Moving to Nashville from Buffalo, NY and looking for small towns. (Murfreesboro: real estate, apartment complexes)

[Rabes87]

Hi everyone. My fiance and I are getting married in 2 months and talking about relocating. We are both from a small country town near Buffalo, NY area and are not too crazy about the lifestyle (lack of community and manners). My fiancé works within the VA system and is looking into transferring to Nashville. We enjoy a slower pace of life, love living in small towns or the country (we both grew up near the woods and Finger Lakes), and have Conservative/Christian ideals. We want to live in a small, friendly town. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[CountryGirl2b=]

Will you be renting or buying? And what is your budget for either? How much a commute would be acceptable? This would help us point you in the right direction!

[nashvols]

Quick question...there are two VA hospitals in the area...one at Vanderbilt University (close to the center of Nashville), and one huge campus in Murfreesboro (30+ miles from Nashville)...do you know which one he is considering?

If you're looking for a small town (and I mean ~2,000 people small), and you husband works in Murfreesboro, you might consider Woodbury in Cannon County. Walterhill and Lascassas (much closer to Murfreesboro) are also options...but they aren't really towns as much as communities, and there's a risk of them being swallowed up by Murfreesboro's massive growth in the future.

If he will be working in Nashville, you might check out Ashland City or Pleasant View in Cheatham County (Ashland City has more of a "town" atmosphere). You might also look into Kingston Springs and Pegram (both in Cheatham County)...but beware, as some of the houses their flooded in our little rainfall in 2010. Greenbrier and Ridgetop (in Robertson County) might also work, though I don't think the commute is as favorable.

If you're looking for places that are going to feel less like a suburb, I would suggest you look west and north of Nashville, where the terrain hinders a lot of the fast growth that you see in the suburbs, or if you are looking around Murfreesboro, east and northeast.

Of course, you might be looking into "bigger" small towns than those. If you're looking for 10-20,000 people, a suburb or exurb will probably have to suffice.

[Rabes87]

Thank you all for your responses. Chad would be transferring to the VA in Nashville. We are fine with renting or buying, and a commute of approx. 30 minutes would be acceptable. From what we've looked into, real estate seems a bit cheaper then up here.

We are fine leaving in a small town (~2000 or even a bit larger) or the country. We are more focused on a friendly atmosphere than anything else.

I appreciate all the info (especially about the rainfall in 2010) so we can be fully prepared

[anz]

Rebes87
I also live outside of Buffalo and we too are looking at moving down. My wife is going down to Thompsons Station next week (4/1- 4/6) She is looking into the schools and housing. I will let you know what information she comes back with.

[odom]

My husband relocated from California to Hampshire TN. We absolutely love it here. The people are wonderful and always helpful. Real estate is affordable and plenty of hills and woods. The school in Hampshire is K-12 grade. They are known for their great school. We are 15 miles to the closest town with a small mall and restaurants. I own a bed and breakfast and a winery.

[12buttons]

Originally Posted by Rabes87

Hi everyone. My fiance and I are getting married in 2 months and talking about relocating. We are both from a small country town near Buffalo, NY area and are not too crazy about the lifestyle (lack of community and manners). My fiancé works within the VA system and is looking into transferring to Nashville. We enjoy a slower pace of life, love living in small towns or the country (we both grew up near the woods and Finger Lakes), and have Conservative/Christian ideals. We want to live in a small, friendly town. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

I think you're going to be really surprised. The small towns here look nothing like the small towns you're used to. Just saying....

[anz]

My wife came home (back to Buffalo) from Thompsons Station and fell in love with it. Here words to me were "We have no reason to be here anymor." So, with that we have started looking at places to live and I am starting to look for a job. Thompsons Station is country-ish now, but is supposed to go through the building boom that Spring Hill did about 15 years ago. My wife said that everyone she has meet has been very friendly and feels this will be a good fit for our family.

[septimus]

There was something in the news last week about there being talk of combining the VA operations in Nashville and Murfreesboro.

[topchief1]

I can offer some insight, OP, as someone from Buffalo who moved South 2 years ago. We did not move to Nashville, but that area was on our short list of places to visit to see if it was something that we would like.

Needless to say, we were not impressed. A lot of the city itsself was very pretty, and you could find some suburbs that were basically lined with McMansions, but as we were driving around, visiting apartment complexes, and getting a feel for the city, we couldn't help but feel like there was quite a large divide between the richer area's and the poorer area, and it was really hard to get a feel for what the more middle class areas were like. At one point, we were trying to find a specific apartment complex, and turned down a street, and passed a little old woman out for a walk, who was also carrying with her a rather large strick for unknown reasons.

Another thing that stood out to us was driving around on the highways in that city, there was quite a large amount of trash on the side of highways. We also noticed a lot of abandoned cars on the side of the road as we were leaving on route 40.

I can't speak for anyone's opinion of that area other than my own, and you may love it, but I just wanted to provide my insight, coming from the same area as you. The final impression that we got from Nashville was that if you had quite a bit of money, then it would be a perfect place to visit (we stopped at one point at a mall that I could only describle as the rich persons mall, as you would walk through it, all you'd see were stores that catered to specific brands, as opposed to say, stores that carried several different brands under in the same space), but if you didn't have that much money, it probably wouldn't be the place for you.