CHARLESTON — Kathleen and Perry Jenkins want to downsize their 8,000-square-foot home and settle into a smaller, less expensive property where their children can visit and they can make new friends their age.
The local happy couple were just two of more than 400 prospective buyers who turned out in a single day to tour Berkeley County’s newest 55+ community, Del Webb Point Hope, highlighting the need for housing, especially for seniors looking to make lifestyle changes.
“We love this community,” Kathleen Jenkins said as she and her husband walked out of the Compass model home. “We live right down the street and when we heard there was an open house we thought, ‘Let’s go check it out.’ “
For three hours, potential homeowners and a number of real estate agents hopped on and off a trolley that shuttled them to Del Webb’s new age-restricted neighborhood on the Cainhoy peninsula.
The community by Atlanta-based PulteGroup sits on a 502-acre parcel along Beech Hill Drive. It’s within the 9,000-acre master-planned Point Hope development that’s blown up in the past few years with hundreds of homes, schools for all ages, a Publix-anchored retail center, shops, doctors offices, restaurants and more.
During the Del Webb Point Hope open house, visitors could walk through six models — all one story, some with optional second floors — and ask questions with on-site Pulte agents. Those interested in moving forward could then work with sales agents to tour lots, be it lake front or in the shade of pine trees.
Plans call for 767 homes, divided into three levels of homesites: scenic, distinctive and echelon.
While 400 may have shown up Sept. 12, more than 700 RSVPed, said Lauren Altman, director of strategic and operational marketing for Pulte Group’s Coastal Carolinas office.
“We had expected around 350 people, so the attendance surpassed our expectations,” Altman said. Of attendees, 135 booked pricing appointments at the event.
“Some have been waiting since the community was first announced in 2022,” she said.
David Sutton was admiring the lake view behind a scenic home that Friday morning. He works at East Cooper and said Del Webb Point Hope’s convenient location to the hospital was a major selling point.
“Plus I love the amenities they offer,” he said.
While homeowners would lose a little bit of privacy many are used to with the proximity of the Point Hope lots, Sutton added with a laugh that that the trade off is you most likely wouldn’t be in the house all day given the activities around the neighborhood.
Features for the golf cart-friendly community include an amenity center with a lifestyle director, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts and six pickleball courts, as well as group events and various walking trails.
Lucky number three
Pointe Hope is Del Webb’s third 55-plus housing project in the Charleston metro area — all located in Berkeley County. The first, in Cane Bay, has sold out. But the second in the Nexton development in Summerville includes 1,400 homes — 900 of which sold in the last eight years.
Altman finds that many Del Webb prospects shop multiple Del Webb communities along the coast “and it’s just a matter of which … location is right for them.”
Several people touring Sept. 12 had come from Del Webb’s only other open neighborhood in Summerville. Several couples noted the allure to Point Hope is it’s much closer to downtown Charleston, Daniel Island, than Summerville.
Kathleen Jenkins added that while she’s excited to move into a community where she has neighbors her age and “support,” one of the biggest draws is having the Medical University of South Carolina nearby “and all your healthcare needs taken care of right here.”
The prices in the low $500,000 range are also competitive, especially in today’s market and given all the amenities, said Melodie Smith, real estate agent with EXP Realty.
“We haven’t had a brand new neighborhood for quite some time, and there’s a big opportunity here,” she said. Though Smith doesn’t have any interested clients just yet, she said “it was wise to come and familiarize myself with the neighborhood” because it’s only a matter of time.
Del Webb Point Hope is currently holding VIP pricing appointments and will start writing sales contracts in November.
Vertical construction is scheduled to begin before the end of the year, Altman said.
“The community will consist of four phases with each phase being roughly around 190 homesites. We anticipate it will be a little under seven years before build-out,” she said.
PulteGroup began pursuing plans to develop the new Del Webb neighborhood in 2021, originally proposing around 1,100 homes at Clements Ferry and Cainhoy roads.
Altman said the builder pays close attention to the housing needs in the area it serves. That includes the growing 55+ population in the state that in just a few years will have more residents above the age of 64 than below the age of 18.
By 2040, more than a third of S.C. residents will be 65 or older in at least five counties. That includes coastal Beaufort, Georgetown, Horry and Jasper counties along with McCormick County on Lake Thurmond.
Not coincidentally, beyond Berkeley County, Del Webb has two communities in Horry County’s Myrtle Beach, one in Beaufort County’s Hilton Head, and another on the way in the Greenville market.