Tree Servicein Sullivan's Island, SC

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND — The home market continues to sizzle in this pricey seaside town, with real estate agents pointing to its community appeal, a longtime ban on short-term rentals and resilient, well-heeled cash buyers among the driving forces.

So far this year, three big-ticket residential transactions have closed on Sullivan’s Island, ranging from nearly $8 million to slightly more than $10 million.

Sullivan’s commands a premium partly because it offers limited inventory in a highly desirable location, according to agents familiar with the local market. Some also point to the lack of rentals.

“There is not a transient population out there,” said Lyles Geer, president and broker-in-charge of William Means Real Estate. “You don’t have an abundance of renters or people who don’t live out there. ... Buyers are paying for the exclusivity of living in a residential community.”

Michael Scarafile, president of Carolina One Real Estate, echoed his remarks.

“One reason is that Sullivan’s doesn’t allow short-term rentals,” he said. “Those are all residential sales.”

Scarafile pointed to the recent run of seven- and eight-figure purchases as an example of the age-old principle of supply and demand.

“There just aren’t that many houses on Sullivan’s, and the market for residential use on the islands continues to perform well,” he said. “The high-end market is holding up very well.”

Owen Tyler, managing broker of Cassina Real Estate Group, agreed prices on Sullivan’s are rising because of the dearth of inventory and continued interest among would-be buyers from outside the region or state.

“They aren’t building more of the island,” he said.

Tyler also pointed to a community-minded vibe on Sullivan’s as an attraction for buyers who can afford the lifestyle.

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“Sullivan’s Island has always been for a lot of people the epitome of where they want to live,” he said. “It has great beaches, it’s an island and it has a small-town atmosphere. Nothing feels out of place or unusual.”

But Tyler doesn’t buy the notion that the town’s 22-year-old rental policy of not allowing overnight stays of less than 28 days has an impact on home sales.

“Are people wanting to live there because of a lack of short-term rentals? Maybe, but I don’t ever hear that,” he said. “Most of the people who are buying recently are not full-time residents of Sullivan’s.”

To Tyler, the main factor driving up prices is an abundance of deep-pocketed buyers who are able to make quick and mostly cash offers for an extremely limited number of homes.

“We can’t find enough people to sell (homes), which is why you are seeing the price escalation,” he said.

The most recent transaction involved the five-bedroom oceanfront house with five bathrooms and two half baths at 3213 Middle St. It changed hands March 29 at the list price of $7.95 million, according to Charleston County land records.

The buyer is a limited liability company from Florence. The seller is a Charlotte firm that bought the property when it was a vacant lot for $2.5 million in 2020. The 4,160-square-foot house near Breach Inlet was completed the next year.

Ashley Haynes of East Islands Real Estate represented the seller, and Tommy Manous of Carolina One Real Estate represented the buyer.

The sale follows two other notable residential transactions on Sullivan’s.

A 4,350-square-foot oceanside house at 2411 Atlantic Ave. last month fetched $10.1 million, shy of the all-time record of $10.5 million a buyer paid for 1901 Thee St. in 2021.

Earlier this year, a 4,360-square-foot spread at 812 Conquest Ave. on the western end of Sullivan’s changed hands for $8.7 million.

There are expensive places to live in South Carolina.

Then there is Sullivan’s Island.

CashNetUSA recently ranked Sullivan’s Island as the most expensive neighborhood in South Carolina. The ranking is part of a list of most expensive neighborhoods in every U.S. state, based on Zillow data.

Home prices across South Carolina overall have skyrocketed the last two years. For instance, the median home sales price in the state was $311,032 in the first quarter of 2023, up 22% from the first quarter of 2021, according to South Carolina Realtors.

And yet, that is all chump change compared to home ownership in Sullivan’s Island. A home there costs an average of about $5.4 million, the ranking states.

The 2.5 mile-long barrier island and its charming little beach town is about 10 miles from downtown Charleston. The island has a strict preservation plan and so doesn’t have the usual accommodations that visitors would expect, like major hotels and motels. Instead, only vacation rental homes are available.

The island does feature a strong restaurant scene, with plenty of options for fine dining and family eating.

Sullivan’s Island also has a good bit of history. The island was settled in the late 17th Century by Capt. Florence O’Sullivan and was later the site of a major Revolutionary War battle.

