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Old 04-19-2023, 12:03 AM
 
256 posts, read 479,454 times
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You failed to mention the price rage of housing you're interested in. That is a huge factor. You'll want to not only look at towns, but the county they're in. It can make a difference sometimes. Also, pay attention to the city that is the county seat. This is the city were all the official business for the county will be based out of. Depending on the need, you might have to travel across a city or two to do .GOV business.



Quote:
Originally Posted by bus man View Post
I hope you all don't mind me dredging up this thread. The Nashville area is on our retirement short list, and my wife and I (and our teenage daughter) came out for a very brief visit a couple of weeks ago. Our purpose was simply to take a look around and gain some first impressions to help us decide if we wanted to further consider the area at all (it turned out that, yes, we do), and where we'd want to focus our search.

What we are looking for is the standard-issue suburb, with a cute downtown being a bonus. We based our search on where the different Target stores were located and what the areas around them looked like. We also checked out several new-home developments. We want chain stores and restaurants and newer single-family houses. Ease of access to interstate highways and other expressways is important to us. However, we don't want a place that feels too crowded and congested. We want affluent, but not overly wealthy, if that makes sense. Parks and walking trails would be desirable. We have zero interest in bars and nightclubs. To us, "boring" is a point in a town's favor.

So, with all that, here's my list of the places that gave us the best first impressions:

1. Spring Hill -- It almost seemed too good to be true. It has all the chain stores we like (including a Super Target!) but it didn't feel crowded, and we liked the rolling hills in the area. The forthcoming June Lake development looks very promising to us. -- Been an up-and-coming town for many years. Kind of Blue collar, especially with the GM plant nearby.

2. Franklin -- Gotta love a place with TWO Targets! And the downtown was really cute too. -- $$$ Between Franklin\Cool Springs\Brentwood this area really has everything you could ask for. Can be pricy compared to the rest of Middle-TN. I like to call it Mini-California with all the transplants moving there.

3. Hendersonville -- The whole stretch along Indian Lake Blvd. looked very pleasant and well laid-out. ---Hendersonville is also an up and coming area, has been for a while, lots of growth potential. Costco is finally building in Hendersonville, slated for the end of the year. It has quite a few Developments that are nice. Anything along Long Hollow Pike between Gallatin and Goodlettsville is nice and it's quite the nice drive between the two cities.

4. Mount Juliet -- I liked it, though the area around the shopping center did seem kind of congested. My wife liked it at first (this was the first town we hit in our whirlwind tour) but it dropped in her estimation once we started seeing other places. For some reason, my daughter just didn't like it much at all, which is kind of surprising, because otherwise her preferences lined up with ours. ---The city has experienced a lot of growth, and the Providence section can get its share of traffic (volume). MJ is still growing in everyway. Housing, Retail and Business. Costco Recently announced they're building there, and BJ's already announced they building there too. Mount Juliet and Lebanon will eventually grow into one another as this area of Middle-TN is on fire as far a growth goes. It's just a hop & skip to the airport too.

5. Brentwood -- All we saw was the area around the Target (this is actually the Davidson County side of Brentwood), which looked decent enough. Obviously there's a lot more to the place than that, but since that's all we had time to see, this is where I would rank the town, relative to the other places we saw. --- Same response as Franklin. Word of caution, Brentwood in Williamson County is typically more desirable than Brentwood in Davidson County. Property taxes are better too in Williamson County. Davidson County is a METRO county, which is essentially controlled by Nashville. Some may see that as a good thing, many don't. Did I mention taxes are higher in Davidson?
We came away feeling that we'd be happy living in any of the top three towns. We'd be willing to look more at Brentwood as well. Though I think I could make Mount Juliet work, the ladies of the family weren't as thrilled, so we'd probably drop that one.

6. Lebanon -- This one is our only "maybe." It's not much now, but it certainly looks poised for development. How that'll shake out, we don't know. It might move up in our rankings in another 5 or 10 years, depending on how things go. --Lebanon used to be just far enough away to commute to Nashville that it never really grew much (that's why Mt. Juliet grew). That being said, the cats out of the bag, and Lebanon is really starting to take off. It's early, but there's lots of room for growth, and the City Council seems open now to that growth now. Mt Juliet is probably 3-5 years ahead of Lebanon

The other towns on the list just didn't make the cut, for one reason or another. I don't see us choosing to live in any of them. Here's the order I'd put them in.

7. Goodlettsville --The Sumner County side is better than the Davidson County side.

8. Smyrna -- Been growing for years, a bit of urban sprawl, but not as bad as Murfreesboro. Sam Ridley Parkway has all the shopping and restaurants, including a Super Target. Traffic on the I24 to and from Nashville isn't great, and will only get worse with this area growing like it is.

