Living in Savannah

All,

As we grind our way ever so slowly to retirement someday, the discussions in the house about where to winter are picking up speed. Some may recall that we live in Toronto, and are building a house in Prince Edward Island (my wife is from there) - it is largely a mid-May to Christmas thing.

We've resigned ourselves to living a long way from a warm winter, and are prepared to make that commute. The discussion has always centered around Palm Springs (my favourite) and somewhere in Florida (Sarasota keeps coming up).

Last week my lovely wife brings up Savannah and I almost fell off my chair (I mean, we may as well stay at Roebling Road!). It is warm in the winter months, close to the ocean, seems to have a lot to offer AND is a whole lot closer to PEI than FLA is. I am just curious as to the group's thoughts as I am certain some of you have spent time living/working there.

Pros and cons?

best,
bt

I lived up the road in Jacksonville NC for a few years and visited Savannah for a few events at Roebling Road and work in the vicinity.

December to May? I'd think anywhere along the eastern seaboard between Norfolk and Jacksonville FL would be lovely. Still a bit humid but you'll miss the jungle heat that goes with it. It does get chilly - we actually had snow in 2018 in Jacksonville NC, and it shut the community down literally, for nearly a week!

During the time we were there we went through a tropical storm and a Cat 1 hurricane. Shortly after we moved back to Cali there was another, bigger hurricane that really tore stuff up. but the bigger issue all along the coast is flooding. Storms tend to turn inland, bang up against the Appalachians, dump a ****-ton of rain, and about three days later all this rain ends up at the coast.

So if you do buy something, pay attention to where it is and the fact that you won't be there during hurricane season to batten down the hatches. Stuff also reeeeeely grows there, so you'll need a good landscape service that will also power-wash the house. Ours turned green every year.

I can't comment on living there, but we visit historic Savannah every chance we get.

I'm not sure if you do much traveling (flying), but living near a major airport is nice. I'm not sure about flights in and out of Savannah's airport.

Living near Daytona might have some advantages. I'm an hour north and it's nice sleeping at home during race weekends.

If your wife likes Savannah, she'd probably like Charleston, too.

Other places to consider - St Mary's, GA (GT1Vette - Butch Kummer lives there. He likes it but it was too small for us), and Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island.

My daughter and her family live in Bluffton SC, just inland from Hilton Head and across the Savanah and May rivers from Savanah. The area is in a pocket that experiences less tropical storm/hurricane drama than further south or north.

One other thing, if St. Patrick's Day is important to you, Savanah should be high on your list.

My sister in law lives in Savannah and we have visited there many times. I always said if I were to move it would be there. Peter is right about it seeming to miss the storms and hurricanes as my sister in law said it been quite a while since they have had anything serious. Now my daughter has moved to Sarasota which is also a nice place but in one year of residence she already had a hurricane.

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Originally Posted by RussMcB

I can't comment on living there, but we visit historic Savannah every chance we get.

I'm not sure if you do much traveling (flying), but living near a major airport is nice. I'm not sure about flights in and out of Savannah's airport.

Living near Daytona might have some advantages. I'm an hour north and it's nice sleeping at home during race weekends.

If your wife likes Savannah, she'd probably like Charleston, too.

Other places to consider - St Mary's, GA (GT1Vette - Butch Kummer lives there. He likes it but it was too small for us), and Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island.

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Thank you Sir! It is funny that you mention Charleston, as Elaine spent a year there in exchange in undergrad!
Appreciate the thoughts and ideas,
bt

Funny you should mention this, wife and I just spent time in Savannah and Hilton Head after the recent VDCA races. Of course as a racer when you talk about an area you probably mean more the metro area as the city itself is probably too congested to support the shop space you would want.

Savannah is one of our favorite places to visit and we always try to do so every time we drive to Florida if at all possible.We never get tired of walking around that city. The one big advantage I see to the area is that Roebling Road Raceway is club owned so it is very racer friendly and should remain a viable track for years to come.

We drove through Blufton and were favorably impressed at first glance. House prices there do not seem that much of a bargain any more but are better than Hilton Head. The Beaufort, SC may also be an area worth considering.

South of Savannah is Richmond hill which has some houses on larger lots which may be more racer friendly - it would be within driving distance of the track for race weekends. I have not spent any time there - but is on the list to visit.

Further south in Georgia / North of Jacksonville would have some appeal if you want to be closer to a major city - and Jacksonville does also have a very good kart track if you would like to run practice days to keep in shape during the winter.

I actually think the Savannah area would be a prime market for a car condo development as having separate work space would free up potential buyers from the garage vs residence quandary.

One other advantage to the area - if you were thinking about having your residence as an income property - is that it is a year round destination. If there only in the winter you could generate some rental income during the summer months.

As Russ mentioned above, we moved to St Marys GA from Atlanta in late 2017 and very much enjoy living here. We were originally looking at St Simons Island and had resigned ourselves to needing to get a shop in Brunswick because property in SSI was so high. Purple Frog was part of a crew sailing a boat from Ft Lauderdale north when they encountered engine troubles and had to put in at St Marys for repairs, and he texted us to let us know we REALLY needed to check the place out. Better property values than SSI and only 45 minutes from downtown Jacksonville, which was important at the time because my better half still needed to go into the main office of CSX.

As Russ also mentioned, it is definitely a small town (around 10,000 people / 35,000 in the entire county) but is growing, plus we can get to Amelia Island or Jacksonville in less than an hour if we desire more "sophisticated" entertainment. Roebling Road is just under two hours north, Daytona International Speedway is about two hours south, and the FIRM is less than two hours away as well - plenty of racing opportunity as either participant or spectator.

YMMV but we are very happy living here...