Memphis - The suburbs, cost of living, jobs (Knoxville, Bartlett: crime rate, house)

[TNonmymind]

Hey, Jeweloflight, how is Memphis? The suburbs, cost of living, jobs, etc?

[JMT]

I can answer that. I lived in Memphis for 5 years before moving to Knoxville.

On paper, the cost of living in Memphis is cheap for a big city, but 2/3 of the city is a crack neighborhood. If you want to live in a safe part of town, you pay for it.

The Mississippi suburbs (DeSoto County) are booming and have inexpensive housing. People move there because Memphis can never annex suburbs in another state.

Memphis has the highest unemployment rate of Tennessee's big cities, but if you're bright and have a college degree you shouldn't have any problems getting a job. FedEx employs something like 30,000 people in Memphis and is always hiring.

If it weren't for the crime, I'd still be in Memphis. My house was broken into four times in 5 years (and I had an alarm system), my car was broken into twice, my locked bike was stolen, and my car was eventually stolen. And I was in a "safe" part of town.

[hiknapster]

When we were looking to move from Florida, we found the MOST jobs in Memphis. Of course, the crime rate kept us away.

Maybe the unemployment rate is so high because the druggies keep it artifically high?

We wanted to move to Chatt but there wasn't enough jobs. Nashville had jobs but a higher cost of living. We settled for Knoxville. Still, it not easy to get a job here. The college grads are tripping over each other. And all things being equal they'll hire a local over a transplant.

I had to keep looking and looking and then finally got a job because I got hired by a half-backer!

[crossroad]

Originally Posted by Boris

I can answer that. I lived in Memphis for 5 years before moving to Knoxville.

On paper, the cost of living in Memphis is cheap for a big city, but 2/3 of the city is a crack neighborhood. If you want to live in a safe part of town, you pay for it.

The Mississippi suburbs (DeSoto County) are booming and have inexpensive housing. People move there because Memphis can never annex suburbs in another state.

Memphis has the highest unemployment rate of Tennessee's big cities, but if you're bright and have a college degree you shouldn't have any problems getting a job. FedEx employs something like 30,000 people in Memphis and is always hiring.

If it weren't for the crime, I'd still be in Memphis. My house was broken into four times in 5 years (and I had an alarm system), my car was broken into twice, my locked bike was stolen, and my car was eventually stolen. And I was in a "safe" part of town.

Hey there, what are "safe" parts of town and actually are not safe? Could you please list a few? Thanks.

[SenoraC]

I have lived in the Memphis area since 1991, and it has improved a great deal. Collierville, Germantown, and Bartlett are the way to go if you want a suburb because the schools (especially collierville and houston, which is in germantown) are very good, and if Memphis ever even looked like they would think of annexing them, there is still an unfinished piece of legislation from decades ago that would form a new county, called Neshoba County, and all that remains is a referendum vote. Memphis knows this, but since the county areas (the suburbs) are what finance Memphis' school system, they do not want to take the chance of making them mad. Also, at least Germantown would probably build a militarized border around it and collierville pretty much goes along with what Germantown does. I lived in Collierville for 12 years, my mother still lives there, and then I have lived in Memphis for the past 3 1/2 years. I have only been robbed once, and that's while I was living by the University of Memphis. East Memphis is a good area and there are parts of it which are really improving. I live on the border of Germantown and Memphis and I love it. The job situation is so good in Memphis for a person with a college degree because the locals are for the most part uneducated and do not want to work. Since I was old enough to notice what's going on in the city, about 7 years or so, I have noticed vast improvements in the ammenities and in many areas, but I have also seen a lot of regression.

Memphis keeps annexing areas because the tax base they have is not lucrative for the most part, so the mayor always chases the money, which moves out to the county. Most of the annexed areas were at one time really hot spots to move, especially for young professionals or those fleeing the city. When that tax base moved, Memphis lost tons of money, so the city uses annexing to get quick influxes of cash for the city government. That really started with an area called Hickory Hill. Then, when an area is annexed, the people who moved there, usually middle class, can't afford or do not want to pay the outrageous property taxes, so they move further out. Then the property values plummet. Homes that were worth about $150K - $200K are not worth around $100K, opening the market usually for parents who want to get their kids away from the bad areas of Memphis. The kids are what spread the crime. The parents want to get their kids away from the gangs, but their kids end up bringing it with them. Then it is a whole downward spiral. That is now happening in Cordova. About five years ago the schools in Cordova were very good. Since it was annexed by Memphis and the Cordova schools came under Memphis City Schools, they have tanked. Trust me, I'm a city school teacher, it is sad what has happened to the city schools.