Upstate South Carolina - what are some nice areas?

[ravenclaw]

I live in west-central South Carolina. For several reasons, I want to move to the upstate of SC within the next 1 or 2 years. I don’t have a particular area in mind so I hoped I could post what I’m looking for and get suggestions for counties or areas that are nice. Here’s what I’m looking for:

Mountains – I probably don’t want to live in the mountains, but closer to the mountains and somewhere with mountain views.

A safe, somewhat rural area. I want a cute, smallish house with some acreage (probably between 5-20 acres) but within 1 hour or so of a city (Greenville, Charlotte, etc.). Also within 30 minutes of a town or small city that has Target, Petsmart, grocery stores, etc.

Fairly low taxes. The area where I live now has pretty low taxes so I don’t want to go somewhere that the taxes are a lot higher. Wherever I go, I probably won’t live in the city limits.

Doesn’t need to be close to trainers or horse shows. I like to be in the country and I want some acreage but I don’t have a horse now and I’m not currently riding.

Job – I work in a public school. I’m currently in a high school but I could also go to a middle school or elementary school or possibly a college. I would want the schools in the area to be pretty decent but they don’t have to be top notch.

I’m single so I don’t have to worry about a husband’s job or kids. I want to stay in SC because I have a significant number of years in the SC Retirement System.

Of course, I will visit places to see what they’re like. In the past, I have been to Greenville, York/Rock Hill, and Spartanburg so I’m somewhat familiar with those areas. I’m sure there are a lot of other areas that I don’t know about. There are several SC counties that have mountains so I feel overwhelmed and like I need to narrow down my search but I don’t know enough about that part of the state to know what areas, counties, and towns are nice.

Thanks for any suggestions! And for reading my long post.

[clanter]

might center your search by Best School Districts in South Carolina?

https://backgroundchecks.org/top-school-districts-in-south-carolina.html

but I was attracted to this post when you said move up state… the distance from the southern tip to northern tip of South Carolina is very near the same as going across the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area

[lightningevent]

I think you would like Pickens County. Safe, really pretty, and the school system (at least as of 2013, when I graduated!) was quite good. I wouldn’t teach in Liberty, but all of the other towns are fine, and Daniel High School is great.

Greenville is about an hours drive away from most parts of the county, I used to drive from Six Mile to Furman University when I had summer classes and the drive really wasn’t that bad (and is very pretty). Property prices generally are quite reasonable, although have been going up recently.

[ravenclaw]

Thank you! I’ll put Pickens county on my list. I don’t think I have ever been there but someone who worked at my school moved there when she retired because her daughter lives there. I don’t remember what town but I have heard the retired woman loves it up there.

[Turntable]

Campobello/ Landrum is very horsey and close enough to Greenville. I have only been there when I was at TIEC but I remember thinking the main street in Landrum was very cute. There was also a little pub all the horse people hung out at but that was pre-Covid so ?

[lenapesadie]

Landrum is darling