A peaceful suburb known for it’s historic red-brick homes surrounded by beautiful countryside has unexpectedly emerged as America’s number one hotspot for jobs.
Nestled on the north-west outskirts of Charleston, South Carolina, Summerville has been named by Move Buddha as the ‘top job-magnet suburb’ of 2024.
The website, which provides relocation advice based on nationwide data, named the scenic city as the area with the ‘highest in-to-out move ratios’ this year.
For each person who writes out a search about leaving Summerville, 3.76 people scour the internet for advice about moving in, Move Buddha reported.
A major reason for this is that Summerville’s metro area has one of the fastest-growing job markets in the US – with its impressive 4.2 percent job growth in the year from August 2023 dwarfing the national average of 1.55 percent.
Meanwhile, Summerville has managed to retain its small-town charm, and house prices are yet to catch up with the employment boom. The average home value as of September is a modest $380,000, according to Zillow.
‘Known for its red-brick historic district, farmer’s market, and community events like the Flower Festival, Summerville is also one of just three suburbs in the top ten with an average home value under $400K,’ Move Buddha experts said.
The health-boosting turpentine scent of the towering pines permeates the city, which is punctuated by large green spaces including the ornamental gardens and bright pink blooms on display at Azalea Park.
The health-boosting turpentine scent of the towering pines permeates the South Carolina city of Summerville, which is punctuated by large green spaces including the ornamental gardens and bright pink blooms on display at Azalea Park (pictured)
‘Known for its red-brick historic district, farmer’s market, and community events like the Flower Festival, Summerville is also one of just three suburbs in the top ten with an average home value under $400K,’ Move Buddha experts said
Nestled on the north-west outskirts of Charleston, Summerville in South Carolina has been named by Move Buddha as the ‘top job-magnet suburb’ of 2024
According to Grant Cardone, CEO of property investment company Cardone Capital, several industries are driving job growth in Summerville, including auto manufacture, logistics and distribution.
‘Summerville’s job growth over the past year stems from a business-friendly environment and access to Charleston’s logistics hub – while state-backed incentives have attracted companies across diverse sectors,’ Cardone told DailyMail.com.
Michael Stier, area president for the Carolinas at consulting firm Focus, said Summerville’s job explosion is ‘very similar to the boom in Charlotte, NC’.
‘There’s a vast migration in the area being such a nice place to live and a robust economy,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘Traditionally, Summerville is a manufacturing hub and a massive distribution hub.’
He said workers are also drawn to the city by the ‘lower cost of living’ and because it’s well connected via the I-26 and I-95 routes with direct access to Atlanta, Charlotte and Charleston.
For each person who searches moving out of park-filled Summerville (pictured), 3.76 people scour the internet for advice about moving in, per Move Buddha
Summerville has managed to retain its small-town charm, and house prices haven’t caught up with the employment boom. The average home value as of September is just $380,000
Move Buddha, which provides moving advice based on nationwide data, named Summerville as the area with the ‘highest in-to-out move ratios’ this year
Summerville started out as a resort town in the 1700s, when wealthy Charleston residents would escape the suffocating city heat for a vacation in its cooler pine-filled forests just 24 miles north of the metropolis.
It was incorporated as a town in 1847 after a new railroad linked it to the city.
A law was also passed prohibiting cutting down its large pines without permission, which today’s residents can thank for the preservation of its natural beauty.
Summerville enjoyed a population boom in the 1900s when the International Congress of Physicians in Paris declared it one of the world’s two best places for treating lung disorders, thanks to the healing properties of living in the pines.
Its population since then has gradually climbed from just over 20,000 people in 1990 to 52,000 today.
Summerville isn’t the only South Carolina haven topping the job magnet charts.
In fact, Move Buddha has placed eight of the ten most popular suburbs within just three states: the Carolinas and Florida.
A peaceful suburb known for it’s historic red-brick homes surrounded by beautiful countryside has unexpectedly emerged as America’s number one hotspot for jobs. Summerville in South Carolina has been named by Move Buddha as the ‘top job-magnet suburb’ of 2024
Summerville started out as a resort town in the 1700s, when wealthy Charleston residents would escape the suffocating city heat for a vacation in its cooler pine-filled forests just 24 miles north of the metropolis
‘The coastal South reigns supreme for its suburbs where people want to move in, and where far fewer residents considering a move-out,’ the website’s report says.
‘The juggernaut of southern suburbs is broken by only Beverly Hills, CA, where 2.54 new residents express a desire to move in for every outbound search.’
Conway in South Carolina is ranked second in the job-magnet and desirability charts, followed by Beverley, and Winter Garden in Florida.
In fifth place is Davenport, Florida, followed by Bluffton, South Carolina; Cary, North Carolina; Clermont, Florida; Wake Forest, North Carolina; and Conroe, Texas.
