Obed®

Lot o points [155973]

TigerPulse: 100%

Posts: 65839

Joined: 5/6/13

Yankee Infiltration.net

Aug 5, 2022, 9:23 AM

Nothing that native South Carolinians don't already know about, but thought it funny that it made the WSJ this morning. I think it's time we concede Hilton Head, call a retreat, and fall back to Hardeeville to fortify the troops for a final stand. Will C&P since likely behind paywall. Photo from article included in hopes of a psychological profile from Lakebum1®

https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-out-of-state-buyers-flock-to-hilton-head-million-dollar-home-sales-become-the-norm-11659538358

In 2020, Heather Goldberg and her husband left their 1,100-square-foot apartment in Hoboken, N.J., and bought a 4,200-square-foot home in Bluffton, S.C. The couple relocated for a change in lifestyle, but the 800-mile move to the Low Country made economic sense, too: “Our mortgage payment is $1 more than what we were paying in rent in New Jersey,” says Ms. Goldberg, who left her job as a psychologist and now golfs four times a week.

The Goldbergs are among a wave of home buyers who have recently moved to greater Hilton Head, S.C., often leaving behind brutal winter weather, long commutes and high taxes. The surge also has created income opportunities for those who want to renovate high-end homes to sell or to use as short-term rentals in this popular tourist destination.

For better or for worse, the recent trend has reshaped the area’s luxury landscape. Over the past year, 40% of home sales on Hilton Head Island have been $1 million-plus properties, up from 25% of total sales before the pandemic, according to an analysis by Realtor.com. That demand has driven up median list prices, from about $475,000 in May 2020 to $649,000 in May 2022. (News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, also operates Realtor.com under license from the National Association of Realtors.)

Nearby Bluffton, on the mainland, also has seen a surge in sales, especially within private golf communities, says Wayne Corley, an agent at Charter One Realty. His most recent buyers aren’t all retired: “Probably one-half to two-thirds of them have at least one member of the couple that is still working and can live where they want to live.”

Mr. Corley helped the Goldbergs find a home at Berkeley Hall, a development with two golf courses. In July 2020, the couple paid $830,000 for their home, which features a pool, screened-in lanai and outdoor kitchen. “I feel like a princess, and wake up and think, ‘This can’t be our house,’ ” Ms. Goldberg, 40, says.

Currently, listing prices at Berkeley Hall range from $888,000 to $2.05 million, Mr. Corley says. Some other high-end golf communities are Belfair, $995,000 to $2.4 million; Colleton River, $1.195 million to $13.5 million; and Oldfield, $713,000 to $1.275 million. The largest luxury development in Bluffton, at 20,000 acres, is Palmetto Bluff, where the median listing price is $3.495 million for a single-family home. (Not included are initiation fees, membership dues and other annual fees.)

Fred and Cindy Werner of Far Hills, N.J., bought a vacation home at Palmetto Bluff in April 2021, paying $1.95 million for a 4,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bathroom property. This spring, the couple broke ground on a 1,200-square-foot addition that will enlarge their primary suite, a project estimated at $500,000.

Mr. Werner, a 68-year-old civil engineer, said they were drawn to the community through the Montage Palmetto Bluff hotel located in the development. The couple had stayed at other Montage resorts in the U.S. and liked what they had to offer. “We’re very comfortable with the Montage lifestyle,” he says. “The architecture and design have understated luxury; there’s great service and lots of [resort] amenities.”

Palmetto Bluff offers homeowners an 18-hole golf course, a boat club, a shooting club, equestrian facilities and two villages. Property owners pay a one-time club membership fee of $30,000, and a golf membership costs $50,000.

Last year, Palmetto Bluff was purchased by private-equity firm South Street Partners in a joint venture with Henderson Park Capital. Since the sale, South Street’s business entity, the Palmetto Bluff Club, has changed its rental policies. Homeowners can still offer their homes as short-term rentals where permitted. But now, renters who aren’t members of the club are restricted from using select amenities, including some of the fitness centers, pools and restaurants. This change and other issues have prompted more than a dozen homeowners to file a class-action lawsuit against the Palmetto Bluff Club and its affiliates. They contend that the restrictions make their homes less attractive to short-term renters. Rob Duckett, president of operations for South Street Partners, says the changes are allowed by the governing documents and increase the availability of amenities to members.

Overall, Palmetto Bluff has seen an “explosion in growth,” Mr. Duckett says. Last year, 372 homes and homesites were sold there, a 52% increase in sales volume from 2020. Mr. Duckett estimates that about 70% of the buyers are from the Northeast, but adds that he has recently seen an influx of buyers from the Midwest.

In Hilton Head, out-of-state buyers make up a good share of real-estate broker Becky Herman’s clientele as well, in part because professionals increasingly can work from anywhere, she says.

Oceanfront properties are the most desirable, adds Ms. Herman, a partner of brokerage Herman and Davis Properties, part of Charter One Realty. Private golf developments with a country-club lifestyle also are popular among out-of-state buyers, she adds. The area is widely known as a golf mecca, with over 23 championship courses, according to the local Visitor and Convention Bureau, and is home to the RBC Heritage tournament on the PGA Tour.

Most of Hilton Head Island has been carved into residential developments, typically with gated access. Today, about 70% of the island’s residential land sits within private and semiprivate communities, says Anne Cyran, the principal planner for the town of Hilton Head Island. The first development, Sea Pines, opened in the mid-1950s and features the iconic lighthouse in Harbour Town on the southern end of the island.

On the opposite end is Hilton Head Plantation, where in April Jennifer Smith purchased a penthouse condo for $1.975 million, according to public records. Her 3,800-square-foot unit faces the harbor and looks out on Pinckney Wildlife Preserve, a location that Ms. Smith says is less prone to coastal flooding. Before moving in, however, Ms. Smith had to deal with a flood of another sort. The water line on the refrigerator malfunctioned, causing significant damage to the floors, she says. The unit is now undergoing renovations to the kitchen and master bathroom.

