Achi news desk-
Jen Hubbell became a real estate agent in Greenville, SC, because she believed that a good life began with a good home, and now her phone was buzzing regularly with calls from out-of-state clients and he believed they could find both in his city.
Many staunch conservatives from very blue states like New York, Washington and California, were fed up with the politics there. Could Ms. Hubbell, a conservative himself, helped them find neighborhoods of like-minded people. ?
Her response was always emphatic: “You’re going to love it here.”
Ms. Hubbell is the lead agent in South Carolina for Conservative Move, a Texas-based company that helps conservatives migrate to solid red places. (“When your community no longer reflects morals and values, it may be time to move,” her website says.) And with South Carolina surpassing Florida last year as the fastest growing state in the country, she keeps very busy.
The immigration has fueled a years-long real estate boom across South Carolina, where Republicans have controlled the governor’s mansion and the legislature for more than two decades. Real estate agents like Ms. Hubbell say many of their clients are religious conservatives whose reasons for moving include opposition to policies such as abortion access, support for transgender rights and vaccine mandates during the pandemic.
Paul Chabot, founder and president of Conservative Move, which works with about 500 agents across the country, said that when his company started in 2017, not many people were asking to go to South Carolina.
In the past two years, however, it has joined Texas and Florida among the top three states in which the firm’s clients buy homes, Mr. Chabot said. About 5,000 people in its customer database have expressed interest in moving to South Carolina soon.
Most of the company’s clients in South Carolina have chosen to buy a house in Greenville County, which is in a very conservative and Christian region known as the Upstate. The county had the second-highest population growth in the state from 2020-2022, behind Horry County, which encompasses Myrtle Beach and has more expensive housing.
Ms. described Hubbell, along with half a dozen real estate agents who don’t work with Conservative Move but whose experience has mirrored hers, said she had an easy time selling Greenville’s appeal. That was especially true with clients moving from big liberal cities and their suburbs who still want a hint of cosmopolitan life.
Greenville is big enough for Broadway shows and rooftop bars, but people still often see their neighbors downtown, where a pedestrian bridge provides an overhead view of the Reedy River Falls. Agents also often point to the lack of homeless camps in the city.
Perhaps most importantly, property taxes are low, and housing is generally less expensive than out West or in New England. The median house price is around $360,000. Real estate agents will also point out that there are hundreds of churches near Greenville, mostly Christian. And Bob Jones University, a prominent evangelical school, is here.
“When I walked inside banks or stores or schools, there was always Christian music playing in the background,” said Lina Brock, a conservative who recently moved to Greenville from Temecula, California, where she was dismayed by the vocal support on for access to abortions. “I felt good, I felt welcome. I felt like I was in the United States.”
Some agents use a Goldilocks-like strategy when selling clients on the state: Texas is too hot, they say; Florida is too expensive; Tennessee has too many blue cities. But South Carolina?
“It’s perfect,” said Ms. Hubbell to a buyer recently.
Last year, about 15,500 New Yorkers, 15,000 Californians and 36,000 North Carolinians moved to the state, which has a population of more than 5.3 million. There is no data that breaks down those demographics by political party, but few believe the growth will do much to move the state politically. The same cannot be said for Texas, Georgia and North Carolina, which are becoming bluer as young, liberal people flock to some of their cities, said Mark Owens, a professor of political science at the Citadel in Charleston.
The flow of conservatives into South Carolina underscores what even many on the move admit is an unfortunate reality in polar America, as people choose to part ways with neighbors they disagree with. Several newcomers to the Greenville area said it’s been a tough decision, but they’re tired of feeling alone and even ostracized.
Yana Ghannam, a recent client of Ms. Hubbell’s, said she moved to Greenville from Livermore, Calif., because she wanted to make friends who would not criticize her for voting Republican or for being anti-union. “It was very much, ‘Oh you have to do this to fit in, you have to do that,'” Ms. Ghannam said of her life in Livermore.
Politics, of course, is not the only reason people move to South Carolina. The weather counts for something, and jobs have been a big draw, including in a growing electric vehicle industry.
