One couple relocated from Wyoming to South Carolina but moved after 5 months due to cost of living and traffic
The Mitchells lived in Charleston for five months.
Morgan and Dawson Mitchell were sick of the cold when they decided to move to Charleston, South Carolina.
The Mitchells are originally from Mississippi but moved to a small town in Wyoming in 2022. By the end of 2023, the couple said they were ready for their next adventure.
After visiting Charleston in January of the same year, they decided it would be ideal for their next move.
“Charleston seemed like a great place to have good weather and move back to the South a little closer to family and friends,” Dawson, 27, said.
“I love beach towns,” Morgan, 28, added. “And I was in the wedding and events industry, and that’s really, really big in Charleston, so I was super interested in it.”
When Morgan was offered a job in the events industry in Charleston in March 2023, it seemed like the perfect chance to relocate. Dawson worked as a bartender and server when they arrived in Charleston, and he was hired as an HVAC sales representative three months into their move.
But just five months after they relocated, the Mitchells discovered Charleston didn’t live up to the hype for them.
Charleston challenges
The Mitchells told B-17 that the cost of living in Charleston almost prevented them from moving there.
According to Zillow, the median rent in the city is $2,800, but the Mitchells didn’t want a place that cost more than $2,000 a month, so they struggled to find an apartment.
“That was just shocking to us being from rural areas,” Dawson said, adding that it was important to stay within their budget, as they knew they could afford a mortgage for less in other areas.
Eventually, they found an apartment to sublet on Facebook Marketplace with five months left on its lease for $1,850 each month.
The cost of living in Charleston was difficult for the Mitchells.
“It was very much like, ‘Let’s just do it for five months,'” Morgan said. “‘If we don’t like it, if it doesn’t work out, we don’t have to stay.”
Once they moved to Charleston, the cost of living continued to be a pain point for the Mitchells regarding expenses like eating out or gas prices. They said gas was particularly frustrating because they found themselves stuck in the car more than they anticipated.
Their rental was just eight miles from the office where Morgan worked, but she said she spent at least 45 minutes in the car each way to and from her job.
“It’s very low country, so there’s not a whole lot of open land to build new roads and infrastructure,” Dawson said.
“For us, our quality time together is really important, and we were stuck in the car separate for so long,” Morgan said. “We have Banjo, our dog, so by the time we made it home, it was like, ‘OK, go take him out, cook dinner, time for bed.'”
“All of our free time dwindled,” she added.
Morgan said she spent most of her birthday visit to King Street, a major shopping destination in the city, in July trying to park.
“I almost gave up,” she said. “I was just trying to take myself to Sephora for a nice little treat, and I had to make rounds for 45 minutes trying to find a parking spot.”
Missing Southern charm
The Mitchells also hoped that moving to Charleston would help them reconnect with the Southern culture they had been missing while living in Wyoming.
But they said Charleston didn’t feel as Southern as they thought it would. They said they had few chances to connect with other Southerners during their time there.
Despite life’s difficulties in Charleston, the Mitchells tried to prepare to stay longer term.
“We did put an offer in on a house, and we were really excited to stay there for a couple of years, and then that fell through,” Morgan said.
They said they could have renewed their lease on their rental, but the management company that owned it increased their rent to $2,250 a month, which they weren’t willing to pay.
The Mitchells couldn’t find another apartment under $2,000 that fit their needs. They said the only options they found were in areas where they would not have felt comfortable walking Banjo at night.
Soon, it felt like they weren’t destined to stay in Charleston as they had thought.
“We love and kind of take pride in the fact that we’ve bopped around and moved all around and like going on these little adventures,” Morgan said. “But we did want to be closer to family; his grandparents are getting older.”
The Mitchells also plan to invest in real estate, but given the cost of living in Charleston, they didn’t feel like they could launch that career there.
“We started taking all these things as signs, and we’re like, ‘We have this opportunity to get out and go somewhere cheaper and build our savings,'” Morgan said.
Returning home
Morgan and Dawson ultimately moved back to Starkville, Mississippi, when their lease in Charleston expired on August 1.
When the Mitchells spoke to B-17, they had just signed a new lease in Louisville on an apartment that costs just $1,350 a month — $900 less than they would have paid on their similar Charleston unit.
Morgan and Dawson also started new jobs when they moved. Morgan is now a social media manager at a medical facility, and Dawson is working remotely as a loan originator. Dawson said the HVAC company he worked for in Charleston offered him a slight raise when he put in his notice, but it wasn’t enough to entice them to stay.
“We just knew it wasn’t the right thing,” Dawson said.
Despite moving twice in such a short period, the Mitchells told B-17 they have no regrets about their stint in Charleston.
“I think it was just one of those things that we had to try it for ourselves to be able to come back here,” Morgan said.
Though they can still see themselves moving around throughout their lives, the Mitchells said they are excited about the financial opportunities returning to Mississippi offers them.
“We chose to come back to Mississippi because our money will go so much further,” Dawson said. “We can buy two properties for what half a property in Charleston would cost.”
“We’re always going to look back and be like, ‘What a fun summer we had,’ but we knew it wasn’t long-term,” Morgan said, reflecting on their time in Charleston. “So we might as well just come back here and start building our savings the best we can.”
