Hartwell/Keowee

[Moray]

My wife and I are traveling to this area next month to check it out as a possible retirement option. I’m more interested in the fishing and my wife is interested in clear(er) swimming water and proximity to shops/restaurants. I’m hoping to get some local info and pros and cons of both lakes and areas we should check out? Any other lakes/areas that we should look at while we are there?

thanks!  Ray

[TnRiver46]

Just left hartwell, the fishing is awesome 

@GANGGREENhas thoroughly researched this exact topic 

[geo g]

Usually rent a lake house every year for a week.  Last year we rented on Keowee and for me I might as well been fishing the moon.  Natahalia is my personal favorite for beauty, and fishing.  Have caught small mouth, large mouth both there.  A true mountain lake.

[JS Patterson]

Both are great options.  Hartwell is probably a better option for proximity to shops and restaurants.  Lake Jocassee is also a very popular lake to visit, but has very few houses on or near the lake.  It is a very deep and clear mountain lake and gives the oppurtunity to catch four species of bass in one trip (largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, and redeye species.). The lake also has the state record for all of those except largemouth, but there are some giant largemouth in there as well.  Jocassee has many beaches to stop and swim, and the water is cool.  I live in northern Greenville which puts all of them about an hour away for me.  I am usually more likely to pick Hartwell or Jocassee because of familiarity.  

[Moray]

Thank you for your replies! We have a place rented on Keowee for a few days and plan on renting a boat to look around. I had looked at Jocassee and would probably pick that lake to live on (We are originally from the Notheast and I love fishing for smallmouth!)if it had more of what we are looking for in terms of proximity to things. Have any of you fished Greenwood,I’ve seen it mentioned online a couple times? Thanks again for your info!

[GANGGREEN]

Yeah, I've recently done this research at least to some degree.  We got really lucky with a small house in a lakeside HOA and we bought it, so the research ended.  A few thoughts.  Jocassee really is one of the prettiest lakes anywhere and there are some slobs in that lake, but there's very little development on or near the lake and if you could find a home on the lake, most normal people couldn't afford it.  For me, having the ability to drive and launch on Hartwell or Jocassee within 30 minutes or so while still living on/near Keowee is the best of both worlds.

 

Hartwell probably features slightly better home values, both on and off the lake, but for whatever reason it's not the sexy lake right now that Keowee seems to be.  Water clarity isn't as nice, more/higher water fluctuations, etc., but Hartwell fishes better than Keowee (some of the local bass fisherman call Keowee "Lake Keepaway").   Depending on what part of Hartwell you were to settle on, you might have more amenities and things to do than on Keowee or you might have less.  Hartwell is huge and it's sprawling.  Clemson is close to the northern end and it's a nice town.  Anderson is a larger town with most amenities, restaurants, etc. and it's mid-lake, but many areas on Hartwell are pretty isolated too.

 

Keowee is really nice and as noted, it's red-hot and "sexy" right now to the retirement crowd (or even the younger crowd who are now working remotely post-Covid).   As such, the real estate market is just stupid.   Just really stupid.  Not sure if you're hoping/looking for a lakefront home or if you'd just like to be close, but lakefront will run AT LEAST 600K and that wouldn't be much of a house/property right now.  Most lakefront homes are going much higher than that and even some nice lake lots are being sold for 1 million plus.  The good news is that there are really good public launches on Lake Keowee and there are a bunch of them, so you don't have to live on the lake to have very convenient fishing nearby.   To give you an idea, we purchased a cute and well-maintained but VERY small home in a lakefront HOA for under 200K last spring.  We really felt like we hit the jackpot even though the house and lot are very small.   Even so, since May of last year (roughly 10 months), the appraisal on our place has gone up by 30% and I have zero doubt that we could sell and make a quick 50K after having done a very few renovations.  The problem is that we like it here and where would we go if we did sell?   We'll stay put.  As for the fishing, it can be really good and it can be tough.  For me even during the tough times it's cool to be out on a beautiful lake during mid-winter, so I put up with it and do most of my fishing here rather than running to Jocassee or Hartwell, but Jocassee does have trout and Hartwell does have stripers, so that's cool.   Winter and summer fishing are often done in REALLY deep water (like close to 100 feet deep), but spring and fall are usually on the docks, on the banks, etc..   Like I said, a tough day might feature zero bites or maybe one or two fish, but a good day might feature 20 Spotted bass and they're very healthy on this lake (good forage source).   There's also Crappie, Catfish and Largemouth in the lake, but it's mostly Spots.  Amenities?  We're from a really rural area up north, so from our perspective, this place is great and there's anything that you could want (grocery stores, restaurants, box stores, golf courses, etc.) but people who are from bigger areas occasionally complain about the lack of this or that here (I see that you're from southern California and you may not find certain things that you're used to).  I just don't see it.  We've only been here for less than a year and that's been seasonal living and we already have several good pizza places that we enjoy, half a dozen GREAT barbecue places that we like, good Mexican food, one great Italian place really nearby, etc..  We have several acceptable grocery stores and if you need Whole Foods, Trader Joes, etc., you can find that in Greenville, but I guess you'll have to decide for yourself when you get here.   We live about 1/3 of the way up the lake on the west side, so we're within 15 minutes of Seneca, which has most of what we need.  We're about 20 minutes from Clemson, probably 40 minutes from Anderson and an hour from Greenville (becoming a trendy "foody" city of 70,000+ residents).   I like where we're at very much for it's relative location to Seneca/restaurants and also to the national forest, the mountains and the trout streams. 