Remodeling is nothing new to Ms. Smith, who retired early and moved to Hilton Head in 2017 from northern Virginia, where she was an executive at an aerospace-defense and government-services firm. That year she bought her first home on Hilton Head, located in Wexford (then called Wexford Plantation), a community with a marina, golf course, tennis courts and country club. She paid $1.05 million for a four-bedroom, four-bathroom home, according to public records.

“The house had good bones, but it was neglected,” she says. In July 2020, she sold the property fully furnished for $1.605 million.

At the end of 2020, Ms. Smith purchased a penthouse for $1.767 million in Sea Pines and undertook a complete renovation. This project came with “tremendous challenges” because of pandemic-related shortages of building materials, as well as issues with the building’s condo board. She declined to give specifics. Tropical Storm Elsa in July 2021 created more problems after water breached two beach-facing windows. In February 2022, after renovations were completed, Ms. Smith sold the 2,250-square-foot unit for $2.75 million.

Ms. Smith says that although she has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on renovations, she made money on both sales. Still, she doesn’t consider herself a house-flipper. “I just love interior design. I get to pick out all the furniture, and all the furniture comes with the house when I sell it.”

That is what today’s buyers want—turnkey homes, says Ms. Herman. Adding to the appeal: “If they want to rent it, they can get some income,” she adds.

Therein lies a problem, some residents say. About 60% of residential properties in the Town of Hilton Head are the owners’ second homes. And roughly 1 in 3 residences are offered as short-term rentals for at least part of the year, according to estimates by town officials. Since the pandemic, many owners have seized the opportunity to make money from them. Between July 2019 and January 2022, the number of listings for short-term rentals jumped by at least 30%, officials say, leading to increasing complaints about noise, limited parking, trespassing and safety issues.

In May, the town council enacted an ordinance that requires owners of these income properties to obtain a short-term rental permit. Further, the measure requires owners or their property managers to post information about noise standards, trash disposal and fire safety. In the fall, the town plans to launch an online portal where homeowners can apply for short-term rental permits and residents can submit complaints, says Ms. Cyran, the town’s principal planner.

The goal is to minimize any disruptions while encouraging tourism, which in 2020 contributed $1.3 billion to the area’s economy, according to the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce.

Achieving this balance, Ms. Cyran says, should assuage homeowners who fear the new ordinance will stunt rental opportunities. “We are a modern resort community and we have a lot of short-term rentals,” Ms. Cyran says. “Most property owners are responsible and good. But we have to have a baseline of standards for those folks.”

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

few of her comments is that she has an IQ in the low 80's but thinks it is double that given her college degree. She is one of these people you meet once and instantly begin to ignore as if she doesn't exist, often gives unsolicited advice on topics she has zero clue about, and has child like social skills.

Her husband is at least 30 years older and they married when she was in her early 20's. He married her because she was stupid and easy to control, but now spends as much time away from home as possible to get away from her while she drains his bank account on spa days for the dogs and MLM products.

Speaking of the dogs, they have zero training and yap nonstop. Despite this, she takes them everywhere she goes calling them her "fur babies" and has been kicked out of at least 3 establishments for lying about them being service dogs.

Don't ask me why I think this, but I have a feeling she eats at least a block of cheese a day. Taking bites straight from the block.

Yankee Infiltration.net

#28......thanks to Heather.

Is there just THAT much residual wealth in the North?

Jimbeam could give specifics better than me,

Also, OnlyFans. You wouldn't pay to see that furbeaver

My gut reaction after seeing her picture and reading a

The FBI doesn't have profilers this good.

This was definitely one of his better efforts.

Just look at that face, it exudes extreme confidence coupled

I'm going with Mercedes GLA.

The other reason they don't like to hang out with her is

How many times a day in conversation do you estimate she

When she can actually get someone to talk to her it's one of

One last pic for you....

One thing I noticed from both pics.

"Yeah, I'm a golfer, I golf almost every day!"

notice anything about the club head covers?***

Oh yeah, I noticed the pony heads. I'm just not sure what

you had me until the car

She will also wonder how in the world it came to this

Re: Just look at that face, it exudes extreme confidence coupled

LOL, no doubt. I'm trying to cultivate a term for those

Re: LOL, no doubt. I'm trying to cultivate a term for those

My wife has some yankee friends that somehow think they're

Re: LOL, no doubt. I'm trying to cultivate a term for those

Look, I'm not gonna lie hear

I'm sorry, but that is feral behavior.***

Like I care.***

Feral behavior got us through the first 4 billion yrs ok.***

Yo, the last part made me lolololol

I'll give odds that the dogs have regular psychologist appts

Would one need a degree to be a pet Psychologist?

Re: Would one need a degree to be a pet Psychologist?

Broseph, that cotdang part about

Last summer when we went to HHI the island was completely

I haven't been to HHI since I was in my teens.

Palmetto Bluff has gone insane

"Fred and Cindy Werner of Far Hills, N.J."

So I was trying to find out what kind of car she drove

oof..a Rogue.

That house is so tacky. Like something off of McMansion Hell

Bigass laundry room and little bitty bathroom

I assume that's screen mesh and not glass.

I'd take it for the pool and outdoor living space. That's

The kitchen refrigerator location is terrible

There is a definite age difference, not quite as bad as LB

Rogue----its worse than I thought.***

Deer McLuvin

Since when is Okatie considered Hilton Head?

Great work.

How do we

I'm here in HHI right now for a legal conference

What is the draw down there?

Re: What is the draw down there?

TigerBoard POTD