info on retiring in Knoxville area (Memphis, Chattanooga: transplants, real estate, crime rate)

[retiredsgtmaj]

My husband and I are considering retiring to Knoxville area. We're driving over (from NW Arkansas) the middle of the month to have a look at Oak Ridge, Jefferson City, Morristown, Dandridge and Newport. Which area offers the best bang for your buck with regards to housing? We're in our mid 50's and although we don't want to live in a "city", we would like more amenities than Wal-Mart . Can anyone tell me if we're on the right track with the towns we've chosen to look at?

[JMT]

Originally Posted by retiredsgtmaj

My husband and I are considering retiring to Knoxville area. We're driving over (from NW Arkansas) the middle of the month to have a look at Oak Ridge, Jefferson City, Morristown, Dandridge and Newport. Which area offers the best bang for your buck with regards to housing? We're in our mid 50's and although we don't want to live in a "city", we would like more amenities than Wal-Mart . Can anyone tell me if we're on the right track with the towns we've chosen to look at?

Those are all nice places, and they're each completely different. Oak Ridge and Morristown are the largest towns, both have a Wal-Mart SuperCenter, small malls with JCPenney, Sears, Belk, and a smattering of other national retailers. Jefferson City has just a Wal-Mart, and Dandridge doesn't even have that. However, Dandridge is just a few miles east of Knoxville via I-40; you can get to the East Towne area of Knoxville in 15 or so minutes (Dillard's, Belk, Sears, JCPenney, Target, Sam's Club, Circuit City, etc.)

Jefferson City and Dandridge would most likely give you more bang for your real estate buck. Dandridge is located directly on a lake and has a small but nice, historic downtown area.

You can get from Oak Ridge to booming and retail-rich West Knoxville (Turkey Creek in particular) in about 10-15 minutes. Just about everyone I know in Oak Ridge goes to West Knox to do their serious shopping at places that Oak Ridge doesn't have (SuperTarget, Sam's Club, Dillard's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, etc.) since it's not that far away.

Scroll through this forum to see what people have said about these towns, particularly Oak Ridge and Morristown.

What about Maryville? It's got more shopping than any of the other places (such as Target), it's closer to the Smoky Mountains, and housing there isn't TOO much higher than in the other towns you mentioned.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. If it were up to me, my choices, in order, would be:
1. Maryville
2. Dandridge
3. Oak Ridge
4. Jefferson City
5. Morristown

[retiredsgtmaj]

Thanks for the info. My parents retired to Hohenwald and have encouraged us to move to TN as well. We aren't interested in Memphis or Nashville at all. We looked at the Chattanooga area last month, but it appears that real estate is cheaper in E. TN. My husband and I love to fish, so the towns east of Knoxville that I mentioned looked attractive to us due to the lakes and rivers. I've read several posts that mention a growing Hispanic population in E. TN. We have experienced that ourselves in NW Arkansas. While most of the Hispanics in our area are decent, law-abiding people, we have seen a marked increase in crime and drugs. Is this also the case in E. TN?

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by retiredsgtmaj

Thanks for the info. My parents retired to Hohenwald and have encouraged us to move to TN as well. We aren't interested in Memphis or Nashville at all. We looked at the Chattanooga area last month, but it appears that real estate is cheaper in E. TN. My husband and I love to fish, so the towns east of Knoxville that I mentioned looked attractive to us due to the lakes and rivers. I've read several posts that mention a growing Hispanic population in E. TN. We have experienced that ourselves in NW Arkansas. While most of the Hispanics in our area are decent, law-abiding people, we have seen a marked increase in crime and drugs. Is this also the case in E. TN?

There is crime in East Tennessee. In most cases, it's "the regulars" not any menace from Mexico. The police chief in my town gave my class a presentation on crime statistics yesterday. According to statistics the crime rate is going down (in my town) but it's still twice as much as I've ever read about in my lifetime in the places I lived before. The police catch 'em. They're back out on the street because the prisons are full. When they have to choose between a really bad violent guy or a drug user that robs your home to support a habit, the drug user gets next to nothing or gets off. Which one is more likely to affect you personally? He said there are hardly any beds for women (I think he said 5 in the County) and they commit half the crimes.

Think of that the next time you vote for an addition to a school instead of a prison.

He does like our DA, though.

[jabogitlu]

To the OP, no one has addressed your question of Newport, but I would give it a wide berth when considering possible relocation. It's still 20-25 years behind most of the rest of the east TN towns and cities and doesn't offer that much beyond Wal-Mart, KMart and Roses (if it's still open), fast food and maybe an Applebee's. Its Knox Dry Goods store is very neat and worth a visit, but I could never live there.

There are huge differences between Oak Ridge & Maryville (West of Knoxville) and Morristown/Dandridge/Jeff City (east of Knoxville). OR & Maryville have adopted a much more Knoxville-like flavour with lots of transplants and education and money; the cities east of Knoxville are much more like what you'd find if you continued on up I-81 into the Tri-Cities; still very east Tennessean in nature. You'll have to visit both areas and find out for yourself what you prefer.

In a way, this mirrors the division between East Knox and West Knox (county, not city).

