John, take a $16,000 pay INCREASE and still have a tough time, now THAT is hard to swallow. But, in that regard, unless you move into a REALLY upscale neighborhood in Charleston or Hilton Head, a $15,000 drop should still be do-able. Property tax will be about 1/3 of what it is here, and my car insurance went from $104 to $270 (even with switching companies!) coming up here, so there are lots of little things. And of course, NO heating oil, reasonable rates on electricity (none of the Supplier and Delivery Charge NONSENSE like here), and lots of little things add up. Even with the money I would lose from buying a house down there now where I live for $120,000 (significantly more than what I paid for it back in 1995!), I would still be doing alright even if I went back to my pay right before I left SC. Of course there are higher prices to live there than where I lived, like Greenville and Charleston, but overall, everything including daily costs are much lower, and should you chose to build a house out of town in the country or in a smaller town on the outskirts of some place like Greenville, or Charleston, then you can come out even better... And then of course, there's the money you'll save by being able to get 40mpg every day on your America riding MUCH longer through the year than up here, at MUCH cheaper gas prices, so that'll probably add up to $10k right there....
