Is Myrtle Beach a Good Place to Start a Family?
Myrtle Beach has become a household name at this point. Nearly everyone on the East Coast has at least heard of it if they haven’t yet visited. Myrtle Beach is known as one of the best vacation spots on the east coast because of its beautiful beaches, large offering of restaurants and stores, and family-oriented setup. Myrtle Beach is known as one of the best places to retire because of its fantastic cost of living, gorgeous weather, and tranquil vibe outside of the busy summer tourist season. Myrtle Beach is also known as one of the best golfing destinations in the world, earning the name “Golf Capital of the World” with its over 60 award winning courses. With all of that being said, though, is Myrtle Beach a good place to raise a family?
In short, absolutely. The positive aspects that apply to tourists and retirees apply beautifully to young families, too. Who said that beautiful weather and a great cost of living are only for retirees? Who said that having great beaches and family-friendly amenities is only beneficial for tourists? When you think about it, Myrtle Beach is pretty wonderfully set up for young families to grow and prosper. This post is going to dive into some of the points mentioned above, as well as other reasons why Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is the perfect place to raise a family.
Reasons Why Myrtle Beach is a Good Place to Raise a Family
As we’ve already said, Myrtle Beach is great for retirees, tourists, and golfers. What makes Myrtle Beach a good place to raise a family, then? Is it really possible for one place to be so perfectly set up for so many different phases of life? This is certainly a loaded question, but we think there is a pretty clear answer to it. Especially if you are looking to buy a house, you want to make sure that where you are moving is a good place for you and your family in the long term! Here are a few of the biggest reasons that Myrtle Beach is one of the best places on the East Coast to start a family.
Myrtle Beach Has a Relatively Low Cost of Living
We wrote a post several months back about how South Carolina is one of the most affordable places to live in the United States. You can check that post out here if you’d like. All of the points in that post, though, extend to this point about Myrtle Beach’s cost of living. The fact of the matter is that all else equal, Myrtle Beach is just a cheaper place to live, on average, compared to the rest of the United States’ cities. Your money goes further, and the salaries are high enough to provide for a better life than in many other metropolitan areas.
This is crucial as you start a family, because your expenses only go up. With each child, you need to finance and support an entirely new life, which is not cheap undertaking. Living in a place where your money goes a bit further is one of the easiest ways to make sure you are financially strong enough to give your children the life you dream of giving them!
Myrtle Beach Has an Affordable Housing Market
Your day-to-day life is not the only thing that is cheaper in Myrtle Beach. The Myrtle Beach housing market is strikingly affordable, which means you can either spend less money each month on your mortgage or you can aim to pay off your entire house in significantly less time! In 2020, for example, the median house price in the United States was $315,000, while in Myrtle Beach it was below $200,000. This means that you will likely spend over 30% less money on your house, freeing up thousands of dollars per year that would have otherwise been spent on a mortgage.
Nobody loves being in debt, and being able to get a great, high-quality home for such a low price compared to the rest of the country is a steal. Freeing up so much room in your monthly budget empowers you and your family to go on fun trips around the area, invest in passions and hobbies, and live an overall better life than you may have lived in a place with a more expensive housing market. Just try not to spend all of that extra money on Calabash food! If you are in the market to buy a home in the Grand Strand, we are here to help you. Trust us – we have been doing it for decades!
There are Great Educational Weekend Trips All Over South Carolina
South Carolina is one of the original 13 colonies, and it is absolutely packed with history. We wrote a post a while back about the best historical things to do in South Carolina, but that list could have easily been twice as long. As a place that has seen battles in the Civil War and the Revolutionary War, and a place whose history dates back to the 16th century, there is no shortage of history to be learned about around Myrtle Beach. I don’t know about you, but I think that teaching children about history is both very important and very fun. Visiting these monuments with children and teaching them about their heritage is important for the preservation of history!
Charleston, in particular, is a place bursting at the seams with historical facts and sights. Located just two hours to the south of Myrtle Beach, Charleston’s charming cobblestone streets and well-maintained colonial buildings set it apart as one of the premier historical tourism destinations in the United States. The historically infamous Fort Sumpter is also located here, which is one of the most important sights in American war history. When you put all of these That is not a bad place to have just a couple hours south of your new home!
Myrtle Beach Weather is Gorgeous
This one applies to everybody, whether they want to start a family, retire, golf, or go on vacation! Myrtle Beach has some of the best weather in the country, getting nice and warm for most of the year without the Florida humidity. Myrtle Beach experiences all four seasons, but its summers stay much more pleasant than Florida’s do, and its winters are paradise compared to states further north. This means you can go to the beach for many months out of the year, and even when December and January roll around you have a pretty good shot at never needing to shovel a single snowflake.
We have written several posts about the weather in Myrtle Beach, but our gist is generally that there is no bad month to visit Myrtle Beach as a tourist. As someone living here, you can expect great weather year-round that only drops into the 40s at its absolute lowest in the winter and stays tolerable in the 90s at its hottest in the summer. Having the four seasons is nice but needing to defrost your windshield every morning before work is not! Having more warm days means more time you can spend outside getting fresh air with your young family, whether that is by the beach or in one of Myrtle Beach’s great nearby state parks.
