Here goes... re-locating from Tucson, AZ via VA!

[dustinsn3485]

I am from Ohio, lived in Phoenix for 18 months, and now in Nashville for two years. I'm mid 20's and single. This is my opinion.

Nashville has been my favorite so far. The city has everything. To quote something you said, " I am a veggie, love nature, people, learning, history, live music, festivals, etc," If you can not find that in Nashville you aren't looking. Music is on every corner. Farmers markets and natural foods stores are all over. There are an abundance of parks and walking trails (paved and dirt). Ton's of history all over the city. There's a festival for every persons taste, music, food, beer, glbt, etc...

As most have mentioned, your rent range will be tough. It's possible though. Broadly stated North Nashville is the area to avoid. Other than that there are pockets. I think the bad pockets are clearly defined, if you drive through and instinctively lock your doors it's probably a bad area.

Finally beaches are at the water parks, but not so much near the rivers. I do remember seeing a beach on Percy Priest at one of the parks. I was on a walking path and accidently found it. I can't remember which park it was though. I think it may have been Long Hunter State Park.

[CountryGirl2b=]

They sell Birkenstocks here! People will say stay away from Antioch but I have friends who lived there for a few years off Mountain High road and never had any trouble. Try Padmapper.com

Apartments for Rent - PadMapper Apartment Search for Oodle, Apartments.com, Rent.com, Kijiji, and Craigslist Apartments

Try to stay south of the city and not too far East of 65. But that's a HUGE generalization. If you post the intersection of an apartment, you'll get someone to chime in as to if it is deemed a safe area or not.

[yossarian163]

woo hoo! thank you all.

this makes me happy. france... are you going to be an expat soon? i love france and french culture... was thinking about expating myself a nice countryside home ... sigh. can't just yet. soon. hubby's company is french based... so i just have to teach this man french. THAT will be a miracle.

dustin, countrygirl- again you rock. getting excited... i feel some sparks for sure. just can't wait for hubby to come home so i can share.

i allllmmmooost got scammed on a rental off craig's list today... must warn other "re-locaters" ... it all seemed so legit, i am a smart cookie, i even looked up the parcel saw the name on the deed, it matched the parcel, and the email name... even facebook and linked in searched the owners... but alas... it wasnt until i googled the address (which i should have done first instead of just google mapped it) that i found out the property was not for rent, it was for sale. quick call to the agent. nope. nigerian email scam. i wasn't going to send a dime, but i wasted 2 emails and a lot of "we hit the lottery with this one" excitement.

thanks to an above poster. i have been in youtube bliss watching vids about nashville. flood rescues. tornado info. storm shelters. the scenes and feel of different neighborhoods.

now all i have to do is convince my teen to transfer to vanderbilt. (that's the best college there, right?) she's a smart cookie, too.

more research!

[Hey_Hey]

Be careful with the Craigslist advertisements. We actually caught a scam on someone else when we were house hunting. While we were being shown a house in Midtown a lady knocked on the door to see the house "for rent." Evidently there was an advertisement on Craigslist for $800/month....the house would have probably rented for $3000-3500/month at market rate. We informed her of the bad news, and she went on her way. I've also heard of these happening in other cities on Craigslist. Typically they request 1 or 2 months of rent up front for a security deposit and then disappear.

As for public transportation....there are two tales really. In Nashvilles urban core (roughly inside I-440) pubic transportation is actually pretty good (mind you, not Chicago, DC, or NYC) when compared to similarly sized cities. The problems are the connectivity between the urban core and where most of Nashville lives which is in the less dense neighborhoods and suburbs. There are some connections to the 'burbs with busses and a rail line to the eastern suburbs, but it is essentially impossible to live in these less dense areas without a car.

The Patterson St area mentioned previously will be actually be a pretty good place to work if your husband wants to take public transportation. That area is served by several bus lines with good frequency. The problem with that area is that rents and housing costs are typically going to be high there (it's in the West End which is the most expensive section of town to rent in). That being said, it will still likely be possible. For example, that area is served by both the #3 and #10 bus with good frequencies (every 15 minutes or so during peak times). The #10 runs along Charlotte Ave which abuts Sylvan Park. That corridor might allow for reasonable rents in a relatively safe environment. The #3 runs along West End Ave, which is NOT affordable at all (rents for 1BRs >$1200/month), however it does turn onto White Bridge Rd which travels toward Charlotte Ave. White Bridge Rd has plenty of shopping along it, and will likely lead you to some relatively more affordable living options.

I think you'll like Nashville. In many ways it is going to feel like Portland.....the creative class is prominent, the inner neighborhoods are actually the sought after places to live (meaning $$$) as opposed to the suburbs, and the arts are very prominent. You'll have four distinct seasons, where Portland really kind of lacks that. Portland definitely has better public transit, and in general I think the urban development is 10-15 years ahead of Nashville since Nashville stayed in suburban mode for a bit longer. Portland will be politically more liberal. Nashville seems to have a strong entrepreneurial spirit, especially in healthcare.

