Harbor & Fripp Island Real Estate
Lives In Harmony With Nature For Fripp & Harbor Island Real Estate Owners
Beaufort real estate has two oceanfront dream communities, secluded and private, on outer barrier islands that look almost exactly as they did a thousand years ago. Harbor Island is 12 miles from downtown Beaufort and Fripp Island is 19, a 25-minute drive from town out the Sea Island Parkway.
Between Harbor and Fripp Islands is the six-mile Hunting Island State Park, all maritime forest and beach. Nearby islands are uninhabited and inaccessible. By day, the shrimp fleet and porpoises ply the waters. Herons and gulls are everywhere, and golfers have to shoo the deer and sometimes an alligator off the greens. Transports of choice are golf carts, bicycles and sandals. Fripp and Harbor Island real estate owners walk the beach and there is beach access between every few homes.
Among Fripp and Harbor Island real estate owners are retirees, businessmen and women who are fortunate enough to be able to supervise their enterprises by fax or phone, commuters to Beaufort, SC, second-home owners who rent to vacationers part of the time, authors, artists and occasional movie stars.
Fripp Island, SC, is a sportsman’s heaven. Facilities include two championship golf courses, 10 tennis courts, a yacht club, a health club and eight swimming pools. These amenities and the five restaurants are privately owned. Membership is open to residents and owners of Fripp Island real estate. Harbor has its own, resident-owned, pool, six tennis courts and a health club.
Oceanfront Fripp and Harbor Island real estate is priced from $750,000 to more than $2.5 million. Beaufort realtors say that is 30 per cent less than similar property on nearby islands such as Hilton Head or Kiawah . Already land values are outpacing home values in Fripp and Harbor Island real estate markets, and new owners sometimes tear down existing homes to build larger ones. Both Fripp and Harbor, and Harbour Key, which adjoins Harbor Island, have marsh and woodsy homesites in addition to oceanfront in their real estate markets.
Fripp Island, SC, has some 800 year-around residents among owners of Fripp Island real estate. The population can swell to three-to-five thousand in the summer. Smaller, Harbor starts out with about 150 year-round and peaks at nearly 300 around the Fourth of July.
Harbor and Fripp islands feel like friendly neighborhoods all year around. Fishermen, photographers, music-lovers, beach-combers, bird-watchers, investors - they all eddy around others with mutual interests to share talk and activities. Boat-owners are always looking for passengers to join them on excursions. Forty per cent of the Yacht Club members don’t own a boat. There is even a “Retired Old Men Eating Out” club—no women, no agenda, no rules .
While their interests may vary, owners of Harbor and Fripp Island real estate are passionate about their island life. “There is always something wonderful to see,” they say. The sun rises out of the water in the morning and sets from a multi-colored sky at night. There are no street lights, so the moon turns the waves into a light show and the stars are close enough to touch.
“You know, theoretically it’s against the rules here to harm a fly,” said one owner of Fripp Island real estate. “To live in harmony with nature is a wonderful feeling.” //