Myrtle Beach Has a Great School System
Other than their health, there is arguably nothing more important than your children’s education. Some places in the United States are unfortunately known for not having good school systems, and this is probably something that you want to avoid for your children. There is no need to worry in the Grand Strand, though! Myrtle Beach has a fantastic public school system with most schools earning an “A-” rating or higher on niche.com. Niche.com is an aggregator website that ranks various aspects about cities and towns around the United States, and its goal is to give people a transparent look at what it is like to live in a particular area. On that note, it also tends to give each of the nearby towns a rating of “A-“ or higher in the category “good for families.”
The great school system extends beyond just their younger years. Myrtle Beach, as well as other nearby cities in South Carolina, is the host of some of the country’s most well-known universities and colleges. Coastal Carolina University is located right in Myrtle Beach, while other popular schools like the University of South Carolina and Clemson University are located in other parts of the state. Living in Myrtle Beach gives you access to in-state tuition at some of the most well-known colleges and universities in the United States!
Myrtle Beach is Safe
When you are choosing a place to raise a family, you probably want to heavily prioritize their safety. After all, they are the people that you love the most in the world, right? Protecting them is your top priority. When it comes to living in the area, Myrtle Beach is a very safe place. All of the towns in the area known as “Myrtle Beach” are very safe places, and these are neighborhoods where your kids can run around, go for walks, and play sports safely. While Myrtle Beach has earned a reputation for danger in recent years, this is very misleading information. There are parts of the downtown part of the city of Myrtle Beach that are dangerous at times, but that does not extend out into the towns surrounding the city throughout the area.
We wrote about this in a recent post that we published, too. Myrtle Beach (the city, not the area) has one of the highest crime rates in the country depending on where you look. This number is always a poor representation of the reality though, for a very simple reason. Crimes are committed by the total number of people in an area, while crime rates only divide by the total number of people living in the area. Myrtle Beach is a city of only 35,000 people, but it receives 19 million visitors every year. That means that any crime committed in the city by any of those 19 million visitors gets divided by just the 35,000 people that actually live there. This methodology leads to really inflated numbers, and unfortunately a falsely bad reputation for the city. Even still, the only part of the area that is considered “dangerous” at any point is a certain part of downtown and only after hours.
People in Myrtle Beach are Full of Southern Charm
There’s no mistaking that South Carolina takes pride in its Southern Charm. Being one of the original cornerstone states of southern culture, South Carolina is booming with the Southern Charm that has come to be so unique to the region. People here tend to be very hospitable, family-oriented, and kind. This kindness extends into your neighborhood, as your neighbors will more likely than not keep an eye out for your home, look out for your kids, and form bonds with you as a member of their community. While some people from other states may not be used to this level of connection with their neighbors, this neighborly connection is a deeply rooted part of South Carolina culture. From cookouts to sweet tea on the porch, you can count on having a good relationship with the folks in your neighborhood while living in the Grand Strand.
Myrtle Beach is a Fun Place to Be
Myrtle Beach, even without factoring in all of the other points that we have mentioned in this article, is a fantastic place. That is why 19 million people visit it every year, after all! This area is one of the biggest tourist hubs on the entire east coast, and with tourism comes investment in restaurants and entertainment. The Grand Strand is jam-packed with amenities for tourists. As a resident, you have access to all of those things too! All of the premier shopping options, the top-notch restaurants, and the entertainment venues are accessible to everyday residents, too. This means that as a person living in Myrtle Beach, you get the benefit of living in a place that is built entirely around entertainment. Specifically, this entertainment is targeted towards almost every demographic group, including families, young single people, and retirees.
The benefits that come with living in Myrtle Beach are endless. From shopping venues like Broadway at the Beach and Barefoot Landing to top local restaurants like Crabby Mike’s and The Original Benjamin’s, there are some really marquis places that can become staples in your live as a resident of the Grand Strand. These things are only the cherry on top of living in the area, and hopefully this post demonstrated that! While the area is definitely busier and hectic during the peak of the summer tourist season, things slow down significantly in the shoulder seasons and in the winter.
Starting a family is a big undertaking, but it is so rewarding. Finding the perfect place to start your family can be daunting, but you have no need to worry – it will all work out just fine! Myrtle Beach is a great place to raise a family, with its combination of fantastic weather and beaches, affordability, and diverse entertainment and culinary offerings. Hopefully this post was helpful in outlining some of the best reasons why Myrtle Beach is a good place to raise a family. Just know that there are many more than can fit in one blog post, and we encourage you to keep reading other posts to help you to make an informed decision!
Starting a family is a big undertaking, but it is so rewarding. Finding the perfect place to start your family can be daunting, but you have no need to worry – it will all work out just fine! Myrtle Beach is a great place to raise a family, with its combination of fantastic weather and beaches, affordability, and diverse entertainment and culinary offerings. Hopefully this post was helpful in outlining some of the best reasons why Myrtle Beach is a good place to raise a family. Just know that there are many more than can fit in one blog post, and we encourage you to keep reading other posts to help you to make an informed decision!
If you visit Myrtle Beach or any other place in South Carolina and fall in love, we’re here to help. We at The Boyd Team are committed to helping you find the right property for your needs and dreams. Any question that you have about moving to the area and finding your dream home by the beach is our pleasure to answer. Feel free to send us an email at eddie@boydteam.com or text or call us at (843) 222-8566, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Being true natives of the Grand Strand and Horry County and with over 25 years of experience in the local real estate market, whether buying or selling, we can help you make your dreams a reality.
No One Knows The Grand Strand Better! Trust, Knowledge, Experience, Professionalism, You Can Count On!
Written by Greg
