach, SC, seems like one of those side dishes on the buffet known as Myrtle Beach golf communities until you actually drive through the community and play the golf course. If you are looking either for a playcation or retirement setting and are not worried about sharing your wonderfully conditioned golf course with itinerant golfers, consider River Club one of the Grand Strand’s biggest bargains.
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