Where to move in the Tri-Cities? (Johnson City, Elizabethton: foreclosure, rental, condos)
Kingsport - Johnson City - BristolThe Tri-Cities area
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My family has been looking at a few diff places to move and the Tri-Cities being one of them. We are coming from the Mohave Desert. I'm trying to find out where would be the best place for us to go. I'm 20 and my husband in his 20s, we have a 2.5 y/o daughter and another daughter due early April. Since we have young children we would like a place that's not like an elderly community, some place kid friendly and good schools. I need to be within driving distance of a college so I can finish my degree to be a teacher. We are looking for a 3+ bedroom for hopefully under $50k as a starter home. From what I have heard so far there isn't too many crime areas in the Tri-Cities but I still need to stay away from those areas. Oh, we also don't want to be elbow to elbow with neighbors. A neighborhood with a little elbow room but kids in distance for my kids to play with or a rural setting close to the city and schools would be great. Any suggestions of which city and/or neighborhoods? Thanks for any and all help!
$50K with your qualifications is a tough find - very tough. The way I see it, you can go two routes:
1. Rural living between Erwin and Okolona. You're close to ETSU and houses are spread out, minimal crime, but you sacrifice on quality of public education.
2. City living in Mountain Home and Keystone toward Watauga. These areas are more densely populated, have a bit more crime, but the schools and kids community type activities will be better.
A third option might be to rent near campus until you get that degree. Now, your kids are school age, and you have a better sense of the area, which you can use to buy something more permanent.
I agree with everything rccrain said. $50k for three bedrooms is going to tough to find. Any decent housing for $50k is going to be tough to find. I live in a small 2br bungalow in Mountain Home, and while I rent, I believe it's valued around $70k.
If you could drop down to a two bedroom, especially since your kids are both girls, that would help your options some.
If you were open to renting, what would your max monthly be?
If you do look at Mountain Home and Keystone, be very careful. There aren't any horrible, Detroit-style crime ridden areas here, but there are some bad neighborhoods. I live on a nice quiet street, but three blocks away is prostitute corner and crack alley. As with all dicey neighborhoods and cities, things can change from street to street and house to house. In general Mountain Home is better than Keystone, IMHO. Also, the further from downtown you can get, generally the better (speaking of the westside neighborhoods - it's a bit different on the east).
The better areas of Mountain Home are Highland Avenue and Lamont Street (gets a bad rap, but isn't bad really at all except for the area directly in front of the VA Hospital). The city just built a four-lane extension of University Parkway through the middle of the neighborhood, so I'm hoping that will serve as a catalyst for a little bit of cleaning up in the area. It also cuts my commute time down.
If you find any properties you're interested in, if you post the address one of us can check it out and give you our opinions. I live in the heart of MH so it'd be quite easy for me. FWIW also, my street is a mix of college students, elderly retirees who were here when it was a true "neighborhood," and young families with kids.
How far along are you in your degree? If you can go to Northeast State, in nearby Blountville, then you could live outside of Johnson City. Housing is generally cheaper in the country and in smaller cities. So if you're looking at ETSU, you could also look out toward Elizabethton (not the city itself, but surrounds). If Northeast State, you could look in rural Sullivan County, Washington County Virginia, or even Hawkins county.
We are open to 2 bedrooms we were just preferring to find a 3 bedroom but its not required. We looked at IN. and TX. and you could find decent 3, 4, and 5 bedrooms under $50k but people keep saying TN. housing market isn't as bad lol. We thought about renting for now but it doesn't make sense to pay $700/mo. plus util. when we can have a mort. w/taxes and hoi for $500/mo. plus util. But, if we can find a rental cheap enough, close enough to college, and not in a high crime area then we would definately consider it.
I will have 3 yrs left of my degree. I'm not sure which college yet. I guess I should research that lol. Thanks for all the help so far everyone!
If you can find a good 4-5 bedroom in a safe neighborhood in IN or TX for under $50k, I'd say go there. You definitely are going to have trouble finding anything like that here, in any region close enough to a university to drive there.
I'm not saying they're not out there, but they're sure not plentiful or even normal. Tennessee, to me, is a lot more beautiful state than Indiana or Texas, but...
Yeah lol well the whole thing is that my parents and my family are trying to find a place suitable for us all lol. My dad and I are for Dallas, Tx. Lot of affordable colleges, cheap housing, can find horse property close to the city with good school dist., hot summers, mild winters, and little snow. My mom and brother want Indianapolis, IN. Not too many affordable colleges, cheap housing, horse properties not too far out, good school districts outside of the city, mild summers, cold winters, lotsa snow. So, now we have been trying to find a medium to appease everyone. So, we are looking into TN. and NC. lol my other brother is in Marines at NC right now and told me today to NOT go there its WAY too cold lmao but we grew up in 125 degree summers and 60 degree winters lol.
Yeah lol well the whole thing is that my parents and my family are trying to find a place suitable for us all lol. My dad and I are for Dallas, Tx. Lot of affordable colleges, cheap housing, can find horse property close to the city with good school dist., hot summers, tornadoes, mild winters, tornadoes, and little snow, and massive devil clouds spitting out tornadoes every season of the year. My mom and brother want Indianapolis, IN. Not too many affordable colleges, cheap housing, horse properties not too far out, good school districts outside of the city, mild summers, cold winters, lotsa snow. So, now we have been trying to find a medium to appease everyone. So, we are looking into TN. and NC. lol my other brother is in Marines at NC right now and told me today to NOT go there its WAY too cold lmao but we grew up in 125 degree summers and 60 degree winters lol.
Fixed that for you.
I've lived in NC and Texas (and currently have family in both). If you can stand the weather in Dallas I would say it is your best bet. The economy was not as damaged as some other parts of the country and, imo, it is poised to come back quicker then most. NC - pass. Indy - other then professional sports, I can't think of a good reason to go there. They get massive storms both summer and winter, the economy is just ok and will likely stumble along at a much slower pace then Dallas.
I love this area and often recommend it to friends and family but it has had challenges from the economic slowdown and, again..imo, it will stumble along a bit in areas like job production for many years to come.
Renting won't be $200 higher than a house payment. I would expect to be able to rent a similar property for about 5% less than buying with a mortgage payment and all that entails.
Of course, there are many condos in distress or foreclosure right now that are absolute bargains, but you have to do the research and have financing - a difficult proposition for condos. But since you want space, a condo may not be the best option.
My cousin's house payment in Johnson City (a better area than I live) is $550 a month. My rent is a few dollars from $700. Our houses are similar.
I'll be the first to admit I know very little about financing and house buying and stuff (one reason I rent - another is that I don't have the time for upkeep), so maybe he got a good rate or something.
But anyway, I agree as usual with rccrain. Chances are that you'd graduate ETSU and have to move somewhere else to find a job. Most people do, except in a few fields.
I used a mortgage calculator on a $100k house, 30 yrs @ 6%. Comes out to about $750 per month. I would expect to rent the same house for $700. If your cousin made a good down payment or has lived there a while that would explain the difference. What has surprised me is if one could find a $50K house, the payment is approx $370, which I don't think could be beaten by renting a similar (non-mobile) house. But then of course, there are costs with buying and selling a house, so there's even more for the OP to consider than I realized.
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