“We get frost now and then, which we jokingly call Southern snow,” says Andrew Lazar, 67, who moved with his wife, Lynn, from their native New Jersey to the Jimmy Buffett-themed retirement community Latitude Margaritaville in Hilton Head in 2020. “But a couple of days later it may be 70 and sunny, and a great day to hang out at the bar or go for a walk.”
Harrington says the mild but varying climate is a big draw. “In the last two weeks, I’ve worked with five or six people who live in Florida, and they want to come to South Carolina when they retire, because they want changes in the seasons,” she says. “We don’t have snow but do have a little bit of cold. In our winter, the leaves change, and the animals and birds change.”
2. Outdoor recreation
The temperate climate and long coastline, with a lot of inlets, tributaries and islands, gives retirees ample opportunity to enjoy sailing, kayaking, fishing or just hanging out on the beach. And that need not mean fighting summer throngs for a patch of sand in Hilton Head or Myrtle Beach. Kraft, who has crisscrossed the state in his years there, says there are plenty of small, uncrowded beaches favored by locals. He’s partial to one nestled behind Fort Fremont Historical Preserve on St. Helena Island.
And then there’s the golf, for which South Carolina is world-famous. Hilton Head Island alone is home to more than two dozen championship courses, including designs by Jack Nicklaus and famed golf architects Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Pete Dye. With more than 90 courses, most of them public, Myrtle Beach’s Grand Strand “has been referred to as the Golf Capital of the World,” says Brandon Hill, a senior adviser at Beckett Financial Group in West Columbia.
Falls Park on the Reedy River is the scenic centerpiece of downtown Greenville, a town in the Blue Ridge foothills of western South Carolina.
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3. Diverse landscapes
South Carolina has a couple of medium-size cities in Charleston and Columbia, the state capital, but it’s also got a lot of charming small towns and a variety of landscapes.
“South Carolina offers retirees options of having a home in mountainside towns, near lakes and rivers, or situated on oceanfront stretches,” says Stephanie Gordon, a real estate agent in Mount Pleasant. Age 55-plus communities are sprouting up, particularly around Charleston and in the growing nearby town of Summerville, she says.
A popular choice for retirees less enamored of the coast is Greenville, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northwest corner of the state.
“A lot of large corporations have gone to Greenville, but there are a lot of retirees, too,” says Harrington. “You’re close to the mountains and a little bit cooler weather. It’s easy to get to other places from Greenville, and people tend to gravitate to the new golf developments up that area.” A booming restaurant scene built on local and regional specialties earned Greenville Southern Living’s designation as the South’s top destination for food lovers.
Joy and Robert Kraft walk through a park area in Habersham, past houses built in the Lowcountry style with large, stacked porches.
Gavin McIntyre
4. Lowcountry living (at a relatively low cost)
While home prices in both states have increased sharply over the last several years, the median home value in South Carolina — about $283,000 at the end of 2023, according to Zillow — is still a lot less than in Florida ($389,000).
South Carolina has some of the lowest property tax rates in the U.S., with an effective rate of 0.52 percent, about half the national average, Hill says. It’s also one of a dozen states with a property tax exemption for homeowners ages 65 and over; they can deduct $50,000 from their home’s taxable value.