9. La Vergne -- Unremarkable, some think it's a touch too close to Antioch, TN.

10. Murfreesboro -- Been growing for years, a bit of urban sprawl, still a very popular city when ranked by news outlets, traffic on the I24 to and from Nashville isn't great, and will only get worse with this area growing like it is.

11. Gallatin -- Small town that's been growing for a while. Hendersonville seems to get most of the Business\retail and because Gallatin is close enough, many retailers will probably build in Hendersonville or between the two cities. Gallatin's has a nice town square.
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Old 04-19-2023, 01:46 PM
 
Location: Howard County, Maryland
16,293 posts, read 10,314,791 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bigcitymike View Post
You failed to mention the price rage of housing you're interested in. That is a huge factor. You'll want to not only look at towns, but the county they're in. It can make a difference sometimes. Also, pay attention to the city that is the county seat. This is the city were all the official business for the county will be based out of. Depending on the need, you might have to travel across a city or two to do .GOV business.
Good point about the housing prices. We're still at the early stages of our search, so we're not really certain yet. I would estimate somewhere in the range of $700,000. And thank you for the comments on the towns I listed; very helpful!
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Old 04-19-2023, 01:48 PM
 
Location: Howard County, Maryland
16,293 posts, read 10,314,791 times
Reputation: 35953
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shakeesha View Post
5. Hendersonville is snagging businesses from Nashville who can no longer afford the high rents. Hendersonville continues to grow and develop. Indian Lake continues to thrive and reminds me of Farragut a lot near Knoxville.
Very interesting. Knoxville is also on our "maybe" list, but we haven't been there yet. From what I've heard so far, Farragut is definitely an area we're going to look at. Given how much I liked the Indian Lake corridor, that's definitely a point in Farragut's favor.
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Old 04-27-2023, 09:05 AM
 
56 posts, read 66,084 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bus man View Post
Very interesting. Knoxville is also on our "maybe" list, but we haven't been there yet. From what I've heard so far, Farragut is definitely an area we're going to look at. Given how much I liked the Indian Lake corridor, that's definitely a point in Farragut's favor.
I think Knoxville will surprise you. Very underrated city. Farragut area is nice and if you like Indian Lake then Turkey Creek will blow your mind. There are alot of good points here on this thread and full disclosure I live in Hendersonville. Totally agree about the comments about your housing budget. I like the Franklin area and it is where the action is for the most part, but when we built our house 3 years ago the builder had the exact same floorplan in a development in Franklin and the starting price was $300k more than what we got in Hendersonville. Just an example of how drastic the differences can be. It isn't just that Franklin and Brentwood are expensive bc the houses are bigger.

Also, I would like to point out that Mt. Juliet and Hendersonville are very similar. The biggest difference I see is that in my experience getting around in Hendersonville is much less congested and stressful than Mt. Juliet. However, if you intend to travel a bit and want to be close to the airport then Mt J would have an edge. There is no good way to get to the airport from Hendersonville. Your options are basically to circle the city, or take 65S to Briley East. Neither is convenient.
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Old 05-26-2023, 07:46 AM
 
Location: Nashville, TN
899 posts, read 2,276,158 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bus man View Post

1. Spring Hill -- It almost seemed too good to be true. It has all the chain stores we like (including a Super Target!) but it didn't feel crowded, and we liked the rolling hills in the area. The forthcoming June Lake development looks very promising to us.
Spring Hill may be a good fit - lots of chain store shopping as you mentioned plus more retail and dining to come with June Lake and a few other commercial developments in the works. Most all of the existing retail in Spring Hill is located along Main Street/31 which is two lanes starting just north of the Target shopping center all the way to the interstate - so yes Spring Hill can get congested in terms of traffic. Another option you may want to look at is Thompsons Station, which is a very small town consisting primarily of single family residential wedged between Spring Hill and Franklin. A lot of homes in TS are actually in the northern part of the SH city limits but there are also affluent pockets of TS closer to I-840. This would give you good access to Spring Hill, Berry Farms area, and downtown Franklin. Also you'd be not too far from the Target in South Franklin as a second option.
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Old 06-19-2023, 09:03 PM
 
914 posts, read 1,971,580 times
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I would add that if you only saw the pet of Brentwood around Target the you didn’t see Brentwood at all. The Target on Old Hickory Blvd is actually in Nashville proper. Brentwood is interesting because it is 90-95% residential, and the closest thing to a downtown or urban center is the area along Franklin Rd starting at OHB and running south for a half mile or so. It is essentially a collection of high end subdivisions and neighborhoods that are largely built out.
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