To compile the rankings, CashNetUSA used real estate data from Zillow to group together neighborhoods of towns and cities in all 50 U.S. states. It then calculated the average price in each neighborhood by adding together the house prices in each area and dividing them by the number of properties.

Why Sullivan’s Island is pricey, it is still not among the top most expensive places to live in the U.S. Below is a list of the 10 most expensive neighborhoods in the U.S. and their average house prices, according to CashNetUSA.

To keep things more in perspective, here’s an interactive map that shows the latest median sales price for homes in each South Carolina county, using data from Redfin.

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD)- During a sunny and clear day, the old Pitt Street Bridge or ‘Old Bridge’ on Sullivan’s Island is a spot for local fisherman to look for a fresh catch.

“I like to fish up here because the Red Drum will travel down the grass line,” said Mark Thawley.

Since 1985, Thawley has been coming to this enclave with his rod and string. He says that back then people at Haddrell’s Point Tackle shop told him that this spot was the best for fishing.

“I’ve been fishing here ever since. It’s that good of a spot,” said Thawley. “Last year on October 24 I caught a seven-pound flounder here; my biggest yet.”

But, Thawley’s saltwater sanctuary has long been dormant and is in need of repairs.

“It’s not very safe. There’s a little bench up there, but there’s no railing or anything like that. It’s a rugged little walk so old people might have a hard time. It’s not very safe for them either,” said Thawley.

The old Pitt Street Bridge once connected Mount Pleasant and Sullivan’s Island with trolleys going to and from each side. The remnants of the Old Bridge have stood in the water and on the banks for decades after the Ben Sawyer Bridge was built in 1945.

“It’s been sitting here idle, but it’s a piece of history for the town,” said Andy Benke, the Town Administrator for Sullivan’s Island. “It’s a great recreational place.”

Due to the old bridge’s historical significance, the Town of Sullivan’s Island wants to keep the structure intact. Since 2018, town leaders have been exploring methods to stabilize and restore the area from the erosion that’s impacted the shoreline.

“We watched earlier a large watercraft go by at a very slow bell, but he still drew water as he approached and he threw out a small wake as it went by,” said Benke. “It’s just constant motion on the docks near us and the Old Bridge. It causes water to wash up around the backside of this structure and eventually erosion.”

Other causes of erosion, mostly on the structure’s north side, are due to tidal flooding and rainfall.

The Town of Sullivan’s Island is getting closer to a solution though. Town Council is in the process of getting construction drawings to restore and stabilize the area. After that, a contractor can be hired and construction could begin in the fall of 2023.

“We’ll stabilize the foundation of the Old Bridge with an environmentally friendly product, sandbags, dirt and vegetation,” said Benke.

Hope for an improved Old Bridge has Thawley feeling optimistic that his favorite fishing spot will be even better than before.

“If they just put a little bit into it that would be great,” said Thawley.

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD)- Sand dunes across the Lowcountry kept people safe from Hurricane Ian, but now they are going to need some repairs after the storm eroded sand from the shores.

“All things considered the town made out very very well. We can’t find anywhere on Sullivan’s Island where the ocean penetrated behind that primary dune,” said Andy Benke, the Town Administrator for Sullivan’s Island.

The island had two places where the storm eroded a significant amount of sand. At Station 22, rainwater that collected behind the first wall of dunes found its way back out to the ocean through a low lying part of the dunes.

The ocean waves smacking up against dunes as tall as 12 feet were eroded at Station 28. The sand that remains makes some of the larger dunes look like a cliff. But, Benke says that’s what they’re supposed to do.

“There are dunes and vegetation that provide relief and change of elevation so that when there is a wave event it slows the wave down quite a bit” said Benke. “The town has this wide track of land between the mean high water mark and the private property line. That’s an extra added protection that we have.”

On Folly Beach, Mayor Tim Goodwin is also dealing with issues from beach erosion.

“We have noticed dune erosion just from Ian,” said Mayor Goodwin. “We know that we need to do some work on the beach. We’ve already started planning on what we can do as a city.’

Unlike Sullivan’s Island, Folly Beach is a federal partner with the Army Corps of Engineers. That means that the city can receive federal funding to help repair their sand dunes. Mayor Goodwin is awaiting the engineers’ report to decide what needs to be done.