JMT is right about people in Oak Ridge shopping in West Knox. Is Oak Ridge's mall still even open? Last I remember there were 4 anchor stores (Belk, Penney's, Sears, and something else) each connected by vast swathes of empty hallways where retail had moved out.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

To the OP, no one has addressed your question of Newport, but I would give it a wide berth when considering possible relocation. It's still 20-25 years behind most of the rest of the east TN towns and cities and doesn't offer that much beyond Wal-Mart, KMart and Roses (if it's still open), fast food and maybe an Applebee's. Its Knox Dry Goods store is very neat and worth a visit, but I could never live there.

There are huge differences between Oak Ridge & Maryville (West of Knoxville) and Morristown/Dandridge/Jeff City (east of Knoxville). OR & Maryville have adopted a much more Knoxville-like flavour with lots of transplants and education and money; the cities east of Knoxville are much more like what you'd find if you continued on up I-81 into the Tri-Cities; still very east Tennessean in nature. You'll have to visit both areas and find out for yourself what you prefer.

In a way, this mirrors the division between East Knox and West Knox (county, not city).

JMT is right about people in Oak Ridge shopping in West Knox. Is Oak Ridge's mall still even open? Last I remember there were 4 anchor stores (Belk, Penney's, Sears, and something else) each connected by vast swathes of empty hallways where retail had moved out.

Yeah that mall in Oak Ridge is pretty dead! It's got Belk, Sears, and JCPenney. Wal-Mart is right next to the mall. The movie theaters are pretty nice, though. The owner of the mall keeps talking about redeveloping it, but so far nothing has been done, and Anderson County keeps lowering the value of the mall property as more stores leave. Given Oak Ridge's proximity to booming West Knoxville, that mall probably should never have been built. It's such a waste of space.

At any rate, the OP also asked about Hispanics. According to the 2006 Census estimates, Tennessee as a whole is about 3.2% Hispanic, but Hamblen County (Morristown) is 10% Hispanic. The city of Morristown itself is probably higher (it was 10.4% Hispanic in 2000). To put things in perspective, there are as many Hispanics living in Morristown (pop. 26,000) as in Knoxville (pop. 180,000). Not that this is a bad thing; I only report this because the OP asked about it. I don't know that this means there's more crime in Morristown because of it, but a couple of weeks ago a ring in Morristown was busted for making fake passports or green cards or something along those lines.

Oak Ridge is 1.9% Hispanic.
Maryville is 1.4% Hispanic.
Jefferson County (Dandridge and Jefferson City) is 1.3% Hispanic.

How important is it for you to be near an airport? I'm throwing this out only because the two airports in this area (Knoxville and Tri Cities) have outrageously high air fares. If you plan on doing a lot of traveling after you retire, you might consider being closer to Nashville which is a big hub for Southweste and has cheap fares to all over the country.

[jabogitlu]

Seems to be a mall epidimic going 'round. I guess they're just going out of style. I know that one in Asheville (the one whose name I forget, that one ) is getting pretty darn empty too; but the other one is still booming.

Meanwhile, Johnson City's mall is expanding, remodelling and very popular. I wonder how long it'd hold up, though, if we got some sort of mini-Turkey Creek on the northside. (Rumours abound that Target'll open a SuperTarget up there across from Medtech.)

Anyway, totally off-topic, but I like to ramble.

[pgaff57]

We just returned from touring the same areas and have purchased land outside of Jefferson City. We are a fairly young retiring couple and had been all over TN and fell in love with this area. This is what we found, each area has some very good qualities. It was basically the topographics that we fell in love with. I enjoy looking at the mountains but didn't want to live on a bluff. The areas you are mentioned are mostly rolling land. The lakes were also important for us. We were really surprised at how low the water levels are in the winter. Dandridge is a very cute town but a little too reclusive for me. Although I'm not a huge shopper I do like to get out once a week and didn't feel there was much close by without going to Pigeon Forge. Several locals told us to stay away from there, the traffic is a huge problem. Newport has the basics but didn't offer anything out of the ordinary for us. We liked Jefferson City because it offered the basic Walmart, and Home Depot. Locals had nothing but good things to say about the health care system. It was also close enough to drive to Morristown, which offers quite a bit more, and Knoxville was about a 45 min drive. This has been quite a journey, I have found all the people in Tn to be very welcoming to us and can't wait to move.

[pgaff57]

I just want to mention one other thing. We did notice the high hispanic population in Morristown. It seems to be a concern to a lot of people but we didn't really encounter any reason to be concerned. Talk to the police dept and they will confirm that the crime rates have little to do with this. They have other issues, such as illegals to deal with, but that has not affected the violent crimes. Just like many areas in our country crime is becoming a huge issue. If you are concerned about it when moving in to an area talk to the police dept they will give you better information than any media will. Mostly you will find the problems are in a concentrated area then stay away from that area. Hope this helps with those concerned about crime rates and hispanics.

[knoxmomma]

I would put in a vote for Maryville. Small-town feel yet close to amenities, healthcare, shopping, airport (which can actually have pretty good deals and direct flights to many big cities if you are willing to put in some time looking). Also very close to Great Smoky Mountains NP and Cherokee National Forest for outdoor activities/fishing.