During a recent-two week swing through South Carolina and Georgia, I was amazed at the responses by Realtors to my question, “How are sales going?” The consensus first part of the answers -– “We’re up over last year quite nicely” – made sense to me, but the follow-on from more than a few of my contacts was a bit perplexing: “Buyers tell us they are waiting to see how the election turns out before they commit.”

        With most economists calculating before the election that the economy was already rebounding, and employment, the linchpin to overall economic good times, poised to improve, it struck me as odd that folks

might be deferring their relocation plans based on who would win the election. No matter the President, the impact of politics on the economy rests more with the Congress, and a President Romney would have faced a split Congress, as does President Obama. A compromise to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” will be the first test of whether our politicians will derail the momentum.

        The day before the election, without any clear sense of who would win, Local Market Monitor President and respected economist Ingo Winzer indicated that the economy is already in motion, and housing will hold the key to further momentum. He wrote:

        “The major element we'll see more of in the next year is construction. Our Housing Demand Index is hovering just above zero -- after 5 years in negative territory; home prices have bottomed out in more than half of the 315 local markets we cover; and home vacancy rates have fallen from an historically high 3 percent in 2008 to just under 2 percent now. This doesn't mean we're on the brink of another boom, but it's clear that the excess inventory from the boom years has largely been used up (except in Florida).”

        Given the vagaries of the stock market and the paltry interest rates on “safe” investments, real estate still looks like one of the better areas to park some money -– especially if the home you buy is doing double duty as shelter and, even more especially, if it gets you to your dream of a warm-climate retirement in a golf community. Never forget also, especially if you live in a high-cost area, that one of the best returns you can generate is to move to an area with a significantly lower cost of living. If you would like to discuss how to do that and consider some lower cost lifestyles in high-quality golf communities, please contact me.

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        Speaking of the election, we have taken a quick look at the results for the 2012 election, and below is a snapshot of how folks voted in the counties in which some of our favorite golf communities are located. Note, of course, that the county results may, or may not, reflect how voters living in the golf communities voted. [In the September edition of our free Home On The Course newsletter we published a breakdown of the 2008 Presidential election results in counties surrounding some of our favorite golf communities in the southeast. You can read that issue by clicking here.]

        In North Carolina, New Hanover County, home to Wilmington and the ocean-side community of Landfall, with 45 holes of golf by Nicklaus and Dye, Romney garnered 51.7% of the vote to Obama’s 47.1%. Immediately south of Wilmington, in Brunswick County, where Brunswick Forest, St. James Plantation and Ocean Ridge Plantation are located, Romney outpolled Obama by a 60.7% to 38.5% margin. Voters in Buncombe, which surrounds Asheville, and Craven County, where New Bern’s Carolina Colours is located, gave Romney comfortable nods of 55.5% and 58.5%, respectively. Only in Orange County, the location of Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina, Duke University and the fine community Governors Club, with a 27-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature layout, did Obama win overwhelmingly, with more than 70% of the vote.

In Georgia, residents of Chatham County, home to The Landings at Skidaway Island (top), cast 55.5% of their votes for President Obama.  In the more rural Greene County, where Reynolds Plantation is located, residents went for Mitt Romney 61% to the President's 38.4%.  For those who needed a pleasant distraction post-election, the two communities combined offer 12 1/2 excellent 18-hole golf courses.

 

        Not surprisingly, Obama did well in other university-dominated counties, such as Albemarle in Virginia, where the University of Virginia is located in Charlottesville. There, Obama notched a 55.3% to 43.3% win while squeaking out a smaller margin -– 50.7% to 48.0% -- in Nelson County, west of Charlottesville and home to the sprawling Wintergreen Resort (45 holes of golf by Rees Jones and Dan Maples). In New Kent County, between Richmond and Williamsburg and where the unique Viniterra golf community is located (Rees Jones), Romney won comfortably with 66.2% of the vote.

        Romney swept Georgia easily, but Obama actually won the vote in Chatham County, which comprises Savannah and the 4,800-acre Landings on Skidaway Island, home to six golf courses and nearly 8,000 residents. Greene County, where the large Reynolds Plantation is located –- it features six and a half golf courses -– was more representative of the state, with Romney winning 61% to 38.4%.

        South Carolina also went for Romney by a significant margin, with one of Obama’s only county victories coming from Charleston, where the golf communities in the Mt. Pleasant area (RiverTowne, Charleston National, Dunes West, Wild Dunes) and on Daniel Island are located. There, Obama won 50.4% of the vote to Romney’s 48.0%. In the counties that host Greenville area golf developments like The Cliffs Communities' Valley and Greenville Country Club, in the vast number of communities in Myrtle Beach and those in Aiken, Romney’s totals were above 60%. The tally was only a little closer in Beaufort County, which includes Bluffton, just off Hilton Head Island and comprises the upscale Colleton River, Berkeley Hall and Belfair golf communities, where Romney earned 58.2% of the vote. Romney won as well in Georgetown County, home of DeBordieu Colony, Pawleys Plantation and other Pawleys Island  golf communities, but by a smaller 53.4% to 45.7% margin.

