Help with a few questions Please. (Portland: moving to, air quality, health)

[Max4Speed]

Welcome to Knox! IMHO employment depends on various factors. I really recommend doing your homework on employment situation and even setting up some good interviews ahead of time. Keep in mind that esp in Inside Sales, you won't really have to work in Knoxville so you can expand your search to outside of Knoxville and still get the same feeling.

Either way you are going to love it here!

[hiknapster]

Our smog isn't like LA, nothing like that, but yes, it can be really hazy in the dead of summer until it rains.

I don't find it dreary. New England was DREARY. It seemed like it was always gray, even in the summer it didn't seem like we got a lot of sunny days. In Florida, well, you know that story. Quite frankly, after a couple of years I got over all those sunny days. The bright sun seemed relentless.

So, I think this is a nice middle ground. I look forward to nice, rainy days.

However, I realize that not everyone is like me. Some people don't like grey days. I just think it's a nice mix. But my perfect city might not be yours, you know what I mean?

We can only give our opinions. Please understand that your mileage may vary from ours!

Well, I'm finally done wrapping presents, so to all a good night. Merry Christmas.

[NatureLuvr's]

Merry Christmas to all! Yes we do agree that not everyone agrees on their perfect city. However Knoxville to us is stacking up great to us! It seems to offer the diversity we seek. We don't actually hate grey days, just alot of them back to back often. With a few post we read, it just had us concerned that it may resemble the weather in Seattle or Portland during the winter. But we are getting the message that it is just well mixed. We just love the outdoors and being outside! Be it in the mountains hiking, camping, fishing, bike riding, or just sitting on our deck/patio grilling or sitting by a patio fireplace with a nice cozy cupe of coffee or hot chocolate.

[hiknapster]

Yes. I wouldn't call winter perky, if you know what I mean, but it lasts three months, at most. The other nine months are fabulous. And sometimes we get a dusting of snow and we all get excited. There is something to be said for grey days. I wouldn't want them all the time, like the northwest and northeast, but I don't want everyday to be sunny with only a hurricane to shake things up. Goodbye, Florida, is all I can say!

[Stone1]

The wife and I want to move towards Knoxville/Maryville area but have to wait 3 years due to work. The interesting thing for us is how much cheaper it is compared to WI. Here is a quick comparison we came up with.

Wisconsin income tax is near 7%, TN has none.
Property tax on our home in the country is $3800. The equal home in TN appears to be around $1200.
You need to heat your home about 8 months per year which has ranged from about $1400. up to $2400. due to propane costs(this does not include your monthly electric costs). A sad note on the heat is when people started to go to wood heat to try and save money some places started to regulate the use of wood boilers. Government regulations at its best.
Our car registration is triple what TN charges.

Anyway, I like reading the posts as they are encouraging to us.

[hiknapster]

Figure in your electric costs to be dirt cheap, too.

Home and auto insurance is also inexpensive.

Originally Posted by Stone1

The wife and I want to move towards Knoxville/Maryville area but have to wait 3 years due to work. The interesting thing for us is how much cheaper it is compared to WI. Here is a quick comparison we came up with.

Wisconsin income tax is near 7%, TN has none.
Property tax on our home in the country is $3800. The equal home in TN appears to be around $1200.
You need to heat your home about 8 months per year which has ranged from about $1400. up to $2400. due to propane costs(this does not include your monthly electric costs). A sad note on the heat is when people started to go to wood heat to try and save money some places started to regulate the use of wood boilers. Government regulations at its best.
Our car registration is triple what TN charges.

Anyway, I like reading the posts as they are encouraging to us.

[Stone1]

I think your electrical costs are close to the same but what may cost us more up here is if we run the AC, they are not as energy efficient as the heat pumps in use down there so if we had to run the AC a lot in the summer it would likely cost about $200. per month.

My cousin moved to Cleveland TN about 15 years ago while in the Army so we get to compare the costs a lot. His car and home insurance is about like ours however WI just passed a law which some have said will cause us to have the highest priced insurance in the nation.

For the wife and I the tax savings is a huge plus but equally as good is the beauty of the area, you have the smokies, streams, rivers, lakes and what we feel is a mild winter climate. We have found the people are very nice and it may help that both the wife and I are easy going laid back type of people.

[Kitties of Domination]

Originally Posted by NatureLuvr's

LOL, well that is all good as long as no damn H insurance is required, lol.. that is a JOKE here in Florida. OMG. Is the Smog really that bad there? Is it getting worse or better?

*LOL, well that is all good as long as no damn H insurance is required, lol.. (although Kittie, 5 days straight of rain would suck) that is a JOKE here in Florida. OMG. Is the Smog really that bad there? Is it getting worse or better?

*The rain remark brings up a comment I read on the Knoxville forums, "in the winter you might feel like you are living in Portland Or. with the cool, rainy & misty weather" (dreary weather basically) .... I know I can look are historic weather data, but that is hard to really gleam the actual truth from. The dreary and misty days, are they really that bad or that many?? Some are ok, just not weeks of it on end frequently. LOL, inquiring minds wanna know. So far Tn and the Knoxville area sounds great bar a few exceptions (but NO place is perfect) and we can't wait to get our ducks all in a row so we can move there. The 4 seasons, possibility of snow and the Smokey's sound Wonderful! Right now the unemployment numbers in Knox concern us.

I made the Portland comment and I said "sometimes". There are also plenty of sunny days, like today.

[NatureLuvr's]

LOL, I knew...i just did not call out names ... It just got me thinking lol..

[Kitties of Domination]

hahaha actually right now its cool and misty and I thought of you