 

One caveat and this is important.   The area is being destroyed by the development.  Honestly, I'm not sure that the local agencies and governments are prepared for the boom here and I don't know whether they'll be able to adequately handle it.  Furthermore, the very things that I moved here for (truly nice, conservative people, nature, good fishing, etc. etc.) are slowly being replaced with a different crowd and with rampant/run-away development.  I'm in my late 50s and presume that by the time the place is ruined that I'll be a very old man anyway, but you have to really consider whether you want to move to an area that's going to continue to be built up for years and that WILL change.  If you're looking for a truly rural retreat, I'd encourage you to check out areas on Hartwell or Greenwood instead and to be honest, I spent most of my time on/near Keowee and can't really give you a ton of info about those areas.   

I should also probably mention that some of the Georgia lakes are very nice and the area can be pretty over there as well.  Lanier is GREAT fishing, but it's practically within the Atlanta sprawl and it can be very busy.   Carter Lake, Blue Ridge, Chatuge, etc. are really good fishing and very pretty, rural areas, but I think you'd be much further from lots of amenities (I'm not terribly familiar with that area, so I'm not completely sure).  Burton Lake is not far from Keowee (I think 1-1.5 hours west) and it's a very good fishing lake and very pretty, but again, I think lakefront property is through the roof and you might be a bit further away from nice amenities, again, I'm not really sure.   Just some food for thought, some of those lakes also have pretty good Yellow perch and Walleye fishing as well and Burton has a few big trout.

[Moray]

Ganggreen,

I was hoping to hear from you! Thank you very much for such a detailed summary of the area. You hit on a lot of the things we were wondering about. I know market is crazy right now and with SoCal house prices I hope we can make enough profit selling here to balance price of a lake front home somewhere? We are looking forward to visiting the area and will certainly look in to your other lake suggestions while we are there.

thanks again 

Ray

[GANGGREEN]

1 hour ago, Moray said:

Ganggreen,

I was hoping to hear from you! Thank you very much for such a detailed summary of the area. You hit on a lot of the things we were wondering about. I know market is crazy right now and with SoCal house prices I hope we can make enough profit selling here to balance price of a lake front home somewhere? We are looking forward to visiting the area and will certainly look in to your other lake suggestions while we are there.

thanks again 

Ray

 

Don't hesitate to reach out for anything you need.  I'm presently a seasonal resident, so not sure I'll be here when you are, but if you need a guide on the lake some day and I AM here, I'd be happy to take you.   I'm retired and while still ridiculously busy, my schedule is very flexible.  Edit to suggest that I now see you're planning on being here "next month" and I likely WILL still be around if you need/want to reach out.  I can make some suggestions for restaurants, etc. as well.

 

And, for what it's worth, we also own/maintain a gentleman's farm in Pennsylvania, so owning a lakefront home on Keowee at the present time isn't possible for me, but given what I think I know about the California real estate market, you'd likely be in a much better position than I would to afford something.  When/if we ever sell the farm up north and make this more of a full-time residence, we may look into upgrading our home here or even looking into possible lakefront on Lake Hartwell.  I prefer Keowee for a few reasons, but the fishing's better on Hartwell and real estate is more reasonable.

 

 

[KHNC]

Lake Murray has everything you are looking for! Especially great fishing! Our home in Prosperity is actually for sale. Just remodeled the master bath and had a new roof installed last week. Pictures in listing were prior to both.

 

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/269-Forest-Shores-Rd_Prosperity_SC_29127_M54935-31591