Young professionals are moving to fast-growing Cayce in droves. What’s drawing them?
Affordable housing and convenient, attractive businesses are helping to pull more and more young professionals to Cayce, a budding hotspot just across the river from the state capital.
The number of people ages 25-34 living in Cayce grew by 51% in just the past five years, according to a new housing-focused study released by the city. Young professionals, in fact, outpaced every other demographic moving into the city.
But as more people move to Cayce, city leaders are considering how to keep encouraging growth while preserving quality of life.
“Our intention is to make sure what happens is in keeping with who we are as a city and who we’ve been historically, keeping that small-town feel in the middle of a bustling region,” said Mayor Elise Partin.
Cayce wasn’t even on the radar for 39-year-old Ryal Curtis and his wife, 28-year-old Heather, when they began looking in 2017 to move out of downtown Columbia and purchase a family home. They were looking for an older home with character in a neighborhood not far from downtown, preferably in Columbia’s Earlewood, Elmwood Park or Cottontown neighborhoods. It was word of mouth that turned their attention across the river to Cayce, Ryal Curtis said.
The renovated 1950s home they eventually bought in 2018 on Naples Avenue — in a neighborhood known as the Avenues — was “everything we wanted,” he said.
“It kind of checked all the boxes,” Curtis said. “We like the space that we have in Cayce. The neighborhood has some character to it. We’re not on top of each other. It’s walkable. The friendliness of all the neighbors and the growth of the neighborhood, the growth of Cayce and especially the Avenues, is something we’re really excited about.”
They’ve recently made a habit of taking morning walks with their 9-year-old daughter, Hailey, to Piecewise Coffee Co. on State Street. Before the pandemic, they’d ride bikes to Steel Hands Brewing. They frequent the Cayce riverwalk, and they’re an easy stroll from the trendy new Black Rooster restaurant in neighboring West Columbia.
Shortly after moving in, Curtis recalls talking with one of his neighbors, a longtime Cayce resident in her 60s.
“She said, ‘If you had told me 20 years ago that young professionals would be competing to buy a house in the Avenues, I wouldn’t believe it. But I believe it now,’” he said.
‘A lot to offer young people’
As the city of roughly 14,000 residents grows steadily, the housing study found Cayce’s newest residents are increasingly:
Educated; “Over the last five years, the number of residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher increased 47%,” the study said.
A part of households earning more than $100k/year; “Cayce experienced significant growth in households earning more than $100,000, even outpacing growth in Lexington County,” the study said.
Single or unmarried couples.
And, if they’re renting, there’s a 50-50 chance they’re spending more than 30% of their income on rent (which is considered a cost burden) — and their rents are likely to rise.
In recent years, Cayce has spruced up its image, embarking on ambitious streetscaping along main thoroughfare Knox Abott Drive. New businesses including Piecewise Coffee Co. and Henry’s Restaurant and Bar have opened on State Street in an area that’s being branded as an up-and-coming arts district.
Recent new housing construction has included a pair of upscale apartment complexes, Advenir at One Eleven and Indigo at Brickworks, as well as single-family homes in the Congaree Bluff and Concord Park developments. And on Wednesday, an Atlanta-based company announced plans to build a $65 million housing and retail development on 12th Street Extension, across the road from Dominion Energy.
“I think our city has a lot to offer young people who want to be in close proximity to great businesses and restaurants as well as nature and our wonderful riverwalk,” Partin said. “I think they recognize that Cayce is a place that is growing and evolving and that’s something people want to be a part of.”
Stanton Scoma, 33, who co-owns Piecewise Coffee Co. with his wife Lindsey, 30, said they are excited to be part of a new wave of young entrepreneurs opening up shop in Cayce. Although Scoma grew up across the river in Columbia, he never considered Cayce to be a hub for business. That changed after he moved there in 2017.
“We felt that increasing the community connectiveness inside of Cayce, where we live ourselves, made it a great business venture,” Stanton said. “The low rent and proximity to downtown are also important assets.”
How will housing grow?
In December, the city halted construction on new apartments and subdivisions for six-months while it weighed how to best manage its growth spurt. In June, the moratorium was extended for another 45 days.
“We want to be proactive,” Partin said. “This is what our residents have asked us to do to make sure we have good plans in place to grow in a way that will benefit not just our current residents but also developers and future residents.”
Partin acknowledged that housing prices will likely increase as Cayce expands, but “that’s exactly why we did the study. So that we don’t end up in a place where it’s too late.”
Earl McLeod, executive director for the Building Industry Association of Central South Carolina, questioned whether the city’s growth was rapid enough to justify a moratorium. He noted that in 2018, the city issued only three building permits for single family homes and 189 permits for multifamily units, according to data from the Central Midlands Council of Governments.
Even once building resumes, McLeod said the city’s actions may cause developers to think twice before pursuing new projects in Cayce.
“It came as a surprise to everyone, and people need time to plan around these things,” said. “Now, supposedly they are going to be revising their ordinances to reflect some of the recommendations from the housing study, but we still don’t know what that will look like.”
On a smaller scale, Dan Gooch, a resident of the Avenues for 18 years, specializes in purchasing older, run-down homes in the area and completely renovating them. In the last 18 months, his business, Avenues Real Estate, has flipped and sold four houses to buyers 35 years old or younger. The selling prices for renovated homes, he noted, is ticking upward, and they’re selling quickly.
Generally speaking, Gooch said, Cayce’s stock of older homes tend to either be inexpensive and in need of significant improvements, or have been renovated and increased in value — still, though, less expensive than many homes in some of Columbia’s signature in-town neighborhoods.
All around, he said, it’s an attractive market for young buyers. And young new residents are adding value to the community, Gooch said, by spending their money at local businesses, keeping up the appearances of their new homes and taking an active role in city initiatives
“Across the board, it’s just a huge win,” he said.
This story was originally published July 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
