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Hello, my name is Jess. My fiance' and I are thinking about moving to the state from Baltimore, MD. We are a family of five, so we definitely would like to hear from current residents who live and breathe it everyday. We're just trying to get as much information as possible to narrow down counties in which to do some research, for this will be our last move and we want it to be a perfect fit for us as we are raising our children. I thank everyone who is willing to help us.
Here are a few things we're looking for in our search:
*Great schools that cater to special needs students
*Information on the cost of living
*Low and affordable housing for we will be first-time home buyers
*Since we are stuck in city life, we want the complete opposite, a more "country-esque" feel
*We would like the major city to be a little bit of a distance but close enough to shop for necessities
*Last but not least, a friendly, small town environment
Yeah, what do y'all do for a living? What skills do you bring? That should be your starting point.
Having said that, I'd suggest looking at a couple of areas for openers. First grab yourself a map of Kentucky, and locate Lexington and Louisville. Draw an imaginary line between the two cities, and then draw an imaginary arc downward from those two cities, with Harrodsburg, Springfield, and Bardstown along the bottom boundaries. Roughly speaking, that's an area that will probably come closest to fitting what you seem to be asking for. There are many, many small towns in that area that seem to fit your criteria. Any farther out than that arc, and you'll find yourself far enough from the major cities that you'll rarely find the time to get to them. One thing you'll learn quickly about Kentucky - 30 or 40 miles in a straight line on a map is actually about 50 miles, and an hour's drive, because there are no such things as straight lines in Kentucky. Actual driving distances tend to be much, much greater than you would deduce from a map.
I would also suggest having a look around the southern-southwestern region, near Bowling Green. It's a truly beautiful area, and very close to Nashville for your major city - which is one of the most exciting cities in the south, for my money.
But first, figure out what you want to do for work. The job market is tough in many parts of Kentucky, and in many cases outsiders don't have much of a chance when going against local applicants whose families have known one another for 6 generations - depending of course on what field you plan to go into. "Who you know" counts for a lot down here, especially in the smaller towns.
I always put a plug in for the far western Jackson Purchase area of the state. You could choose Mayfield, Murray, Benton, Paducah Cadiz, Princeton...On the major city part, most of these towns use Paducah at the big city "hub" to go shopping, go out to eat, or just get away. As far as the cost of living, I can show you one of our local grocery ads to give you a general idea. Food Giant - Weekly Ads
For house prices go to Find Real Estate, Homes for Sale, Apartments & Houses for Rent - realtor.com® and see the price ranges in local towns. If you choose to move to Murray, you'll also have the advantage of having Murray State University in town in case you wanted to go back to school or if some of your children are close to graduation. I can't tell you a lot about the schools since I don't have anyone going to school here, but I've heard from others that we've got some great schools here. I'm in Mayfield and we have the Mayfield Independent School System and Graves County School system.
I was born and raised here in Mayfield and moved away for almost 35 years then moved back after my mother passed away a few years ago. I had always thought of moving back to town because I have always liked it here. The people are friendly and helpful. We had friends of my step daughter and son-in-law move with the Army to Ft. Campbell, Ky, which is in Christian County. Step daughter let the family live in their house in southern Trigg County (Cadiz) while they were stationed in Hawaii. The lady of the house had been to town to get some things and her car died on her going down the highway going home. She said in a 30 minute time period, she had 6 people stop to see if she needed any help or a ride home. One man owned a tow truck and took her home free of charge. Friendliness like that around here is not unusual.
I've always said there are 120 counties in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Should be at least that suits everybody. Home Murray, Kentucky - MyMurray.com City of Benton City of Princeton Welcome City of Paducah City of Cadiz : Welcome to Cadiz, Kentucky!
And for recreation in the area, check out Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area Kentucky Vacations at Kentucky Lake & Lake Barkley (Kentucky Lake is the largest man made lake east of the Mississippi River) LakeBarkley.org
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