Possible relocating to Aiken

[debee2000]

I am new to urbanplanet but not to message boards.

Dh may have us relocating to Aiken from WI over the next couple months.

Is this the place to post questions I have?

Thanks

Deb

[Spartan]

Welcome to UrbanPlanet!

We welcome any questions you have on the city of Aiken, and whats happening there. We are an urban discussion forum though, so please keep it to that type of topic. If you have questions about which neighborhoods cost what, real estate, or which schools you should send your kids to, then this isn't the place. We don't allow real estate advice on this forum (because we get a lot of spammers). If you're not sure, then ask the question anyway, and I'll let you know.

[debee2000]

Welcome to UrbanPlanet!

We welcome any questions you have on the city of Aiken, and whats happening there. We are an urban discussion forum though, so please keep it to that type of topic. If you have questions about which neighborhoods cost what, real estate, or which schools you should send your kids to, then this isn't the place. We don't allow real estate advice on this forum (because we get a lot of spammers). If you're not sure, then ask the question anyway, and I'll let you know.

[GvilleSC]

Welcome to UP! I can't help you with much of your questions, because I'm not too familiar with Aiken. But I do know that if you like horses, then you'll love Aiken, that's for sure. Just wanted to say welcome

[Spartan]

Its usually very humid in the summer. You can hang dry your clothes, but the afternoon showers might get them wet again. I don't know Aiken that well, but I would think its a pretty friendly lot in that town. The easiest way to get to know people is through a church. Clerical work shouldn't be hard to come by either. Aiken is a small town, but its not THAT small. You also have Augusta not too far away, which expends your potential employment options if you don't mind driving.

[Topher1]

I'm from Aiken, so I'll help out as much as I can. The others have pretty much covered the climate questions. The humidity can get quite high, but not constantly high. I tend to find it generally pretty dry when I go home from Florida (though everywhere is dry compared to FL). I wouldn't be too concerned about hanging clothes. Storms are rarely extremely sudden. If allergies are a problem, be prepared. The area is one of the worst for various allergies.

Socially, it really depends on your age bracket. Young adults with no kids may be in for some boredom. Downtown has a few fun local hangout bars that are usually pretty busy with primarily long-time local crowds. The people are pretty friendly and generally you'll see pretty much the same crowd from week to week. The restaurant scene seems to be getting better (and surprisingly trendier) every time I come home. Augusta's an easy drive for entertainment and can be a pretty fun town sometimes. For those in an older age bracket, there's plenty of golf, tennis, everything equestrian, and a lot of the downtown shopping is geared towards an older crowd. For shopping, there's a fair amount of the standard retail in Aiken, and all of the standard chains are within 30 minutes in Augusta.

Jobwise, I can't really speak for that market except a few observations. Unemployment in the county is far lower than the state average. However there's been a lot a job losses in the past 2 years, so unemployment is up right now in comparison to where it normally is. The town has a decent industrial presence, but a pretty small corporate presence, so you may have to cross the river into Augusta for clerical work...

Housing-wise, any advice would depend solely on preference, but in general everything on the south side of town will be a quiet, safe neighborhood, convienent to most shopping and amenities. The downtown area has lots of huge old homes that were going for a song a few years ago, but today the prices are much higher. Equestrian mini-farm subdivisions are all the rage in the surrounding areas... I have a few favorite neighborhoods, and would be glad to offer some suggestions based on price demands...

Feel free to ask any more specific questions. I'll be making my bi-yearly trip home in a couple weeks so as always I'll be checking out whats new...