Moving to Savannah for a Job: Where to Live for Gulfstream, Hyundai, the Ports and the Hospitals
This page is for the person with the offer letter, not the company. No relocation network, no referral fee, no affiliation with any of these employers. Just where the jobs are, where the people who hold them tend to live, and what those houses cost.
If you're moving to Savannah for a job, the first thing to settle isn't the neighborhood. It's which side of town your employer is on. Savannah's big employers sit in four clusters that don't overlap: Gulfstream and the airport on the west side, the port terminals along the river to the north and west, the Hyundai Metaplant twenty miles west in Bryan County, and the hospitals and downtown in the middle. Pick the cluster first and the neighborhood list shortens itself.
On this page
- Savannah's jobs sit in four clusters, and they are not in the same place
- Gulfstream and the airport: the west side is built for this commute
- The ports: live north and west, and learn the truck routes
- Hyundai Metaplant: Bryan County or the I-16 corridor
- Hospitals, SCAD and downtown: the in-town neighborhoods
- What the jobs pay against what the houses cost
- Timing the move: what usually happens between the offer and the closing
- Three things to check before you pick a neighborhood for a commute
Savannah's jobs sit in four clusters, and they are not in the same place
Gulfstream is the largest private employer at about 13,000 people, and it sits at the airport on the west side. The Port of Savannah supports roughly 82,000 direct jobs in Chatham County through its Garden City and Ocean terminals on the river. The Hyundai Metaplant in Ellabell opened in March 2025 and is ramping toward 8,500 jobs by 2031, with a supplier ecosystem that has already announced 7,000 more. And the two hospital systems, Memorial Health in Midtown and St. Joseph's/Candler on the Southside, together employ about 6,400, which makes healthcare the second largest private cluster. My job market guide has the full employer table and what each sector pays.
Here is the part that matters for a house search. These four are 15 to 40 minutes apart from each other, and the roads between them all funnel into the same few interchanges. A house that is perfect for a Gulfstream commute is a long drive to Memorial, and the reverse. So the table below is organized by where you will drive every weekday, not by which neighborhood is prettiest.
| Employer | Where it is | Where people live for it | Typical drive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gulfstream / airport | West side, off I-95 at the airport | Pooler, Bloomingdale, West Savannah, Rincon | Pooler 10–16 min to Gulfstream · Rincon 18–35 min to the airport |
| Port of Savannah | Garden City and Ocean terminals, on the river | Port Wentworth, Garden City, Rincon, Pooler | Rincon 22–40 min · Port Wentworth and Garden City are minutes away |
| Hyundai Metaplant | Ellabell, Bryan County, about 20 miles west | Richmond Hill, Pooler, Bloomingdale, Pembroke and Ellabell | Richmond Hill 28–40 min · Pooler 20–28 min |
| Memorial Health / downtown | Midtown, and the Historic District | Ardsley Park, Midtown, the Islands, Isle of Hope | Midtown 3 min · Ardsley 6 min · Islands 16 min · Isle of Hope 13 min |
| St. Joseph's/Candler | Southside, near Abercorn | Southside, Isle of Hope, Skidaway, Georgetown | Southside 14 min · Skidaway about 20 min |
| Fort Stewart / Hunter | Hinesville, and inside Savannah | Richmond Hill, Southside, Pooler | Covered in my military PCS guide |
Drive times are Google Maps typical ranges for a Monday 8 a.m. departure from a central point in each area, pulled September 2026. Ranges are what Google shows; the low end is a clear morning and the high end is a normal one. Confirm your own before you commit.
Gulfstream and the airport: the west side is built for this commute
Gulfstream's campus is at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, right where I-95 meets I-16. Pooler is 16 minutes away and is where most of the west-side new construction is, with a median sale price of $350,000 and the most new-build inventory in the metro. West Savannah, which takes in Southbridge and the Fort Argyle corridor, is 18 minutes and runs a little lower at a $318,000 median. Bloomingdale is the quieter option one exit further out.
If the budget is tighter or you want more land, Rincon in Effingham County is 18 to 35 minutes to the airport at 8 a.m. on a Monday, with a $335,000 median and a separate school district. Engineers at Gulfstream earn about 22 percent above the national average for the field, which is why the newer subdivisions in Pooler and Effingham fill up with them.
The ports: live north and west, and learn the truck routes
Port jobs, from crane operators and longshoremen to logistics management and the warehouse corridor, cluster around the Garden City terminal. Port Wentworth is the closest town, with newer communities like Rice Hope and Rice Creek built for this commute. Garden City is closer still and more established. Rincon is 22 to 40 minutes up Highway 21 at 8 a.m. on a Monday and is the choice for people who want Effingham County schools with a port paycheck.
