Advice on moving (Knoxville, Chattanooga, Murfreesboro: real estate market, buying a house, neighborhoods)

[Oneida]

Hi

We are moving to Tennessee in about 6 months. We would like to live somewhere on the east side of Knoxville. We are homeschoolers and would like to be close enough to drive the kids to Knoxville for any homeschool things that might be going on. Any advice on a nice area?

Thank you for your time and help,
Oneida

[hiknapster]

As long as you are not sending your kids to public schools, I would say Holston Hills.

[bfskinnerpunk]

I live in Holston Hills and I'm always discovering new cool people in my neighborhood.

It's a vintage Golf-Country Club neighborhood from the 30's.

There are some concerns about schools, but it's hard to understand because I visit them quite often and parents seem active and very happy with the schools here.

My sister has home schooled her kids, and they are probably the most impressive little rascals I have met in a long time, so good for you!

So yes, I highly recommend Holston Hills.

The nearest-east side of Knoxville is considered rough (on the parts of Martin Luther King St. within a mile or two of downtown...., but the far east side of Knoxville gets very nice. In Holston Hills, I feel as far removed from the sketchy parts of town as anyone else.

Apparently, there is ongoing development of shopping on the east side as well... so you are moving at a good time. Prices are right.

There is an excellent new library within a mile of Holston Hills, and the Knoxville Zoo (a suprisingly good zoo for a town this small) is very close as well. You are exactly 5 or 6 miles from downtown in Holston Hills...with very little traffic.

I bought a home here at the peak of the real estate market a little over a year ago, but even at the premium I paid... I am very happy.

I just wish they had more sidewalks so I could more easily look at the classic homes in the area.

[Oneida]

Thank you for the advice. I will do some research on Holston Hills and see if it is the right place for us.

Thanks again,
Oneida

[JMT]

I'd like to second what hiknapster and bfskinnerpunk said. Holston Hills is BEAUTIFUL. It's one of the few neighborhoods in Knoxville where you have half-million dollar mansions (real mansions, not McMansions) across the street from humble bungalows. You've got views of the Great Smoky Mountains off in the distance, a beautiful golf course, and real lawns with lots of space between homes. Even though the neighborhood is old, it has never fallen into disrepair; the people who live there have really taken care of it over the last 70+ years.

I drove my parents through Holston Hills once, and they fell in love with it instantly, they came very close to buying a house there.

But if you're not looking for an older neighborhood and would rather have something new, check out some of the newer subdivisions just east of Knoxville Center Mall along Millertown Pike, Washington Pike, even Strawberry Plains Pike.

[Oneida]

Thank you everybody for your replies... After much research and thinking we are now looking for more of a Rural area. Maybe somewhere between Knoxville/Marysville or Knoxville/Jefferson City. We want something with no less then 5 acres.

Thanks again,
Oneida

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Oneida

Thank you everybody for your replies... After much research and thinking we are now looking for more of a Rural area. Maybe somewhere between Knoxville/Marysville or Knoxville/Jefferson City. We want something with no less then 5 acres.

Thanks again,
Oneida

You can find that in rural East Knox County, easily. Look off Strawberry Plains Pike. The community of Strawberry Plains is right on the county line of Knox and Jefferson counties. The southern part of Jefferson County is also very attractive and has lots of land.

Maryville/Blount County is also a great area and is closer to the Knoxville airport in case that's important for you.

[Oneida]

Thanks for the advice on Strawberry Plains. I am going to check that out. I looked up around Carter co. but not to sure about that area either. We just want a nice place to raise our family and live happily ever after.....not to big of a town but close enough to a big town to go shopping or to homeschool groups.

Oneida

[LauraC]

With all of the people moving to East Tennessee, how long do you think a neighboring town to Knoxville can remain rural? Seriously, has anyone had any experience with this in another Southern state or another part of Tennessee where you moved to a town next to a city (population over 150,000) when that town was still rural? How long did it take before it was overrun and over developed after you moved to it?

[JMT]

Originally Posted by LauraC

With all of the people moving to East Tennessee, how long do you think a neighboring town to Knoxville can remain rural? Seriously, has anyone had any experience with this in another Southern state or another part of Tennessee where you moved to a town next to a city (population over 150,000) when that town was still rural? How long did it take before it was overrun and over developed after you moved to it?

That's a very good question and observation.

I think a lot of it depends on the town. A fast-growing town like Nashville, for example, has swallowed up many of its formerly sleepy suburbs like Franklin, Mount Juliet, Hendersonville, Smyrna, etc. I remember as a kid going to Franklin, and it was really out there. To get from Nashville to Franklin the interstate went through several miles of peaceful farmland, and Franklin was smaller than Greeneville. Now Nashville's sprawl has gobbled up Franklin and is quickly on its way to taking over Spring Hill, too. (Some would say it already has.)

The same can be said for the Nashville-Hendersonville-Gallatin corridor and the Nashville-Mount Juliet-Lebanon corridor. I think the Nashville-Smyrna-Murfreesboro corridor became one giant mesh a long time ago. Murfreesboro and Hendersonville really started growing about 30 years ago and haven't looked back since. I think Mount Juliet and Smyrna really started to take off about 20 years ago.

West of Nashville, however, has inexplicably remained largely rural. Alleycat can probably shed some light on why Cheatham and Dickson counties haven't experienced the breakneck growth of Nashville's other suburban ring counties. The little town of Charlotte hasn't changed much in the last 50 years except for a few fast food joints.

But a slow-growing town like Chattanooga hasn't swallowed its sleepy suburbs yet. Soddy-Daisy, in spite of its beautiful location and close proximity to downtown Chattanooga, has experienced very little growth in the last 30 years. Ooltewah is probably the closest to being overrun, but it's still nothing compared to the likes of the aforementioned suburbs of Nashville.