Rural Living/ Nice areas around Knoxville? (Maryville, Sevierville: real estate, home, find a job)

[christine1988]

Hi everyone. I’m looking for a couple of suggestions maybe someone can point me in a good direction.
My husband and I visited Gatlinburg last year and we really fell in love with the area and Tennessee in general.Although we spent primarily most of our trip in the town of gatlinburg/pigeon forge we went out a couple times into Maryville too.
We decided to come back this fall but we are going to drive down ( were from New Jersey) we have started thinking of prospective areas to hopefully one day relocate too. What we’re looking for would be affordable, somewhat rural (a lot of areas seem rural to us though since we live in New Jersey lol) and of course safe as well. During our trip this year we wants to drive around one of the days and look at some surrounding areas that might fit that description perhaps an hour or so out of gatlinburg. If we were to relocate one day we were looking for somewhere near Knoxville. He is a car technician so most likely would find a job at one of the dealerships there. Any info would be helpful!

[piedmont]

There are plenty of real estate sites to help you explore the area's housing affordability. In general, it is very affordable compared to the northeast. It's very possible to find an affordable home on a few (or lots of) acres.

If you'd like to be able to look at the Smokies/mountains from your home, living east (towards Strawberry Plains or even Dandridge) or south of Knoxville (Maryville area) can be pretty areas. Property north of Knoxville (for ex. in Fentress, Campbell counties) can be very affordable, rugged, and remote. Commutes will vary depending on your destination. You might also like to look towards northeastern TN if that works for employment (it's much more mountainous there if you want to live *in* the mountains. They get a bit more winter, too.). Sevierville is the "regular" town closest to vacationland aka Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge.

[christine1988]

Thank you! I will check out all of the areas you mentioned. I was a little vague in my post but yes a home with some acreage would be ideal! Appreciate the suggestions

[ontheBeam]

If you don't mind the 40-minute drive to Knoxville Union County and especially Norris Shores, Hickory Point and Sunset Bay are great lake communities especially if you like Water. Norris Lake is very clean and deep. It has 800 miles of pristine shoreline. Real estate taxes are unbelievably inexpensive. This is a great place to live.