Gov. Henry McMaster has referred to the state’s economic growth in recent years and attacked the few unions in the state for being a threat to him. The South Carolina Department of Commerce said the state has capital investment of more than $9 billion in 2023, the second-largest amount in its history, which represented about 14,000 jobs.
Still, Pamela Harrison, another Upstate real estate agent, said the equation for most of her clients has been simple: “They like the climate, they like’ r politics and they are trying to get out of their blue states.”
Brad Liles, an agent in Spartanburg, about 30 miles east of Greenville, said he and his colleagues referred to the wave of Republican newcomers as “the great migration.”
Many of the agents said that many conservative buyers in Greenville sought out acres of land just off the grid, avoided homeowner associations and bought homes with enough backyard space for vegetable gardens, chickens or other barnyard animals because that they are interested in being independent. and self-reliant.
“If you would have told me five years ago that I would have chickens, I would have been like, ‘You’re lying,'” said Lauren Gomes, a rancher who moved to Greenville County in 2022 with her husband and to three children because she was outraged by the liberal politics of Minnesota, where her family had lived for seven generations.
Ms Gomes, who described herself as Christian and anti-abortion, said she felt compelled to leave because she was being shouted at in grocery stores for not wearing a face mask during the pandemic, and because abortion remains is legal, without any restrictions, in Minnesota .
She said she’s also concerned about how, in her view, “transsexuality permeates every aspect of education, public life, when you’re out” in Minnesota.
Ms. Gomes and other conservatives who moved to South Carolina said they like the state’s ban on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. Other local policies in Greenville County have also appealed to them, such as when the board of trustees of the county libraries voted to move children’s materials depicting transgender children from the children’s section to the parenting section.
Stephen Johnson Jr. recently helped Rick and Natalie Samuelson move from Gig Harbor, Wash., to Williamston, S.C., a town of about 4,000 about 20 miles outside of Greenville, where their $2 million budget meant they could afford almost anything in the area.
But on Friday, the Samuelsons, who are Republican, met with Mr. Johnson at the BrickTop’s restaurant downtown and discussed possibly buying a new home in Greenville because they wanted to live closer to a hospital. They also discussed a transgender athlete who Mr. Johnson that he had seen him play in a basketball game for a girl he refereed.
“He is clearly a young lad who is bigger than all his friend’s teammates,” said Mr. Johnson as the waiter removed the leftover deviled eggs and sweetened “Millionaire’s Bacon.” “He identifies as a woman, so they allowed him to play.”
Ms. shook. Samuelson her head.
Then the conversation turned to how great Greenville was for them.
“The melting pot of a conservative bubble,” Mr Johnson said.
“It’s Christianity,” said Mr. Samuelson. “Nowhere is Christianity more united to this extent.”
The recent growth and influx of wealthier residents has forced many poorer residents out, a problem that is hardly unique to Greenville or the South, but is particularly hard on its Black community. A 2023 study from Furman University found that Greenville has seen a 22 percent decline in its Black population since 1990, while the city’s overall population has grown by about 21 percent.
“Affluent white families are moving into historically Black neighborhoods that ring the City of Greenville,” the study found. “Their renewed interest in places they once avoided is increasing property values beyond what the current Black population can afford.”
Downtown Greenville, one of the biggest selling points for real estate agents, is also increasing nearby home values as it continues to grow and attract crowds. On a recent Saturday night, brass notes from saxophonists dripped from the pavement as couples danced under the treetops full of hanging lights.
Similar scenes have captivated many newcomers, including Curt and Liz Cutler and their 10-year-old daughter. Mr. Cutler was fired from his New York City sanitation job in 2021, he said, after refusing to comply with the city’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for government workers. He served as a deacon in his Baptist church there, he said, but his request for a religious exemption was denied.
They had traveled 700 miles south, spent $350,000 on a home outside Spartanburg, painted the interior walls a pumpkin cream shade and built a coop for their chickens. They had trusted the promise of their real estate agent from Christian, conservative America, and on a recent Sunday, the family worshiped in a Baptist church, thanking God for their new home.
“You will be blessed by the city,” said the minister. “And you will be blessed by the land.”
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