St Marys vs Brunswick vs Port Wentworth / Savannah (Wilmington Island, Pooler: apartments, houses)

[gracemarie42]

Hello! We are interested in these three communities: St Marys, Brunswick, and Port Wentworth (north of 95) near Savannah.

I've lived in North Florida and spent a little time in Savannah, but it's been a while. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Based on our criteria, which would you select?

+ Safe neighborhood where a woman would feel perfectly comfortable taking a walk during daylight hours (both Brunswick houses we like are in gated communities; St Marys and Port Wentworth are not)

+ Least likely to flood (all houses we've looked at are Zone X for the time being but we know that could change as sea levels rise)

+ Easy drive to pleasant, public beach access

+ Decent grocery nearby (Savannah has Publix, Whole Foods and Aldi; Brunswick has Publix plus a Harris Teeter on St Simon's; St Marys seems pretty lacking but is close to JAX for all of the above plus Sprouts and Trader Joe's; am I missing any great local markets?)

+ Strong internet access is a must because we work from home

+ A YMCA or rec center is desirable but not a necessity

+ A good library is required, and it looks like all of these locations have access to a library with PINES

+ We'd like to attend minor league baseball games or something else fun and relatively inexpensive like that (JAX has the Suns *err Jumbo Shrimp which would be a doable 40 minutes from St Marys)

+ We like non-pretentious golf, so are there any fun courses (maybe even Par 3) near one of these areas?

+ We enjoy live music, so an amphitheatre or city park with scheduled performances would be nice

+ We like to browse antique malls, art galleries, farm markets, etc. occasionally

+ Our idea of a great night is eating somewhere on the water, window-shopping in a small town, and then stopping for ice cream

+ Bugs, gators, snakes, etc. are fact of life in all of these areas, but would one of the towns be less prone to pests INSIDE our house?

+ Schools are not an issue other than for resale, but does one area shine more than the others?

Thank you so much!

[Atlanta-Kid]

Savannah has all of the amenities you are looking for.

[GA Survivor]

Port Wentworth wouldn’t be my choice, I just don’t like it. There are other areas in the Savannah Metro though. Price will be your biggest factor right now. There are Savannah neighborhoods that fit as well as many in Pooler. If you want older, you can look into Bloomingdale, midtown Savannah or even Thunderbolt and Wilmington Island. There is a golf course at the airport that meets your criteria. ALDIs is also in Pooler along with 2 Publix’s. The entire PW/Pooler/ NW area of Savannah is exploding and traffic is an issue and always will be unfortunately. Brunswick while it has a small nice area isn’t very appealing to me. L have never been to St. Mary’s and haven’t heard much about it in the 35 years I lived in Savannah. As you can see in the other threads, there is tremendous growth coming to the area in the next 3+ years, Hyundai, it’s suppliers, Gulfstream and the crazy Port growth will add 20,000+ jobs and we are already short employees so apartments and homes will be needed for new arrivals for the jobs.