        The Naples, FL, area (Collier County) went overwhelmingly for Romney (64.7%) while it was a little tighter in Sarasota’s Manatee County, with Romney taking 55.8% of the vote. And although Obama did well in the northeast, Delaware’s Sussex County, which comprises a nice range of golf communities in the Rehoboth Beach area, went for Romney 55.9% to 42.9%.

        Properties currently for sale in most of the aforementioned golf communities are posted at GolfHomesListed, our companion site.

        You can imagine the rat-a-tat-tat of snare drums and bullets as you play a round of golf at The Patriot Golf Course in Ninety-Six, SC, the center point of the Grand Harbor Golf & Yacht Club community on Lake Greenwood. Designer Davis Love III provides a history lesson along with challenging golf at one of America’s unique golf layouts.

        A Revolutionary War battle known as the Siege of Ninety-Six was fought nearby, and visitors can spend the better part of a day learning all about it at a national park not 10 minutes from Grand Harbor. The 28-day attack by 550 Continental Army troops in the Spring of 1781 was designed to rid South Carolina of one of the last two British strongholds in the state (Charleston was the other), but the siege failed to dislodge Loyalists from the Star Fort in Ninety-Six. Despite the failure, the Americans forced the British from South Carolina later that year.

Players at The Patriot can claim an historic finish on the 18th hole, with the remains of the Star Fort ringing the green.

 

        Love’s Revolutionary sculptures of crumbling embattlements at Star Fort form the backdrop for anyone fortunate to play the well-conditioned and imaginatively laid out Patriot course. The PGA Tour-tested designer produces some unusually tough courses, but if you choose your tee boxes wisely at The Patriot, your round will not feel like a forced march.  Those who choose the blue tees at 6,523 yards (rating 71.6, slope 131) will face enough in-play bunkers and forced carries to make the round enough of a challenge, as some of the approaches to greens on the otherwise relatively flat lakeside course are modestly uphill. Mid-teens handicappers will find that the white tees, at 6,176 yards (rating 69.8, slope 127) will set the stage for a pleasurable round.

        The pushed-up piece of property from which the 1st and 10^th holes start at The Patriot and where the 9^th and 18^th finish seems like a veritable outdoor museum, including the main simulated ruins of the Star Fort and a tunneled cart path ringed in the same bricks that form the fractured embattlements. You could be forgiven for feeling like an historical tourist as you approach the first tee, but once you are a few holes into your round, the education is forgotten as the layout demands attention of another kind. Between protective bunkers and false fronts, few greens at Patriot provide easy bump and run opportunities. And although the fairways are generously wide, and fairway bunkers tend to favor one side or the other (rather than pinching in), they are well in range and a reminder that Love, for all his own length off the tee, suggests a tighter grip on your thinking than on your golf clubs. The Patriot puts a special premium on positioning.

Designer Love confronts the player with water and sand hazards, as well as false-front greens, sometimes all on one shot, as at the par 3 4th at The Patriot.

 

        Grand Harbor is a modest-sized golf community about 15 minutes from the town of Greenwood, population 23,000, which offers all the convenient necessities of life, and then some. (Note: I’ve had two nice meals over the last three years at Pascals, owned by a French chef; the pork osso buco was especially good.)  Grand Harbor barely survived the recession but is now under the ownership of Challenge Golf, an experienced developer with a dozen communities in its portfolio, most in Texas, but with a desire to expand its holdings east of the Mississippi while the golf club market is still depressed. About the time it bought Grand Harbor, Challenge also added Balsam Mountain Preserve, a mountaintop community in western North Carolina with a dramatic Arnold Palmer design golf course that had been through a couple of owners previously.

        Golf property prices in Grand Harbor reflect its 80-minute distance from Greenville, one of our favorite southern cities, and seem more than reasonable given the presence and views of Lake Greenwood.  Home sites on the golf course begin as low as the $30s, some with additional views of the Star Fort ruins. Combination golf and water view lots start as low as the $40s. Home sites that abut the lake, with docks in place, begin in the low $100s. Low-maintenance townhomes along the 18^th fairway, up to 2,800 square feet, are priced below $400,000. Single-family resale homes start in the high $200s.

        We are currently featuring Grand Harbor golf homes for sale at our companion web site, GolfHomesListed. Please register there today for unlimited access to the full details on all listings at Grand Harbor and the more than 50 other communities featured at the site. If you have further questions about the community, would like to see additional photos or a copy of the golf course scorecard, please contact us.

The 9th at The Patriot is a terrific risk/reward mid sized par 4, 392 yards from the blue tees, that presents a risky, all-water carry appropach for those who play safe, and a rewarding over-land approach for those who hit a thread-the-needle fade off the tee.