Daniel Island

THE LOWDOWN

When I was growing up as a kid in Ireland, my vision of the US was based on The Wonder Years with Fred Savage. I thought everyone lived in picture perfect neighborhoods, with putting green lawns in front of their home and where paperboys threw the newspaper on the lawn every morning. When I finally came to the US, if I had come straight to Daniel Island, I would have had my Wonder Years theory confirmed !

Impeccably manicured and planned out, those who live on Daniel Island absolutely love it and wouldn’t live anywhere else, they rave about it. They love that their kids cycle to school, the parents all know each other, there are lots of parks and greenery.

I’ve owned an investment property on Daniel Island for 11 years and it’s always been rented, never had a single day vacancy in all that time and only 3 tenants, that says a lot about how much people who like it.

Daniel Island’s median price is $837,000 so all this perfection comes at a price. Daniel Island was hunting land not so long ago and it is a master planned community, that was actually very well planned, so it has everything from 1 bed condos to family homes to waterfront mansions and then completing the cycle back to retirement homes.

Interstate 526 run through the middle of the island, the area of DI to the east of 526 is particularly high end, it’s where the golf course is located ($75k membership last I checked) and it’s nearly all custom homes. some of the homes of which are regularly featured in magazines and rightly so. If you have the money and want a gorgeous house, this might be the area for you.

On the west side of the island, prices are more normal and you get national builders developing lots. There are also some condos in this area which are popular with the employees at the island businesses.

Daniel Island has a large number of town homes and condos that are high end but maintenance free for folks who don’t care to or are not able to maintain yards anymore.

It has a small but growing downtown area, which is home to some software businesses and also a tennis stadium and the Charleston Battery soccer stadium. Both of these have concerts, movie nights and events on.

Bishop England High School & Daniel Island School are both on Daniel Island itself.

My only gripe with Daniel Island is that the only way on and off it is to take I-526 either to Mt Pleasant or to the north area. 526 is a regular traffic hotspot, accidents happen and it backs up. I hate driving on that section of 526, I think it’s really dangerous due to the speed people go at, the bridge was actually shut down this year for a month because of structural issues. On top of all that, there is a port one exit over in Mt Pleasant so it sees a lot of big trucks headed there too.

PRICE RANGE

Single Family Homes : Median Price $837,000

Condos & Townhomes : Median Price $355,000

PROS

  • It’s a beautifully planned community that is perfectly maintained.

  • Anyone who has lived there tends to love it and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else

  • There are lots of nice cycle paths through out the island

CONS

  • You have to take I-526 to go anywhere from Daniel Island

  • It’s a lot more expensive than other areas for similar houses

  • Shopping is limited

AREA FAVORITES

  • The 25 miles of trails on the island

  • Dragon Palace is the best Chinese restaurant in the area

  • Concerts at the tennis and soccer stadiums.

COMMUTE TIMES

Airport/Boeing : 10 minutes

Downtown Charleston/MUSC : 25 minutes

Closest Beach : 15 minutes to Isle of Palms or Sullivan’s Island

SHOPPING

Daniel Island has a Publix and some smaller locals stores but for anything else, you have to drive on I-526 to get to Mt Pleasant or the North area

BEACHES

Isle of Palms or Sullivan’s Island