[S4F]

good catch on the CL scam. I "played around" with one of those scammers for about two weeks. I was trying to help a friend find a house to rent. I had already looked in the tax record for the true details after this scammer contacted me so I knew it was not legit. Had the same thing you mentioned, correct name, email w/ name all look good on the surface. Of course one tip off was the broken english email replys. If the photo in CL is from a different season of the year, be wary.

[aaronmidnight]

Hm, your budget is pretty tight for Nashville area, especially with three people.

I tried looking on RealTracs (a local real estate site) and couldn't find much. Maybe you could look in Lebanon - RealTracs Real Estate Mid-South Search Results - but you would definitely be car dependent, although there is a train that runs a few times a day between Lebanon and Nashville that maybe your husband could use to commute? Music City Star - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Otherwise, maybe you could find a 1-bedroom on Highway 70 South out in Bellevue. Pretty safe area (we lived there 1 year when we first moved to Nashville), you'd be near a big park (Warner Parks) and there is a pretty good bus line that runs between there and downtown right down West End Ave, which would be very convenient for your husband and his work.

Personally, I find Nashvillians very friendly, the friendliest of any city that I've visited in the USA, including Tucson. So hopefully you will like it here.

Honestly, it's probably going to be hard to find an apt through the Internet. It sounds like with money being tight you won't be able to visit for an apartment-hunting trip, but maybe you can drive out here and stay in an extended stay hotel for a couple of weeks until you drive around town, get a feel for the neighborhoods and see what you like?

Good luck!

PS - I did have a chance to visit Tucson once. Beautiful saguaro forests and amazing sunsets there!

[ariesjow]

Originally Posted by Hey_Hey

As for public transportation....there are two tales really. In Nashvilles urban core (roughly inside I-440) pubic transportation is actually pretty good (mind you, not Chicago, DC, or NYC) when compared to similarly sized cities. The problems are the connectivity between the urban core and where most of Nashville lives which is in the less dense neighborhoods and suburbs. There are some connections to the 'burbs with busses and a rail line to the eastern suburbs, but it is essentially impossible to live in these less dense areas without a car.

The Patterson St area mentioned previously will be actually be a pretty good place to work if your husband wants to take public transportation. That area is served by several bus lines with good frequency. The problem with that area is that rents and housing costs are typically going to be high there (it's in the West End which is the most expensive section of town to rent in). That being said, it will still likely be possible. For example, that area is served by both the #3 and #10 bus with good frequencies (every 15 minutes or so during peak times). The #10 runs along Charlotte Ave which abuts Sylvan Park. That corridor might allow for reasonable rents in a relatively safe environment. The #3 runs along West End Ave, which is NOT affordable at all (rents for 1BRs >$1200/month), however it does turn onto White Bridge Rd which travels toward Charlotte Ave. White Bridge Rd has plenty of shopping along it, and will likely lead you to some relatively more affordable living options.

Some really great points here. The problem with renting in Nashville right now seems to be availability. Still, there are definitely some reasonably affordable and safe areas close to Midtown and White Bridge is one of them. The East-West Connector BRT line that is in the works will end at White Bridge & Harding Pk (West End Ave). The Connector would be a good option for the OP's hubby if he likes public transportation.

We've rented in White Bridge for over four years now. To be honest, we've found it difficult to justify paying more to rent in trendier areas nearby because we're so close to them anyway and get more for our money by staying put until we buy. It's mostly a utilitarian area, but it's very convenient, near tons of shopping & some streets actually have sidewalks (a rarity outside of I-440). Unless traffic is just horrendous, we can be in more popular areas like downtown, Midtown, Green Hills, Sylvan Park, or Hillsboro Village within 5-10 minutes by car. We rented a completely remodeled 2br/2ba apt with hardwoods, granite, etc. for under $1,000/mo for a few years. I'm not going to even say how little we're leasing a house for now since we're renting from a friend, but there are probably still good deals to be found around White Bridge.

Historic West Town/Nations and Sylvan Heights seem to be coming along better than most people realize. I would keep my eyes peeled for a steal in one those areas too if I was the OP. They are some of the closest reasonably priced and safe residential neighborhoods near Midtown where Patterson Street is located. There's also the West Nashville Farmer's Market too if you're having a lazy Saturday and do not want to make the ten minute trek to the Farmer's Market downtown.

[yossarian163]

hi all. it's late and I'm about to pass out from lack of sleep ... just wanted to thank the last several posters. i will hop on with specifics and a better reply after some shut eye!

[aaronmidnight]

@ariesjow has a good point with the East-West Connector, but that's just on the drawing boards. IF it becomes a reality, it won't be for several years at least, I would think. Because they'll need to rearrange the streetscape, create a dedicated lane for the BRT, create boarding stations, etc. And since it's unprecedented in Nashville, it would probably take a while.