“The Army Corps of Engineers has been here to do a survey and we’re waiting on their data to be processed,” said Mayor Goodwin.

“Right now the Myrtle Beach, Pawleys Island and Folly Beach coastlines experienced significant erosion,” said Wes Wilson, a Project Manager for the Army Corps of Engineers.

That process might not be finished until the beginning of 2023 according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

“We’re going to collect that survey information. We’re going to analyze the date and estimate costs and write a report that will be used to see if that project qualifies for emergency rehabilitation,” said Wilson. “Two main factors to consider during the process are the significance of the event and the significance of the damages of the event.”

After that, Congress has to decide whether to give supplemental funds to the Army Corps of Engineers to undertake the repairs.

Officials and engineers want people to remember that the dunes are here to protect and damage to them is much better than damage to people, buildings or roads.

“Sand dunes disappear because we build sand dunes and we work hard to keep sand dunes on the beach because that’s the first line of defense for the beach,” said Mayor Goodwin.

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND, S.C. — Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic completed a week of communications testing on April 7 using manned and unmanned systems on Sullivan’s Island in collaboration with Indiana-based Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane.

Organizers said underpinning the entire test event was a Department of the Navy (DON) imperative to develop a future fleet that better connects critical command and control (C2) functions to various weapons, integrated sensors and small unmanned systems.

“Our collaboration with NSWC Crane illustrates the outstanding value that warfare centers bring to the greater naval enterprise,” said Peter C. Reddy, NIWC Atlantic executive director. “Alongside the amazing support of Sullivan’s Island and its small community, it was remarkable to see the teamwork, passion and dedication on display all week as each participant worked to advance vital capabilities for our warfighters.”

In addition to aligning with naval strategic doctrine like distributed maritime operations (DMO) and expeditionary advanced base operations (EABO), the communications experiment aligned with a vital Department of Defense initiative called Joint All-Domain C2, or JADC2.

Greg Hays, NIWC Atlantic’s senior scientific technology manager for rapid prototyping, experimentation and fleet exercises, said the operational technologies and architecture for the DON’s future fleet are best written in real-world environments that are experimental in nature.

“We know that developing the best capabilities for our warfighters to conduct DMO and EABO requires realistic experimentation,” Hays said. “Everything changes when you leave a lab environment; therefore, we are looking to operationalize experimentation.

“We don’t experiment for the sake of experimentation,” he added. “We do it to reach an outcome, where the results inform how the Navy designs future tools and communications that are developed for the warfighter.”

Most of the test equipment — which included a tethered, radio-equipped aerostat flying overhead and unmanned surface vessels in and around Charleston Harbor — launched from the western tip of Sullivan’s Island. Communications also established on beaches near Fort Moultrie and a pier off Fort Sumter National Monument tested the interoperability of various system configurations.

Cliff Hunt, NIWC Atlantic’s senior scientific technical manager for assured communications and a major facilitator of the exercise, said the community support in the weeks and months leading up to the event was invaluable.

“Sullivan’s Island has a long history of supporting the nation’s military, dating all the way back to Fort Moultrie in the Revolutionary War,” Hunt said. “We are very appreciative of the town and its community members for showing us so much support during this week’s technology experiment.”

NIWC Atlantic routinely conducts testing on Sullivan’s Island. Leaders said military radios did not interfere with other frequencies or electronic communications in the area.

Robert Gamberg, NSWC Crane’s fleet experimentation lead, said the environment was the perfect place for his team to carry out their mission.

“To evaluate communications intended for a tactical maritime environment, we needed a realistic setting,” said Gamberg, who grew up in South Carolina and traveled here to lead the exercise. “Thanks to NIWC Atlantic’s overwhelmingly strong support throughout the planning, coordination and execution of this event, our team could operate in an ideal location that enabled the successful completion of critical testing and experimentation.”

About NIWC Atlantic

As a part of Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, NIWC Atlantic provides systems engineering and acquisition to deliver information warfare capabilities to the naval, joint and national warfighter through the acquisition, development, integration, production, test, deployment, and sustainment of interoperable command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, cyber and information technology capabilities.

About NSWC Crane

NSWC Crane is a naval laboratory in Crane, Indiana, and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with mission areas in Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions and Electronic Warfare. The warfare center is responsible for multi-domain, multi-spectral, full life cycle support of technologies and systems enhancing capability to today’s warfighter.