One thing to know before you fall for a house on this side of town: the port runs on trucks. Highway 21, Jimmy DeLoach Parkway and Bourne Avenue carry them all day, so a house that backs up to one of those corridors will hear it. Drive the block at 7 a.m. on a weekday and again around 5 p.m.
Hyundai Metaplant: Bryan County or the I-16 corridor
The Metaplant sits in Ellabell, off I-16 in the north end of Bryan County, about 20 miles west of downtown Savannah. That geography pulls people two directions. Richmond Hill is in the same county, 28 to 40 minutes away at 8 a.m. on a Monday, with Bryan County Schools, a $435,915 median and a property tax rate well under Chatham's. Pooler and Bloomingdale are the Chatham County option, 20 to 28 minutes east on I-16 at the same hour, closer to the shopping and the city.
Pembroke and Ellabell are the shortest drives of all, and they are changing quickly as the supplier plants land. If you are weighing Pooler against Richmond Hill for this commute, I compare them line by line in my Pooler vs Richmond Hill guide.
Hospitals, SCAD and downtown: the in-town neighborhoods
Memorial Health is in Midtown, and it is the region's only Level I trauma center, with a $265 million patient tower underway. Midtown is 3 minutes from it with a $450,000 median, Ardsley Park is 6 minutes at $599,900, and the Islands, Whitemarsh, Talahi and Wilmington, are 16 minutes at $436,500 for people who want water and a yard.
St. Joseph's/Candler is on the Southside, so Southside neighborhoods like Windsor Forest and Georgetown at a $315,000 median are the short commute, with Isle of Hope and Skidaway Island as the waterfront versions. SCAD, the school board and the downtown offices put you in the Historic District, the Victorian District or Starland, where the commute is a walk or a bike and the medians run $562,000 to $895,000.
What the jobs pay against what the houses cost
Savannah's mean wage is about $58,885 a year, roughly 13 percent below the national average, but the spread by field is wide. Architecture and engineering average about $126,000 here, 22 percent above national. Production and manufacturing run about $55,000, 10 percent above. Healthcare practitioners average about $91,000 and computer and math roles about $98,000, both below their national averages. Cost of living runs a few percent below national, which narrows the gap on paper.
| Area | Median sale price | Median $/sqft |
|---|---|---|
| Rincon (Effingham) | $335,000 | $191 |
| Southside Savannah | $315,000 | $194 |
| West Savannah | $318,000 | $182 |
| Pooler | $350,000 | $185 |
| Richmond Hill | $435,915 | $197 |
| The Islands | $436,500 | $261 |
| Midtown | $450,000 | $261 |
| Ardsley Park | $599,900 | $308 |
Closed sales from Hive MLS, 1 September 2025 through 31 August 2026. The full table, with commute columns for every area, is in my best neighborhoods guide, and the running costs are in the cost of living guide.
Timing the move: what usually happens between the offer and the closing
1. The first trip is for the drive, not the house
Come on a weekday, drive from a rental in each area you're considering to your new office at the time you'd be leaving, and do it once more in the evening. That trip settles more than any listing photo.
2. Rent for a few months if the start date is close
A start date in three weeks is not a reason to buy the first house that fits. Short-term rentals and month-to-month leases exist across Pooler, Midtown and the Islands, and a sixty to ninety day rental buys you time to learn the roads and see the market through a full cycle of new listings.
3. Line up the loan before the second trip
A pre-approval from a local lender, with the property tax and flood insurance for the specific area built into the payment, is what lets you write an offer on the second trip instead of a third. If your employer's package includes a relocation benefit, ask what it covers before you sign a lease, because some cover the sale on the other end and some only cover the move.
4. Know that the tax bill you see on a listing is the seller's
Georgia's homestead freezes stay with the owner who claimed them, so a listing that shows $2,100 a year can reset to $5,000 after you buy. I run the real number for any address before you make an offer. The mechanics are in the property taxes guide.
Three things to check before you pick a neighborhood for a commute
The drive at 8 a.m., not the distance. Sixteen miles on I-16 and sixteen miles across the Islands bridges are different mornings. The getting around guide covers where the slowdowns are.
The flood zone of the parcel, not the neighborhood. Two houses on one street can carry different zones and very different insurance, and it changes the monthly payment. That is the flood zone guide.
Which tax layers the address sits in. City of Savannah, Chatham unincorporated, Pooler, Bryan County and Effingham County all bill differently, and on a $350,000 house the spread is close to $1,900 a year.
Tell me the employer, the start date and the budget, and I'll send you a short list of areas that fit the drive, with the tax and flood read on each one, before you spend a weekend touring the wrong side of town.
Thinking about making a move?
There’s a lot to navigate here — let’s talk through it together.
